It seems a bit weird to me to write a blog about a new website, when if you’re reading the blog you probably noticed the new website already.

Maybe you didn’t.  I don’t know.  It makes me think about all of the things that we (ok I, I won’t speak for you) I talk about like they’re this brand new thing, even though they are clearly not.  I know that I have a plethora of stories that I like to tell, that I’ve told a million times, probably most of those times to the same 15 people.  Yet to me I tell it like I’m telling it for the very first time.  They are what I might call “go to crowd pleasers”.  Sometimes the stories are a bit different.  Though they are based on my experience, I would be a huge liar if I didn’t fess up to “free forming” it when it comes to the retell.   And truth be told, I don’t know how much about each of these experiences I really remember, in detail.  Objectively.  Though I’m not totally convinced that there is such a thing as an “objective” memory.  But that is a debate for another time and I’ve digressed enough.  These stories that I tell, my “go to” stories, always leave the “audience” (for lack of a better word) riveted.  You know, crying, laughing, pooping, whatever.  I use them for specific effect, and they work.  They damn well better, I’ve been practicing them for a lifetime.

Since I am in the business of making things and talking about those things and then trying to sell those things, here at the Intergalactic Headquarters I fall into the same trap.  The whole industry does.  But, again, I suppose I’ll only talk about myself.  So I fall into the same trap here at work.  The website is new (really it’s just different), we’ve got new bikes this year (really they’re just different). 

The website: it’s got information, and entertainment, it’s got some new bells and whistles, but really it’s a tool for interface.  Right now, between you and me.  We are interfacing.  The new bikes: they’ve got pedals and wheels and you push the pedals around and that pushes the wheels around and you go someplace.  New bikes have some new stuff attached to them, but really they’re just a tool to take you places or through places.  Now, we’ve worked hard to make the website better, to make it easier to use, and get through and find stuff.  Easier to navigate and to better facilitate that interface, that’s what we want our website to do; to get better.  Just like when we drop some new bikes on you all, we work really hard to make them better than the bikes that came before.  A better ride, or more suited to a specific purpose, or even more versatile, that’s what we want our new bikes to bring to the table.  We ( I guess I stopped saying I) want to add function.  Not just flash.  With the bikes, the website, with our junk straps.  Function is the thing. Function is what I crave, and it’s why we keep pushing forward and changing things up and pushing ourselves to do new things, or old things better.  I want to get better.

But apparently not at writing a cohesive blog, because again, I find myself off topic.  Which is, the new website.  Hopefully it functions at a higher level, if not, then next time we get to learn from our mistakes and move forward from there.  If it does function at a higher level,  then next time we get to learn from our…not…mistakes and move forward from there.  It’s all about forward momentum.  That’s what it’s about.

Also the Hokey-Pokey.

By the way the new site does have some new stuff that I think is pretty cool.  First off we’ve got our bios up. So if you want to read about what a glorious bunch of screw-ups we are, you’ve got that right here.

http://surlybikes.com/bios

Also we’ve got our picture dump, which is wear all you geeks can show off your cool personalized rides, or the cool places you’ve ridden.  That’s here.

http://surlybikes.com/gallery

I won’t explain too much, cuz I think you can figure it all out from there. 

Check it out on your lunch brake, but don’t let it suck you in.  It’s sunny outside here, and that means that in a perfect world, none of us would be stuck at work, but outside on our bikes.

I hope you get to be out there soon. Have a good ride.

A few weeks back I didn’t come into work one day.  It was just too nice outside for working so I stayed home and one of the things I did was go for a bike ride.  It was sort of an impromptu thing that ended up jogging a lot of memories for me because I was riding my Steamroller running errands around town and I ended up riding around for hours on trails, bike paths, hitting jumps in alleys, or where ever jumps were to be had, and generally speeding all over hell’s half acre.  It was probably one of the most enjoyable rides I’ve had in weeks.  I’ve had my Steamroller for a very long time.  I think I bought it in 2000 or 2001.  It has Sub11 dropouts and a 1” threaded headset and I honestly think I have had every single kind of handlebar the bike industry has ever offered on it at one point or another.  It’s had Dirt Drops, bull-horns, albatrosses, mustaches, flat bars, riser bars, dutch-rudders, North Roads, preachers, pistas, and most recently, Surly Open Bars (with the rise, because I have class).  It’s had brakes, it hasn’t had brakes.  It’s had 23mm tires, it’s had 32mm tires(as big as you can fit on a frame of that vintage).  That frame has been a constant source of tinkering fun and inspiration for me for the past 13 years and I think it’s awesome.  When I worked in the bike shop in rural Michigan I would ride it to people’s houses when I fixed exercise equipment providing the replacement parts I had to haul with me could fit in my backpack.  I loved the looks I’d get when I’d show up to someone’s house soaking wet, having just ridden 35 miles from the bike shop in the rain on both paved and dirt roads so I could fix a recumbent stationary bike that was parked in front of the TV in someone’s living room.  That shit was only ever hilarious, but I digress.

Anyone that knows me probably knows that my enthusiasm for things is generally an inverse proportion to that of those around me, and with suffering comes improvement, which is why the concept of the 'Under Bike' has seen such resurgence in my daily riding.  My Steamroller fits the ‘Under Bike’ bill particularly well.  The tires are just big enough that they won’t sink too hard in anything other than loose sand and the riding position promotes both shooting and moving all at the same time.  There’s also a rack because I’m a reasonable man, and platform pedals which offer not only a platform upon which to pedal, but a platform off of which to bail when it becomes clear just how much I’ve overestimated my abilities.  And the lone rear brake means that mystical land called Sideways is only ever a lever pull away, sometimes whether you want to go there or not.... 

