I am a big dumb ass.
If you know me, this will come as no great shock, but allow me to elaborate:
Our fair city, MPLS, is in the north central region of the USA, and in winter it gets cold here. Really cold. Stupid cold. And it snows a lot usually, too. Winter this year has taken a long time coming but for the last day or two we Minnesotans watched as the local news stations tracked a blob of cold air the size of South Dakota moving eastward across the plains, closer and closer to us. The cold air was pushing against the warm air sitting over the plains, making for sudden temperature drops, gale force winds, and turning rain into ice in mid air. News stories told of downed power lines due to freezing rain, showed footage of car after car after car in the ditches after sliding off the suddenly icy roads, and reported the deaths of those caught in the path of the storm.
Last night it hit us. We had plenty of warning, and in fact the storm lost a lot of its punch by the time it reached us. Nonetheless, it was the first real ice and snow of the season here, and if past experience has taught me anything it is that people have short memories when it comes to past experiences. By this I mean that the first couple of snowstorms every season bring roadways to a standstill. Since I figured the roads would be hell, I planned last night on riding my bike to work today.
This morning I awoke...slowly...and thought about the ride. I was tired. I was stiff. It was cold and windy outside. Looking out the window from my warm house, still in my jammies, getting on the bike did not seem as appetizing as it had last night. In fact, I began to make excuses: this is Minnesota and people know how to drive in the snow here; it's going to be slick, and even though the bike will do o.k. cars will still be sliding all over and I don't feel like getting hit. So I showered and walked the dog, and went to start the car. And that's when I discovered problem number one: the rain we had yesterday turned to sleet and snow overnight, freezing the latch on the VW so although the door would open, it wouldn't latch shut. Sonofabitch. I got the propane torch from the basement and thawed the latch mechanism.
This should have been a clue to abandon driving, to call in and tell them I'd be late but would ride in. But again, I'm a big dumb ass. Before I even got to the highway I knew what I was in for. No problem, I thought, in much the same manner I had employed to excuse myself from the guilt of driving in the first place: I'll see how the highways are and take side roads if I need to. Ha.
I'll spare you the details, as they involve a lot of swearing, but the gist is 20 miles of parking lots in the shape of roads. The point is it took me more than twice as long to drive as normal, which means it was only about 20 minutes short of the time it would have taken me to ride.
If you're a cyclist you've been through a similar inner dialogue I'm sure. It's cold, it's raining or snowing, whatever the reason, and riding just doesn't seem appetizing. But of course that's before you get on the bike. Dressed right, it only takes me about 10 or 15 minutes to warm up, and to discover that I made the right choice in riding. I arrive with blood pulsing, feeling free from the restraints of the motorized cubicle, feeling...well, superior to those poor suckers in cars. Today I was one of those suckers. And of course I have to drive home too. See? Dumb ass.

More stuff going into stock:

In addition to the Karate Honkeys that went into stock today, we'll also have a decent array of Cross-Check and 1x1 framesets going into stock tomorrow. I wish we had huge quantities of these items going into stock so I wouldn't have to keep sending these blog messages and you wouldn't have to wait for a bike, but we don't. Sorry.

Karate Monkey framesets just went into stock. I repeat, Karate Monkey framesets just went into stock. We've been out of stock on these suckers for way too long and they will sell fast. Brown or Black, all sizes available. GO.

I'm warning you all now so you can bank some brownie points with your main squeeze so that when you return home from this your punishment won't be quite so severe.

New 2006 product ETAs

What? Is Surly getting on a yearly schedule like the other bike companies out there? NO, we're still our own little schedule doing stuff as we can without too much attention paid to what time of year it will be available.

But we did unveil some new colors of old products and entirely new products at the Interbike tradeshow this year in October. Here are some rough estimates for when we should see those items in stock.

-1x1 frameset, new lemon/lime metallic color, early/mid January, images of this new color should be on the website in the next few weeks. This color replaces the white that we've all seen way too much of for over two years now.

-Long Haul Trucker frameset in two new colors, Utility Blue and Black Cherry pearl, early/mid January, images of these new colors should be on the website in the next few weeks. These colors replace the Sage Green.

