"Don't be a dick." Charlie the Bikemonger knows a few things about brevity. He's also fluent in sinlge speed races, or "reliability trials," or "liability trials." Whichever.

Maybe this doesn't make sense to folks who weren't there, but that's ok. It doesn't need to. All you need to know is that Dorset in the UK is a very hard place to get to, but very much worth the effort. Gut-twisting climbs up massive seaside mounds always paid off with stunning views and rebel yell descents. Cold clammy camping was tempered by the friendliest bonfire in the English (or some variant thereof) speaking world. And single speeding is still alive despite the efforts of all of us.

This is what I remember:

Camping provisions are best eaten with the Official SSUK GPS Device.

This is almost never a bad thing.

Something in England is "about this tall."

The "start" of the "race" was pretty "tense."

Going up is hard.

Looking back down made up for the hard.

A few racing firsts were achieved - stopping at a museum to see dinosaur footprints for one.

A local selling fancy cheeses at the finish line was another.

And I now feel that every race should have a poet scheduled at some point in the day.

The two on the right won (though we're not entirely certain how that was tabulated). The two on the left were ineligible - one for organizing, the other for being far too American.

So, if you're ever in Swanage, or possibly if you're in Birmingham next year, ride a bike with one gear and you'll probably learn something vital. Either that, or you won't. Still... do.

-Skip

Adam and I are currently in transit on our way home from Taiwan.  We were there for two weeks, enjoying all that is a product development trip for Surly.  We kicked off some brand new projects and greased the wheels on some existing ones.

Taiwan is pretty rad.  Good people, bizzare food, and a country filled with manufacturers that make bike parts for the world.

Here are some random pictures I snapped during the trip.  Enjoy...

Squat toilets... Pretty tough to waist time on your cell phone while using on of these.

Checking in on Krampus production.  I do love the look of a raw welded frame.

A whole rack of LHT Disc non-drive side triangles waiting to be welded into frames.

At nearly every supplier there is a quality assortment of candy, coffee, tea, and water.  Seeing as I don't read Chinese, eating candy from the bowl is a little like Russian roulette.

I think an unpolished stainless seat collar would be bad ass.  What do you think?  Also, some top secret 2014 stuff on the table in the background.  You are going to like it.

This is our good friend Willy hanging out at the tire supplier.  Willy is basically Surly's Taiwan engineer.  He keeps tabs on our manufacturers and makes sure everything is going smoothly for us.

Some OD crank arm forgings.  It is wierd to think that one day the exact forgings in this picture will be machined, painted, boxed, shipped, shelved, purchased, installed, and then ridden by a Surly fan.  This could be a picture of the cranks you buy in the future.

OD crank, check.

I think I saw Jeremy Wade catch this fish on River Monsters.

Chicken feet taste exactly how you would guess, skin and bones.  Nummy.

Raw Krampus fork looking good.

That's a whole lot of Krampus forks.

During our trip we had the chance to do some work on a local Taiwan mountain bike trail.  Crazy enough, these massive spiders (Golden Orb spiders I think) were everywhere.  They had huge webs strung out across the trail waiting for bikers to get tangled up in them.  Apparently their poison will only cause some local irritation if bitten, but damn, I was not a fan.  Fortunately, we walked the whole trail and cleared out all the webs before riding.

We also found this MASSIVE earth worm out on the trail.  When it stretched out it was easily over two feet long.  More snake than worm in my opinion.

Whole slew of LHT forks waiting for some paint.

Leeche's advice for driving in Taiwan.... "The rule is, there is no rule."

Having been “with” Surly for quite a long time now, I have been honored to meet a lot of fine people (I have also have been made to suffer many more people with whom I did not “see eye-to-eye,” but that's a long series of other stories). Once many years ago I answered an email from Steamroller rider Elan Viss. Elan had written to Surly HQ to let us know how much he loved his Steamroller and has from time to time written back to update us on his life and his bike. The other day I received an email from him, the first one in quite a while, and I thought I’d share it here to illustrate first that we make tough bikes that work well for all kinds of things and that last a long time even when you don't pamper them, and second to illustrate that core Surly customers do not write in very often because they are off living fulfilling lives instead of sitting in front of a glowing screen eating Cheez-its and waiting for the next chance to “like” something on Facebook.

       The photo doesn’t begin to explain how cold this morning was. In the Central Valley of California, there is a sort of wet-cold that just hurts to be in. It was only 33 degrees, foggy, and everything that was supposed to keep me warm was soaked. My buddies and I had to take bikes back into the hunting refuge because the roads are blocked off to motor vehicles. That left us very few options. The Surly is set up as a fixed gear rig with no brakes. I robbed part of my parent’s shower curtain rod to make the handlebar. The brushed stainless looks good, but it is primitive. I have to say that the bike handles like it was designed to cross small rivers loaded with shotguns and duck decoys; the folks at Surly very well may have accounted for this. Either way, it performed much in the likeness of its namesake. This article, I reckon, is an ode to versatility and fundamental quality. The no frills approach to bike making seems to be a thing of the past, and otherwise bygone so-to-speak. Not with Surly though. The 4130 carries my hulking frame just fine. Even though I’m about as nimble as an elephant, the bike almost makes me look like a true athlete. Whether I’m riding to the store, riding through a creek, riding for fitness, or just riding because I feel like riding, the Steamroller is my steed, and a good one at that. Thanks to Anders Jerner and Sam Sawyer, my photographer and hunting guide, respectively. Keep it real, and get Surly. 
-Elan

Recently, I gave a fatbike-oriented presentation.  I figured some props would be helpful, so I dug around in the garage and came up with some appropriate pieces.  I had to get the hardware to the office, so I attached Bill to the Big Dummy and Junk Strap'd everything in place. 