We all know that Fat Bikes can pretty much go anywhere, but did you know that the hunk-of-shit-sitting-in-the-garage-with-the-shifters-that-mount-on-the-stem can pretty much go anywhere too?  Before you answer, let me tell you, it can.  And before I’m accused of being a fat bike naysayer, let me tell you I own two and I ride them all the time, and they certainly go anywhere far differently than that hunk-of-shit-sitting-in-the-garage-with-the-shifters-that-mount-to-the-stem goes anywhere, but what I’m saying is that it’s not the bike that takes you where you want to go.  You take the bike where you want to go.  How that gets accomplished is up to you, not the bike, and that’s where the fun is.  It all reminds me of a time when I was an angry young man and the feeling of, let's just say, accomplishment I’d get driving the rear wheel drive Crown Victoria I used to have through the same places my friends with Jeeps would drive.  Four wheeling is a lot of fun in a Jeep because a Jeep was meant for four wheeling fun, but it’s also a lot of fun in a Crown Vic, only for different reasons… so slap the big meats where they don’t belong and ride that bike where you don’t think you should because that too, is lot of fun.  And always remember, regardless of the activity, the more sideways action the better.

Insert obligatory bike photo here:

So we are officially into July now, and I spent the day today riding my bike around Minneapolis and exploring.  I’ve been here about 19 months now, and still find there’s lots of really cool stuff to ride around and see and discover. Riding around a city and finding all of its hidden gems (or at least some of its hidden gems) is one of my all time favorite things to do and that’s just what I did.

After about three hours of riding (on a beautiful 80 degree, sunny, dry day) I decided to head home.  I looked around, figured out (roughly) were I was, and put together the fastest route home.  That route happened to be lots of bike paths, and trails and lanes.  As I was heading in the direction of the Minneapolis MidTown Greenway (http://midtowngreenway.org/) I wondered to myself why it had been so long since I took this familiar route.  Why was it that I was riding mostly neighborhoods lately.  Then I got the Greenway, and I remembered.

Remember that Movie “Clerks”, it has that famous line in it, “this job would be great if it wasn’t for the fucking customers.”  That was why I had started avoiding the paths.  As the summer ramps up, more and more people are on bikes (which is great, right?).  Most of those people only ride on sunny, warm days, so they get a bit nervous around traffic: this nervousness results in them sticking to the bike paths/lanes/trails, which results in those spaces being much more crowded than ever, which results in me wanting to kill everyone in the world.  Not only do they fill these spaces, but they also fill them with an utter lack of understanding how those spaces are to be used.  They travel in packs, sometimes four across, and never move over when traffic is coming from the other way.

I’m going to stop myself from going on a full rant about that, suffice to say, that this all has me riding on the back streets and taking trafficy routes that the throngs of other riders might avoid.

One of the things I find interesting about this, is that I do the opposite in the winter.  In the winter I stick to routes that have been cleared of snow and ice, and thank the maker, I live in a city that keeps it’s bike lanes/trails/paths clear year round.  That means I use these routes in the winter, because my fun neighborhood cut-throughs have thick bits of ice and snow that make me fall and hurt my boom boom.

I ride my bike all year, and in the winter I get used to having the place to myself (sure there are others, but in a city this size, you don’t see many of them), then in the summer I get used to finding places that still make me feel like I have them all to myself.  It’s not as easy, but the pay off is killer.

The other trade off is that in the summer when I stop under a bridge to have something cold to calm my nerves, I can watch people on their bikes ride by.  Cuz bikes are cool.  I really do love them, and when I watch the people ride (whom it annoys me to ride, beside/behind/whatever) I can appreciate the activity and the bike.  Plus I love the look on people’s faces when they ride by me guzzling a beer on the side of the path, under a bridge.  It’s a perfect combination of, “you’re not allowed to do that,” mixed with, “I hope that fat dude doesn’t assault me,” with just a smidgeon of, “hell, why didn’t I think of that.”  Some of them I won’t see again until next summer, but others I’ll find under this bridge in January with their own bag of beers. 

Maybe they’ll give me one.

Recently we had a pretty powerful thunderstorm here in Minneapolis.  I was out of town at the time, hiding under a tarp with Phil, but I heard about much of it from my wife and friends.  So I didn’t experience the storm first hand, though lately I’ve gotten a pretty good idea what it was like the next morning.  I’ve been riding around neighborhoods a lot (mostly in exploration) and just marveling at the affect that wind can have on trees in the middle of a city block.  I know it’s a cliché, but I often find myself in awe of the immense power of nature.

It’s so on it’s own level.  That’s what I love about nature.  It’s unapologetically itself. Those are the kinds of people I like too.  The ones who are so themselves, that they don’t spend any time, trying to “be” themselves.  Or figure out who “they” are.  They just are.

Now most of those people are completely crazy according to the “rules” and “regulations” set up by the society that we exist in, but who the hell really cares?

I don’t. 

I long to be one of those people.  I aspire to it.  I work at it.  On my best days, I am one of those people.  On my worst days, I’m a massive prick, but what can you do?

I remember Forest Gump once said to me, “life is like a big long thing, that only seems like it’s long to you at the beginning but by the end it seems like it’s really short and you’re momma talks to you about chocolates and then you open a shrimp restaurant and eat the beans that make you see through time.”

And that stuck with me.

It’s something I’ll never forget.

I don’t really know Forest Gump. But his words seemed apropos in a post with the word “cliché” in the title. And isn't that knowing him enough?

I know what you’re thinking, “Put down the bong, freak!”  And all I can say to that is…

Okay man.

Okay.

We just returned form a 10-day tour of Japan.  By we I mean “Wrong Lever” Trevor, Gary Dave-san and Me.  Those 10 days went by in a blink, and it was not until I started looking through my photos that it dawned on me how many places we visited, how many great people we met, and how much beer and other delicious Japanese liquors we drank. 

