Product Stock Status

1x1 framesets, new Lemon/Lime Green color, all sizes, ETA end of Febraury

Long Haul Trucker framesets, new Dark Cherry color, 52-58cm sizes, early/mid March. All other sizes probably late March.

Long Haul Trucker framesets, new Utility Blue color, many sizes have already been in stock, we should see a complete supply by March.

Cross-Check complete bikes, all sizes and colors, mid February.

Pugsley framesets, mid Febraury.

Pacer frameset, 50cm, Early/mid March.

Hell yes, overall our inventory is looking very good. If you know something is out of stock that you don't see listed on this blog, drop an e-mail or call for an ETA. Thanks.

Bender sends news of progress (?) in Aberdeen. It ain't much, but it beats the alternative.

And then there's this. Tempting target? Yeah, I admit when I first saw the treadmill bike I was shaking my head, but then I explored the website a bit and gave in after reading the story of their couchbike adventure. A snippet:

I should never have let us go that fast to begin with, but we had reached the point of no return. Because of the inconsistent dirt surface, I feared that braking hard could cause us to spinout. As the couch hurdled closer and closer to mach speed, all outside noises became muted. I could still here Eivind's last words. "I'm scared", he said. "Don't be scared." I replied with a calmness that was belied by my posture in the couch. I had assumed a sort of starfish stance on the cushions, my legs and arms spread out wide in preparation for attack from all directions. No sooner had I spoke those soothing words, than our worst fears were realized. One wheel jammed and the couch spun into a donut. The world swirled around us. Strangely, at that point, everything felt very calm. This was one smooth donut.

heh heh heh. mmmmm...smooth donut....

Does a BOB trailer fit onto a Pugsley bike? No, unless you have friends in high places.

Enter engineer/manufacturer/I've-got-a-machine-shop-in-the-family super friend Scott. He bent a one-off BOB trailer fork for our friend Nate out of aluminum that matches the 17.5mm offset wheel on the Pug. As you can see it has plenty of tire clearance and the trailer is perfectly centered. Nice work.

Now that the ass bruise from my close encounter of the vehicular kind has subsided into a hazy interpretation of Picasso's Guernica, it's time to move on to other things. Mostly riding bikes and tipping back warm beverages.

Yes, it's that time of year when the single-speeders of the greater Minneapolis area migrate out onto a local lake and do stupid things for pride and the entertainment of lookers on. You guessed it - it's time for the Snowball's Chance in Hell Formula Ice Race and Snowy Dash for Cold Hard Cash.



This time-honored tradition was started some 9 (or 8, or 10) years ago by local luminary Kid Riemer. Since then it's stagnated significantly under the organizing juggernaut that is BrauSovCor. Still, it will be fun to drink beer and knock each other over.

Don't forget the ICY FIGURE EIGHT OF TERROR on which we run the miss-and-out, or the frightfully long Dash for the Cash - that's $20.06 up for grabs this year y'all!

Either way, get on your bike and get to Brownie Lake, Saturday Feb 11 at high noon. Idiocy will ensue. Bring any bike, dress warm, don't hate.

Hello droogs. The trails around here are fast. The snowpack makes them almost as fast as hardpacked dirt, with some ruts and ice patches doing the part mud would in summer. I rode a 20 minute loop at Wirth yesterday. My average summer loop time is 17 minutes. Not bad. Not that I keep track of that sort of thing.

So I got an email today letting me know that MPLS protorocker Dale T. Nelson is once again having his birthday bash at The Entry. His band, Otto's Chemical Lounge, and a spate of to-be-determined loudbands will be playing there the evening of Saturday, February 18. This is QBP's Frostbike weekend, frostbike being a dealer show sponsored by our distributor and Big Brother (take that how you will) Quality Bicycle Products, so if you're in town and want some loud music MPLS style, show up. Doors at 8, and the email says Otto's plays at 11:30, but puh-leeze, this is ROCK, and rock rolls when it wants to, or at least when it stops barfing in somebody's guitar case, so show up early and stay late. I asked (and by asked I mean begged using a lot of exclamation points) them to get the Mighty Mofos on the roster, but regardless it should be good and loud. This show comes with the official Kenny Bloggins Double-Thumbs-Up-Like-You're-Shootin'-Pistols-With-A-Cheesy-Grin-And-A-Wink seal of approval.

