During our recent roadtrip to St.Louis, Missouri for the Midwest Mountain Bike Festival, we met up with our old troublemaker pal Brian McGrath. During a ride, the last words he uttered before his ass was temporarily taken out of commission were "watch this". After a failed wheelie attempt he got up, didn't say much, managed to ride about 8 miles of singletrack, then drank us under the picnic table. I guess playing hockey and being Irish makes you an automatic toughguy.

First: notice at the top right of this page that we have cached the archives of old blogs. Click on the word 'archives' and you get to the old stuff.

O.k., so there's this band outta Wichita called Split Lip Rayfield. SLR play some kick ass Grass-metal or Core-grass or something like that, and they rock balls out, or at least did until the sad news of throat cancer in their lead singer, Kirk Rundstrom. And being musicians, you can imagine their insurance plan. Which is why there is a fund raiser benefit concert for him this thursday (4/20, dooder) at Lee's Liquor Lounge in our fair city, MPLS. Our own Eric "people say i look like Ron Moffit" Sovern will be slaying 'em on banjo (he plays a pretty good banjo, son, but give the devil his due / he'll bet a banjo of gold against yer soul to say he's better'n you. chorus: Sovern finish up your beer and pluck that banjo hard / cuz the devil showed up drunk last night and passed out in Kirk's yard / And if you win you get this shiny banjo made of gold / and if you lose the devil gits his soooooooul!). Get on your bike this thursday night, see some fine-ass local music, and help a brother out.


And speaking of good music, the other night my lady and I went to see one of our favorite bands. Hailing from Austin, Texas, and operating under the name of Grand Champeen, they might just be the best rock-n-roll band you've never heard of. Straight up rock surging with buttloads of talent and surplus energy, and yet no posing. But then, when you sound and play like GC you don't need to pose. You won't meet a funnier, nicer bunch of guys either. Part of the reason I like them is that they play like it's a packed room no matter how many people are there. These cats just dig on playing music together and it shows. But you missed them. And that is all I have to say about that.

In other news, I've been riding fixed gear offroad since late last summer. I wanted a do-it-all bike, capable of commuting, getting groceries, riding trails, basically whatever came its way. It needed to be tough but not overly heavy and versatile without being complicated. Since I had a spare 1X1 frame doing nothing, I built it up with fenders and a rack and upright bars. And I have to say it's been super duper cool. Fixie in back, because there's not much to go wrong and fixies do well in winter around here; hydro disc up front because you need to stop, and the hydro disc is the best all condition, all terrain brake going (Zito doesn't like the brake because it isn't fixie-pure, but then Zito also has a knack for needing a brake after the fact). I have Wellgo pedals that are SPD clip-in on one side and a true platform on the other, complete with adjustable pins, so I can ride it with cycling shoes or whatever I have on at the time. Grab-n-go. The upright bars combined with the fenders and rack make it look like grandpa's bike, but it don't ride like grandpa's. The fenders (ultra-modified for near-maximum coverage) and the rack are necessary to make it all purpose functional, and the bar puts me upright for better visibility and it doesn't hinder the offroading, either. In fact, the bar keeps my head up so my neck doesn't get sore and my weight slightly back so as to maintain traction better than most mountain bikes I've ridden. This is especially noticable, of course, during out-of-the-saddle climbing. And finally, the fixed gear. I'm running 175mm arms with those wide pedals on 26" wheels so I do smack rocks but the fixie drivetrain actually makes me faster all around, especially on trails, where I have greater traction and speed control. Where others slide out in hot corners, I adjust my cadence slightly and rail, in full contact and full control. Obstacles are still obstacles but a little patience and practice is all it took to feel comfy going over log piles and whatnot. It's geared 38/17 currently, and I plan to make it a dingle (38/17 and 36/19) to make it capable of even more.
Later slater.

Incoming Product ETAs

Steamroller framesets- 56cm, in stock later today, 62cm in stock Monday

Cross-Check framesets- 54cm dark green color, in stock now, limited quantity

New 130mm spaced hubs- Black, 32 hole, fixed/freewheel threading, in stock for the 1st time now. Silver version with same specs should be ready 2nd week of May.

Karate Monkey framesets- 20" black in stock Monday

Alrighty, have yourselves a fine weekend.

Wednesday Night Ride Report

Yes, I'm aware that Wednesday night was wednesday and this is friday. That should give you a clue about the type of ride it was: a boiling froth of hopped-up bike nerds, some 25 strong, derbied and pounded out what amounted to an impromptu night-time street/alley/trail criterium. The fastest WNR I can recall for quite some time. And remarkably, even with a strong showing of noobs, by the time the dust settled and the thing turned back from Wirth, there were still 19 people. That's what warm weather, an almost full moon, and trails unchained for the first time since last summer will do to people I guess. Even the strongest of the strong were heard whimpering thursday.