There is much that could be written about this trip, but unfortunately there is not enough time to do so properly, and besides you don’t want to read a bunch of boring prose anyway, do you?  Let me spare you the trouble by offering up some pretty pictures instead.

When we arrived in Nagoya we had some time to check out Motocross International's new HQ, and then we were taken to dinner at everyone's favorite Chinese restaurant, called Misen. 

First, let me introduce you to The Instigator.  The Instigator wants you to eat, and he wants you to DRINK.  You will do what The Instigator says and you will like it.

The Instigator introduced us to his favorite weapon of choice, affectionately coined "Blue Death" by Trevor.  This liquor is neither pure nor blue, but it certainly does accomplish The Instigator's goal of getting everyone smayshed.

The Instigator says "Thank You." 

Things started to get a bit fuzzy at this point.

The next day the three of us gave a presentation to about 50 dealers.  We talked about what it means to represent Surly in our own words.  Mostly we talked about drinking.

And on the next day we took a ride with Circles Bike Shop.  This shop is in Nagoya and is one of the best bikes shops in Japan.  We rode along the coast until we came to a ferry port.  We loaded our bikes on the ferry and headed to a small island to the south of Nagoya.

We ate lunch at a Japanese inn, where we also stayed the night.  This inn served some amazing sashimi, octopus and other dishes.  Really amazing food.  We are so spoiled.

This is Eri and Shinya.  Shinya is the owner of Circles Bike Shop.  Both Eri and Shinya are amongst my best friends on this planet.

This lovely lady made us cookies.  Very nice indeed.

The next morning we woke up really early and got back on the ferry.  After the ferry we rode in a van to visit a really amazing bike shop near Nagoya.  The name of the shop is Wakka, and is the first pure Surly concept store I have ever heard of.

As you can see they stock a wide variety of our bikes, including lots of our fat bikes.

That Moonlander on the wall features a custom clear over raw paint job that really has to be seen in person to fully appreciate.  It also has a number of custom parts on it, like a polished version of our O.D. Crank bash guard.

Wakka only opened about six months ago.  I really hope they do well with this. 

Next we visited Osaka, and I am sorry to say that I did not take photos, so sorry about that.

After Osaka we went to Kurashiki.  FARM Bike Shop is our dealer there, and they were celebrating their 25th year in business. 

We took a ride around Kurashiki.

This ride involved a ferry ride across a river.

The next day we embarked on one of the coolest bike rides we have ever done in Japan.  We rode the bridge route that goes between Honshu island and Shikoku island.  This route is about 80k in distance and requires that you cross five long multi-use bridges.

Here is the first one.

Here is another one from up top.

Here is Trevor signing an autograph.  Yes, we did a lot of that on this tour.

Here is the final bridge, as seen just as the sun was setting.  What an awesome day on the bike.

And check out this rolling cafe someone made from our Ted Trailer.

Next we headed for Hiroshima.  We visited Grumpy's Bike Shop and took a ride from there out to Miyajima.

Getting to Miyajima required another short ride on a ferry.

There is a sacred shrine on Miyajima that features a torii gate in the sea.  You can walk out to this gate at low tide.

For our final day we went to Kyoto to visit old friends and ride together.  Kyoto is where the whole Surly thing in Japan began, so it's always nice to go back there. 

We began the day with a ride to the northern part of Kyoto.

After visiting some sake breweries we visited some temples.  This one features more than 10,000 red torii gates that cover a number of paths to the top of a mountain.

Choose your path.

Finally we visited the famous Kiyomizudera temple around sunset.

After that we rode to Muga's bike shop and hung out while getting ready to take the train back to Nagoya.

Thanks to all of the great people who came out to ride, drink and hang out with us on this tour.  We could never do this without you!

When I first arrived at Surly, I worked on bikes.  More than a few of the people I work with, and quite a bit less than most of them.  When I took one of my first trips for Surly I traveled with Sov (that’s Skip to some), and while he and I were riding around Charlotte, I had a crank arm come off. 

“Who’s your mechanic?” he bellowed at me, laughing. “Who’s your mechanic?” I guess it’s what you say.  I don’t say it to people, cuz that would be weird, because, I

am not a mechanic.  I like to tinker with toasters, washing machines and my bike.  I’ve built up many bikes from the ground up.  I’ve helped friends who had issues with their bikes (so far without any major accidents) and I work on my own.  But that (by no means at all) makes me a qualified mechanic (of bikes or anything else).

I know that a bike doesn’t seem too complicated to many people out there, and they (I) feel confident working on their bikes.  But, that doesn’t make them a mechanic.  If you’re like me, and I know there are many of you out there, then you should consider taking your bike to a “real” mechanic every once and a while.  Let them check up on your work.  Let them teach you some things you don’t know. Put up with any sort of ribbing or condescension, because it’s playful and in the long run, you might learn some things.  I love to learn, I just hate people knowing that I don’t know things.

Personally I like people to think that I’m a super hero who can do anything and that I never need any help.  I’ve taken all kinds of things apart and put them back together (without any extra parts, and with them working pretty damn well).  YouTube is an awesome tool for that (from bikes to whatever), but it doesn’t make up for someone who has really learned all the ins and the outs.  So take your bike to a mechanic now and then. If you know one, they’ll probably take a peek for a six pack (sometimes of really cheap beer). 

If you do that, you can avoid some potentially dangerous situations, and also avoid doing some very costly damage to your ride.  That could mean days or even weeks without your bike.

I know I don’t want to be without mine even for a day.

