This week is Interbike, the big bike balihou in Las Vegas and most of Team Surly is out West “working”. If you’re out there, you’ll recognize them in their matching costumes. They’ll be showing off some fancy new stuff that you’ll probably hear about over the next while.

So, if you call Surly in the next few days, you’re going to get me or the voice mail. And we might not be able to respond to your email lickity split, so patience grasshopper. We’ll be back in full effect next week.

In the meantime, take a look at our new Environmental Spew #18 over on the right side of the page here. It’s a work in progress that we’ll shape over the next year or so. At Surly, we prefer not to do any bandwagon jumping or lemming following, so don't expect us to be buying carbon offset credits or wearing solar-powered clothing anytime soon. However, manufacturing in an intelligent way is important to us, so there.

And to lighten your day :

Homie Fall Fest 2007

hom·ie /ho-mi/ Pronunciation Key - [hoh-mee]
–adjective, hom·i·er, hom·i·est. comfortably imbibing and riding single speed bicycles with friends in the woods.

The pride and joy of the Minneapolis Mafia, the anchor leg of the defunct Minneapolis Metro Frothy Mug Single Speed Series and the only rally event to happen every year here since 1997 is once again about to rear it's ugly head. Yes, the Homie (or Homey, depending on who made the flyer that year) Fall Festival is happening again on Saturday, October 20th.

Here is the flyer with everything you need to know. Don't e-mail us for details unless you promise to bring a piñata full of homebrew, mini bacon burgers and oatmeal creme pies. No seriously, everything you need to know is on the flyer.

I’m heading out to the Bell Museum tonight after work to see “Ski Boys” and “Monkey Warfare” at 7pm. I’m particularly excited about “Ski Boys”, a bizarre Super8 film about the exploits of the Ski Boys in the 1970s. See you there? Afterparty at the 331 Club.

The Bike Film Fest is just plain spectacular and no matter if you’re a BMXer, a straight edge tall-bike rider or a ‘bent commuter you’ll love it. Plus Surly is sponsoring it.

Here’s what you’ve got to look forward to over the next few days:
More info can be found at www.bicyclefilmfestival.com

BIKE FILM FEST SEPTEMBER 13-15! All screenings at The Bell Museum of Natural History 10 Church Street SE. Admission price is $7.00 for an individual film and for a $27.00 festival pass. Order your tickets online before they sell out!!

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 13

PROGRAM 1 7pm SKI BOYS + MONKEY WARFARE Dan and Linda are two ex-activists in Toronto who live a low-key lifestyle, selling junk online and riding their bicycles. After their pot dealer gets busted, they meet the young revolutionary Susan, forcing Dan and Linda to question their relationship and face their turbulent past. "Monkey Warfare" was well received at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, winning the Special Jury Award.

AFTER PARTY at 331 club 331 NE 13th Avenue


FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 14

PROGRAM 2 7pm BIKECAR USA 2006 DV 65 min. Dir. J.T. Fountain Travis Parker, Louie Fountain and Scotty Wittlake approached travel differently last winter. Putting snowmobiles and 4x4's to shame, the crew traveled across the great Northwest in a bikecar: a four-person, pedal-powered vehicle that was the vessel of the adventure – part bike, part car. Pulling a trailer with snowboards and gear, the crew pedaled in search of snow for one month. "Bikecar" is a one-of-a-kind documentary that brings a new perspective to travel, adventure and snowboarding.

PROGRAM 3 9pm BFF DVD and KIEST PARK USA 2005 16mm 5min. Dir. John Ayala A seven year old leaves his parents and his block for the first time to explore, observe and destroy in a vast new world.

AFTER PARTY TBA

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 15 Peace Coffee Bike Ride to the Bicycle Film FestivalThe ride starts at 1pm at CRC Coffee Bar ( 3346 Lyndale Ave S) and makes it's way to the Bell Museum by 3pm, just in time for...

PROGRAM 4 3pm WE JUST WORK HERE USA 2007 Super8 40 min. Dir. Brian Vernor Every luscious shot in this film exudes love of the bicycle. It follows the workers of Santa Cruz Bicycles, from the factory to the trails, streets and track. The track shots are so beautiful they would inspire any street fixie rider to head for the local track. Legendary skater Rob Roskopp founded a company on passion for the bicycle. The workers of Santa Cruz share this passion through playing and working together.

PROGRAM 5 5pm KLUNKERZ USA 2006 DV/8mm/16mm/DigiBeta 88min. Dir. Billy Savage A history of the modern mountain bike, this film documents the rise of a huge cultural movement that was pioneered in Marin County on the trails of Mt. Tamaipais. Mountain Biking was born out of the creative scene surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area hippy and rock world of the '60s and '70s. This film features the characters of that day such as Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, Charlie Kelly and Alan Bonds. The races began among friends getting stoned, partying and flying down the mountain on their pre-'40s bikes with fat tires: "Klunkerz." Those fun escapades turned into a sport that changed – and maybe even saved – the bike industry. Now, all over the world, you see people riding mountain bikes.

