Check out this article from the Seattle Times:

Seattle Times Fixie Article

Sure it's one of those "dig this new trend - it's called fixed gear" articles, but it features the president of a finance company who rides a Steamroller.


-photo Ken Lambert The Seattle Times

"I feel a lot more free because you don't do anything other than pedal," he says. "It's the very basics of riding. It's like cooking a really good meal but doing everything from scratch." Word.

We're real proud of this. Surly is for everyone brothers and sisters. Never forget that.

Also, Adam Smith who's featured in the same article runs Counterbalance Bicycles, introduced me to the joys of Rainier Beer, and is an official good egg. Go see him and his shop folk for the Surly hookup. Or check out the new and improved Surly dealer finder. The pirate flags tell you which shops are true Freinds of Surly.

The heavily anticipated Black Cherry Sparkle Long Haul Trucker framesets have passed QC and are going into stock. They're purdy. Call your shop if you're after one, cuz u snooz u looz. Still and all, we're getting more in stock soon so don't break a sweat.

During a recent public tradeshow here in Minneapolis, Skip Bernet and I decided we wanted to be the kind of bike company that pedalled all of our stuff down there. How ironic is it that so many fine folks that work for bike companies don't get a chance to ride much because they're too busy driving bikes around for other people?



This is how we rolled. Long Haul Trucker loaded with bags and a Burley trailer with Pugsley and a folding table. Then an Instigator/Xtracycle with Long Haul Trucker and more stuff to balance the load. Needless to say, it was a slow ride, so we took it easy.

The first Surly road trip of 2006 is happening April 7th-9th to St.Louis, Missouri for the Midwest Mountain Bike Festival. We're bringing down an array of bikes for you to test ride, including some Pugsleys, and we're looking forward to a weekend of riding with anybody who shows up. Live music + pigroast + New Belgium beer + dirt trails = trouble. Hope to see you there.

Quote O' The Day:
"I used to stay in a different hotel, but they lost points when two years in a row either I didn't get a wake up call or participants in my tour group didn't get them and that's not good when you have to be at a prairie chicken blind at 4:30am."

I found that on a random blog today in, on, or around the interweb. Also found on the other side of the digital divide was an announcement on the bulletin board of Evilcycling.com for an upcoming bike ride in the south MPLS area. The posting reads:

"I don't mean to interupt the intellectual commeraderie [heh heh heh... -K.B.], but I have a public announcement!!
Sloppy Southside Ride
This event has been rescheduled- Any publications stating this event takes place on April 1st are incorrect!!! March 25th is the final date!
Attention Bicycle freaks! Saturday March 25th is the much anticipated
Sloppy Southside Ride!!!
This event is being organized by a group of geographically like-minded individuals who during quite a hauty rant, contribed this subtle spectacality of territorial pride.
The morning will start at 10:30am near the "Bakken", a electricity and technology museum on 36th and Zenith South.http://www.thebakken.org/
The cost of the museum tour is $7.00.
We plan to meet at the closest picnic table and share a potluck breakfast. After the museum tour we will continue east via Minnehaha Parkway and end at the Fort Snelling Club. (Northsiders can take the lightrail downtown) Everone is welcome! Look forward to pleasant surprises and predictions along the way. (The Sunrise Inn is an example of a pleasant prediction)
Ten-four?"

So there you go. Something to do. I don't want to hear you complaining about how bored you are. Get outside and get some excercise.

{Oh yeah: there's this too, found by Dr. Benzo. For those of you unfamiliar, Herman Miller Co. designs ...stuff, both tangible things and design philosophy. Perhaps most notably, this company 'invented' the modular work space, or Cubes as they've come to be known. You're probably sitting in one right now, frustrated that you can't make an appointment with your doctor privately, without your cube neighbor hearing you. And now wealthy companies can purchase not only his plastic furniture and revamped modular design ideas but as well the Herman Miller corporate dogmatic ideology (which, as rightfully-suspicious Surly pal Fiddy G points out, is the structure of religion too). This line, from the article, sums it up pretty nicely: '..there is something hilariously ironic about a locking file cabinet with wheels.'}

We are in the process of physically moving our offices today and tomorrow. Although we'll still be under the same roof, the new digs will have a bigger and better shop space and we'll finally all be in one office space. Since our phones and computers will be unplugged during the move, please be patient in returning your calls and e-mails. Hopefully we'll be up and running by Monday at the latest so we can get those TPS reports done right away.