Whilst I am atop my high horse, I’m going to switch gears and remind all of you to write down the serial number that is on the BB shell of your frame.  That way if (Odin forbid) your bike get’s stolen you’ll have the number to give to the police, or whatever mercenary you hire to track your bike down.  I know there are lots of shops that will keep that sort of information for you, but I can’t think of a single good reason why you shouldn’t have it yourself.  Shops loose things too, just like me (and I assume you).  Your best bet is to have the number somewhere safe (or even in multiple places, incase you’re like me and your short term memory has some glitchy spots). I hate the phrase common sense, but really that’s what this is.

I’m not sure what’s got safety and common sense on my mind today, maybe it’s because I tore the rear derailleur off my bike on my ride in this morning, who knows.  Guess I should have had someone take a look at it for me.

Now I know what I’m doing tomorrow.

As for you go ride!

So you’re building up a set of Rabbit Hole rims to those hubs you’ve got and you’re jazzed!  But then you realize that there are two rows of holes drilled in the rim and so there are different ways to lace up those Rabbit Holes – not unlike our other rims.

What to do????

Complete Krampus bikes come laced up using alternating spoke holes, meaning drive side spokes go to the drive side holes and non-drive spokes stay over on their non-drivey side.  That will give you the strongest wheel – but we’ve heard a few rumors that people have built up wheels this way and had their spokes rub their brake calipers when running 160mm rotors.  Frustrating!

We’ve tried a bunch of different brakes with 160 rotors and been OK, but there’s no way we can try them all.  So.

You can chance it and run those 160mm rotors and that huge brake caliper and alternating spokes.  It will probably work out.  If it doesn’t, you will have to move on to one of these two options:

1).  You can run a 180mm rotor.  That will be awesome.

2).  You can lace your wheel using only the drive side holes.  That will work sweet. 

I know it seems like a big deal now, but as soon as that bike is together and you’re riding it, you’ll have - No - We’ll have moved past this and on to bigger and better things.  Maybe we can go get ice cream!

Hi Fives,

Surly Nerd Team

Hello lovely Surly customers.   Since I’m the person that has generally been answering the phone when you call lately I notice trends in what all you crazies ask for and want from us.  Sometimes it’s only a vocal minority of people, other times it’s a deluge of opinion from nearly all you and lately I’ve notice a trend amongst people wondering about the fork options they have for our 2014 fat bikes.  There was some conflicting info on the website after we did our fancy upgrades, and for that we apologize. 

Currently all of our frames (except the black Pugsley, which will come without a fork) and complete bikes will be coming with non-offset Moonlander forks.  This has bummed a few of you out, but sadly those few are the minority.  You are a vocal minority, which you should be proud of, but for 90% of our customers this spec change will not affect you because the majority of you have been wanting the centered Moonlander fork. 

Some of you may be saying “How could you?  One of the hallmarks of Pugsley design was the ability to set the bike up such that you could build an offset single speed front wheel and swap it for the rear wheel if one was to find one’s self in a rear derailleur FUBAR situation.”  Anyone that says that, in my view, is correct.  But fear not, this is not a permanent change and those of you that want to get offset forks will be able to do so in the near future.  The completes and frames will continue to come with the centered Moonlander forks, but there will be an aftermarket offset option.

As we have brought bikes like the Krampus out, and redesigned forks for the Karate Monkey we’ve learned a thing or two about how to make our forks better and we’re doing the same thing to the offset Pugsley forks.  We’re hoping to have model year 2014 color matched forks available in the beginning of the winter and they’ll be better than ever.  It’ll be as if Steve Austin and Bruce Banner had a baby, named that baby Thor, that baby then goes to MIT, completes an engineering degree in, like, thirty-five days, graduates Summa Cum Laude, gets a job with us, then sits down and makes new Pug forks.  They’ll be that sweet, trust me.  The upshot here is that if you don’t care, or want to be able to run an even bigger front tire on your Pugsley, you’ll be able to do that without issue.  Hopefully that puts some minds at ease, but if it doesn’t, give us a call and ask us questions.  I like to talk about bikes more than any one person should.

It's a Big Dummy. I love the hell out of it. I was intimidated the first time it rolled into our garage but once I got on and started to roll around town I realized how limiting a small standard rack really is.

Most recently I learned this when I went for my last party supply run. I went for a watermelon and came back with chips, pretzels, watermelon, cantaloupe, hamburger patties, 24 pack of bottled water, various grocery items that looked like a good idea and a folding chair with a canopy. Try strapping all that to a standard rack on a hot summer day.






This is the grocery go getter.



The party supplier.



This is my Big Dummy.

Circles

(Photo credit: Kinoko Cycles)

 Located in Nagoya also home to our Japanese distributor Motocross INTL, this shop is often our first stop on our visits to the always delightful and always delicious nation of Japan. This is a good place to start as the shop is very welcoming and comfortable sort of environment to land in after a long wearisome journey and given their history with the brand the staff are like old friends at this point.

The thing that always strikes me about Japanese Surly dealers is how great our bikes in their shop look. They aren’t merely built up with all the fancy latest and greatest high touch components, they look more like the builds curated by an artist… who has access to all the latest high touch shiny bits. Every little detail so well thought out and expertly executed in a way that sort of lends our bikes a more custom or even exotic flair. Completes are sold but it seems that most customers that come in requesting a Surly have a vision of something special in mind and thus the process starts: which model  (this is very interesting to me to see what people choose considering their intended riding style. Often the guidelines are bent and really cool hybrid builds emerge), what color paint, and of course the component spec…All of this can take up to a month( or so I’ve heard) of deliberation, pouring over parts catalogs and whatnot before the build actually starts.

Customers at Circles are treated to the option to get custom paint done in house up on their third story studio.

