Time to get your grumpy girl on...

All The Snooze In Fits

MPLS local periodical The Rake with an overview of cycling in the Twin Cities. "If, instead of seeing bikers on weekends in spandex racing gear, you saw lots of everyday people biking to work, picking up their kids, going to the grocery store, then you’d start to identify with biking as commonplace, as functional transportation.”

The state's Big Newspaper's Take On Same, though it looks as if you have to sign in for this one. Can't figure out how to link it without the red tape, so just go ahead and enter your gender and birth year on the right side to get a temporary looksee at the story. I told them I was born in 1800. And if it opens for you right off the bat then...um......good.

And finally today:
Boy Kills Freakishly Gigantic Boar with a hand cannon. "It feels really good," Jamison, of Pickensville, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It's a good accomplishment. I probably won't ever kill anything else that big."

SSEC 07


Well, I'm back from Piolenc, France, which was the location of Single Speed Euro Championships last weekend. Don't bother looking for it on the map. Even the French people we asked about it hadn't heard of it. But it does exist. Oh yes, indeed. Luckily we had a handy dandy GPS unit in our rental car, making it a piece of cake to find. Well, a bit harder than cake, but we made it there didn't we?

Day One - Thursday
We stayed at a campground in nearby Mornas, in small two bedroom mobile home units with wood decks attached. It wasn't paradise, but it was cheap and comfortable, and also perfectly suited for a bunch of dirty singlespeeders like us. I'd say there were about 130 people who attended the event in total.

On the first night we rode our bikes down to the village of Mornas for the opening night dinner. The seating was outdoors, and we were treated to fire-cooked mussels, fried potatoes, salad and wine. Lots of it. Yummy. After dinner a derby broke out, and in the end there was no clear winner so we decided to celebrate with some more wine. Oh, did I mention that this event took place in the heart of Provence? I hear they make wine there. Yup. Good wine, too.

After dinner we rode back up the mountain to the campsite. The weather during this trip was perfect every day and night, so there seemed like no reason NOT to sit outside and sip some cool ones under the stars. I roomed with Chuck from Salsa and two French singlespeeders: Baptiste Delage and Eric Jegou. Baptiste brought with him some beer that was brewed in the town where he lives. I can't really explain what it was other than that it was tasty. Didn't really think there was a micro brew thing in France but apparently there is.

Day Two - Friday

In the morning we loaded up our bikes and drove to Mont Ventoux. We parked a few cars in the village and proceed to shuttle ourselves and our bikes up to the top for the descent. On the way up we must have passed over 500 cyclists attempting to ride the famous Tour de France route up the mountain. Brutal. We were lucky in that we only had to ride down it, on dirt trails. Well, not so much dirt but more loose rock, but not on pavement. The ride down was a bit of an arm-pump inducing break-squealing experience, but a total blast nonetheless.

At the end of the ride we headed back to camp to get cleaned up, then rode into Piolenc through vinyards and back roads to a vinyard where we ate dinner and did some pre-raceday cavorting through the nearby woods. I came back bruised and bloodied but none the worse for wear. The dinner was another great meal of simple French food and good wine. This time, after dinner we rode to the town center of Piolenc and left our bikes there for the next day race, then took a shuttle bus back to the campsite. What can I say? I'd be lying if I told you we didn't sit out on the deck and drink beer again into the wee hours.

Day 3 - Saturday
After breakfast we got our gear together and drove back into town to get ready for the race. We milled around for a couple of hours, ate lunch, then rode up the hill to the race site. It was the hottest day of the three, with a bright sun and very dry. This part of Provence feels almost like a desert, but with all the lush scenery around it is easy to forget this. As I was standing around waiting for the race to start I kept getting whiffs of rosemary. When I finally looked down I found that I was standing in the middle of a patch of it, just growing wild out here in the middle of the mountain forest. Right next to it was a thyme plant. Now all I needed was some garlic, olive oil and fresh young chickens to complete a meal. I swear I would have roasted it up right there if I could have.