-Conundrum 24" and 26" unicycles. Initial production tooling hasn't even begun yet, so we don't expect to see anything until springtime 2006.

-Wider Torsion bar from 622mm to 666mm early/mid January.

-130mm spaced hubs, not sure on this one yet...

Also

I should have ETAs on Cross-Check framesets and bikes, Karate Monkeys, Steamrollers and other framesets sometime in the next few days. Thank you for being patient.

A good day for a Pug Crawl it was - windy, cold, and icy. We got a bit of rain and snow Tuesday night, and much of it melted on the warm roads. It then turned to ice when the temps dropped. A night of heavy winds polished it all nicely. So, I rode the geared Pug yesterday. After riding a fixed Pacer for the last week, the Pug felt a bit sluggish off the line. But after 2 minutes of riding on sections of glare ice, I was glad I chose the fatty over the fixie for this commute. I’ll gladly burn some extra calories to turn those fat wheels if it means I can have a relatively stress-free ride. My commute is often faster on the Pug, because I can take shortcuts that my skinnier-tired rigs wouldn’t handle very well. My Pug route is always different than a LHT route or 1x1 route or Pacer route, etc, because it can be. The Endomorph tires allow me to add variables to the home-to-office/office-to-home commute I’ve been doing (with slight variation due to relocation within Minneapolis) for 7+ years. When the lakes and creeks freeze, they will become route options. When a new building is under construction, that construction site might be an option. A railroad corridor might be an option. A frozen snow bank becomes an option. A loose, sandy lakeshore or riverbank becomes an option. Options, options, options. Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.

I was thinking on the ride home…If I could have one Surly frame for the rest of my life, what would it be? As ridiculous as it might seem, it would have to be a Pugsley. It’s simply the most versatile frame I own. It would certainly look odd equipped with road wheels and tires, but it could be done. Any production bicycle tire will fit. One limitation…that of tire size, common with the vast majority of bicycles, is thrown out the window. To some degree, I could even change forks to change handling characteristics appropriate to varying wheel diameters and widths. Geeky and unlikely, but possible. Changing handlebars, saddle fore/aft adjustments, stem lengths and rises, tire tread and size, drivetrain system,…any number of variables, creates a whole new bike on the same platform. But, it’s the tire that makes the biggest difference. The ability to use a high-volume tire is paramount for all-season all-terrain riding in the northland. A 3.7” tire can simply get you over and through more types of soil, snow, and terrain without having to push or carry your bike. It’s the difference between walking and riding, sometimes. I’d rather ride.

I finally changed the original Endomorph tire I installed on my Pug in February.



I rode on it, almost exclusively, for a couple months. I estimate there are 2000+ miles on that skin, and there’s still life in the casing; I just want a little more tread for the impending arrival of more snow, otherwise I’d leave it on. I might put it back on, next summer, to see how far it will go before it fails. The casing is getting a bit thin and I get small punctures from time to time….usually from wire and glass bits on the road, but a little Stan’s in the tube has been taking care of these small punctures surprisingly well. Most of the time, Stan’s seals the hole right up. If nothing else, it will slow the leak. I might lose a few pounds of pressure from these small holes, but the tube usually seals itself before it goes flat. I’m happy to ride with a slightly lower pressure or with a necessity to stop every five miles to add a little more air to a slow leaker, if I can keep riding instead of stopping to fix a flat.

Unsolicited product endorsements: Lake MXZ 300 winter shoes – they rock. Many winter riders will agree. I’m on my second pair. The first pair is still in operation, albeit a bit ratty...usually used as back-up. No other shoe system I’ve used works as well in the winter with clipless pedals. Hotronic electric footwarmers– marvelous. These are the cat’s meow, the bee’s knees, the wood that the woodchuck would chuck if the woodchuck could chuck wood. I use ‘em in temps below freezing. I like this system so much better than the chemical heater packs I’ve been using for the last decade. I bought the Power Plus 3.5 system with the heating elements that stick to my Lake insoles. The heat settings range from 1 to 4. 95% of the time, I use the first/lowest setting. Nickel Metal Hydride batteries keep the system reasonably lightweight….I don’t notice the battery weight on my feet. I stuff the batteries under some lightweight, stretchy hiking gaiters from REI, so they can’t flop around. The gaiters also help keep slop out of your bike shoes. They are now part of my cool/wet weather riding clown suit. Jones H-bar – I dig this bar. It works great on the Pug. Lots of leverage, lots of hand positions, great versatility and respectable weight. It’s expensive, but it’s ti and it’s well-made.

