On Wednesday, I towed six 102cm x 204cm (4' x 8') sheets of 19mm (3/4") tongue-and-groove plywood flooring to my house. The carpenter helping me with my remodeling project estimated a weight of 160kg (about 350 lbs). The salesman at the lumber yard thought it was closer to 180 kg (about 400 lbs). High-speed cornering and rad manuevers were kept to a minimum.



Yesterday, I rode home from the office (about 25 km) with 4.9 meters (19.2 ft) of bike, trailer, and cargo (copper pipe, plumbing fittings, framebuilding supplies, CroMo tubing, and aluminum flat stock) averaging 25 kph with the help of a cooperative tailwind.

Haulin' can be fun.

Little Tyler was a strange boy. He liked to be alone, perhaps because his odd behavior earned him no friends. He ate dirt on a dare once when he was 4, and it was all downhill from there. He ate glue and paste and newspaper and ball bearings and anything else that would make people respect him, sort of, even if they didn't like him.
One year his parents noticed that Tyler began acting differently after the season opener. He seemed more uptight, shorter tempered. He wasn't hungry either. At first his mom chalked it up to something he ate. Which was true.
By the end of the week Tyler still was not eating and was increasingly irritable, so his mom took him to the doctor. He gave Tyler a strong laxative and told the family to wait.
When the time came, Tyler, who had remained silent on the subject of what exactly might have led to this, knew the seriousness of what was about to occur. Instead of running to the bathroom, he wisely ran outside, to the back yard, and went to work. After 15 minutes Tyler's mom phoned the doctor, who assured her everything would be fine. After 25 minutes she called a priest.
By evening, the task complete, Tyler lay exhausted but smiling, and fell asleep near his prize. It was all newspaper reporters and college scholarships after that.

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In actual news, the Cyclera fat tire ralleye and Critical Dirt (Ride Them Humps) is happening in or around Germany this June, thunk up and put on by the good dudes over at RetroVelo, who know having fun means rolling up your sleeves and doing it. Dig the pig. It's all about the fat.




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And finally today, Jean Claude, chief correspondent at our French beaureau (which happens to be Surly's distributor there, Alternative Bicycles), wrote a month ago to let us know this:

Just a little message to inform you that the Surly Pugsley has rode the Antarctica white ice.
Effectively, Alternative Bicycles have established a partnership with a French artist who also likes scientists things.
He rode his Pugsley independently across the Antarctica last month, to make a movie and to catch many ice samples for the Paul Emile Victor foundation.
A Bolex mechanical camera is mounted on the Pugsley fork and powered by the front wheel.
This run was called Sunfest, a real adventure without helicopter or journalists on snow scooters. You can see the bike on few pictures attached and see more here.

I play this little game while riding to and from work where I memorize the license plate of a passing car. When the next car drives by I memorize that one, and so on and so on. If there is an altercation, I've trained myself to look at the license plates first. So rather than use my middle finger to tell somebody how I feel, I can find out where they live based on that license plate and send them a letter of gratitude.

Flashback 10 weeks to Valentines Day in February. I'm riding within the law and hugging the curb as much as I safely can, doing about 20mph down the street, when a car lays on their horn for a good 10 seconds. They pass me, I memorize the license plate, approach them at the red light one block down, and stare into her window. No words said, no middle finger needed, I had her plates.

I "obtain" her name and home address (don't ask how) and write her the following letter:

"Dear Nancy,
Thanks for the extended horn honk this morning. It reminded me that today is Valentines Day and my wife just loves red tulips, the same red as your Cadillac. So thanks for the horn honk. Happy Valentines Day.
- Cyclist on 66th St."

I also enclose a fake traffic ticket and a copy of the Minnesota Department of Transportation rules of the road. No threats, other than she knows I know where she lives.

Fast forward to last Wednesday. I'm riding to work as usual, signaling my turns, flowing with traffic and abiding by the law when a car honks. I see the familiar license plate and verify the same red Cadillac with an older blonde woman driving. I wish you all could've seen her face when she pulled along side me at the red light and I said "Hi Nancy". All she could do was grip her steering wheel, look straight ahead, and figure out how she was going to get the poop off her panty hose once she got to work.