All models of frames in non-stock colors adorn almost every shop wall/ceiling we visit. It’s something I know our domestic market would love to be able to get their hands on…where it logistically possible for us to offer of course. I have seen only a couple of shops that offer this service in house and wonder how well that would go state side.

I always feel proud to see our stuff displayed alongside an assortment of great small batch and custom built steel brands. It reaffirms me that a great bike starts with a sturdy frame on which to hang your parts; be it flashy or decidedly not so. It’s fun to see Surly frames lovingly coveted and bathed in jewels, so to speak, as it is a far cry from how most of my dirtball friends build and ride their Surlys. Nothing against rat bikes and the gonzo bastards who love them, I got plenty of love for that view too but yeah…all sorts of folks ride Surlys I guess is the message.

 Circles even has a custom bag and accessory shop. Yup, so you can get the custom mess-bag to match your new tricked out Steamroller. Well Done indeed!

Not to mention a pretty dazzling selection of cycling fashion vintage, neuvo vintage and tons of fancy shit I have even heard of before.

And if you aren’t impressed with the all encompassing awesomeness of this shop yet, perhaps the addition of a small café offering all day “western style” egg breakfasts and local beer on tap will. Early Birds: we drank there but never got to dine, turns out we aren’t early birds …so to speak.

Check out the tap handles. Picture is about as in focus as it’s operator at that point. 

And who manages to wrangle this wild circus at Circles while also running a very cool collaboration with Nitto called Sim Works making totally sweet “retro” bars and stems? Why Shinya Tanaka of course, who is not only fun to talk to about bikes but also all sorts of interesting topics not fit for print. Thanks for the good time Shinya-san and Circles! Check out their blog on our ride with them HERE.

So it’s that time of year again when we start to talk about all the new shinny things our enginerds have been slaving away at. Pictures start showing up on the interwebs of the latest and greatest things that you can’t live without. Or, you may be looking at those pictures and wondering to yourself “why, in The Dark Lords name, did they do that?” Well, because we can. Here’s a quick rundown of three of our new models that we will go over in length in the next few weeks.

The Surly Straggler

Let’s start with the Straggler, Surly’s long overdue disc brake equipped cross bike. The first thing you’ll probably notice is that it’s got disc brakes. Good, now that we got that out of the way let me point out a couple more things that make it stand apart from our venerable CrossCheck. The rear dropouts have been totally redesigned with a couple things in mind – Disc brakes, rear derailleur, single speed, and ease of wheel removal. The Straggler frame & fork is also ED coated to help to improve the life of your frame. The Straggler fork is using the Long Haul Trucker dropouts, mid blade & crown eyelets to accommodate a wide verity of fenders and racks.  A complete build spec will be available on our website soonish.

The Surly Straggler dropouts

Next we have the ECR. You may be wondering what ECR stands for, well so am I. I’ve heard everything from Exit Cities Rapidly to Einstein Can’t Rap. It may be up to you to come up with something clever. The frame and fork is also ED coated like the Straggler. A complete build spec will be posted on our website soon but I wanted to point out one more thing about the ECR before we move on. The complete ECR will be equipped with a set of Jeff Jones Bars. Snazzy!

The Surly ECR

Long live the Instigator, again. This is not your older brother/sisters Instigator. The frame has been totally redesigned, refined and ED coated. If you’re a big fan of getting rad this is the bike for you. The Instigator is home in the mountains where it eats up the trails like Sov does pickled eggs. Imagine that for a moment. This bike wants to go big, hard and fast and it accomplishes this with a set of Surly 26 x 2.7” tires (more to follow) on Rabbit Hole rims and a squishy fork. Yep, the complete bike will be coming with a suspension fork...one of the signs of the apocalypse? Perhaps.  More details to follow.

The Surly Instigator & Sov's bitch

Now you’re wondering when these new bikes will be available. Here are the tentative delivery dates that are never written in stone.

Straggler, ETA of September 2013
ECR, ETA of September 2013 for frames and December 2013 for Completes
Instigator, ETA of  March 2014

Now go to your local bike shop and ask them to order one (or all) of these before they all get snatched up.

Be excellent to each other,

BoB

I’ve been at Surly about 19 months now, and it’s been quite a ride so far.  I’ve got thousands of pictures floating around from those times gallivanting around.  Most are of cool places I got to bike to, some are of people and others yet are of bikes.  As I look through these images I am reminded of all the fun I’ve had, and all the fuckups I’ve made.

This is in Floressas France, I had to dig through some serious brush to get to this spot, but it was well worth it.

This is Charlie the Bikemonger, having fun with customizing his own Surly stickers.  Charlie may be the very best person I have ever met. (other than my lovely wife)(see honey? I luvya!)

This is in Cuyuna Minnesota, right off one of the trails.  Sweet dirt.

This picture on Facebook was one of my biggest screw-ups last year.  Showing off a prototype way before it's release.  Luckily none of you nincompoops noticed!

Some sweet views riding dirt in Japan last year.

Dave looking pensive and pouty in Japan

This fox wandered right up to us just outside of Sapporo.

Thor, being Thor. True story, I once poisoned Thor and the next morning he got up and rode like this. I hate him.

A dude named Naoya, with a sweet dog, who provided us with some essentials (Naoya, not the dog).

More Japan.  Holy shit I took a lot of pictures there.

That's me.  The Japanese found it endlessly hilarious that watermelon is my favorite food.  I guess fat dudes with melon fetishes is funny everywhere.

Derby around a tractor tire.

Thor with a call girl that he hooked up with.

I had just finished eating my first human hand.  I just couldn't choke down that last finger.

Tokyo subway.

Phil from Salvegetti and Trevor, one of my favorite people...plus Trevor.

Another one of my favorite people along with Trevor.  This was our last night in Denver.  This was right before the hugging and kissing.

We got a new mascot that day.

Andy liked it too.