When everyone had finally made it up to the site we were told to leave our bikes there and walk down the hill to ready ourselves for a LeMans-style start. When they yelled "go" I was snapping pictures of the riders so I just let everyone go ahead of me. I really had no intention of racing but thought it would be fun to ride out and take pictures. When I got to where I had left my bike it was gone. The first thing I thought of was Phaty. He hid my bike, but I didn't care. Again, I was there for fun, not for competition. So I started looking for it and after a bit someone yelled that it might be over there or something, so I just let them tell me where it was.

I jumped on and rode down the hill to the entrance of the singletrack. There was a really sweet jump right off the start that sent me up in the air a foot or two. The trail wound around and before long I was riding back through the start area where people cheered me on and rang cowbells (except for Phaty who simply told me I was dead effin' last). From there the course headed upward, but throughout the entire 9 mile loop there were only a couple of climbs that sought to sap me of my will to live. Mostly it was a nice combination of twisty singletrack and challenging technical terrain. Dusty and dry, but plenty of traction and with good flow. By far this is one of the best trails I have ridden. I caught myself yelping and laughing out load several times along the way. The only problem was I had only one water bottle with me, and after about five miles I was down to about a quarter of it remaining. The dry air was really sucking the moisture out of me. I decided I'd better take it easy, so I stopped in shady spots often to cool down and enjoyed the scenery. This gave me the chance to chat with some of the riders as I passed them (yes, I actually passed about 10 folks out there!). It felt better somehow to share our suffering and have a laugh together. Luckily I didn't bonk, but by the time I made it to the finish line I was parched pretty bad. I drank three bottles of water while recovering, after which I felt much better.

In the evening we went to the awards dinner. The race was won by some lycra-clad racer geek who had only shown up for the race and left right afterward. He then showed up for the awards dinner to claim his prize only to be told that the awards wouldn't be handed out until after midnight, so he left with his group of cardio freaks never to be seen again. It makes me wonder if this event should change its name to avoid attracting this type of person, who spoils the fun for the rest of the cool folks who attend it for the right reasons.

More wine, good food and great people made for another great night. By the time we got back to the campsite at 2:00 a.m. none of us felt like sitting outside and drinking more. Just kidding. We did. Again. Hey, it was the last night. What would you do?



It ended up being a fantastic event, and I can honestly say I learned a lot about the French singlespeed scene and the people who make it happen. I want to say thanks to everyone who showed up for the event, and a special thanks to David and Gybe for organizing it and making it so much fun for everyone. We will definitely be back. Thanks also to Baptiste and Eric for putting up with this big noisy American in their cabin. It was a lot of fun.

Check out the Surly flickr site for my pictures, and also the SSEC07 flickr site for a bunch more.

Oh sweet mother of God, if there's a reason I exist it must be this. Note the 'tongue in cheek' of the video. Note the use of the driving beat in the music. Note the public access modern dance portion. I'm including the bizarre lyrics to give it 'context' and to act as a sort of shot across the bow. Don't miss the credits. And best of all, at T Minus ThirtySomething they cut to a bit of their truer colors which is, when squared against the song and its era, not so bad. Dig the guitar strap of the guy in the black t-shirt.

Your Love by Outfield

Josie's on a vacation far away
Come around and talk it over
So many things that I wanna say
You know I like my girls a little bit older
I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

I ain't got many friends left to talk to
No one's around when I'm in trouble
You know I'd do anything for you
Stay the night but keep it undercover
I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

Trying to stop my hands from shakin'
Somethin' in my mind's not makin' sense
It's been a while since we were all alone
I can't hide the way I'm feelin'

As you leave me please would you close the door
and don't forget what I told you
Just 'cause you're right - that don't mean I'm wrong
Another shoulder to cry upon
I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

Yeah

I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight
I just wanna use your love tonight
I don't wanna lose your love tonight

Tonight

Interested in how to size your new Surly frame? Just look yonder to the right. Brand new spew #17 about fitting yourself to a Surly. --->


On a different note, here's a shot of me (on the left) racing back in '79. Me and ol' Yeller don't exactly look like we're getting the hole shot. I was a terrible BMX racer. Seriously. My foot's not even on the pedal. And what's with Gregg Allman back there officiating? He looks like he was tied to the whippin' post the night before.

