Tumbleweed Prospector First Look

The Tumbleweed Prospector was created for touring, riding on whatever surface during the day, and sleeping next to you at night. It was designed to be adaptable – it’s a fat bike, a plus bike, and a standard mountain bike. It’s made out of steel and ready for you to connect your bikepacking bags and load it down. The standout feature of the Tumbleweed Prospector is that it uses common mountain bike parts, so that you can tour around internationally and not worry about replacement parts. 

The Prospector was built around a custom yoke designed by Anna Schwinn. This yoke allows for ample tire clearance at 4″ max, while still keeping the q-factor more narrow than common fat bikes today. 
The Prospector was also built around the Rohloff speed hub, and a 135 mm symmetrical rear spacing. The bike comes with a 73mm Tumbleweed exclusive Phil Wood Eccentric Bottom Bracket which allows you to tension the chain or drive belt for the Rohloff or a singlespeed setup. The vertical dropouts are also designed by Anna Schwinn with a Rohloff OEM slot.

While the bike is Rohloff optimized, it can also accommodate derailleurs. The bike can fit a 24-38 double or 24-32-42 triple. With the eccentric bottom bracket in the rearward position, the bike is limited to chainring size. 1x and offset 2x drive will work with 3″ tires and a derailleurs.

The frame and fork are built out of a double butted heat treated cromo and come in two colors, a New Mexico Turquoise and a Desert Sandglow. The front triangle is large to accommodate plenty of frame bag space, while the rear triangle comes with beautiful curved seat stays that give it a unique look. The bike is also compatible with a 100mm or 120mm suspension fork such as a RockShox Bluto. 

We are testing the bike with 27.5+ wheels with 50mm rims. The Tumbleweed Prospector does, however, have the tire clearance for 26×4″ on 65mm rims, and 29×3.0″ on 50mm rims. It came stocked with WTB Ranger 3.0 tires mounted to WTB Scraper rims and a Surly front hub.

The frame comes with a variety of mounting options for whatever your needs may be.

The bike is rounded out with SLX brakes, Surly OD Cranks, Thompson bars and seatpost.


You can currently pre-order your Tumbleweed Prospector today. You can purchase the frameset and Rohloff SPEEDHUB drivetrain kit for $2550. Alternatively, the frameset alone is going for $1450, but if your pre order before the end of 2016, you will receive special pricing at $1300. Daniel will also be taking custom assembly bike orders on demand. Email Daniel with frame inquiries at Daniel@Tumbleweed.cc or just head over to Tumbleweed.cc for specifics.