The wife's ride.

The Moonlander in Malibu.  Riding that thing around LA was awesome.

No you're drunk.

Looks like the Bryant Lake Bowl, the morning before a Surly Group Ride.

Some urban style art, near Keep Pedaling in Manchester

Sov on his way to the drunk tank. He is seriously my hero.

Krampus cake at Keep Pedaling

After

SSUK. Hard to believe there was anyone behind me.

These are the awesome weirdoes that I attached myself to at SSUK.  We may have taken a shortcut or two...

This is a dead hedgehog that Sov made me take a picture of.  Happy now you bastard!?!

Ben at Saddle Drive.  Worst fall ever. The angle is bad, but when he stood up it looked like he had two knees on one leg, one right above the other.

Adam playing D&D.  Once a nerd, always a nerd. Just like the rest of us.

Last night I was out in my garage working on my bikes. I was just making an excuse really to be out there to drink a few beers and listen to some loud, angry music. I have a pretty decent set up with a nice tool bench and just about all the tools I really need. I enjoy being out there, putting around with my bikes, making small adjustments here and there, and cleaning them up. I check the tires and chain for wear and see if any of the cables need replacement. I also check and re-grease the seatposts because I don’t ever want to be “that guy”. I’m not the greatest mechanic in the world (that would be my brother Jon), but I’d say I’m better than average. When I’m working on my bikes I start to forget about the shitty day I just had and I get into a sort of trance. This can be both good and bad. Sometimes I’m surprised by people stopping over to say hello, like my buddy Bender did last night. I was seating a tire on a rim when suddenly I hear from behind me “Listening to some Dead Kennedys, drinking beer and working on bikes. I dig it!” I think I must have jumped two feet in the air.

An older shot of my garage.

Anyways, last night I wanted to put a set of our new Knard 700 x 41’s that Atom got for me to test out. I got them on my trusty CrossCheck without a hitch and took the bike for a quick spin around the neighborhood to see how they felt. Now I can’t wait to get them on some dirt! Then I pulled out my beloved Krampus and gave that some overdue loving. As I was working my way through my stable of bikes I noticed my Karate Monkey hanging in the far corner with no tires on the rims and a good coat of dust on it. I knew what I was going to do next. I had a set of fairly new Schwalbe Hans Dampf tires (I highly recommend these tires!) that needed to be put back on my Monkey so I got to work. I don’t know if it’s just me or what but putting on new Schwalbe tires is a challenging endeavor, especially without tire levers-which I do not like to use. It sucks getting old - I have some minor arthritis in both of my hands now so this took more effort and sweat than normal. After about a half an hour, two beers and several curse words, the wheels were set to roll. Time to take the Monkey for a spin. As I’m riding I’m remembering why the Karate Monkey was my favorite mountain bike. When I got my Krampus the Monkey was hung up in the corner forgotten about. Every now and then I would glance at it and feel kind of guilty as I was wheeling a different bike out of my garage. Last night my typical spin around the neighborhood turned into a two hour ride as I found myself looking for some local dirt. I didn’t want to stop riding; I was having too much fun. I love riding a single speed and I especially love the way the Karate Monkey feels under me. It handles like a dream and fits me like a glove, the bike just begs for dirt. By the way, my Monkey is almost completely stock with the exception of the saddle and tires. After I got home I hung my Karate Monkey back in its rightful place, the hook of honor. It’s easy to get excited about new bikes and new bike builds, especially if it’s something you’ve been waiting for a long time. If you’re anything like me you’ve probably got more bikes you need and under no uncertain terms are you willing to part with any of them. Just try not to forget about any of them, dust them off and take them for a ride and you’ll remember why you loved them.

Keep the rubber side down,

BoB
 

Every once in a while I get an email from this giant freak who calls himself “The Croatian Bear”.  You can find him on Facebook and on random other sites here and there.  He basically is a dude who races in Ironmans (Ironmen?), Cyclocross races and Triathalons on a Surly Pugsley and pretty much smokes most of the skinny tired crowd. 

So today I get this email from him.

Surly Marketing Asshole,

I have written this manifesto as a piece of living history.  Those who mourn the dead and defeated who have fallen under my steel can look back on this moment and see that their loved ones were warned.  They were warned indeed.  

You will post this on your blog.

End Transmission .

The best part is that he typed end transmission and then sent the email.  Or maybe it’s his signature.  At any rate, here is his challenge (for lack of a better word).

Triathletes of the World,

There is an imbalance your world. Everything you've come to know and take comfort in will soon be challenged. There are some things in this world that you cannot comprehend or explain away to science. Things that shake you to the very core and challenge you to dig deeper; challenge you to search for meaning and direction; challenge you to find something to cling to for hope. This will be one of those things.

Over the years there have been many battles fought. Battles fought for justice, battles fought for ideals, for country, for religion, for safety and honor. These battles have always been fought by man and steel. Civilizations have seen their rise and fall at the hands of man and steel for centuries and this will forever continue to be a constant. Generations of families built your country of steel while creating their own dynasties that you so desperately long to become part of. Yet, so many of you sheepishly turn your back on the very truth that is responsible for your existence and serves as the hulking spine for your country - this weekend shall serve as a reminder to the balance of power. This weekend, a new battle will be fought on the Ironman Stage and there will be no quarter offered and no mercy shown. It is not about being loud, making a scene or proving a point, it's Steel Warfare, and nothing more. This is the resistance. It cannot be stopped and fat steel will never quit. You've been warned.

• Croatian Bear

So there's that guy.  Have a fun weekend, and watch your back.

Do you wear a pocket protector, bathe at least once a week, and know who Cru Jones is? If yes, then keep reading...
 