And for those of you following the progress of SSWC 06 (if I have to spell that out for you you have not been following along): the date is set. Get thee to Singletrackworld.com, where the fine journalists from Singletrack in the north of Wales have secured an interview (of sorts) with Tobias, one of The People sadist enough to take this thing on. Enjoy. Make plans now, espcially as I understand from mulitple sources that Sweden is expensive, especially the liquor. But hey, this is the world championships of being an idiot, so come get one in the yarbles. If you have any yarbles, that is.

-Billy Boy

New In Stock

Rox, out of Arizona, USA, has made us a new wide rimstrip out of their Super Dut-E material. This synthetic cloth tape is 50mm wide and will be perfect for Large Marge rims. The part number is RS0002 and they are now in stock.

Sweet.

In Stock Status

We're doing a whole helluva lot better with our inventory these days. But there are still a few things out of stock that we're expecting to be ready in the near future.

-Pugsley 16" and 18" framesets, mid-February

-Long Haul Trucker framesets, new Utility Blue color, we got just a couple in stock now from sizes 42-54cm. 56 and 58cm should be ready mid-February. 60 and 62cm end of February.

-Long Haul Trucker framesets, new Dark Cherry color, we had some troubles nailing the color of paint down, so they were delayed a bit. We should see these in March and a more definite ETA will be posted in the next few weeks.

- Cross-Check complete bikes, we only have the smaller sizes in stock right now. We should have all sizes in stock by mid-February.

- Black forks, most models, should all be in stock by mid/end of February.

- Torsion Bar, new and improved 666mm length bars should be in stock soon. This new length just kicks ass for two reasons, the increased leverage and because it's slightly more forgiving than the old 622mm version due to the extra deflection inherent in longer bars.

- Flasks will be out of stock for at least another 6 weeks. Sorry about that.

Our production woes of 2005 seem to be behind us now and we're committed to not repeating the stock outages again. As always, if you know something is out of stock and you don't see it listed here, shoot us an e-mail to derby@surlybikes.com

My butt hurts.

Yesterday, while I was riding in to work I had a little run-in with a little car. Now, there have been many occasions in my riding life where I've witnessed a dumb-ass behind the wheel pulling idiot moves, but yesterday was a new one for me.

Suffice it to say that a car passed me too close. I raised up a finger (in mittens I might add.) The driver stopped in the middle of the road. I rode by his window and gave him a small piece of my mind. That bit's happened many times to me.

The new part was that this evolutionary mishap made the mental leap to attempted murder. He gunned the motor after I was back on the right side of the street... and hit me. Full-on ran me down. Wow.

Despite my immediate reaction to get his plate number, I couldn't focus on it and away he went. I was pissed.

I was pissed, but now I'm sad. I'm sad that I don't trust people to have their fellow humans' lives in mind. I'm sad that this particular guy is so full of rage that he stooped to a first degree felony because I was on a bike.

But mostly I'm just kind of generally sad. Sure, I'll get over it. All I got was a bruise on my butt that looks like Marlon Brando (the later years, not the svelt Wild Bunch Brando) and a tacoed rear wheel (I think the Nice Rack may have saved my life) on my CrossCheck, so that's cool.

But I'm sad that people do this to each other. I'm sad that we can't all just wave at each other and smile like idiots when we pass. I'm sad cars can't just give me a little more room. And I'm sad that this particular dude won't ever get it.

White Castle, the great pre-bloody mary.