My Cargo...

*  Pugsley #1...the first prototype. This was our Interbike show bike, then my geared test rig, and, eventually, my single-speed.  I rode it with 26 x 3.0 Nokian Gazzaloddi tires before Endomorphs were available.  That's how it was equipped when we introduced it at Interbike in 2004.  I still ride it with cantilever brakes...no rotors to get bent in a derby. 

*  My latest Moonlander...2nd-round proto.  This is my worst-case scenerio bike.  It's my out-of-bounds camper/commuter/playbike. 

* The Goiter.  I built this rig to test the viability of using fat wheels on a unicycle.  I commuted on it, ran errands on it, and went uni-camping on it. 

* The Conundrum.  Our discontinued fat-tired unicycle offering. 

So as some of you may know, we here at Surly make a little bike called the Cross Check.  This was the first bike we ever offered as a complete bike, that was way back in the year 2000 when many of you were wearing diapers (grow’d up style diapers). (As it happens I am wearing them right now)  It was offered geared, like most people ride a cross bike and people liked it.  People kept buying the frame and built it up however they liked and other people bought the complete.  Sometimes those two people would meet and stare at each others bikes, and sometimes they would only ride by and grunt.  Some people who bought the complete started to mess with their bike, once they realized they could run it so many ways.  They saw 1xwhatevers, single speeds, fixies, cruiser types, townies, touring bikes and many others that I just don’t feel like listing here.

At Surly, many folks here had there’s built up as a single speed with flat bars and v-brakes.  Here is a picture of Phil’s bike, just like that. 

Lots of people ran their bikes like that, and lots of people said to us that we should offer a complete version of the bike that was like that.

We thought to ourselves, maybe someday, and now that day is here.  Well really it was here a while ago, I’m just telling you about it now, and many of you probably already know about it, but at any rate we make this thing and sell it too.

Here’s some more pictures of some of our crews single speed Cross Checks, enjoy!

Now get off your computing device and ride some, it’s nice outside!!

A few years ago we came up with the idea to do a S&S coupled frame set as an option for those of us who travel a fair amount and want to bring our bicycles along with us.  Having a bike to ride in cities traveled to is a refreshing alternative to cabs, buses and cars, and allows you to see and experience new places in more intimate fashion.  While there was agreement within our group an the idea of doing this type of frame, there wasn’t consensus at first on what the frame should be.  Some thought it should be a mountain bike, others thought a road bike, and still others a touring bike.   In the end we decided that our Cross Check would be a good fit because of its versatility and solid ride characteristics, and thus was born the Travelers Check. 

I received my frame as one of the test samples in my choice of color, which I thought would be a turquoise green but arrived in what one might describe as mint toothpaste green.  Some loved the color and many hated it, but I didn’t care because I just wanted to ride it.  I did indeed ride it:  all over the world in fact.  And after about 10 trips with it the paint was battered and beaten to the point where I started dreaming of giving it a fresh coat of paint.  This dream went on for a couple of years, long after the parts from it had been stripped off and installed on my new Trucker Deluxe sample that needed testing.  Meanwhile, my Travelers Check hung neglected in my garage as I continued to think about what to do with it. 

I finally realized its calling as I reckoned back to 1995 when Gary Fisher released their Grateful Dead special edition Hoo Koo E Koo bike, which had a Dead inspired paint scheme and graphics designed by Prairie Prince himself.  I had no intention of copying what they did with my bike, but I did want something fairly trippy and mellow to mimic the feeling I get when I ride my Travelers Check in cool exotic places.    

I began with choosing a paint color that would fit my version of this theme.  My favorite color is navy blue, so I went looking for something in this range, but also with some metal flake.  I found what I was looking for on a powder coater’s website, and then I asked fellow coworker Anthony Peterson if he could replicate it for me.  He said he was up to the challenge, so I handed him my frame, fork and two Salsa steel stems to paint for me.  Within three weeks the paint was done, but during that time I started thinking about how to make the decals special, so I asked Andy Wood to help me figure something out when he wasn’t working on making videos about bikes and chips.  We bought some silver cutting sheet and he designed what you see on the bike.  This took a lot longer than you might think, and I do not recommend doing this yourself unless you enjoy tedious and labor-intensive work, but the end result was pretty kick ass if I do say so myself.

I also wanted something special for the head badge, so I called up Jen Green and asked her to make the Steal Your Face graphic in relief that you see here.  She had already done one of these for another customer so it wasn’t too hard for her to do.

I also wanted polished silver parts to compliment the dark blue sparkle paint job, so I called up Paul Components and ordered me a barrage of shiny bits.  The hubs are laced to HED Belgium C2 rims, which are the nicest pavement rims I have ever used.  My good friend Shinya Tanaka from Circles Bike Shop in Nagoya hooked me up with the Nitto Sim Works chromed cromoly stem.  The handlebars are Nitto and the bar tape is Brooks leather.  I also received a chromed steel rack from Nitto for this but it was too small for my frame size and was impossible to get level, so I swapped it for a Surly Rack.  The tires are Resist Nomad in 700x45, which roll fast and provide comfort while not costing much.   