Surly Bikes is currently looking for another bike nerd to add to the product development team as Product Design Engineer. This engineer will join the core Surly design group and be responsible for the development and support of all Surly's products. He, she, or it will have the opportunity to be involved with all steps of the design process from conception, to prototypes and testing, to production and support.
 
At Surly we follow a unique design philosophy. Basically, we make what we want to ride. Whether that is 5in omniterra land crusher, an intergalactic touring machine, or a simple seat collar, Surly encourages its designers to think outside the box and explore any new idea they may have floating in their head. This concept has been key to Surly's success over the years and allowed us to develop new concepts and ideas that sometimes other riders didn't even know they wanted.
 
The applicant we are looking for needs to have a mechanical engineering degree or equivalent experience and a strong passion for bikes. He or she should be creative, self motivated, and ready to eat, breath, and sleep bicycles.  If designing Surly bits is something you are interested in, click HERE to read more about the job and submit your application.
 
Good luck with your application, nerds.

The following is a personal viewpoint and may, or may not be the viewpoint of everyone that works for Surly Bikes.

I love custom, handmade in the good ole’ USA bike frames. I love the experience you have when you are working with a custom frame builder that can put 20 years (or more) of experience into a one of a kind bike that is, and always will be, just for you. You get to have input on the design, the tubing choice, fork style, style of drop-outs, braze-ons, water bottle mounts and paint job. I say “input” because what you may think is a great idea in reality, may be pretty damn stupid. The custom frame builder is going to know what’s going to work, what’s not going to work, and how it’s going to affect the ride quality of your bike. After all, you’re going to want to ride the damn thing at some point, not just hang it on the wall and point it out to everyone that stops buy for a beer.

It takes time to make a bicycle from scratch, try it some time and let me know how that worked out for you. So, that being said, you’re going to need to be more than a little patient to see your dreams turned into reality. It takes a staggering amount of time and energy to turn a pile of steel tubes into something that you’re going to hang your parts on and ride away into the sunset on. It’s hot, it’s filthy, it’s back breaking and it’s dangerous. The custom frame builder is working with a large assortment of power tools that could do some significant damage to anyone that doesn't know what they’re doing. They are also creating something that is very exacting; there is very little room for error. If something is off by just a millimeter, often times they will need to start over. There is absolutely nothing easy about it. Custom bicycle frames are not inexpensive nor are they “too expensive”, if that makes any sense.

Now you’re probably saying to yourself “But Bob, you work for a bicycle company that has your bikes made in Taiwan. Where in the hell are you going with this?” Well, I’ll tell you. It’s true; we at Surly do have our bikes manufactured in Taiwan. We’ve worked with the same people for 14 years now and we think they do a pretty kick ass job. We spend a lot of time in Taiwan, so much time we have an apartment there that we all stay at when we’re there on business. The people we work with in Taiwan are not just business partners; they’re our friends as well. We ride with them and we drink with them. We know the people that are making our products and those products are made with their hands. They are part of Surly. By having our products made overseas we are able to keep our prices very fair. Surly is not a custom bike company, we don’t want to be and we don’t pretend to be. I guess where I’m going with this is that custom frame builders have my respect and admiration. I enjoy seeing what they are creating and hearing about the new ideas that they have. I believe that we all have a lot to learn from them, from the successes that they’ve had to the failures they’ve had to overcome. Custom frame builders are an essential part of the bike industry and we need them to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Their creativity and ingenuity is truly inspiring to me as is the creativity and ingenuity found within Surly Bikes.

I’ll get off my soapbox now and grab a beer,

BoB

In case you hadn’t noticed, Surly is now a bike brand. Actually, we’ve been a bike brand for years, but to me Surly is still pretty much the same brand it was when I became the brand manager in 2006. When I started this job we had one complete bike: the Cross Check. It sold well and helped to pay the bills, but it wasn’t where we had our passion focused at the time. Back then we were all neck deep in development of the Big Dummy frame, Mr. Whirly cranks, and other tidbits. Those were exciting times for sure and I wouldn’t go back and change anything if I could. But around that time we started discussing adding some complete bikes to our repertoire. For years our dealers had been telling us they wanted bikes, but we were not sure we wanted them. Why were we so reluctant? Because doing complete bikes required a lot of work and effort, and we wanted to stay focused on building cool frames and parts. Time spent managing bikes meant time away from nerding out on the stuff we wanted to do. And besides that, bike companies were big corporations for the most part, and none of us ever wanted to be one of those.

We were just five people back then and we were already overworked. When I started here I was the brand manager, the buyer, and the international sales guy. Sov was the sales guy who also managed our demo fleet and organized our events. Corson did all of the marketing. Dave and Nick designed all of the products (we also had the part-time help of QBP engineer Josh Yablon). All of us answered Surly phones and email and whatever else needed doing.

The fall that we showed the Big Dummy at Interbike. It was a hit. Folks really responded well to this strange creature of a bike. Who would have thunk? And the following year we decided to offer two additional complete bikes to our lineup: the Long Haul Trucker and the Steamroller. Sov was assigned the added responsibility of managing the complete bikes. He managed the spec, mainly, but also had a big say in how many we would order the completes and the other tiny details that fade with time. When we took our first delivery of these bikes they sold out in less than a week, which sounds really good, but it created another problem: angry dealers who wanted to buy our bikes but could not. It was clear that we needed to hire someone who could help us get better at ordering the right quantities, so shortly after Jim came on board as our buyer. Things got better but we still had some failures in our forecasting. That was painful but we learned a lot and started to get good at it, so we decided to add some more completes. The Karate Monkey and the Big Dummy were added.

I won’t bore you with the entire story of complete bikes. You get the picture. Bottom line is that bikes have become the product line that has put us in more bike shops and made them more attainable. We still get complaints from people like you who tell us it is still hard to find our bikes, but we have come a long way since it was just a few of us working here and trying to keep you happy.

