Meriwether Cycles Ponderosa Adventure Gravel Bike Review – John Watson | The Radavist | A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors.

Yesterday we looked Inside and Out of Meriwether Cycles via an in-depth Shop Visit. In that post, we offered a sneak peek at Whit’s production adventure gravel bike, the Ponderosa. John has been riding a prototype all year, providing Whit feedback for the final production model, which we’ll look at it in detail today. Read on for a full review of this tall and sturdy dream bike platform…

All About the Process

One thing I most value about this job is the relationships I’ve formed with our maker community. From the first time I attended the North American Handmade Bicycle Show in 2008 to this year’s MADE Bike Show, I have felt a familial bond with framebuilders.

When your life is 24/7 bikes, and you ride dozens of different models a year, you can form some pretty strong opinions about where the bike industry’s production models fall short and where framebuilders will fill in those gaps. They almost always will be a few steps ahead of the market trends.

Whit Johnson of Meriwether Cycles was an early adopter of designing bikes specifically for singletrack touring and bikepacking races, building frames for individuals who couldn’t find a mass-produced model that suited their needs. In a lot of ways, the Ponderosa grew from this same demand, but rather than a client’s request, it was something Whit wanted himself.

The initial phenotype of the Pondie (sorry, Whit, I already gave it a nickname) was dubbed the OG ATB, or Original Gangster ATB. It fit a big, 2.3″ 29er tire, featured a high stack for better control in the rough stuff, and was lightweight. Its stance ridiculed the saddle-to-bar drop of modern gravel road and race bikes, yet it wasn’t as robust as a full-on drop-bar 29er mountain bike.

Last year, Whit put his OGATB up for sale on the Meriwether Instagram, and I immediately reached out, thinking it might fit me. This outside interest and Whit’s desire to make a production run of bikes led to the Ponderosa. Daniel Yang, who worked with Whit on developing the chainstay/bottom bracket yoke and rear, non-drive flat mount brake dropout, sent Whit my geometry from my old Sklar gravel bike, and Whit made me a prototype — all without me knowing.

All this came at a time when I was looking for a new bike to ride here in Santa Fe. I sold my Sklar Gravel last year, wanting something with more stack height and bigger tire clearance, but I hadn’t found anything that piqued my interest. Then one day a box showed up, and my jaw dropped. Was Whit reading my mind?

That first prototype is the bike I’ve been riding all year. From early-season rides in Santa Fe and jaunts all over California this spring, if I wasn’t on a mountain bike, I was on the Ponderosa. After logging many hours aboard the bike, I had a phone conversation with Whit, and we discussed how he saw the bike, how I interpreted it, and, ultimately, what its intent was.

Together, we determined that the lower stack number of this prototype didn’t fit his vision of the Ponderosa as an adventure bike platform, sort of like a Tumbleweed Stargazer but with a lighter-duty chassis.

The changes we landed on were all centered around the handlebar height in relation to the saddle, front triangle space, and tubing selection. In short, Whit added 3 cm of stack height to the size 60 cm, adjusted the top tube length accordingly, and increased the tubing diameters to give the bike more rigidity with the increase in front triangle sizing.

When I picked up the new production model from him earlier this month, I took it back out on the Town to Towers ride and immediately fell in love with the changes. Let’s check out where we landed…

All. The. Water. The Colorado River is low because I’m carrying it all!

Geometrically Speaking

Whit has developed an astonishing ten sizes of the Ponderosa, 48 cm through 64 cm, all with specific tubing profiles to ensure the ride quality is shared across the various platforms. Here’s where he landed on the geometry for the size 60 cm. Custom sizing is also available upon request.

Ponderosa Intent and Taxonomy

Bikes can look very similar but ride entirely differently. One might conflate the intent of the Tumbleweed Stargazer, or other drop-bar 29er mountain bikes, with the Ponderosa, but they have very different chassis and ride qualities: the Stargazer has a heavy-duty chassis, and the Ponderosa is lighter-duty.

Whit noted that drop-bar 29ers are considerably more robust, whereas the Ponderosa is intended to be ridden more like a gravel bike with lightweight touring/camping in mind. A lot of people coming into the world of adventure bikes want an upgrade from their current carbon gravel road or race bike without fully committing to a mountain bike. Bikes like the Pondie fit that niche.

The Ponderosa features a gravel bike drivetrain, with a BSA 38 x 68 mm bottom bracket shell, and 142 mm rear (non-boost) spacing. It utilizes flat-mount brake calipers, and clears a 2.3″ tire on a 700 c wheel. As such, the Ponderosa is not a drop-bar 29er; it’s an adventure or lightweight gravel tourer.

My size 60 cm complete bike weighs 24 lbs on the nose, as pictured here with pedals. The previous model, which was more like the size 58 cm, weighed 22.5 lbs with the same build kit.

