So as some of you may know, we here at Surly make a little bike called the Cross Check.  This was the first bike we ever offered as a complete bike, that was way back in the year 2000 when many of you were wearing diapers (grow’d up style diapers). (As it happens I am wearing them right now)  It was offered geared, like most people ride a cross bike and people liked it.  People kept buying the frame and built it up however they liked and other people bought the complete.  Sometimes those two people would meet and stare…

Recently, I gave a fatbike-oriented presentation.  I figured some props would be helpful, so I dug around in the garage and came up with some appropriate pieces.  I had to get the hardware to the office, so I attached Bill to the Big Dummy and Junk Strap'd everything in place.  My Cargo... *  Pugsley #1...the first prototype. This was our Interbike show bike, then my geared test rig, and, eventually, my single-speed.  I rode it with 26 x 3.0 Nokian Gazzaloddi tires before Endomorphs were available.  That's how it was equipped when we introduced it at Interbike in 2004.  I still ride it with cantilever…

Having been “with” Surly for quite a long time now, I have been honored to meet a lot of fine people (I have also have been made to suffer many more people with whom I did not “see eye-to-eye,” but that's a long series of other stories). Once many years ago I answered an email from Steamroller rider Elan Viss. Elan had written to Surly HQ to let us know how much he loved his Steamroller and has from time to time written back to update us on his life and his bike. The other day I received an email…

Adam and I are currently in transit on our way home from Taiwan.  We were there for two weeks, enjoying all that is a product development trip for Surly.  We kicked off some brand new projects and greased the wheels on some existing ones. Taiwan is pretty rad.  Good people, bizzare food, and a country filled with manufacturers that make bike parts for the world. Here are some random pictures I snapped during the trip.  Enjoy...     Squat toilets... Pretty tough to waist time on your cell phone while using on of these.     Checking in on Krampus…

"Don't be a dick." Charlie the Bikemonger knows a few things about brevity. He's also fluent in sinlge speed races, or "reliability trials," or "liability trials." Whichever. Maybe this doesn't make sense to folks who weren't there, but that's ok. It doesn't need to. All you need to know is that Dorset in the UK is a very hard place to get to, but very much worth the effort. Gut-twisting climbs up massive seaside mounds always paid off with stunning views and rebel yell descents. Cold clammy camping was tempered by the friendliest bonfire in the English (or some variant…