Score one for the cyclist.

A huge time commitment isn't required to get a satifying bike-camping fix. Last Friday, our crew of 5 rode 50km to a campsite in a western ‘burb to put on some mellow, lightly-loaded (referring to the bikes) miles and camp overnight. The packing configurations varied among the bikes…3 Surlys and 2 Salsas. Touring equipment included handlebar bags, saddle bags, baskets, racks, and panniers. Shelter choices varied, too... 3 tents, a hammock, and a tarptent (my Golite Hut 1).

I rode my pre-production Travelers Check outfitted with a Carousel Design Works handlebar bag, Carradice saddlebag (attached to a Nitto Uplift), Jandd frame bag, water bottle tool kit, and insulated beer tube...parallel to the seat tube, holds up 1.3 liters (44 oz) of canned beer. Profile bottle cages are attached to the fork legs using some band-style clamps made by Minoura.



The only water at the campsite was lake water, and I ran out of the filtered water I’d bottled at home. So I had an opportunity to find out how my Klean Kanteen stainless water bottle would hold up if I used it to boil and purify lake water over the coals of our campfire. I purchased several of these bottles years ago, and they’ve served me well as substitutes for the plastic bottles we tend to find in bike shops. Plastic bottles tend to make my water taste bad and/or possibly endanger my health (read about BPA in plastic bottles). So, I tend to stay away from them when possible.



I’m happy to report that the Klean Kanteen quickly boiled 1.5 liters of water (.5 liters at a time) without any permanent damage to the vessel. I cleaned off the soot, but I left some discoloration on the bottle. I like the patina. On the next outing, I’ll boil my water in the remaining shiny bottle. I won’t solely rely on my bottles for cooking/water purification duties, though I probably could, but it’s nice to know that it’s a possibility if my cookpot is lost or damaged in the field.

Overall, the trip was a great success. We rode 100km, shook some of the cobwebs out of our camping gear, and hoisted a few beers around a campfire away from the noise of the city...all in less than 24 hours.

There aren't a lot of Surlies in South Africa. Paul has one though, and writes every once in a while to say hey. Today's email from Paul was special because it reflects a regional ..erm... flavor most of us won't relate to directly:

"I took my young nephew riding at some nearby trails. You often see a troop of baboons there. There’s another troop on the nearby peninsula that’s famously crabby and always nicking tourists’ food and leaving them with nasty scratches and cardiac arrests. While they are pretty adorable – beautiful ticked coats, intelligent eyes at the start of very long snouts, lovely black hand and foot leather – they are damned powerful and can snap your bones should they so choose. Anyway, the troop where we were doesn’t seem bothered by cyclists, or maybe just not keen on granola bars and Go Juice, so you can just ride right past them. We had just passed a mother suckling 2 young as she looked for fleas and things in their coats and were watching some young ‘uns gambolling about when we noticed a large one up a tree at the side of the road. Another larger one scrambled up the bare pine trunk and joined it about 8 metres up. We had to pass right under them, and my nephew was looking a bit nervous (he’s only 10), so I took the inside lane. Imagine my shock when I was assailed by a murky golden shower alighting on the forest floor one ‘q factor’ away! I’m not sure the Lovely Ms would have welcomed me home if the bugger had hit."

Nope, not a lot of baboons around here. But we do have lots of dog shit. So we have that going for us, which is nice.

For those of you heading to Sea Otter for the annual gathering of bike people, bikes, racers, racing, rain, booze, shaved legs, tents and more bikes, here is something else to do over the tweakend. Our fair Andy and Emily will be at Sea Otter, either under a Surly tent or lurking in a dark bar. Say Hi to them.

This one goes out to pal Nutter Shawn, who has recently had a similar experience:



Can't make this stuff up. Found in the letters to the editor section of a recent issue of the Austin Chronicle in Austin, TX.