PROGRAM 6 7pm AYAMYE* GOODNESS, KINDNESS, GENEROSITY USA 2007 DV 40min. Dir. Eric Matthies & Tricia Todd In Ghana, a rural village eagerly awaits a shipment of recycled bicycles from the United States. The majority of the bikes are sold in a colorful frenzy to pay for shipping costs, while the best bikes are set aside to take to the village. Ayamye* chronicles the lives of Nurse Letitia and Seth before they get the bicycles and again one year later. These two individuals are very different from each other, the common thread being the need for transportation and the wish for positive development in their community. "Ayamye" is a moving, life-affirming film that proves sustainable solutions to crisis are not always complex.

PROGRAM 7 9pm MESSENGER PROGRAM + FUN BIKE SHORTS + LUCAS BRUNELLE WORLDWIDE BROADCAST USA 2007 DV 10min. Dir. Lucas Brunelle The famous Lucas Brunelle travels the world from London to Mexico City to New York. In this year's update of his worldwide adventures you see the emerging bike movement through his helmet cam. Afterparty at One On One Bicycle Studio (117 Washington Ave N.)

See you there!


TURTLE!

In other news, my friend Devin(whose trashheap of a bike I borrowed for the Portland Bridge Pedal last month-thanks Devin!)’s turtle has miraculously reappeared after two years living in the wild abandons of his mom’s neighbor’s back yard. It’s alive and healthy. I don’t normally get excited about people being reunited with their long lost pets, but a turtle? That’s awesome. I didn’t even know turtles lived that long.

SSWC2007- Aviemore, Scotland

When I was a kid, my parents sent me to camp for a week each summer. I recall each time I'd arrive at camp, there was a mixture of friends from last summer and a bunch of new faces. By the end of the week you knew at least half of them, you had more fun than was imaginable and you didn't want to leave or say goodbye.

The same is true each time I go to Singlespeed World Championships. I'm greeted by the best damned people in the world, whether I know them or not. We play hard, drink hard and ride hard for a week. Even if I see some of these people throughout the year, at tradeshows or other events, it's just not the same playground setting that SSWC delivers.

This year it was situated in Aviemore, Scotland. This was pre-determined after the UK folks won a beer swilling contest (AKA boat race) in Stockholm, Sweden last year and got to choose to be the host. I couldn't have been happier that they won, because the Brits and Scots were always the last people standing with us Americans each night, year after year.

En route to Scotland, Andy "Chu Hi" Corson, Ron "Chewey" Moffit, Hurl "Hurl" Everstone and I stopped for 24 hours in Reykjavik, Iceland. We really just wanted to check things out, so we walked around town, swam in some mineral spring geothermal baths, found some fish-n-chips and hit the local bar. Reykjavik is basically an old fishing village and viking outpost that is both desolate, cool, creepy and beautiful all at the same time. Later on we found a trendy little bar and spent $8-12 per pint the rest of the night as the locals cozied up next to us on the rain soaked patio. There was laughter involved.

The next travel day was as easy as 1-2-3. A 1-hour cab ride and a 2-hour flight on 3 hours of boozey sleep. Once in Glasgow, Scotland, we met Minnneapolis girl Shawn "Nutter" Postera, got our rental cars and drove on the other side of the road to Perth. Fiona Lockhart (also Mpls local) and her broken foot arrived at the train station, complete with her crutches strapped to her bike rack. We drove to Aviemore, found our rental house and flopped on the beds in relief that our travel day was over. We cooked some food, drank some beers and caught up on sleep. There was laughter involved.

Aviemore is a small little resort town with downhill skiing, golfing, hunting and a seemingly endless amount of beauty. In addition to the single speeders in town, there were also people in town for a chainsaw wood carving contest and some sort of ramp-jumping-into-the-water contest. These next few days consisted of catching group rides from town, catching up with old friends and catching a buzz at the bar later on. Sleep, rinse, repeat. There was laughter involved.

Onto race day. Fortunately, not too many people take this race seriously and they end up staying out until late the night before. It isn't about performing well, it's about maximizing the fun:hour ratio and sleeping is usually sacrificed. When I woke up the next morning, I recalled Hurl being the only other person awake with me before stumbling to bed. When I asked what time we got to bed, his answer was "a quarter to hell". As much as my head hurt at that moment, there was laughing involved.

We rode down to the race start, which was actually just the start of an hour-long rollout ride to the real start of the race course. Most of the people were quiet on this morning ride. Perhaps pre-race jitters, perhaps just burning off the fumes. Either way, we were strolling through some of the most incredible green and heather purple colored coutryside in the world with some of the best people on the planet. A kind dreadlocked gent from Australia named Dam-o had a bike sound system that was playing Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. It was surreal.

