You just bought a Surly? Congrats. We're confident you’ll like it a lot. Maybe your new Surly is your first steel frame and you’re discovering what we’ve been preaching for years: steel has a special ride, snappy, comfy. With a bit of care, it'll ride the same in 10 or 15 years as it does now.
MAKE IT SO, #1
The first thing that should be done to all frames, not just ours, is to have it prepped by a competent professional. It’s a good idea to face the head tube and fork crown. Facing removes excess paint and metal at the ends of the head tube and the fork crown to ensure that all the pieces of the headset square up and operate flawlessly. Surly frames are faced before they are painted, but the paint can build up enough to make your headset operate less than perfectly. Most facers are also reamers-- they shave the tube ends and mill the inner circumference-- but you don't really need to ream it, so we Surlies usually just shave the paint off the head tube ends with a carpet knife blade. You can save a little money doing it this way, but if you have your shop do it with a facing tool, it should be sharp and in good condition or you might do real damage to your new baby. It is not necessary to remove a lot of metal, just the paint. Next, examine the bottom bracket shell. If there is excess paint on the threads, have them chased with a BB thread cutter. Do the same thing with the derailleur hanger threads if your frame has a hanger.
You may want to face your disc caliper mounting tabs too. Most disc calipers these days have a lot of adjustability built into them, but facing the tabs provides a flat, even, straight surface to attach the caliper to. This is good, but it only works on single-position tabs such as you’ll find on our disc-ready forks and the rear of our Instigator and Big Dummy frames. On our 1X1, Karate Monkey, and Pugsley frames we use slotted, mutli-position tabs complimentary to our horizontal dropouts, specifically designed to provide multiple mounting positions. Facing these will ‘notch’ them so you are limited to one caliper position only. This is bad. If you ever switch gear combos the wheel will not sit in the same spot in the dropouts, which means your caliper will need to be repositioned over the rotor, and suddenly the notches you’ve faced into the tab will start to cause you problems properly lining up the caliper. The bottom line is this: if you want to face the surface of standard, single position tabs, this is fine, do it. But never, ever face the slotted, multi position variety. Never. If you do you’ll be sorry.
At this point you can install all the parts if you so choose, but we recommend also protecting the inside of the tubes.
IT’S WHAT’S ON THE INSIDE THAT COUNTS
The outside of your frame is covered with a tough coat of paint. Even when you get dings in the paint, rust never gets too far because the surface has a chance to dry, so you don’t really even need to touch up scratches (‘course, if you leave it outside under a tarp, it’s gonna rust more than if you get it out and ride it). The inside of the frame tubes, however, are a rust breeding environment. Water gets inside your frame. It does. It can seep into the smallest places, like down your seat tube as water sprays up from your wheel. See the little holes the inside of your chainstays? They’re there to allow gasses to release when the frame is being welded, but they also serve to allow some airflow in the tubing. That’s great, but it isn’t enough. It’s a really good idea to coat the insides of the tubes with some kind of protectant. This is best done, obviously, when the frame is still naked, so after your initial prep, get yourself some JP Weigle Frame Saver or motor fogging oil or linseed oil. Any of these are a kind of sticky oil that coat the insides of the tubes and prevent rust from starting. Frame Saver is a bit toxic, as it comes in an aerosol can, but it has a spray nozzle that lets you easily get into the nooks and crannies on your frame and comes with complete instructions. One can should let you do 3 or 4 frames on average. But whatever you use, go one tube at a time. Put more in than you need and roll the frame around so it coats the entire inside surface. Don’t forget the head tube and fork legs. Let it air out and gel up for a day or so then clean up any extra on the outside of the frame. Add a light coat of grease to the BB threads, the ends and inside of the head tube, and the seat tube, then install your parts and go ride.