The natural scavenger in a cyclist can be rewarding, especially this time of the year when the snow melts and reveals all sorts of wonderful goodies. The best ground scores are tools, probably from the back of a work truck. This winter I nabbed two nice sidecutters. Two weeks ago I found $15. Every few weeks a good bungee cord comes along.

But sometimes it's that not-so-fresh looking animal that scars your vision, like the half rabbit on the way to work a few days ago that made you wonder where the other half was. Or the classic flattened squirrel, hide and hair remnants of a once well-fed and nimble rodent.

While riding home with QBP regal legal and all around beardo Matt Moore, he spotted something I hadn't seen in the road since that wrong turn in a bad neighborhood in Utah, a deer leg. Just like that half rabbit, it made you wonder where the other parts of the deer were. Or better yet, how it got there. Was it a yard sale reject? Was it a dog toy? Did it fall off the truck that hit the deer? Did little Johnny use it for a baseball bat? One will never know, but it made for a more interesting ride home through suburbia.

When last we left our intrepid hero Brauer, or rather when last he left us, he looked like Merle Haggard, in that he looked, well, haggard. See above photo. What's with that schmaz on the wall behind his head?

Things are looking up for our hero. He headed west on a train with his bike and he's been riding around, meeting people and hanging out with old friends. His last missive found him in Santa Cruz, where he was treated to a hot bed and soft meals at Devon and Surly-4-Lifer Yafro's domicile. He also got scratched by some Swede he met there, a forearm-length meat gully. And most classy of all, he got to hot tub with worldwide celebrity Borat in Yafro and Devon's jacuzzi. We don't expect him back any time soon. In fact, we keep brushing off the pesky idea of heading out and joining him for a week or two. Living the dream.

I bought my first front-triangle frame bag 5 years ago on ebay. I found it by accident while searching for saddle bags. I’m sure I typed “bike bag” into the search engine, and the 1980’s vintage yellow Velocipac popped up as an option. The price, whatever it was, lured me to bid and ultimately win the bag. It sat on a shelf, waiting for a host, until I started commuting on my pre-Pugsley pre-Endomorph snow bike, a 1x1 with Large Marge rims and Nokian 26 x 3.0 tires.

That winter, I learned to appreciate the functionality of a frame bag. Its ample 3-pocket design (2 large zippered pockets and 1 small map pocket) allowed me to store my tools, tube, pump, lunch, rope, toe straps, miscellaneous repair items, and basic survival gear low and centered on the bike.



I used the bag in the 2006 and 2007 Arrowhead 135 races, on dozens of winter commutes to the office, and on several camping outings, because I didn’t have a better vessel for that space on my bike. I thought about sewing a Pug-specific bag for myself, but the project never got past notebook sketches.

Carousel Design Works
I met Jeff Boatman, of Carousel Design Works, at Interbike in the fall of 2006. He stopped by the Surly booth for a lively chat about frameless bike bags and their potential on adventure bikes. At the time, Jeff was mainly catering to 3-season adventure racers who need to carry minimal gear in ultralight frame bags, handlebar bags, and saddle bags.

Jeff contacted me a year ago to talk about Pugsley frame bags. He needed a pattern, so I sent off an 18” frame to live with him for a while. In November, the Pug frame came back to the office with 3 new Carousel Design Works bags: an 18” Pug-specific front triangle bag, a large seat bag, and a large handlebar bag.



I was instantly impressed with the craftsmanship and design intent that went into each bag…flawless stitching, lots of reinforcements at high-stress areas, and the array of different materials chosen to optimize strength and functionality while keeping weight to a minimum…Frame bag: 288 grams, Saddle bag: 185 grams, Handlebar bag: 138 grams. The combined weight of all 3 bags (608 grams) is less than the weight of my lightest Cannondale front pannier (641 grams).

The bags got installed on my geared Pug, which was being used as my daily driver at the time. I’ve loaded them up with commuter gear and camping gear. For each type of ride and its varying list of cargo, I’ve experimented with different packing configurations until everything found its natural place in one of the 3 bags.