The pedals were a very special addition from my friend Ali at Moto Bicycles in Berlin, Germany.  He makes the flats of the pedals from skateboard decks and uses a sandwich of two high impact plastic plates to reinforce the wood for durability.  They are low profile and allow you to wear all kinds of casual footwear comfortably.  The non-skid surfaces are replaceable and do the job quite well in wet or dry conditions.  These pedals are not cheap, but they are very unique so if you would like a pair of your own you should contact Ali through his website.  These pedals are currently not available in most countries outside of Germany.

 This project took a lot longer than expected to complete, but it was a great way to spend the long cold winter here in Minnesota.  Now it's time to ride.

I’ve always been intrigued by the Rohloff hub.  It’s a pretty ridiculous piece of equipment that seems to get people worked up for one reason or another and I like that about it.  Some people say it’s the end all be all of durability in everlasting bicycle drive train technology; others say the only thing greater than it’s stupidity is its opulence.  Everyone I’ve talked to about Rohloff hubs will invariably finish up whatever diatribe the mention of that name evokes by saying something along the lines of “I mean, I’ve never even touched one because they’re so goddamn expensive but….” Gee, thanks for your opinion, guy!  I decided I was going to put this whole issue to rest and just build one into a bike and write a spew about it so there wouldn’t be any mystery to it anymore.  Also, stop asking.

I remember the first time I ever got to see one was at B.Rose’s shop when this dude from Spain came in needing an oil change.  B.Rose didn’t get that 'oh shit' look that most bike mechanics I’ve seen get at the mere mention of the name, but he sure as shit didn’t have any oil laying around either so the guy  had to leave his bike and come back.  I got to talking with the guy about his trip and where he’d been and how he liked the hub and this guy really changed my mind about the merits of the hub.  First of all, when you’re riding your bike around the earth self-supported you can’t really be a dick to people.  Second of all, this guy was the real deal.  He wasn’t out there to raise awareness for anything whatsoever, he didn’t bother to call us and ask us for a free LHT frame, he was just a dude who sold all of his shit except for his bike and camping stuff and left it all behind because he likes riding his bike and he likes seeing new places.  Pretty rad....

If you ask the Rohloff website if the hub will fit in our frames, it’ll tell you no, it doesn’t work with rear-facing horizontal dropouts like the ones we use.  This is not true.  Thanks a f*ckin' bunch, Rohloff website.  The Rohloff hub will fit and work in our frames, but they will need some coaxing.  There is more than one way to make it work but for the purposes of this spew, I’m going to be explaining the one and only, Surly Approved way of making this happen.  If you decide to try some other way, God speed, Killer; you’re on your own and I don’t care what happens to you.

Frankly, I don’t think the problem is that these things are actually that complicated.  The problem is that for one hub you can get something like, and I’m just guessing here, 58 different combinations of axle-plate/speedbone/axle-type/gear-mech/whatever-the-hell-else-bolts-to-the-outside-of-this-thing, and that just confuses people.  Well, I’m here to tell you all you need is the OEM2 axle plate and a speedbone.  It’s that simple.  Hell, if you get an Ogre or Troll, which is what you should be getting if you want to run one of these things, you can even save some bank because you don’t need the Speedbone.   We make the Ogre and the Troll such that the axle plate will bolt right to the frame.  Don’t say we never did anything for you.

Down to business.  What was that I told you to get?  Oh yeah, the OEM2 Axle Plate, and the Rohloff Speedbone:

If you're unfamiliar with the way these two things interface, the basic idea with any internal hub is that the axle is part of the gear unit and thus carries load and will want to rotate if not fixed somehow to the frame and this is what the various axle plates (or no turn washers on other hubs) and their corresponding fixing methods accomplish.  They provide the fixing point for the axle and forward movement.  The next photo shows how these two pieces interface.  The Speedbone provides an anchor point and the axle plate is merely an extension for the axle to interface with the anchor on the frame.  It's a pretty simple concept, see!

Now to put the shit together....  I happened upon a hub that had the standard OEM axle plate that is used for frames equipped with the Rohloff specific dropouts so I had to change the axle plate.  Not a particularly big deal, just a handful of torx bolts that need to be loosened, swap the plate, reinstall the bolts and you're ready for action.  If you are going to put this setup on your Moonlander like I did, it might behoove you to note the angle of the Axle Plate and the External Gear Mech Arm.  The angle at which you install the Axle Plate will decide how your shift cables are routed and in order to make it look as pretty as you, the reader, you'll want to have the Gear Mech Arm following the line of the seatstay so the cables can follow the seatstay and enter the Gear Mech. from the top.  This won't hold true for every frame we make, but I think this is a good setup for the Moonlander.

After I got the axle plate situation taken care of I moved on to the Speedbone.  The thing comes with extra long bolts that will replace your caliper adapter mounting bolts and it all just slaps right together.  If you can install a rear brake caliper, you can install a rear brake caliper and a speedbone.  If you are so inclined, now would be a good time to go make yourself a meatball sub.  You've earned it.

Once you have both of these parts installed it's really just a matter of putting the wheel in the bike and getting your chain tensioned, which is made siginificantly easier by a Surly Tuggnut.  After that it's just a matter of tightening down your brake caliper and battening all the hatches.  Once it's all together, this is how it looks.  Not much room in there for anything other than the concept of German Engineering....