The race course was 5 laps and we were guaranteed by the organizers, Telly Savalas Players Club, that it would hurt. The start rules had you put your bike down and run/walk/whatever for a few minutes until you find your bike again. Since the Indian food from the night before was burning a hole in my region, I opted to walk it out. By the time I found my bike, I was not-so-surprisingly riding with the same back-of-the-pack people I always ride with. Perfect.

The terrain was as rocky, raw and technical as expected. Towards the end of my first lap, the fit f'ers were lapping me and I pulled aside to watch them skip through the rocks with ease. I don't know how, but Adam Craig took his eyes off the trail to comment on my helmet of choice while he proceeded to close the gap on the three leaders.

At the end of my first lap, I was thirsty and stopped for a can of beer. This turned into a couple cans of beer, which turned into heckling the racers, which turned into spanking the lycra wearers, which turned into the only lap I'd ever finish. No worries, because having fun is the name of the game and there was an abundance of laughter involved.

As Adam Craig, now well in the lead of the race, passes through the start/finish/heckling area wanting something to drink. Everybody offers their water, but he refuses. Then I hand him my warm half can of Heineken and he's off riding again. As soon as he was out of sight from us, he crashed, went over the bars and skinned his elbows, but didn't even dent the can. He went on to not only win, but give me back my can and coozie and thank me for the beer hand up. Who said pro racers suck?

We all rode back into town after the race without Chewey. Nobody knew where he was, but if the woods swallowed him up, at least he died a happy death. In reality, he was out on the course, cleaning up the beer stash, chatting with locals, re-riding some of the technical trails and going for DFL, which he probably "won". The prize ceremony ensued, we gave away a frameset to the local who was the best volunteer of the event, there was a beard contest, a group Scottish dancing contest and a few more necessary goofy contests for prizes.

Then the competition to see who would host SSWC2008 was on. Honestly, I didn't pay much attention to how this was resolved, but there was a side-by-side stationary rollers racing contest followed by a not-so-wee swally of scotch followed by a Scottish dance-off. It was Curtis Inglis from Napa, California versus some hilarious guy from Durango, Colorado. The winner didn't appear to be the first on the bike or the first done with the scotch or the best dancer. But it was determined by crowd applause, which went to Curtis, respectively. So start saving up for wine country because SSWC2008 is going to be held in or around Napa, California next year. Guess who cannot wait?

On the last day, 8 of us drove back to Glasgow for the night before flying back to the States. We stayed in a cute little B&B and walked the streets looking for trouble. We found real graffiti, bars inside 200-year old churches, good food, better beer, the best cider ever and it sealed our love for this amazing country called Scotland.

It was naturally hard to say goodbye, especially knowing I'd have to ween myself from all the laughter slowly. But there is nothing like your own bed at the end of travel. Perhaps a more concise summary of the events I witnessed can be found in these here photos.

SSWC2007 photos here

New Wool Caps In Now


A new batch of wool caps arrived the other day, just in time for the cool fall weather. Pictured here we find the lovely Alix modeling our newest limited edition lid. This one features navy panels with a green plaid stripe. The bill of the cap strategically hides the cut she has on her nose from a freak pizza eating accident that happened last week. Ask her about it. It's pretty weird, and funny. Well, at least we thought it was funny. FYI, the one QBP has pictured on their dealer website has a slightly different stripe. That one was never produced. This is the one they are selling, so please take note. We actually like this one better than the one we didn't get. Hope you do, too. If you want one you'll need to run to your local bike shop and ask them to order part number CL0398 (S/M) or CL0399 (L/XL) from Quality.