The handlebar bag installs with cleverly fabricated and well-placed straps that wrap around the handlebar and stem. It was designed for ultralight touring and depends on the contents of the bag to provide most of its structure. It’s tuned to carry lightweight compressible gear like a summer sleeping bag or bulky clothing items that conform easily to the shape of the bag. I installed a thin sheet of plastic, formed into a tube, for hauling heavier gear that would otherwise deform the bag and make it sag or swing side-to-side.

The adjustable-volume saddle bag attaches with Velcro flaps, that hug the seatpost, and nylon webbing that goes over the rails of the saddle. It uses a cinch cord, like a stuff sack, and a bonnet-style cover to close the bag, compress the load, and keep the contents dry. The saddle bag is used for the some of my lighter, bulkier gear. Like the handlebar bag, it functions best when full.

The frame bag fits like a glove. In most cases, this is good, because the bag looks clean and beautiful, and the fabric tension holds the bag contents from bouncing around. But it’s less than ideal when the bag is completely stuffed and one needs to get an item from the bottom. Gloves and mittens amplify the difficulty. Zippers on both sides of the bag (2 on each side) do help with access issues, but I’d ultimately opt for a looser, roomier bag in lieu of the super-refined appearance. The 100mm-wide bottom bracket shell, and resulting wide Q-factor, allow for a wider bag on the Pug without leg/bag interference problems. The bag has a central, horizontal, internal zippered flap that allows it to be used as a single- or double-compartment unit. I use mine as a single, because the volume is increased in this configuration. On my wish list of improvements: A handle for lifting the bike over obstacles, and more easy-to-access capacity.

Since I received my bags, Jeff has refined his designs and added to his product offerings. If you can articulate what you need, he can probably make it. Check out the Carousel Design Works website to see what Jeff is capable of. Make sure you check out the gallery of photos.

Epic Designs
Eric Parsons - Epic Designs proprietor, Karate Monkey flogger, and Alaska resident - contacted me last October with an offer I couldn’t refuse…in exchange for a Pugsley frame bag, I’d do my best to torture the bag, provide ongoing feedback on it’s performance, and make suggestions for improvement.

My 2-compartment, 2-zipper Epic bag arrived mid-December. I removed the CDW bag from my geared Pug and put it on my single-speed Pug, because I wanted to keep using it to make direct comparisons between the two frame bags. The Epic bag was installed on the geared rig, because it sees more miles than the single-speed, and I wanted to check the fit with shift cables and a front derailleur installed. With the Arrowhead 135 two months away, I needed to put on lots of miles, with both bags installed, to determine which I’d use for the race.



The bag installation went smoothly. The Epic is burly and simple, and it does a good job of utilizing the vast majority of available space in the Pug front triangle. The front of the bag flares out at the headtube, providing extra room in the area where there is no bag/leg overlap. The YKK zippers are beefy with substantial mitten-friendly pulls, the fabric is robust, and the stitching is clean. This bag is roomy. It’s a winter bag. I can access it without removing my mittens, in most cases. .

Frame bags cover up the best handle of a loaded Pugsley – the top tube. So I wish a handle had been sewn into the Epic bag. Eric did send me pics of some Epic frame bags with sewn-in handles. It is an option. Ask, and ye shall receive.

The Epic was ultimately chosen as my Arrowhead bag. It had proven itself on many December and January commutes. The appropriately-blousy volume and ease of use in bitter cold temps made the decision clear for me. I saw several other Epic bags at the race this year. My frame bag was pretty easy to access for eating on the fly, especially with the relatively warm temps and light clothing required to stay warm, but I wish I’d had an Epic tank bag, too. They got good reviews from other racers.

Peruse Eric’s website to see all the other sweet Epic Designs goodies: poggies, saddle bags, handlebar bags, and unique rack bags. Good stuff.

I love seeing these cottage industry bag offerings on the market, and I appreciate the fact that they are being designed and refined by guys who ride bikes. So many of the bags on the market today are more show than go…designed by industrial designers who put more emphasis on color and sheen than function.