Holy crap! Old man winter did blow into town last night and I think he was telling me not to ride my bike. When I got onto my bike yesterday morning, it was about 40F and a little humid outside. Not bad at all. Then I punctured about 2 miles into the 15 mile commute. No big deal, I had the tools and there was a nice tree stump to sit on and repair it. No signs of anything sharp protruding into the tire, a new tube installled and I'm rolling again. This ride was feeling pretty easy, since the overpaid weather schmucks on TV told us we'd wake up to 3-7 inches of snow.

The temperature did drop throughout the day and the rain got colder. By the time I was riding home it was in the low/mid 30's F and raining hard. Two more punctures on the way home got me feeling like old man winter was now forcefully trying to say "drive your car, drive your car". But then I'd look around at all the sorry chumps in their cars, honking at eachother and feeling crabby because they had to turn their car heater on and warm up the car before they left. So now they are 6 minutes late for work and I'm in their way.

Old man winter, go screw yourself, your icey streets, your whisker curling northwest winds, your snow banks, your long lines to the shopping mall and the crabiness you give to the people in their cars. I've got two legs, two wheels and a Long Haul Trucker that symbolize a middle finger right at you.

Old man Winter - who I believe has been on a bender in the Bahamas for the past few weeks - is set to power slide into our fair Minnesota this week. Tomorrow the weather dice-rollers are calling for a "90% chance of snow with significant accumulation likely."

When they say significant accumulation 'round these parts, folks take heed. Personally, I'm stoked. You can't really live here if you can't deal with snow. And that first dumper of the season (I said 'dump') is always so fancy.

Remember this, though, dear Surly devotees, Winter makes folks into even crappier drivers. They'll forget (even here in the North) that snow makes things slippery and they'll slide soundlessly through intersections. SUV drivers will be excited because no "significant accumulation" is going to stop them. Unfortunately, their brakes will also not be stopping them.

I think SUV drivers have that same sort of dream that snowmobilers have - that one day, the snow will be SO bad that they, and only they, will be mobile. "I'll go out for the diapers and insulin!" "My hero!"

So, the theme really is: be on the lookout for the 2 ton slidey chunk of death shusssing past your local stop sign.

I'm thinking of petitioning the appropriate governing board who makes these decistions to change the name of the season from "Winter" to "Pugsley."

Have a snowy and safe Pugsley.

This comes to us from Surly pal Ron "people say I look like Angela Lansbury" Moffit:

"Listen up you bums, Decorah night race this Sat night."

Decorah, Iowa that is. Tassle up your racing loafers and, as my dad used to say, "Gitcherass down here!" Contact Oneota Cycles for the 411 by dialing 563.382.0421.

In the event you're completely out of touch with your local politicians, today is election day (at least here in Minnesota) for mayor, city council, park board and some other positions. Take part in your community by voting and knowing who is controlling your neighborhood's well-being. You have until 8:00 p.m. tonight to vote. No, Mayor McCheese is not up for re-election.

Luby proudly displays his trophy at Homie Fall Fest 05...

I try to be the delivery man with good news, but sometimes life isn't as organized and perfect as we'd like it to be.

Yes, we're out of many framesets right now and we're still not happy about it. Cross-Checks, Karate Monkeys and Steamrollers are particularly low or completely out of stock. If you really want to know, we're waiting for fork production to catch up to frame production. And NO, we don't sell frames without the fork, sorry.

So as soon as we have some ETAs on when the forks will ready, I'll let you know the skinny. Until then, thanks AGAIN for being patient with us.