And the head on shot of the whole shootin' match:

My theory on why Rohloff says their hub won't work in our frames is because the way the Speedbone and OEM2 plate interface isn't particularly easy to manage on rear facing dropouts like ours and if you get a flat tire getting the wheel off is a bit of a trick but in my mind nowhere close to a deal breaker.  You have to loosen the caliper adapter fixing bolts because the Speedbone sort of traps the wheel in the dropout, but if you set the OEM2 Axle Plate up the way I did, it will keep things out of the way enough that it's really not that difficult of an operation to get the wheel off.  You simply loosen the caliper fixing bolts, push the wheel forward in the dropout and rotate the axle plate down so it clears the horizontal anchor point on the Speedbone.  If you're looking for instructions on Rohloff setup and installation, you've come to the wrong place.  Rohloff has already written those and I'm an impatient and punitive teacher, so head elsewhere if you have questions about that, but this is how you put one of these contraptions in our frames.  Wasn't that easy? Now get out there and try to break the damn thing!

We have a Surly retreat coming up where we are packing up the bikes like donkeys and riding southwest to camp out, drink tea and wax-poetic about bicycles for a few days. I was onboard when the idea was tossed out but also intimidated.

I’ve always had a negative view of road bikes from my time working in shops. The skinny wheels and gnarled bars make me feel uncomfortable and confined. I like to ride where I want to ride. I do not want to be limited by a skinny bald wheel. It’s not my thing. Nor do I want to spend half an hour squeezing into skintight kits and adjusting my aerodynamic bits just so I can get on my bike. This was the idea I had of road riders. Skinny tires, skin tight crayola puke clothing and lots of high tech crap were required to successfully ride on a road for any number of miles.

The thought of riding 35+ miles loaded down with a bunch of avid riders who do this type of riding on a whim, made me nervous. So I decided to make an effort to get as much road time as possible before our trip. Rain or shine or severe winds as it were. I shall ride.

Riding to and from work regularly was helping but I was still able to stay within neighborhoods and take paths off of the street to make it into work. The big game changer was a ride into Lowertown St Paul for drinks and eats. It was a 20 mile loop and included climbs and city street riding. I had never ridden more than 16 miles in a day and never in the dark.

I prefer to ride in street clothes and shoes. So I wasn’t too geared up when I set out for my ride. Here is what I had:

• Jeans
• Cotton long sleeve shirt
• Shoes
• Cars R Coffins Sox (RIP little coffee shop)
• Knog Frog Strobe white LED
• Nathan LED Safety Strobe red light
• Lock (last minute addition I almost forgot and that would have sucked)
• Surly Long Sleeve Wool Jersey
• Old canvas messenger bag
• Shimano windbreaker 2 sizes too large that I found in my basement (I had left my jacket back in Surly land and winds were kicking at 26 mph+)
• Old Fox helmet
• Trusty Cross-Check

All stuff I had lying around mostly. I had to buy the lights because my last set had disappeared probably 7 or 8 years ago.

I set out with a 26 mph headwind and pushed my way towards the city. I got lost, I went down steep hills, climbed steep hills, road through parking lots, on sidewalks, on bike paths, on roads, in bike lanes and on some dirt just cause.

I had a blast. I showed up and rewarded myself with fancy beverages and good eats.

I was pumped to ride home as the headwind would now be a tailwind and the 2 size too large windbreaker would now be a sail instead of a drag.

I rode much more road on the way home. My lights worked great. The weather was nice. The streets were actually quiet. I had to flip my bike for a quick chain fix but other than that my ride was smooth and uneventful.

I wasn’t even winded when I returned home. The next day I wasn’t even sore. I feel ridiculous now thinking I was worried about riding 20 miles of climbs and city streets. I honestly think you would too if you tried it. This was nothing epic. Nothing extraordinary. It was a hell of a good time.

My friends that do not ride heard about my little trip and were shocked to hear I did that. It amazed them. It would have amazed me too. It seems so far, until you do it. Then it’s not far enough.

I like bikes

Pieced together from junk bins and spare parts

or

Fancy and shiny

or

Old and rusty and look like they were ridden in the Crimean War

I want to ride them all

Bikes that people love

Bikes that people make their own

Bikes that people ride and make them look and function exactly how they want

These bikes below are bikes like that

1x1 is my favorite

Trucker Trike Time Trials?

Custom colors are neat

Sov hates poems

One of the things I have always appreciated about Surly (long before I weaseled my way into their ranks) is the flexibility of the frames they make.  I don’t mean the flexibility of steel as apposed to other materials to build bikes out of (but that too), what I mean is that you can do so many different things with several of the frames that they make.

As an example, my lovely wife has two Trolls and many people would never believe that they are the same basic bike, though you hardcore bike geeks out there would spot it in an instant, to the eye of the nongeektafied they totally different.  She’s got one set up as a standard mountain rig, and the other is a cruiser style city bike.  They both work perfect for what she needs and they ride and feel very different (at least as different as two bikes with the same geometry can ride and feel).  This is achieved with stem height/length, handlebars, saddle, tires, drive train and even pedals.

Over the weekend I had one of my by-annual bike switcharoos in my basement.  This is where I take some bikes that I don’t ride as much as some other bikes, and rifle through my parts bin and rebuild. It's a great way to kill a morning, and then you can spend the rest of the day riding around on your new creation and doing some fine-tuning.

That's what I did, and so the single speed, v-brake, slick tired Ogre was born. The bike was built entirely from my parts bin.  Now to be fair, the wheelset was in my parts bin, cuz a friend of mine gave it to me, and the Paul brakes and levers where there, waiting for the right bike, but the rest of the parts are things that were once on another bike that got taken off, and thrown in the pile.

 Here are some before and after shots of the bike. 

Before

and the After

As you can see, I didn’t have it built up in any traditional way to begin with, so here is a shot of the stock bike as it ships from Taiwan.