Local Help A Brother Out Ride News
You don't want to forget about this.
Zito has many friends, collected from just about everywhere he has ever been (with the exception of drivers who piss him off). Why? Because he is a kickass individual. If you know him and ever needed help moving or doing just about anything, there's a pretty good chance Zito helped you out. Now it's your turn. This event gets you a group ride, music, food, and a raffle for stuff you'll like, and all to help Zito stuff his rib back under his shoulder and pay off the pile of medical bills. It's for a good cause, and if you don't have fun you have no one to blame but yourself. If you gave before, dig in and give again, because that's the Zito way. He'd do it for you.

Also, this makes me laff. Haters to the left...

I don't really like the word 'blog.' Sounds like what a cat does with a hairball. I am also not fond of 'blogosphere.' For that matter, I don't really like text message abbreviations when used in normal speech or writing (OMG! LOL!). All this means nothing, of course, except that I am old and crusty.
Interesting then that I should be writing today about O.L.D., which doesn't directly refer to me but certainly could (along with C.R.A.B.B.Y. & H.O.S.T.I.L.E.). In this case, O.L.D. stands for outer locknut dimension and is the name for the measurement of hub and frame or fork interface.
Fronts hubs, with rare exceptions, measure 100mm O.L.D. One such exception is the Pugsley fork, which comes stock as 135mm O.L.D. just like the frame's drop outs (or 'rear fork ends' for you purists). Having both the front and the rear use the same width hub is useful when the bike is being used in harsh conditions, say like when it's -50F and your freehub body pawls freeze up. More practically, the wider spacing allows easy removal and installation of a wheel when using Large Marge rims and a big, fat Endomorph tire.
Some people still prefer standard 100mm spacing on their Pug forks though. Slight weight advantage? Don't want to buy another hub, or want to be able to use a normal hubset in case you should ever move the hubs to a different bike? Or maybe you just like wrestling a super fat rim in and out of a narrow opening. Whatever your reason, your O.L.D. dreams have come true. We now have 100mm O.L.D. Pugsley forks. Like their 135mm counterpart, they're black tapered straight leg cro-moly, with disc tab and removeable canti pivots. Still 447mm axle-to-crown. They're in stock at QBP, part number FK0701.

Any of you planning to be at Single Speed European Championships this weekend? I will be there representing from Surly. We drew straws and I think I lost. No one ever explained to me how you win that game. Huh.

Anyway, if you are going to be there be sure to say hello when you see a really tall American speaking mostly English, carrying a bottle of cheap red wine and generally hugging everyone.

A month ago, the Waconia Rotary Club asked me to give a short speech about my experiences riding the Arrowhead 135 Winter Ultramarathon race and working for Surly. I’m a graduate of Waconia High School, and the Waconia Patriot was kind enough to write an article about the race. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to give a little back to the town that shaped me in a lot of ways...for better or worse.

My speaking engagement was scheduled for 7:30am Wednesday morning. I didn’t want to drive from Minneapolis to Waconia, about 55km by car, through the ‘burbs. So I decided to ride there on my geared Pug in the same format as it was set up for the Arrowhead. The safest bike route to Waconia is about 60km. I was looking forward to at least 5 hours of travel from my house to Nancy’s Landing, a marina on Lake Waconia where the Rotary Club meets. Instead of leaving home at 2am Wednesday morning, I chose to ride out to a campsite along the way (at the 48km point) on Tuesday and ride the remaining 12km to Waconia early Wednesday morning…a good reason to get out of the office for a couple of days, try out some new camping gear, and see some of my old haunts and old familiar faces while getting a good workout on the loaded big rig.