I say “lightweight” because Whit designed this bike to be responsive, snappy, and capable without being overbuilt. He wanted a bike that still danced with you on the climbs and could handle the chunky stuff without losing itself underfoot. If you wanted to strap some bags on it or a lightweight rear rack, you still can, but it’s not going to be as stout-feeling as a dedicated tourer.

For someone who doesn’t have a lot of time for fully loaded, multi-day, or week-long touring and mostly uses his bikes for overnighters, the Ponderosa strikes a solid balance. Even that said, I’ll put more miles on this bike on 3-hour rides than touring or camping.

Build Kit

My Ponderosa was built with Shimano’s GRX 12-speed. This is the epitome of cable-actuated, hydraulic “gravel” groupsets. I paired the kit with Shimano GRX wheels, PAUL Tall and Handsome seatpost, Boxcar stem, and some vintage PAUL cranks. Yes, that’s a 10-speed chainring and yes, it works just fine with 12-speed GRX. The 56 cm wide Crust Shaka Bar remains a favorite of mine, and it felt like a no-brainer to use it on this bike.

There’s a longer review of GRX 12-speed on the way, but let me just say, hot damn, I am impressed, especially with the wheels, as they’ve endured a LOT of abuse!

Tying the metal components together is a mix of very nice Wolf Tooth and Woodman parts. We wanted to highlight the multiple mounts on this bike, so we went overboard with the bright orange Wolf Tooth bolts and center locking disc hardware along with Woodman headset and collar.

If you wanted to downplay the visual presence of the mounts, you could use silver or black bolts, too.

I wanted supple contact points, so I put my favorite 29 x 2.3″ tires on the bike: Ultradynamico Mars JFF. For the comfort of my butt, the Ergon Core SMC MTB saddle has proven to make even off-the-couch exploits (sans chamois) delightful. To finish it off, my favorite bar tape from my favorite bar tape company, Camp and Go Slow Eastern Diamondback tape.

There’s even a dropper port for a 27.2 dropper post like the PNW Rainier that I might be utilizing in the near future, once that all-silver model drops later this week!

Details for Getting Lost

One of the reasons for the proliferation of bikepacking racing bags being used on gravel bikes is the lack of rack or cargo mounts found on many production gravel bike frames. Even some of my favorite gravel road bikes, like the Stigmata, omit any sort of cargo mounts, regardless of how customers will ultimately use the bike. Some like the clean aesthetic of a bare carbon frame, but I like bikes that exhibit the tried and true “form follows function” mantra.

Whit wants people to find stoke in their bike’s abilities and offers a variety of cargo-carrying options. The Ponderosa features cargo mounts on the fork blades, a drilled unicrown for a dynamo light with internal dynamo routing on the fork (as an add-on), dual seatstay bottle bosses for cargo bags or bottle cages, three bottle mounting spots on the inside of the front triangle, a cargo mount on the underside of the downtube, and rack mounts, for which…

… Whit can construct you one of his collapsible titanium racks! Phew. Look at that thing! Since it’s a Meriwether, it features a portage handle, and since Whit makes each Pondie by hand, the portage handle can be on the drive, non-drive, or both sides. Fender mounts can also be added if you live somewhere damp.

Tubing Selection

Whit uses 8/5/8 Velospec Pro tubing on the Ponderosa. The seat tube is butted and tapered, allowing for a 27.2 mm seatpost (sorry, Travis) without the need for an inner sleeve to be welded in. If you look at a lot of steel and titanium bikes, they often have a sleeve welded into the seat tube, allowing for a 27.2 mm seat post and offering some extra strength at a high-heat and stress part of the frame.

The rear triangle is 4130 straight gauge tubing with a 3D-printed flat mount adapter and drive-side yoke by Yang MFG. The front triangle is Velospec Pro top, seat, and downtubes. The Ponderosa uses a Paragon EC37 head tube, BSA38 x 68mm bottom bracket shell, and Paragon Syntace dropouts.

Each size offering comes specced with appropriate tubing diameters and profiles. For example, the 60 cm came built with more robust tubes than a size small or medium would have. If someone lighter or heavier than me rides a 60 cm, Whit can spec the appropriate tubing diameters for them, too. Proportions matter on steel bikes, and all sizes feature an EC37 Paragon headtube designed to keep aligned with the Ponderosa’s sleek silhouette.

Whit said the following in a discussion about steel tubing spec:

“For the Ponderosa, the geometry and sizes will be constant, but I will use size-specific tube sets depending on the rider. This means tubing diameter and wall thickness will vary by size but also with the rider’s weight and riding style or use case. So a lightweight 5’1” person that doesn’t plan to tour won’t get an overly stiff frame, they will get a lighter tubeset. That’s the beauty of steel, in my opinion. There are these options in tubing to really dial in ride quality and you can still have a durable frame.”