On Saturday, the Pug and I traveled out to a favorite campsite in a western ‘burb for a night of camping. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, so I figured Pugsley would be the best vehicle to get through anything the trail had to offer. The purpose of my mission: riding, relaxation, and testing some of my homemade camping stuff. I enjoy my one- and two-day overnight tours, because they can be done with little planning. A gear check list expedites the packing effort. I usually have a few days' worth of freeze-dried vittles on hand which eliminates the need to go shopping before a trip. And, my gear is sorted and stored in 50-liter clear Rubbermaid bins to further simplify the packing process.

I brought the Kifaru 4-man tipi and medium collapsible stove. I love the comfort this shelter/stove system provides. There’s plenty of room for me, all my gear, my bike, and enough firewood to last for several days. If I had to be stuck in a tent for any period of time due to nasty weather, I’d prefer to be in a shelter of this type. Plus, it's brown, so it blends in with its natural surroundings. I'm not a big fan of brightly colored outdoor gear. I realize it can have its merits when a rescue crew is trying to find you, but I'll usually opt for an earthtone when given a color choice.



A wild turkey ran into my site as I was pounding in a tent stake. He scared the hell out of me, and in turn, I jumped up and scared him. The turkey took flight and nearly clipped me with a wing as he flew by.

The coyotes howled late into the still, moonlit night. I’ve never seen one in the area, but I’ve seen their tracks around my site.

On Sunday morning, after waking from a sound sleep and chowing a bowl of oatmeal mixed with dried fruit, I packed up my gear and headed toward home. I stopped at the hand pump, in a nearby group camp down the road, to fill my bottles with water. I noticed a garter snake near the cement pump platform. I picked up the squirmy reptile, but let him go after he hissed and nipped at me. Garter snakes are harmless, but it startled me. Then, I noticed another snake emerging from a hole underneath the platform. I took out my camera and started snapping photos. I got within 6” of him at times. He didn’t seem too worried about my presence. Another snake appeared from another hole. More photos. A third snake joined them. A fourth and a fifth then appeared. As I stood on the grass a few feet from the pump platform, one of the snakes slithered up to me and against my sandal as it went by on its way to a section of tall grass. Very trusting. Many of you see snakes all the time, and it's no big thing. I used to play with 'em as a kid. But, I thought it was cool that these little fellas were so tolerant of me being so close to their home.






The social snake experience was a first for me. But, it wasn’t the strangest occurrence of the day. As I approached a woman in her 60’s walking toward me on a paved section of trail, she pulled out her crucifix and thrust it out toward me as to ward me off. Not knowing what to say, I just rolled on past wondering what incited that behavior. Were my eyes glowing red again? Did she sense the newly established relationship with my little serpent friends? Weird.

After having been bombarded by several emails from several people who seem quite passionate about it, I supposed it was high time to mention the 2006 Bicycle Film Festival on this here blog. Now up to 10 (count 'em, TEN) cities worldwide after only 6 years according to the Official Press Release, which does say that the event kicks off May 10 in NYC. Here's the tour schedule:

New York (May)
Los Angeles (June)
Minneapolis (July)
Chicago (July)
London (September)
San Francisco (October)
Sydney (October)
Melbourne (October)
Tokyo (November)
Milan (December)

I am not including the press release because I am the only man on deck today here at Surly Intergalactic HQ and frankly I'm too busy (and/or stupid) to uplink the file. Besides, the press release is just that, a press release... heavy on spin but not really all that strong on actual facts. My only bitch is that the official website does not list a schedule of the movies being shown, nor the theater locations in each city, and they completely omit MPLS from the list of tour cities on the home page. C'mon, guys.
******
So..ever hear of The DittyBops? The lovely and talented Ms. Bloggins describes them as "another punk rock bluegrass band," and our good friend Tammy likes them and she has good taste in music I think. I bring it up because they are starting a tour and doing so on bikes, LA to NYC. They dig on the bikes, and while I'm officially no longer 'down with' anything, I do think that earns them brownie points. Plus for sale on their website they have a calendar with bikes and girls, and I'm a big fan of both.
******
And finally today, First-Things-F*ckin'-Last, you might be interested to know that the following items have passed QC inspection and are either in stock or just about to be:

>Nice Racks, fronts and rears in both black and silver.
>Forks, including 700c Long Haul Trucker & Karate Monkey
>Karate Monkey framesets in black (16", 18", & 20") and brown (20")
>Hubs: Some front, some rears. Notably 120mm fixie hubs in all varieties.

Due in soon (a week and a half or so) are the 130mm New hubs...32h, black or silver, and they're fixed threaded on one side and SS freewheel on the other. They are fully Kick Ass rated.

This Just In:
Surly Global News action sports reporter CoFlo (who happens to be our web guy) was wasting countless minutes today absorbing all news he could find concerning freeriding and found a report on NSMB.com stating that BikerFox has signed on with a sponsor! NSMB.com has signed Frank Paul (not to be confused with Paul Frank, the designer who did a few models for Nirve a couple years ago), known to the cycling world as Biker Fox, to a 2 year 'riding contract' with NSMB.com's team. If this isn't news to you, best check out BikerFox's website.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...