I got on the road around 3:00pm on Tuesday and rolled toward the bike trail that would get me most of the way to my campsite in Victoria. It was a beautiful day, and I was thankful to not be in the office. I took my sweet time getting to my site. I stopped several times on the ride…to talk to friends who happened to be on the trail, to have a cup of coffee, to buy snacks and refill my water bottles. I arrived at 7:00pm and set up camp as the sun was starting to disappear behind the trees.



I brought some new toys to play with…

Last fall, I bought an undercover and pad (essentially an under-hammock insulation system) for my Hennessy Hammock, but I hadn’t used them. They worked well and will definitely be included as part of my hammock system. I’m looking forward to some cooler evenings to find the comfort limitations of the hammock and undercover.

When I purchased my hammock a couple years ago, I bought 2 flies for it…an ultralight fly and a larger hex fly. I’d never used the ultralight fly, so I decided to try it out on this trip. It was adequate protection for Tuesday night’s hour of rain, but I prefer the increased area of the heavier hex fly. The additional weight is worth the comfort and protection it provides. If the rain had been heavier or the wind stronger, the ultralight fly would have compromised my ability to stay dry while cooking my dinner underneath it.

Two weeks ago I finished sewing a 0-degree (C) Ray-way camping quilt from a kit, but I hadn’t used it. The quilt worked well, but it was a little warm for the temps and humidity of Tuesday night. Maybe, I'll sew up a lighter summer quilt or cut the bottom out of my down 40-degree bag and use that as a quilt. I found the quilt system so much nicer than a sleeping bag for hammock slumber. I'm sold on the concept.

Over the weekend, I built a new alcohol stove, but it had only been tested on a cinder block in the basement. Unfortunately, the stove performance didn't impress me in the field. I built it to work with my tall, narrow 750ml cookpot, so I oriented the jets toward the center of the stove. It will burn for 20 minutes on 16ml of fuel, but it takes 12-13 minutes to boil 500ml (pint) of water. That’s too slow for me. I'm going back to my 6-gram Mini Bull Design Elite side-jet alcohol stove and my low, wide ti pot. The side-jet will boil 500ml (pint) of water in 4 minutes with 18ml of fuel. So far, this small energy-drink-can stove has the best performance/efficiency/weight ratio of all the alcohol stoves I’ve built and purchased. Plus, the nature of its design negates the need for a pot stand. Bonus.

Tuesday night was spent stoking the campfire, cooking food, hiking the park, listening to the critters, and trying to sleep under an alarmingly-bright moon.

The 5:00am wake-up call from my dad seemed to come much too early. I could have used a little more sleep, but snoozing wasn’t an option. I had to be in Waconia by 7:15am, and I didn’t know exactly how long it was going to take or exactly which route I was going to ride to get there. I needed a little extra time to guarantee that I wasn’t going to be late for my little speech. As the eastern horizon got lighter, I made some coffee on my too-slow stove and packed up camp.

I was on the trail at 5:56am heading west to Waconia, first on the bike trail, then onto the Hwy 5 shoulder when the trail ended. The original plan was to ride snowmobile trails along the highway, but the night rain made the trails too soft and wet for me to ride on without getting totally muddy. I opted to ride the off-camber gravel shoulder instead of taking a mud bath. No other Surly would have performed as well as the Pug on the loose, slanted shoulder. The Endomorphs rolled as easily on the gravel as they had on the pavement. I was in Waconia by 6:45 am. I brushed my teeth, changed into a clean shirt, took some photos, and watched the sun rise over Lake Waconia as I waited for my dad and the Rotary members to show up for their breakfast meeting.

The speech went fine. I was supposed to have 30 minutes to talk, but ended up cramming everything into 20 minutes due to time constraints. It wasn’t my best work, but I think I got most of my points across. My audience seemed to like the Pug. It’s hard not to like the Pug.