Not that much has changed though. Most of us now have more specialized job duties and we now have 17 bike models and 16 employees. We still feel overworked at times. I doubt that will ever change. The main thing, however, is that we are still just a bunch of bike nerds who geek out on bike stuff and dream about what we want to make next. None of us have strict work schedules and all of us are free to voice our opinions about the brand’s future. No one in the brand wants the brand to lose our ability to determine our own destiny as a brand. Profits don’t motivate what we do. We are motivated by making stuff that we want to ride. As it were the stuff we want to ride is also the stuff you want to ride, so we have had success as a bike company. That’s pretty cool if you ask me. We might not be “cool” but that is another thing we have never been motivated to be. We’re a bike company and we’re not just any bike company. We’re Surly Bikes.

I spent a lot of time on my bike over the weekend.  The weather here was perfectly (if not disturbingly) beautiful, and it just screamed at me to get out.  My folks were in town and neither of them rides, so I had to eek out any time that I could to get on the saddle. 

Because of that I spent all of my ride time alone.  Which is sort of how I prefer to ride.  It’s how it all started.  When I first got serious about riding everywhere (7ish years ago), I had no one to ride with.  None of my friends road bikes at all and growing up a fat kid, I have a healthy and natural distrust for anyone who calls themselves an “athlete”, which was most of the people I knew (roadie types) who did ride bikes.  Thus it became a solitary experience for me.  As I road over the weeks and months that followed I developed a riding rhythm that (in may ways) I still use today.  Sure as time passed the rhythm got faster and faster, but never having anyone riding around me I never pushed myself to ride faster than others or really keep up with anyone.  I pushed myself to ride better, but I only ever used myself as a point of reference.  Because of that, I have a tendency to ignore other riders (which pisses my wife off to all hell, because when she tries to follow me, I’m always turning a the last minute or stopping out of nowhere, or running into trees). 

When I ride on public bikeways, people pass me, I pass people, it all depends on their speed and how it fits into my rhythm.  Now years later, as those habits have really ingrained themselves into my tubby little muscles, I realize I’ve made it really hard to ride with others.

The more I’ve ridden the more “serious rider type” friends I’ve made, so I have some folks that I ride with now and then who fit into this pile; also as cycling has become more “fashionable” people who haven’t ridden a bike in years are pedaling around on their $500 starter bikes, and some of them are old friends, so I have people that I sometimes ride with who fit into this pile.

People who have been riding their whole lives, or people who are “fit” ride at a much faster rhythm than me, and the “starter bike” crowd runs much slower than I do. When I ride with either group, they’re either drastically out pacing me (which I have a tendency to just let that happen), or they’re way behind me (and I tend to ride ahead, because the experience that I’m used to is a blissfully solitary one).

So ultimately, whether I start out alone or not, I almost always end up riding that way.  Riding down the road and talking to someone while I do, is like a whole new world.  It’s like a strange combination of being social and riding bikes (something I hate and something I love).  Strangely though, with the addition of the bicycle the being social thing (which if you haven’t guessed is the part I hate) has gotten much less annoying and painful. I mean, of course, it still is annoying and painful, just less so.  Occasionally it’s even (dare I say it?) fun.  And on those occasions that it’s “fun” it makes me think that maybe I should work a bit more at my ability to ride with others.

Will I do this? Probably not.  But a man can dream can’t he?

Now here’s a picture of my Pal AWood, he rides really fast.

Have a great week, and make sure you ride!

Identity is something we all construct.  It’s what you present to the world outside of your head and despite the fact that I think about this concept a lot (i.e. are one’s perceptions of one’s self what makes one’s identity or are other people’s perceptions of you what makes your identity?  Is it a mix of both? I’m hungry.  I think I’ll order a pizza for dinner tonight…..) I’ve never really come up with any answers because it’s ultimately something that is out of my control, and ultimately, who gives a shit?  Every once in a while something will happen that forces me to think about it.  I recently filled out a renewal application for my passport and on the form they ask you what your occupation is.  For my entire adult life, up until three years ago, I would write “Bike Mechanic.”  Every time someone asks me what I do, that’s what I tell them, even still. 

It’s odd because it usually bums me out when you ask someone to tell you about them self and that person leads off by telling you what they do for work.  It’s an easy thing to do and I’m not big on small talk so I shouldn’t complain but when I filled out this form last week it made me think how strange it was that even though the words Bike Mechanic always used to be what I would tell people I did for work, it's really a lot deeper than that.  Why was I so compelled by this form to again write “Bike Mechanic” when I’m really just some Customer Service Shlub.  Anyone that works in the Bike Industry knows that it’s an industry filled with poor people that have a lot of passion for what they do and I refuse to believe that it was simple routine that forced me to lie on my application and tell the Government that I’m a Bike Mechanic instead of a “Customer Service Shlub.”  I guess I just hate ascribing an identity to a person based on what they do for work and would rather base that identity on actions as opposed to easy labels. 

I never thought of bike mechanicry as being something that people do as a hobby, at least no more than what was required to keep the fleet seaworthy.  Now that I’ve transitioned from making a living fixing bicycles for people to being a simple conduit for things going into and coming out of a building, I’ve realized that bike mechanicry really can be a hobby, and this has taught me just how important the bicycle is to me and what a fixture it is in my life beyond recreation and work.  The fact that my garage is virtually empty and my apartment is filling to the brim with bicycles is a testament to how important bikes are to me.  I guess the surprising thing for me is that I never really realized this.  Bikes were always just a way to put food on the table and have fun riding around on.  Turns out they’re a lot bigger deal to me than I realized.  I just hope they’ve already renewed my passport….