I love that I have bikes with so many possibilities built into them, plus it’s cool to work for the company that makes them happen.

Riding them isn't so bad either, until next time, get out and ride!!

Just wanted to take a quick second (as apposed to a long one) to say I have chosen the “winners” in the poster giveaway.  There were quite a few of you who sent entries in (almost 400); but luckily for me most of you didn’t follow the instructions so that made the narrowing down process much easier.

To those of you who won, I will send the posters out next week, and you will find out if you did, by either getting a poster in the mail or not.  Those of you who did not, you will find out in the opposite way. 

I must say it was super cool to see all the awesome pictures of people on their rides.  I am a huge bike geek and I love looking at bikes in all shapes and sizes in every possible build configuration.  Cheap, expensive, whatever; I just like looking at bikes. In many ways I wish I had enough posters to give you all, and in many more ways I'm glad that I don't.

Anyway, thanks for the awesome pictures, and all the reasons that you hate/love/whatever Surly. 

From one fanboy to another, you are all huge geeks!! Well done.

Here is a gratuitous shot of a cool bike I like, whatanerd!

I recently had the chance to spend a few days in the great city of Amsterdam.  While there, I was completely blown away by the bicycle culture.  Yes, I knew bikes were big in Amsterdam, but I really had no idea how big.  

Did you know that there are more bicycles than people in Amsterdam (779,000 people / 881,000 bikes)?  And almost all of those bikes are either stereotypical Dutch Bikes or Long John cargo bikes.  I think it might actually be a sin to ride a "normal" road or mountain bike in Amsterdam.  They just don't exist.

I spent hours sitting outside just watching the bike traffic roll by.  Not only are the bikes fun to check out, but the riders are equally amazing.  It wasn't uncommon to see people going by with 2, 3, 4 passengers on their bike.  For anyone who has tried riding a bike with even one passenger, you know how tricky this can be.  The Amsterdam locals take this challenge in stride.  For example, I watched a young guy carrying his girl friend side-saddle on his back rack.  They pulled up to a stop light on a hill where there was no chance that the dude would be able to get rolling with the extra passenger weight.  Therefore, when the light turned green, the girl simply hopped off and ran along side the guy to the top of the hill and then seamlessly and literally jumped on the back rack without ever slowing anything down or saying a word to the guy.  She rode away looking around, hands free not hanging on to anything as the guy got up to cruising speed.  They made it look way too easy and it was 100% obvious that they had been doing it ever since little kids and had a TON of practice.  If that scenario were to happen in Minnesota, dude would be swerving all over the road, girl would be screaming with a death grip on duder's clothes, and then something on the bike would probably fail or they would simply crash and burn.  Basically, people in Amsterdam have some amazing biking skills that I don't even think they realize they have.  Oh yeah, and NOBODY wears a helmet.

I rented a bike while in Amsterdam to see what all the fuss was about over these "Dutch bikes".  Full fenders, covered chains, stout frames, slack geometry, and a cushy ride.  These bikes truely cruise.  Your hands sit quite far back, almost at your sides, and your posture is quite upright.  This position makes for super comfortable seated riding and pretty awkward riding while standing up.  The slack geometry, overbuilt frame, and wide bars are the key to they cargo success of these machines.  Even riding unloaded, I could easily tell that a couple extra passengers wasn't going to give this bike any problems.  The bike was planted.

Of course, I had to see if I could wheelie it...

The bicycle infrastructure within Amsterdam is almost equally amazing to the bikes and riders themselves.  For example, there are bike lanes on nearly every road.  And not just lines on the roads indicating where the bikes should go, but independent bike lanes with medians separating them from the motor vehicle traffic and separate traffic lights specifically for the bike lanes.  In areas where bike paths crossed roads, there was always a button to change the lights and stop traffic.  We have buttons like this in Minnesota as well.  But unlike Minnesota, when you push the button in Amsterdam, the lights change within about four seconds, no matter what the car traffic looks like.  It is obvious where the traffic priorities are.  On top of that, there are parks everywhere with free-way style back paths to move bikers through the city without ever dealing with any car or train traffic.

Overall, I was really impressed with Amsterdam and wish I could have stayed in the city more than a couple days.  If you like bikes at all...at all... I highly recommend visiting.  You will not be disappointed.

It also doesn't hurt if you enjoy hanging out in Amsterdam "coffeeshops".  Those don't suck either.

Hats off to you Amsterdam!  I am impressed and hope I can visit again.

Here are a couple other interesting bits I found in Amsterdam....

Aerodynamic umbrellas for riding bike in the rain...... http://www.senzumbrellas.com/

Rain jackets that extend over your handlebars to keep you dry.....

Recently we all loaded up our bikes and rode together to a nature reserve west of Minneapolis.  You've likely already heard about it in one of the other blogs posted here as well as on our facebook page, so I'll present you my take on it via the following pictures I snapped along the way.  These photos are not intended to tell the whole story, partially because that would take too long and also because I didn't take pictures for the entire duration of the trip. 

Anyhoo, here we are loaded down and rolling on the LRT trail west of Minneapolis.  It rained most of the way.

Not unlike myself and several others, Bob was loaded with enough gear to survive several nuclear winters.

Speaking of loaded, Marketing Guy had several slices of toasted white bread, two whole chickens, a Coke and a guitar amp under the tarp.  To the question, "Why'd you bring all that crap for?" he answered, "Why not?"  Amen.