After breakfast, I took a small tour of the small town under the light blue sunny sky. A lot has changed in 20 years; a lot has stayed the same. I rode past houses of my highschool friends. Most of their parents still live there.

I headed east out of town toward Minneapolis, opting to take the more scenic, more challenging, not-on-the-Hwy-5-shoulder route until I could get back on the bike path in Victoria. This plan took me on gravel roads, over a section of the old abandoned Hwy 5, through ditches, over muddy snowmobile and horse trails, and onto paved and unpaved bike trails. Pugsley handled it all in stride.



I stopped at the Lowry Nature Center in Victoria, for a while, to take in some calories and revisit one of my childhood stomping grounds. I spent a lot of time there as a kid when my dad managed Carver Park and officed at the nature center. A river of memories flooded back as soon as I walked through the doors. This was just another great part of the multi-faceted journey.

The ride from there was pretty easy. I stopped in Excelsior to eat lunch, chug a Redbull, and soak my feet in Lake Minnetonka while I watched Captain Dildo bust up his too-tall yacht as he forced it under a low bridge spanning the inlet into one of the bays. One more cup of coffee in Hopkins.

I rolled into my driveway at 2:30pm, exhausted, but already looking forward to the next 24-hour adventure.

As mentioned in a blog posting from last week, we had a small booth at the Living Green expo here in Minneapolis. As the name describes, it was show where companies showed you ways to live with minimal toxic impact on the earth. What better way to get all our stuff there than by bike?



The trailer is from Bikes-At-Work, and there was plenty of room for the three bikes and two display racks. The Big Dummy handled the front wheels, a Nice Rack, a box of catalogs, other display crap and my lunch (PB&J, an orange and two beers). It was probably the heaviest load and definitely the longest vehicle I've ever pulled. I split the 25-mile (40k) one-way trip by parking it at home overnight. Then Alix pulled it home the next day, which built upon her already bad ass status around here.

When you do something like this, it makes you realize that there is another level to human-powered vehicles. We're already trying to figure out just how many bikes we can easily and safely haul across town for the next event. Right now, I'm sure 5 bikes plus other stuff is totally do-able. But we shall see...

Grey Pugsleys

Just a quick update for those of you awaiting the new grey color Pugsley framesets. These were coming along right on time, when we found out the forks were not ready yet. So once we have forks, we can sell framesets. The best I can guess right now is that they're still 2-3 weeks out.

Long Haul Trucker Complete Bikes

Our first batch of LHT completes was purposely small, since we like to make sure everything is dialed in before releasing a huge batch. We also underestimated the demand for this bike, hence they all sold out in under two weeks. Our next batch is not going to be here until at least July. So if you're hankering for a hunk of Trucker, you'll have to buy a frameset with a separate parts kit instead of the complete bike we offer.

Also, MSRP is going up on this bike to $985 (from $935). It's just that we weren't charging enough in the first place. No whiners, we need to pay our bills too.

Steamroller Complete Bikes

Same as Long Haul Truckers, probably July before we see more completes.

Sorry for the outages and thanks for being patient.

Paging Tyler Durden....Mr. Durden, you have a phone call at the front desk.

Attention locals of the Minneapolis/St.Paul area, there is a cool event happening at the state fair grounds called the Living Green Expo. It's all about everyday things that are healthy for both you and the planet. We'll have a tiny booth there with 4 of our bikes on display, including a prototype of the Big Dummy. The event is free and hours are 10-5 both Saturday and Sunday. Perhaps we'll see you there.

Big Dummy Report

First of all, no, the Big Dummy is not yet in production. We have all been asked when they will be ready, on a daily basis, over the past six months, but the best answer any of us can give you is, "when they're ready." Why? Because at Surly, we do not believe in selling you products that will require you to work out any issues that we were too lazy to work out ourselves. Not only would that be a disservice to you, it would send the message that we don't really care about the products, but are instead focused only on how many units we can sell. If you know anything about Surly you know that this is not the way we operate, ever.