We finally got some snow accumulation in Minneapolis last week, so I decided to build a quinzie (snow cave) in my back yard. I’d built them as a kid, but never slept in one. So, I decided to try it Saturday night. As I expected, it was quite pleasant. The snow is great insulation from the noise and wind outside. It’s roomy…the size of a 2-3 person tent, so I didn’t feel claustrophobic in the least.







After, I dragged all my overnight gear inside, I blew up my insulated sleeping pad and got my sleeping bag and bivy sack situated as to create a warm place to sit and recline. Then, I prepared some food with my butane canister stove, brewed some tea, and laid back with a copy of ‘Let my people go surfing’ by Yvon Chouinard, the founder and owner of Patagonia. A good bowl of chowder, a cup of hot red rooibos, and some relaxing reading by candlelight made for a satisfying end to my day.

I awoke, well-rested, to the faint glow of the sun coming through a couple thin spots in my shelter. To my surprise and delight, everything inside was relatively dry. From some articles I’ve read, I expected there to be a bit more humidity inside my cave. That simply wasn’t the case. Next year, I think I’ll build a snow structure on a weekend camping trip further north, where I'm guaranteed to have a bit more snow base. That should be a good test of my winter survival skills.

H.R Puff-N-Stuff-In-Stock

-We now have a good supply of Lemon/Lime 1x1 frames in stock

- 54cm and 60cm Dark Green Cross-Check frames went into stock yesterday

- 16" and 18" Pugsley framesets went back into stock Wednesday after a brief outage

- New wider 666mm Torsion Bars now in stock

Coming Soon On The Horizon

- Steamroller 1" forks should be in stock early next week

- Hip Flasks should also be in stock early next week

- Long Haul Trucker framesets in Utility Blue and Dark Cherry Pearl, all sizes in stock last week of March.

- 53cm and 62cm Steamroller framesets, Charcoal Metallic color, in stock last week of March

As always, if you know we're out of stock on something not mentioned here, give us a jingle.

Green beer o'clock, seize ya later.

The weather forecast, for Friday, predicted temps in the 40’s and 50’s and sunshine. The forecast for Saturday was not quite as promising, but there was a fair chance that it would be dry. So, I decided to pack up the Pug and ride out to my hidden campsite in a western ‘burb of Minneapolis…about a 30-mile trek that follows paved and unpaved bike trails most of the way.

I have racks on the Long Haul Trucker and the Pacer, and the Instigator Xtracycle is ready for action. Normally, I’d consider any of these for the trip as they’ve all seen duty as touring machines. But, I suspected the unpaved section of trail, consisting mostly of crushed limestone, might be soft due to the current snow thaw. So, I chose Pugsley as my vehicle of choice.

Last weekend, I modified (widened 60mm) a front Nice Rack to work on the Pug, and I was anxious to try it out with a camping load. I used a lengthened Headland seatpost rack on the back with a Jandd duffel bag to carry the lighter stuff…clothes and trail snacks. Tools, pump, and tube all go in the Jandd frame bag that stays on the Pug most of the time. My camera and some clothes went in the Axiom handlebar bag. My sleeping bag and sleeping pads went on top of the front rack. Everything else went into front Axiom panniers.

I didn’t pack ultralight. I brought a homemade collapsible woodburning stove to heat my tent (a Golite Lair 1 tarptent with a homemade polyethylene vestibule added on to house the stove), a bit of Johnny Walker Black to toast Mother Nature for her fine handiwork, some reading material, enough calories for an extra day of camping, and enough clothing to keep me warm regardless of the weather outcome. Like most of you, I don’t like being hungry and I don’t like being cold. So, I don’t deny myself the tools and supplies to stay comfortable in the woods.



There were sections of trail that were still covered in snow. There were sections of water 3” – 4” deep…sometimes on top of snow….sometimes on top of mud. And – my favorite - the section of wet clay mixed with woodchips where heavy machinery has laid fresh tracks. I’m happy to say that I didn’t need to dab through any of it. I simply shifted down into a granny gear (the 22t x 34t combo, in some cases) and crawled through it. Very little body English is needed, and the bike stays pretty clean because the tires aren’t flinging crap all over everything. It helps to have fenders, of course. Sorry, you still have to make your own. Endomorph-compatible fenders aren’t production items, yet. Maybe, we’ll work on something along those lines down the road a spell.