"My own love of fixing comes from the fact that I like to cycle, and a quiet, basic machine appeals to me. My good memories of cycling have little to do with equipment and everything to do with experience.
Ride your bike to ride your bike. Do it because you want to. If you approach riding with a relaxed, light disposition rather than with an aggressive mindset, you'll really enjoy yourself. If you enjoy yourself, you'll stick with it. Sticking with it is good."

So says Matt Chester in a piece he wrote for 63XC.com.
I like this quote because to me it amounts to a perspective of cycling I have held for years. I take some shit for not having the most bling on my bike, for using 'outdated' parts (what's a 'square taper BB'?). I couldn't care less. I want worry-free function, that's for sure, and lighter can be better, but this whole idea of buying 'it' because it's the latest thing is for the birds. Don't be fooled by the price tag; although there is a relationship between cost and quality, this is not a direct and isolated relationship.
The quote also speaks a bit to the experience of learning new cycling disciplines. In this case he's talking about fixed gear, but the same applies to picking up anything new that seems daunting, like riding rigid when you're used to full sus, or riding a single speed when you've only ever had gears. Learning a new discipline is not especially difficult, but it brings different demands for which new techniques must be worked out. And the lesson ultimately, regardless of the new style, is Flow.
You hear a lot about flow if you spend much time in the cycling world, particularly offroad cycling. Flow is about looking ahead, preparing for obstacles (physical or mental), using your momentum to best advantage (the more you brake the more effort you must spend getting up to speed again), staying calm and loose, and most of all learning how to ride better with less effort. Flow speaks to a higher awareness of your connection to the machine and the trail, and the more you know about flow, the better your riding will be, regardless of what or where you ride. Flow isn't about the frame or components. Flow is knowing how to read what the ground and your bike are writing. A person with good flow riding a crappy bike can generally kick the ass of a person on a techy new bike who has not yet unlocked the secrets of Flow. Flow makes one Li Mu Bai, master of the Wudan, where before they were Chuck Norris, Texas Ranger. Or maybe flow makes one Betty Crocker where before they were merely Lil Debbie.
I have a theory that all of life's answers can be found in rock lyrics, so I submit for your consideration this sage advice from 70s rock philosophers .38 Special:
Hold on loosely, but don't let go. If you cling too tightly you're gonna lose control.
Probably best if I leave it at that.

When you go on a great adventure on your Surly, we like to hear about it. The true tales of the sweet singletrack rides, the weavy bar crawls, and the epic tours you all undertake make us all warm and fuzzy (well, genetics makes some of us fuzzier than others, but that's for a different blog.)

Here's one from a dad whose son rode a Long Haul Trucker across the country. I won't lie. I got a little misty reading this one. Thanks Bill.


"Hi guys:

My son just recently completed a cross country journey on his Long Haul Trucker – going from Canada to Mexico. He graduated college in August and had been planning a long bike tour for some time – and planning his bike – the Long Haul Trucker.

I’m very proud of my son – he choose the hubs, the spokes, the rims, the cranks, the gears, the brakes, the saddle, etc, etc, etc, and collected each component till he could build up his bike. My son’s original plan was to tour from San Diego to St. Augustine – but hurricane Katrina changed that since Gulf Coast travels would be limited. Katrina hit the coast the week before my son was to leave on his trip – so a last minute decision was made to still cross the country but to it North to South. The good news was that his bike was ready to go, his gear was ready, the trip would be shorter and encompass some major cities. The bad news was that – this was the RAINY season. During parts of Washington and Oregon – my son had 28 consecutive days of rain!

He arrived home (Maryville, Tennessee) just before Christmas. The bike was blackened by road grime and weeks of rain – but after a mild clean up – not a scratch on the frame. Beautiful paint job guys.