I'll share with you a conversation I had with a product manager of another bike company not too long ago. It went something like this:

Me: "Hey, that bike looks really cool. The chainstays look long, though. How long are they?"

That Guy: "A little over 18 inches."

Me: "How does it climb?"

That Guy: "Not sure. We just received this frame a couple of days ago, and we haven't ridden it yet."

That Guy's Product Developer (overhearing our conversation): "Actually, our distributor should be receiving their shipment of these in about two weeks."

If the sound of my jaw dropping were audible, you all would have heard an awesome sound. I was literally doing all I could to not scream. But, it made me aware of the fact that not all bicycle companies care to, or are able to operate that way we at Surly do. In the end you might have to wait a little longer for our products to be released than you'd like, but you can rest assured that when our products do make it into one of our fine dealer's shops, they will be as close to possible to perfect as we can make them.

Anyway, now that the weather has gotten nice I've had more time to mess around with my Big Dummy prototype. This is good, because as a result of spending more time on the bike I have gone from treating it as just another interesting bike in my garage to a bike that gets daily use.

I started out looking for ways to haul lots of stuff on this bike, using it to run to the supermarket or liquor store, Home Depot, etc. It worked well for this, mostly. Some exceptions were trying to pack soft things like bread, crushable things like eggs and chips, with heavier things like milk, juice and beer. I was left wanting an alternative to the Xtracycle bag system on some occasions, but in the end I got everything home in reasonably good shape.

As for daily use, what I use it for most is to take my son Senna and his baseball equipment to the local park to practice for the upcoming Little League Baseball season. For this it works great, as we haul three bats, a dozen baseballs, two gloves, a batting helmet, some bottles of water, and Senna riding on the back. I rigged up a stem and handlebar to make it safer for him to ride on the snap deck. At first I put on a Race Face stem and a riser bar, which worked fine for the ride, but was too wide to park it in my garage. So, I replaced the handlebar with a Nitto sweep style cruiser bar (Nitto's model number B617AA), which measures 450mm wide). This bar works perfectly, as it is considerably narrower than the riser bar I'm using on the front, making it easy to store against the wall of my garage. It also allows him more than one riding position for longer rides. Now I need to figure out a way to attach a cushion seat for him, even though he says it's comfortable sitting on the snap deck. I also want to attach a child carrier so I can take my daughter Audrey along for the ride sometimes. I'm afraid that by the time I figure something out that suits our needs she will have outgrown the child seat. Sigh...

As you can see, I'm trying to use the Dummy for every day use, both as a replacement for short trips in the car and as a source of fun. When I first started riding the bike I was unhappy with how sluggish it felt, but figured that it was simply the added weight of the bike, the long rear stays, and my lack of riding condition. In fact, it was probably a bit of all those things, but one thing I decided to try was airing up the tires as hard as they would safely go, and in the end I settled on 70-75 psi, even though the upper end of the tire rating says 65 psi. This reduced the sluggish feeeling dramatically, and the last ride I took it on (about 10 miles) was a blast, and left me wanting to ride it much more, so this is a good sign. The tires I am using are Maxxis Holy Roller 2.4". These feel pretty soft on pavement, so in the future I will experiment with a tire that has a slicker surface and can handle higher pressures. Squishy tires are not ideal for a bike this big, especially when it's loaded, but I chose the 2.4" tires because I figured they would be safer and more comfortable than a skinnier tire. The Schwalbe Marathon Supreme 2.0" looks like a cool possibility.

I'm gonna keep trying other configurations with this rig, hopefully to discover new types of cycling and learn some things along the way, but mostly because this bike is just plain fun. The design changes that are in process now, and that have been explained in detail in Grayboy's blog postings, will make the Dummy even better. We know you can't wait to get your hands on one, but we appreciate that you are willing to anyway.