With the added weight of camping gear, the ride would have been a gritty death march on any other bike. I dropped my tire pressures down to 15 psi when I got into the crushed limestone section of the trail on the way out to my site…about midway through the ride. That made all the difference in the world. I was running 20 psi on the pavement up to that point. On the return trip, I went down to 13 psi because the continuing thaw had made some sections even softer than they’d been the day before. You trail Nazis can unclench; the stuff I was riding is not sensitive trail. It lies on an abandoned rail corridor base. On Saturday, I looked for my tracks from Friday. Rarely, could I find a sign that I’d passed over the same trail a day previous. The big rubber had done a great job of keeping the Pug afloat.

I enjoyed the journey. But, I had a great time off the bike, too. Camping with a woodstove in the tent makes cool/cold weather outings very enjoyable for me. A campfire is nice, but it pails in comparison to the attributes of a stove: no smoke in the eyes, uses very little wood comparatively, easy to cook on, controllable burn rate, creates a warm climate out of the wind, leaves no burn marks on the ground, creates less ash, and maybe the best thing of all...it dries my clothes, boots, and bags. I love putting on dry boots in the morning. If this concept intrigues you, check out Kifaru for an idea of what’s available in collapsible woodstoves and stove-compatible tents. There is a lot of other related stuff online, too. Get your Google on.

My stay was uneventful…quiet and peaceful, other than coyotes howling and the wind blowing. I entertained myself by stoking the fire, preparing food, and walking in the woods and over the prairie under a ¾ moon and cloudless sky.

Trips like this keep the Pug at the top of my “If I could only have one Surly, which Surly would it be?” list.

Sunny and low 40s here in the mud bog known as MPLS. Wind is a little breeze, maybe 10-15mph out of the NW. That's downright balmy for Minnesota this time of year.
I just got back from a holiday in the sun (cue Sex Pistols) which left me drained and filled, divided but whole, and sun burned while frostbitten (yes really. before i left a bunch of folks went for a ride on the coldest day of the year. although I was otherwise plenty warm, my apparently-large ear lobes stuck out under my hat and the right one got a little crispy. the first day of vacation i forgot sunscreen and actually did have sunburn and frostbite both at once). Vacations are good that way.
Took the bikes (which turned out to be a pain, so screw you Sun Country airlines), but didn't ride a ton for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons, honest to god, is that I need a break from bikes once in a while. I love bikes, but I live and breathe bikes all the time --it's what I for a living and what I do for fun-- and it's been that way for a long, long time. So every once in a while a person needs a break.
But I did log some miles. Most roads where I was were like offroad trail, except maybe bumpier and more traffic than on a trail. And more dogs. Dogs everywhere. Funny, though, that riding there was safer in a lot of ways than driving (and in some cases walking), but all the other Americans on the flight were in awe ('you rode your BIKE?! I wouldn't feel safe doing that...").
So I'm back and MN is still cold, but not so much as before, as spring is on the way and the sun is shining and, well, I'm ready to ride again. Gotta put on some miles. Which reminds me: the Midwest Mountain Bike Festival (formerly known as The Summit) is coming up fast, as is the 11th Fruita Fat Tire Fest. Surly will be at both in some fashion and we'd love to see you there, so get on your bikes and ride. Click on the links and stuff to get the 4-1-1.

Two-can Sam just flew by and said more Lemon/Lime Green 1x1 framesets just went into stock.

Follow your nose, it always knows.

Speaking of frame colors, sizes 52-58cm of the Dark Cherry Pearl colored Long Haul Trucker framesets should be in stock tomorrow. But here is the deal, we've had a hell of a time dialing in the paint on these suckers, so it's likely the next batch or so will be a slightly different color.

I only say this to protect our asses from some tweaker (you know who you are) calling us up saying "I ordered a Dark Cherry Pearl and I got a Darker Cherry Pearl". But trust me, as soon as I saw this color today the first thing I thought of was buying one myself with a new set of silver Nice Racks and some fancy silver parts. JUST A GORGEOUS COLOR!!!

Here is where it sucks for you, the only color sample we have of these is on the LHT frame page of this website, scroll over the picture of the complete Utility Blue frameset and look in the lower left corner of this image. That's all you get, a measley little teaser to look at. By the time we'd get this frame shot through the photobooth and onto the website, they'll be sold out.

I know it, I'm killing you, or boring you, whatever. Just trust me on the color, it's gorgeous and they will sell before many of you read this. More coming soon after in other sizes.