Anyway – the purpose for this email was to send to you the article that appeared in our local newspaper today about his trip. The article opens with “It IS about the bike”, and then the article mentions the “Surly LHT” in several places in the text. The attached .DOC contains the text of the article and one of the photos that appeared in the newspaper. The electronic version of the newspaper has limited photos – but the actual printed article has several photos of my son’s bike – fully loaded.

I’m so impressed with my son’s Surly LHT – that I’m going to order a “Dark Cherry Pearl Red” model once they become available to build up into an upright (albatross bars, Brooks B67 saddle) “do-it-all” bike.

One fellow in California – a fireman – pulled up along side of my son during this tour and comment on his “cool bike” and asked him to stop in at the fire station down the road. It was raining – pouring down – yet the fireman recognized a cool bike when he saw it and recognized a soaking wet cyclist that could use some coffee. At the fire house – the fireman – actually the fire chief talked about the intelligent way the bike was set up (bringing affirmation to my son’s component and frame decisions) and shared his own experiences about his touring bike and massively long distance rides (600 – 700 miles in 4 days). The fire chief went online immediately to check out the Surly LHT – he was not aware of the company nor the model – vowing that he was going to get himself a LHT. It was only later – when I tried to email this fireman to thank him for his hospitality to my son – that my web searching through GOOGLE – did I learn that this fireman – had trained with the Olympic cycling team several years ago – and that he won cycling medals in the “Fireman’s” Olympics held in Barcelona Spain during the summer of 2002.

Hope you enjoy the article!


My son loves the bike!

Bill “a father proud of his son” "


Here's the link to his story

Thanks Bill

More Products In Stock

- Cross-Check framesets, dark green or black, a bunch more sizes back in stock now. More becoming available within a week.

- Steamrollers, all sizes in stock and more coming within a week.

- Long Haul Truckers, new Utility Blue color, 42-54cm sizes coming within a week. The larger 56-62cm sizes in Utility Blue should be early March. Dark Cherry red is hopefully early March as well, although there could be a delay on this red color. Is March only 6 weeks away? Holy crap.

- 1x1 new Lemon/Lime Green color, early March.

- Also, Instigators, Karate Monkeys, chainrings, cogs, hubs and Singleators within a week, even though we've been pretty well stocked on most of these items.

- Cross-Check complete bikes, mid-February

- Pugsley, more 16" and 18" framesets mid-February

- Pacers, all sizes in stock now



Longer Term Product Outlook

- Conundrum unicycles, this project is still in the developement phase and it's currently looking like we'll see them ready in May or June. We should have a report within a week how the prototypes are turning out.

- single speed spacer kit with cog lockring, April or May.


Product availability is going to get a whole lot better in the next few weeks, so stay tuned if you're waiting for something. As always, if there is anything you know we don't have in stock that is not listed here, call or e-mail us.

We got an old friend back last night, after not seeing this friend for about 8 months. This friend is an old Instigator bike that has been running in our demo program for about 5 years now. We take it to the Las Vegas Interbike tradeshow each year and can proudly boast that it's the oldest bike at the Dirt Demo for people to ride. In fact, we have the two oldest bikes at Dirt Demo, the other is a matching Instigator.

The missing old friend was stolen from us while it was sitting in a friends backyard one night. Shit happens, we know that. We wrote it off as being gone for good, until Brauer Power was patrolling a local online garage sale site and noticed this old friend was for sale. No F'ing way!

Luby, the possessor at the time it was stolen, called the guy and told him he was interested in buying it. So five of us 20-30 something repo men went over for a looksee. This bike was easy to recognize with dinged up bright orange paint, mismatched wheels, mismatched shifters, and an old Marzocchi fork. It was definitely our bike. As Luby and I talked to the guy as if we were still going to give him $350 for it, I asked him if he realized it was stolen. Of course, he replied "no". Whether this guy was the thief or not, it didn't really matter. When I told him it was the property of Surly bikes, he wanted nothing to do with it anymore. So we took our old friend home and all was good again.

