Check out the review by Bikepacking.com of the La Cabra. They totally “got” what I was looking for in this bike.
La Cabra was born in 1988. That was the year I converted my mountain bike to drop bars. La Cabra is a real class-defying bike. Drop bars on a mountain bike? Who does this? With the explosion in the popularity of the gravel bike, a lot of people started riding drops off-road. Riding real rides off-road, not just a 45 minute ‘cross race. And during that time off-road, they discovered the comfort of drop bars with their multiple hand positions. And now there is a whole score of new drop bars designed for off-road adventure.
La Cabra began as an extension of the MCD, but soon in the design phase, transformed into something more. Much more. Lots of questions about wanting to fit bigger 2.2” tires in the frame had me at the design table. The problem is the MCD is a “monstercross” bike and not a mountain bike. There’s a difference. Small, but there’s a difference, and I want the MCD to lean more towards the ‘cross side of things rather than the mountain side. One day when riding, I do all my design thought process riding, I thought what if… What if there was clearance, not just for 2.2” tires, but 29” x 2.4” tires, or, wait, even 27.5” x 2.8” tires! What if there was compatibility for an internal routed dropper post? What if there was more mounting points for racks and cages? What if La Cabra was a drop bar mountain bike, totally separate from the MCD.
That’s La Cabra. Even though La Cabra has larger diameter, thicker-walled tubing than the MCD, the great ride quality is still there. One of the first things I noticed riding La Cabra was how well it pedaled through a section of roller-coaster like climb/descents on the Bolinas Ridge Trail. It felt fast. Not that “fast” is an important aspect of an adventure type bike, but it’s certainly helpful and really helps make a bike fun to ride.
The second thing I noticed about La Cabra was how well it gobbled up rocky terrain. After years of underbiking on a Monstercross bike across rough trails normally traversed by mountain bikes, my first 5-hour jaunt across trails in Marin on La Cabra revealed something I hadn’t thought of in its design. Comfort. Riding across a rock field on 45mm tires is doable. And I’ll do it again some day. It is, however, energy sapping. Riding across that same rock field on La Cabra with 27.5” x 2.6” tires at a psi in the teens requires less energy and after a 5 hour ride, I don’t feel as beat up as I would on 45mm tires. You just point and pedal and the bike soaks up the bone jarring aspect of the trail.
That’s it. La Cabra is the bike you never thought you needed, but once you think about it, you have to have one. You’ll be looking for more places to ride. Opening up possibilities of where and how you ride is what La Cabra is all about.
Price for La Cabra frame/fork set is $1195, including thru-axles. I had to raise the price on frames for 2022. Didn’t want to, but the cost of everything has shot through the roof and I really tried to keep the increase as minimal as possible.
For more information on La Cabra, scroll down for the tech info or the web store page.
Read the review by bikepacking.com here
Read Adventure Cyclist’s review here