It was the Japanese folks last night in town so we wanted to do something fun. It started out with Rie, Shuji, Shuhei and myself biking over to Triple Rock for happy hour. Jason from Salsa showed up a bit later, and then Girl Carl walked through looking for someone to drink with. She chose us. The two men seemed enamored with carl, and took a shitload of pictures of her. I guarantee she ruined my chances of appearing in the magazine, but who would prefer to look at this git over her? After a few beers each, Rie said she wanted to eat the most expensive sushi in Minneapolis. I suggested Origami, and off we went. When we had arrived and locked up our bikes I went inside to secure a table, only to find there would be a one hour wait. There is another sushi place called Nami about three blocks away, so we decided this would be our course of action. We locked our bikes out front and got a table very quickly. Randy Chu Hi phoned to find out where we were, then arrived a few minutes later with three ladies in tow (that Chu Hi, I tell ya). They were there to say their goodbyes to the Japanese, then headed out to the streets for even more fun. The rest of us finished up and headed outside. I had locked up the six bikes with a long cable lock, and Shuji had locked up four of the bikes with his chain lock. Unfortunately, Shuji was unable to find his key, and thus four of the bikes were stranded there, and so were we.
Meanwhile, Carl headed somewhere to find some tools, and I did likewise. Shuji and Shuhei walked up and down 2nd Ave. N. to see if they could find the key but never did. Carl returned with some tools but they were useless in trying to cut the hardened steel links. I got on the phone to Randy and asked if he had a bolt cutter in his garage. He said no, but promised to be there soon with some tools to try and break the lock. He showed up after a bit, but the tools he brought were equally useless on this lock. While he was fiddling with it, however, a drunk guy with his girfriend stumbled out of Nami and noticed that we looked like we were in trouble. He suggested we go into Nami and ask them for a bolt cutter. "That sounds reasonable," I answered. "All sushi shops have bolt cutters." "Well, why wouldn't the owner of Nami have a bolt cutter?" he replied. No answer from us. He continued trying to offer assistance until Randy finally politely refused his help and offered a "You're not really helping, but thanks anyway." Drunk Guy wasn't having it, and as tensions started to rise he said to Randy, "Dude, what's your sign?" WTF??? To which randy just returned a glare and a less than polite "Just f*ck off." Drunk guy didn't know what to say, so he turned around and walked back inside Nami with his lady, saying nothing. About 5 minutes passed before four cops on bikes showed up, surrounding us. "What's the problem here?" said one of them. We replied that we had lost our key and were trying to get our bikes free. They then relaxed and started cracking jokes with us, telling us that someone had called the cops on us, saying we were trying to steal bikes. (Way to go Drunk Guy. You showed us!). Meanwhile, as this is all happening, Carl uses her big brain and walks over to the police station to ask for help. In the end the cops showed up and cut our bikes free, with Shuhei shooting pictures of the whole ordeal. The officer in charge cut the lock, and only then paused to laughingly ask us, "Are these really your bikes?" They even posed for a group photo when it was all finished. Thank god for the mpls police. Randy and I went back into Nami to thank Drunk Guy but he had already bolted. In the end we all had a good laugh about it, and it should be a nice addition to the magazine article the Japanese folks came to write about the Minneapolis bike scene.

Gie's a wee swally, eh?

MPLS Locals: WNR tomorrow may have some outta sight outta town visitors. Show, yo.

Burner!

Maybe (maybe) 10 to 2 in the a.m. Glasgow, Scotland, after Single Speed Worlds.

Still driven by (the theory of) Scottish eggs (hardboiled eggs, wrapped in bacon, breaded and deep fried. Yes, really), the stunningly beautiful reality of the Cairngorm mountains, and lots and lots of people schooled in the business of ways we know & love, all coming together in some weird convergergence of cosmic righteousness.
This morning (although with the time change, what time is it really? Has anyone seen that confounded bridge?!), an all day wake-up, pack-up, & drive (with a stopover at the Dahlwhinnie whiskey distillery) to Glasgow, where we ate something and bounced around from this pub to that. Stopping has not been an option so far.
A week ago we were marinating in a hot tub (one of 4 of varying temperatures, in a public square) in a hotsprings in Iceland during an extended layover from which we probably should not have recovered but, as professionals, did. This is, after all (was, anyway) Single Speed Worlds.
Several days and pints (after pints) later we are back in Glasgow managing something resembling the line between reality and 'other', and the memories are already casting long shadows and loud echoes. Who won? Someone, I'm sure. Maybe two people. That doesn't matter.
What matters is that we've yet again proven that bicycles, in this case singlespeed bicycles, bring out the best in humanity. What could possibly be better, than traveling around the world with your bike, drinking mad amounts of booze, riding impossible singletrack, and laughing all the way round? It is true that we are sometimes idiotic, sometimes plainly inebriated. But goddamn it, we are having more fun than you. And by 'you' we mean the collective dull republic, those who do not, or perhaps cannot, realize that the undeniable comeraderie that results from these journeys is not something easily put into words. We've been doing this for years, often seeing friends from across the globe but once a year. And it is a sweet reunion, every time. Bicycles are the great common denominator. I cannot imagine a sweeter venue for such friendship, revelry and great times than the 'Single Speed World Championships.' Don't take things too seriously and you, too, will be in for the time of your life. Next up: Interbike...

Maybe more later...

Reporting live from the Snack-n-Mack,
-Kenneth J Bloggins & Hurl, The Everstone

P/S/... Surly Bikes and Cars-R-Coffins reserve the right to edit this at any time... and probably will.

P/S/P/S
For SSWC 2008 next year, there is a wine town in California named Napa that will host it. Curtis Inglis showed up in fine style and proved he's got the balls to take on the task of welcoming all of us. I have no doubt it's totally going to suck.