So for the actual person who stole the bike, I have a message for you. We hope you liked your extended test ride. Perhaps you even liked it enough to actually buy one someday instead of taking someone else's. Part of me wishes I forgot to tighten the front quick release skewer so you would've skidded your face along the asphalt of an oily street during rush hour. The other part of me is glad you actually ride bikes. In that sense, we are the same. I just hope you believe in karma.

SSWC2006

For those of you paying attention to where Single Speed World Championships is going to be held next year, here is some information. It was decided at SSWC2005 that the last person still riding in the derby was allowed to choose where it would be the following year. Skip Bernet and myself were the last riding in 2 of 3 rounds, so we got to choose. Although this was an honor and it seemed like a smashing idea at first, it turned out to be a tough position to be in. For any future SSWC event planners, I wouldn’t recommend having this rule this again. What I would recommend is that more of you sacrifice body and bike at SSWC2006 to make the worlds largest bike derby. Now that will be smashing.

We asked for proposals from everybody and anybody around the world that was serious about hosting SSWC2006 and had the trails, manpower and creativity to make it happen. For the record, we got 16 such proposals. Most of them were serious, a couple of them worthless, and 6 of them were good enough to make this a very difficult decision. The research most of these people did to find out if their town was ready for this was incredible and I commend all of them for stepping up and committing themselves.

This decision was made with all of you in mind and it was not taken lightly. We asked the 6 best potential hosts some stupid open ended questions like, “what would Jacquie Phelan do?” and “when drinking beer from a glass cowboy boot, toe up or toe down?” just to get an idea of who these people were. We also asked more serious questions like “how car-free can this event be?” and to “describe your ideal mountain bike course”.

I won’t divulge all their answers to these questions, but I want you all to know when drinking beer from a glass cowboy boot, you need to drink with the toe down. Otherwise you get an air bubble caught in bottom of the glass and it’ll splash beer in your face when you tilt the glass upright. All but one of you got this wrong, I’m ashamed. What does this have to do with SSWC? Who cares, I’m asking the questions and was just curious.

What happened to New Zealand? The folks from New Zealand basically told me they weren’t organized for the event and to be careful with our decision. It’s really a shame, because we all wanted to go there.

But is it really a shame when you have single speeders in Stockholm, Sweden? Singlespeeders that boast excellent trails, sound fairly organized (like it or not), understand we all just want to show up and ride, and have the manpower to make this thing rock? How cool would that be?

These folks have been behind Sweden SS champs in 2003 and 2004. They’ve “masterminded” an event called Tour de Retard, which was a 100km fixed/SS stage race to celebrate the old Tour de France days. They’re also involved in the local freeride scene and ran an e-zine for about 4 years. They’re well connected within the local bike industry, the local urban life and have trails within riding distance from most of the hotels/hostels/campsites in town.
These folks understand the importance of beer, heckling and donuts along the course. They also understand the importance of this being a truly international event, making fair registration for equal representation from all countries. They left us with no doubt that this will rock.

Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and it’s a very bike friendly city. There are bike lanes established throughout the city and it’s easy to get around. We’ve been assured that if you’re a singletrack hound, you will not be disappointed with the local dirt trails.

So that’s it, some fine folks from Stockholm, Sweden are hosting SSWC2006 and you can start planning for it now. Since this is their event to host, it is completely up to them to decide dates, the course, beer sponsors, “other” events, website, registration, beer sponsors, where to stay, how the champions will be decided, beer sponsors, etc. Once we know more about their plans, we’ll post them here. Holy shit is this going to be fun.

Local derelict Zito went home to Milwaukee for the holidays and found some good Pugsley territory riding along the shores of Lake Michigan. Nice.

Everybody's pal Bender passes along this article about riding your bike in winter, which recently appeared in MPLS local music and culture periodical The Pulse.
For most of you this will be old hat, but might be useful for those of you on the fence.