Racks, rack-dependant bags, and trailers certainly have their place in one’s collection of commuting, touring, and adventure bike accessories. But, sometimes, they are simply overkill for an ultralight, short-distance, or short-term trip.

Oh yeah, lookit that.


I have placed this image before you as harbinger that orange & black Wraith Rides are beginning to drift into stock. Currently some 18s and a few more 20s and 22s are here and waiting for you, and more of everything, including 14s and 16s, will be here early next month, which is like 2 weeks, not even. Keep in mind the pitchur shows the one we built up to be a show bike... we don't sell these as completes, but as framesets. They're also available in black (with white graphix) because Get Bent, that's why.
This, however, is the first appearance of the orange and black. Orange is fast. And black is fast. Together they're going to make this the bike equivalent of a '78 Cutlass with a hemi, posi, fat shoes, and cop suspension. The last of the V8s. I am a rocker, I am a roller, I am an out of controller. I am a fuel injected suicide machine. I am FM0085 (14"), FM0086 (16"), FM0087 (18"), FM0088 (20"), & FM0089 (22").
Let's have one more quick look:






Oh, that's nice.
BTW, there are still some sparkly lemon/lime frames in stock. Them're yummy too.

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And oh yeah, Deuce? Yes, Surly wool jerseys are still in stock in all sizes (S, M, L, XL), genders (mens' womens', and other), and colors (black with white lettering or green with black). Get summa that too. A guy on RAGBRAI last year saw us wearing our wool, and it was not a cool or even mild day. It was hot. We were sweating, everyone was sweating- but we were sweating less than him, in his stinky, garish synthetic jersey, and still he asked in a somewhat snippy tone, "What is that, wool? You guys think it's winter?" Yes, we think it's winter. Don't be a dillhole like that guy. At least try it for yourself. You'll see.


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The lovely and talented Ms. Bloggins (no longer Ms. Anthropy now that spring is beginning to peek through the snow) sends this link , said it made her cry. I believe it. It's a story of love, when you boil it down. Mr. Cutshall, you have my undying respect.

Big Dumb News

This is only a test.

Yes, kids, complete Mr Whirly cranksets are here. We 'hotted' part of this batch by air-freighting some (i heart buyer speak), and if for some reason you miss out this go 'round we have the rest coming in a couple weeks. At that point we'll also get armsets and small parts too. All the completes are available only in black and come with either a 33t stainless steel Surly ring or swell-looking 22/32/44t rings, all on a 94mm BCD spider. Bearings and spindle included.

Here's what we have right now:

CR0040 - 170mm triple, spindle to fit 68&73mm BB shells.
CR0034 - 175mm triple, spindle to fit 68&73mm BB shells.
CR0041 - 170mm Pugsley triple, spindle to fit 100mm (Pugsley) BBs
CR0035 - 175mm Pugsley triple, spindle to fit 100mm (Pugsley) BBs
CR0036 - 175mm single speed, spindle to fit 68&73mm BB shells.
CR0037 - 180mm single speed, spindle to fit 68&73mm BB shells.

This is all the completes we're doing, at least for now. Armsets will come in black or silver and will be available in 165, 170, 175, 180, & 185mm lengths. Holy crap. Spiders will also be avilable in silver or black, will come in 94, 104, & 110mm BCDs, and everything is interchangeable.

From the OOOBS brog:

Here's some late breaking film action and just in time too. Today I walked a bike out at 6:59pm, rode it around the block. At 7pm it was still light out. This Thursday March 13th, for one night only! Strong Arm Marketing presents, The Pornography of the Bicycle. A series of short films on the theme of Bike Porn. It's cumming on thru its east coast tour here in Mpls. It will play at the StrongArm Marketing Complex, 117 Washington Ave N. Mpls, MN. $5 at the door. 99 to 100 limited seats. That's this Thursday night. Door at 8pm, Director/Producer intro at 8:15pm. Showtime at 8:30pm. Scroll down the trailer page for a short look. We all know cycling, and sex, are some of the best things life offers us. You really do not want to miss this. Spring is coming:)