Greg bought a new outfit, and Jim bought a new beard.  Both of them looked stunning.

There were lots of trailers.  Nothing wrong with that.

There were some bridge club rest stops along the way.  The plethora of bridges turned a 2-hour ride into 5-hour epic, but that's pretty much par for the course for us.  There was a brewery stop planned, but it turned out they were closed.  Had they been open we would still not yet have arrived at the camping spot.

Here is visual proof that short people can indeed mix with the taller folks. 

I think Jim was spinning one of his amusing yarns about his days in Colorado in this photo, which explains why there is smiling (and maybe even some laughter) involved.

Tree Beard. 

Not Tree Beard.  Not even close.  Sorry FNG.  Keep trying.

We met this guy, who told us he had just escaped the local mental institution.  We gave him some Doritos and some water.  I've never seen a happier person in my life.

Somebody call the cops.

I only took one picture of the camp.  It's of Greg!  Later we took turns burning the ticks off him with our lit cigarettes. 

Al in all it was what it was and is what it ain't.  We are already scheming our next outing and thinking of ways to carry even more stuff that we won't need.  Some folks like to go minimalist and test themselves against nature, but that's just dopey if you ask me.  Maximalist is the way to go. 

As we all sat around the campfire during the latest Surly ride/retreat Skip kept us entertained playing guitar throughout the night. Mr. Bloggins, every now and then, would throw down on the harmonica between beers. This is what it looked like into the wee hours that night.

We were a pain in your ass.  We whined and we moaned.  We contradicted.

We did exactly what you told us not to do because we were kids that thought we knew everything.  And you watched and laughed and helped us through again and again.

“Damn, the old man was right.”  That’s what we would say.  Say under our breath.  Say after it didn’t work out as well as we thought it would.  And over the years we’ve realized just how wrong we were about so many things.  Sometimes these things were obvious right away, but others took time.

Nowadays when we’re convinced that we’re right, we remember all those times we ended up being wrong and do our best to think about it a while first.  Maybe we’re not the smartest people in the history of the world after all.

Of all the lessons you’ve taught us over the years, that’s the one that sticks the most.  And that lesson has probably taken us further in life than anything else we’ve learned.

We’re still not perfect, but sure as hell aren’t as bad as we used to be.

Here’s to you, Dad.

With out a doubt, one of the best experiences of my life was going on a long bike tour.  The every day of it, the riding and the scenery, the people you meet, the food you eat and of course, the beer are experiences that are hard to even put into words.  There is something so peaceful about the pack up, ride, eat, rest, ride, eat rest ride, make camp, drink beer and go to sleep schedule that is a bike tour.

There are so many ways that people out there tour these days.  On road, off road, minimalist, maximalist you can pretty much do what ever you want out there, carry as much or as little and just go.

People sometimes ask me, what’s the best way to “get into” touring?

I’m here to tell you that the best way to get into it, is to just do it.  By yourself, or with your family, or friends, you can just pack up your bikes and go.

Start with the style of riding that is your favorite and tour there (on or off road) research your equipment needs (or if you wanna credit card it, research places to stay), make sure you cover your bases, and make sure that there is someone back in the “real world” who knows roughly were you are. And then just go.

Make your plans, buy a map and just go.

I guess what I’m really trying to say, is JUST SHUT UP AND DO IT.  That’s the best way to get started (you know, get started).

Here is a bit of touring inspiration for all your bike porn needs.

Here is a link to this awesome family that is doing a pretty impressive tour right now.

http://www.thefamilyride.com/

This dude is pure awesome!!

http://www.whileoutriding.com/

Of course there’s always the Adventure Cycling Association for tips and an endless mire of forums for you forum nuts out there.

http://www.adventurecycling.org/

There are tons more links out there and too much information to digest, but jump right in.

Here’s a sweet picture from our tiny tour, we went the maximalist route for sure.

Cheers and get out there and ride!!

Bikes.  Bikes are what brings us together here at Surly and I think we can all agree that bikes are awesome and riding them is even better.  Hell, riding mountain bikes is one of my favorite things to do and I spend a pretty good chunk of my day doing just that most days nowadays.

But it wasn’t always this way.  Long before becoming a full-time bike geek, when my big brother and I were just little twerps our dad built and raced fancy German cars.  During those days, my brother, mom and I would camp out at the track and walk around while Dad did his thing.  I was young enough to not remember everything, but the sound of a GT-1 car flat out was one thing that stuck.  The sound of these cars coming down a straight instilled enough excitement and joy in my brother and I that we would scamble over to climb the fence every lap to get a peek:

Years later dad would quit racing cars and he and I started traveling around to the motocross races.  I was small and the bikes were small, but I got bigger, the bikes got bigger, and more and more people started showing up.  I know the sound of a motocross bike isn’t for everyone, but to me there just aren’t many sounds better than a fresh 125 being ridden by a factory hoss:

See the thing about a 125 moto bike is they don’t all sound the same.  You can literally hear how much power it has by the way it sounds, and back in those days if someone was sitting on the gate revving a bike that sounded like that, I might try to line up next to someone else.

Now I know that the satisfaction of a well tuned bike is a near silent ride with only the rustling leaves and wind in your face and birds chirping and all that, but can it hang with the sound of an F1 car?

No way!

What about an Italian V-twin superbike?

Oh man!

So I’m happy with a quiet bike.  I really am.  It’s just that I miss the noises.  They say that scent has the strongest tie to memory of all the senses, and maybe that’s true, but hearing these mechanical beauties brings me back to those places awful quickly.  And it’s easier for me to make dirtbike noises while I ride my bike than burn C12 and castor oil.