What is perhaps the crowning achievement of the bike is the unicrown steel fork. So hot. Yowwwwww. I love flexy steel forks and would prefer to have a fork that flexes and absorbs road corrugation chatter than a rigid carbon fork any day. The Columbus fork blades absorb all sort of road vibrations, making even our rugged Town to Towers ride more manageable on my hands that have grown tired from typing all day.

If you would like a carbon fork, Whit offers a Wilde carbon fork option as well. I won’t judge you if you prefer carbon forks over steel forks. Pinky swear. ;-)

Ride Quality and Terrain

I am privileged to ride a lot of bikes each year, and as such, I’ve formed some Cosmic Trigger-level opinions about what is currently offered by the bike industry and what I think a lot of people would be better off riding. We’ve talked about “gravel race bikes” versus “adventure gravel bikes” in the past and how I feel like the former is just a road bike with bigger tires and the latter are actual gravel bikes. Yet, gravel is subjective, and yes, the bikes ridden on gravel are as well.

With the bigger tires, the Ponderosa is a blast to rip around on our foothill XC singletrack. Bikes like this spur that atavistic urge to play…

My gravel experience is unlike what riders in non-mountainous regions encounter. While we have endless dirt Forest Roads here in Santa Fe, they are often not maintained or graded and get very muddy in the spring, further rutting them out, all at a steep grade that goes on for upwards of 15 miles. Climbing 15 miles means an equally long descent too! The more remote the ride gets, the chunkier it will be.

With a bike designed for (gravel) road races, there tends to be a lot of saddle-to-bar drop, which is grueling on long descents to be in the drops on and extremely limiting for a rider to be comfortable on rough and rocky terrain. If you’re having difficulty getting better at descending through the tech-gnar double track, I guarantee your bike is holding you back, and it’s most likely the racing-focused riding position.

The Ponderosa on a mixed terrain ride in the Bay Area, Planet of the Apes, last April…

I believe that gear choices do indeed matter, and bikes like this, not only this specific bike, but other bikes in this space, offer a better overall experience for riders who like to underbike on slightly technical terrain. Bikes like the Super Something, Kona Sutra LTD, and others relish the compromises of a full-on drop-bar 29er with familiarity and comfortable riding position.

You don’t have to buy a Ponderosa to experience gravel differently.

The first few rides on the Pondie, I knew Whit was onto something. The tubing flexes in a comfortable, not noodly way. This is felt on climbs, chunky flat sections of road, and predominately on double track descents. It course-corrects predictably, in a planted and secure manner, and with a higher stack than a gravel race bike, allows you to wield it in the drops with ease.

The 70º heat angle and 73º seat angle, when paired with a bottom bracket height of 295 mm means this is worlds apart from a road or ‘cross bike. It’s a beast of its own and it plows down dirt roads like a spooked road runner.

Pricing and Availability

Whit makes each Ponderosa frameset by hand at his workshop in the foothills of the Sierra. Production sizing allows him to streamline the process by mitering multiple tubes and setting his building jigs up for welding similar-sized frames in a mini assembly line. Each Ponderosa comes in either Orangesicle (what we saw in yesterday’s Shop Visit) or olive drab (pictured above) with contrasting decals, and Whit can build you a complete as well, which I encourage.

Framebuilders make most of their money from complete builds, so if you’re looking for a new bike, it really helps them out by ordering a complete!

In this special introductory run, the Ponderosa frame and fork retail for $2,600, with completes starting at approximately $5,000 for the Shimano GRX 610 kit or $6,000 for a Shimano GRX 810 kit. The option for a Wilde carbon fork on either build kit would run $200 cheaper. Whit can also work one-on-one with you to build yours to your spec.

I highly suggest supporting the homies at Paul Component Engineering for your components!

TL;DR and the Take-Away

Bikes like the Ponderosa offer their owners the ability to pedal a bit further up the graded road once it starts to fade into chunder while still being lightweight, nimble, and sure-footed on the familiar and fast sections. It’s designed for lightweight overnighters and all-day exploits, with a geometry tuned for gravel roads, double track, and light singletrack. The touring accoutrements provide attachment points for bags, cargo cages, and lightweight racks, while the portage handle makes it easy to lift the loaded bike over downed trees and locked gates (shhhhh!) when it has a full frame bag.

While you are paying for a bike made in Whit’s shop, by Whit himself, the decades of experience Whit has getting himself and others lost goes into making a bike that will outlive carbon, mass-produced bikes that are designed for racing. I’ve had the privilege to ride and own many adventure bikes, but something about the Ponderosa feels more at home amidst our own Ponderosa pines here in Northern New Mexico.

The Meriwether Cycles Ponderosa Gravel Bike will be available to order on November 1st at MeriwetherCycles.com.

Pros