So whether it’s a factory CR 250, a 427 side oiler, a 440 with a six pack, a fat V-twin, an air-cooled flat six, or even a boxer with a turbo that blows your hair back, I’m with you.  I’ve got an awful lot of great memories from those times in my life so if you hear me making funny noises while I’m riding, I hope you can understand.

Braap!

Ok, for real, it’s not really Xmas, and it’s not really July yet, but we’ve got our 2014 Fatbikes in early this year and here’s what some of them look like.

Pretty blue, dirty black, champagne and a pretty sweet old school army green with color matched rims (the spec formlery known as the Neck Romancer)

What does this mean for you?? Well if you don’t have a fatbike yet and you want one of ours, now’s your chance.

Also, if you just want another one.  Or tire of last years color palette (it was so 2013) we’ve got’em here.

So there’s that. The website, that has just changed a bit, will soon have all the new info about spec changes and other bits of pieces and information about new stuff. So keep an eye out.  Also, we may have a couple new bikes coming out this year, I can't remember.

Anyway, check back soon for a tale about Dirtburger.  Decorah Iowa’s premier mountain biking event (maybe not premier, but pretty sweet)

So long, and go ride.

If you like to ride trail and ever find yourself in the north eastern corner of that little square state in the middle of the map (you know, Ohidawoh) you should really check out the charming little hamlet of Decorah.  This last weekend they had their fourth annual mountain biking extravaganza DirtBurger. Since this is Skip's event, Phil and I decided we had to go down there for it, so Skip wouldn't cry.  Friday morning we packed up the truck and headed on down.

Here is what the truck looked like before Phil and I got underway.

Detail shot. (oh junk strap, is there anything you can't do???)

We got to Decorah around 3 in the afternoon on Friday, and immediately started drinking beer and setting up camp (I had a bottle of gin on the way down, but Phil was driving, so he had a lot of catching up to do).  Skip was there (as Decorah is his personal stomping ground) drunk and ready to sit.  We got camp set up (carefully choosing the perfect spot, because there was a small chance of rain) and joined Skip in his sitting and beer drinking bender. 

Decorah had gotten a large dumping of rain that morning (3 inches in a couple of hours) so the trails were a bit too muddy to ride.  “Oh, well,” we said, “let’s just drink and fire up the smoker.  The trails here dry out pretty quickly and tomorrow we can really shred.

That first night there were only a few of us, sitting by the fire, sharing meat sticks (code?), mixing our clear liquors with our brown and generally having a ruckus.  Phil got that smoker going and around 11pm there were some amazing wings to munch on between conversations about bikes, beer, religion, knives and recipe swapping.  After two in the AM,  things were winding down a bit, and we heard a little thunder, no biggy though, the trails here dry quickly.  I crawled in my tent, and a few minutes later it was pissing down rain.

It rained hard.  The dry creek bed that ran through our camp site turned into a raging river.  It looked a bit like this

Not to worry though, the trails here dry quickly.

That was the last picture that I took, because every other time I wanted to document something, it was pissing down rain. So from this point on, I’ll be using little drawings to help illustrate the story. Like this one.

When I woke up the next morning we had already had our first casualty.  One dude (I’ve changed his name to Blaaron Blieplow to protect his identity) pitched his tent in a spot that looked good the night before, but in the morning looked a bit more like this.

He was just gone, I don’t know if the earth swallowed him up as his tent sunk beneath the deluge, or if he just threw his tent in a garbage can and drove away.  It was unclear to me.  We held a wake for him around 11AM just incase.  The morning was a bit of a challenge, because people kept talking and making noise and that was making little explosions go off in my head, which put me (more or less) in a killing mood.  Phil had to go into town and buy a pair of shoes at the local thrift store cuz his fly was emptying into his old pair.  Never have a pair of Rockports looked so good.

Eight or ten more folks showed up and we hung out, waiting for the hot sun to melt some of the soup from off those trails.  Eventually we remembered that we were “supposed” to eat as well as drink and Phil fired up the smoker once more.  The sun was out, it was beginning to dry and all was right with the world.

Shortly after the smoker go fired up, Skip proposed a ride out of the camp site and down into town to find a bucket, for bucket ball.  The crowd rode down and Phil and I stayed up to keep an eye on the smoker. Forty seconds later, it was pissing down rain again.  Phil and I kept a keen eye on the fire and the smoker from under our hobo tarp.  That lasted about an hour and a half.  When the rain finally let up, we emerged from our tarp fort to find the camp site had mostly been trashed from the rain.  Four tents were down, and a couple that lasted through the wind and heavy rain, had their rain fly open, so most folks had pretty big puddles inside their tents.

Just as the night before Phil and I managed to stay dry but it took us about an hour to get the fire back to full strength and all that cold rain slowed the chicken down quite a bit.

Wasn’t too long before the rest of the crew came back up from town, having found shelter in a sweet local bar (http://tbocks.com/).  They got back just as the wings came off and everyone smeared their bodies with the hot fat oozing from the chicken bits.

Twenty minutes after that, the sky opened again, the thunder and lightning came, and then there were ten of us under the hobo tarp fort.

Again it let up and there was talk of jousting, but the weather just wouldn’t forgive.  About midnight I gave up and crawled into my tent, Phil into his hammock and we fell peacefully into the sweet escape of sleep.  Again it rained all night and our hopes of a morning trail ride before we packed up and left were dashed to the stones.

All in all, we had a blast.  Despite the weather and the trail conditions, it was great to see some folks we hadn’t seen in a while and meet some new ones. 

Maybe next summer we’ll ride.

I’m no Buddhist, but I do love the concept of the Middle Path. You don’t need to eliminate butter from your diet, just go easy. You don’t need to push yourself to 100% all the time on a bike, sometimes rolling along is just fine.

As a representative of the juggernaut that is the Bicycle Industry, it is my job to sell you things. The way we stay in business is to sell you more things – or at least more OF those things to more people. This tends to feed a desire in lots of people – dudes in the main, but plenty of you womens too – to accumulate more and more gear to accomplish what should be a simple task.

I should mention that I am no saint when it comes to this idea. When I took up fly fishing I had to have the whole kit – waders, boots, vest, the right rod, the right reel, the right fly line, and don’t get me started on fly tying gear like vices, hackle pliers, whip finishers, and the millions of colorey bits of fluff and thread that actually comprise the flies. I also have too many bikes.

This leads me back to my title and my theme for the day: maybe there’s some stuff you don’t need for your ride to be fun. What follows are thoughts on some items you might be able to shed. It’s not an indictment of people who use these items, but it may be food for thought about them.

Cleated Shoes and Clipless Pedals

I’m rediscovering flat pedals. You know what? They totally make the bike go. Simplicity incarnate in these guys. Sure, I still slip on the SPDs if I’m going to ride a bunch of miles, or if I'm up in the technical singletrack, but I don’t always HAVE to have them anymore. That frees me up a bit.

Cycle Computers

Man, this gets to one of my real pet peeves with cycling – and with many other pursuits generally - why does everything have to be a competition? I get that it’s nice to know how far your ride was, and I understand the desire to gather data about something you’re into. But really, aren’t we just riding because it’s fun, or because it’s a good way to get somewhere? Why put on yourself the undue burden of having to up your average speed? If you’re a person who NEEDS to have the computer on every ride, try an experiment and leave that sucker at home once. You might be surprised at what it does for your brain.

The Newest Thing

This one is hard to admit. I love new bikes. I LOVE them. Dreaming about a new bike, assembling it, getting it just right, and then stepping back to really have a good look – this is one of my very favorite things. All the mechanicals are just right and everything is so clean and, well, functional.

But, you probably don’t need it.

We at Surly are some of the biggest offenders for having the right bike for a specific purpose. Hell, we make bikes for snow and sand! We make bikes that aren’t quite fat and aren’t quite skinny. (Maybe the Krampus is the Middle Path – probably not though) We (the bike industry) have bikes and parts that have us all thinking that, “I cannot possibly ride my road bike on this gravel road” or “Good Lord! If I just had a 10^th or 11^th gear back there” or “This trail would be so much better on a fixed gear off-road rig.”

Can you survive with one bike that does a lot of things? I’m pretty sure you can. Is it nice to have the right tool for the job? Absolutely. Where’s the line though? I mean that as a real question, because I don’t know where that line is. I’ve got so many bikes that I could go “tour” on that it’s freakin’ silly. Sometimes I’ll be packing up the family unit for a ride and ask my wife, “Which bike do you think I should ride.” The eye roll I get from her is a well-deserved comment on my lack of moderation. Sure, I can make all kinds of excuses like it’s my job AND it’s my hobby, and therefore I NEED all of this stuff. I don’t.

This also applies to the newest suspension technology, the newest lightest thing, the sexiest new color, the most expensive internal gear hub (ahem), the newest wheel size standard... you get what I'm saying.

Gloves

Come on. I know when you’re out all day or when it’s really wet (cold is a different issue altogether) gloves are nice. Still. Try a ride without ‘em.

Nutritional Supplements

Gel chews, power foods, drink mixes – you know what? They totally work. They deliver nutrition in the form of easily digestible sugars, proteins, and electrolytes that your body works off in the process of riding hard.

So does a Snickers bar. So does a banana. So does a PB&J. Water is also nice.

Maybe you should just take a break from riding super hard? Maybe you really like riding super hard? That’s cool too, I guess.

Technical fabrics

God, we look like idiots when we ride. Loud obnoxious jerseys, shorts, and kit in general make us look like total boobs.

“But Skip! My jersey wicks moisture away from my skin!” Yes, it does.

“But Skip! My choad hurts without my padded shorts!” I get that.

I’m not advocating riding in discomfort – or maybe I am, I haven’t decided that – but what I am suggesting is to try a couple of rides without all the stuff. It can really be nice not to run around the house looking for all the things you NEED to ride. Run what you brung, right?

I could go on and on, and maybe I have. You probably know this stuff and you’re way more enlightened than I am. There’s certainly a way to go too far the other way, too. Maybe you NEVER ride with clips, computers, gloves, nutritional supplements or technical fabrics? Maybe you’re a staunch purist that believes anyone NOT riding flat pedals is a total asshole.

Guess what? That ain’t the Middle Path either.

So, what I’m asaying here is not that you should get rid of everything you hold dear in your cycling gear box/closet/garage/storage unit/entire living space. I’m just laying out the suggestion that you might want to give some thought to what it is you need to have fun on a bike. Maybe for you, the collecting of the products that Surly and our industry compadres produce fills some void and makes you happy. My guess, however, is that it doesn’t. It’s pretty hard for stuff to really create lasting contentment. The initial fix is pretty good though, isn’t it?

Just try to remember that if desire is suffering, then drooling over catalogs probably isn't doing you any good in the long run.

-skip