Same message every year: we're on our way to Interbike, the U.S. national bicycle tradeshow, and we'll be there all next week. We will not be checking emails, voice mails, snail mails, toe nails, or jail bails, but we will be checking cocktails. In other words, feel free to write or call us but be advised you won't hear back for a while, like a week or two depending on how long it takes us to catch up. 'Kay? Bye. -----

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We have a little something special cooking in the Surly kitchen these days. Check out our Large Marge/Endomorph/Magura-compatible unicycle...the Conundrum. It's offered in 2 sizes: 24" and 26"...this denotes the wheel size, not the length of the frame. I won't go into a ton of tech detail, because you can go to the Downloads section of our site and get that info from our fresh 2006 catalog file. I will point out the bearing clamps. These will be investment cast. Sexy, don't ya think? The samples pictured were built up for the Interbike industry show, coming up next week. Industry folks, who are in Las Vegas for this blessed event, should stop by our booth (4414) and check ‘em out. Production units, sold as frames…not complete unis (at least, not yet), should be available late winter/early spring. We're planning on putting together a build package, so bike dealers can call our distributor, QBP, and have one shipped to them complete with our build spec. or their own spec. utilizing parts sold through QBP. This program is available as an option with all of our bike frames, so it seems logical to offer it with the Conundrum, as well. Here's my little unicycle pep talk for skeptics, self-doubters, and pessimists: Yes, you can learn to ride. Most people learn to ride a uni in 10-20 hours of practice. It depends on your individual balance, age, fitness, etc. It's not something that you'll learn in a day…though I've seen trials riders and BMXicans ride in a matter of minutes, not hours. They are anomalous freaks, though. They have honed their balance on bikes enough to gravitate to a uni with little difficulty. I learned at age 33. It probably took me 15 hours of practice. I cant' ride a wheelie on a bike to save my life, and I don't consider myself an exeptionally gifted technical rider. I just practiced next to a long row of pallet racking until the balance switch was turned on in my brain. It equates to the first time I rode a bike without training wheels. Same feeling. I've heard of kids riding at age 4 and adults learning well into their senior years. If you put in the time, you can learn to ride. Once you learn, you won't forget…just like riding a bike. I started to ride unicycles because I wanted to challenge myself physically in a relatively low-impact way. I can't roll big drops, ride down stairs, or bunny hop very high. Some of that will happen eventually, if I keep rollin' the solo regularly. But, I can put on miles, and I can negotiate a lot of on-road and off-road trail that seemed unridable a year ago. When I'm cruising on the flats, without a whole lot of headwind, I can average 7-8mph for 3-4 hours. It's faster than walking, so it's a viable means of short distance transportation. And, my bike handling skills have improved, because my balance has improved. There are many reasons to ride a uni, lots of styles of riding, and many types of wheels and frames to choose from. The Conundrum is the base for a unicycle that will roll over most loose and/or slippery terrain better than anything else commercially available on the market right now...if you use an appropriately-plump tire and wide rim. This is our one-wheeled equivalent to Pugsley. More fat, round slicks are hitting the marketplace now that cruisers and choppers have become the big thing, so tire selection is vast and varied. We offer the 26 x 3.7" Endomorph at this time. This minimal-tread chevron-patterned tire rolls well on all surfaces. Both unicycle frame sizes were designed around the Endomorph tire casing profile on a Large Marge rim. A big 24" Surly tire will be offered in the future. 24" x 3.0" DH-style tires will work in the mean time. Regardless of the terrain, big cushy tires provide suspension and control. I no longer us a seat pad or air cushion on my saddle, because my suspension moved from the saddle to the tire. For more info, check out the new catalog for specifics on the Conundrum, Large Marge rims, Endomorph tires, and updates on the other stuff we offer. More pics and changes will be added to the website in the upcoming weeks. Colin, our media slut and web guy, will be joining us in Vegas, so most of the changes and updates will happen when he returns to the land of 10,000 lakes. -----

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This sounds fun, wish we could go. -----

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Germany 2005- The Business Dave and I travelled to Southern Germany along Lake Bodensee to attend and work the largest bicycle tradeshow in the world, Eurobike. Our German distributor, Cosmic Sports welcomed us into their booth to display a few of our products. Present were the 1x1, Long Haul Trucker with Nice Racks, an array of smaller products and the one and only Pugsley. Let me say, this show is huge and the European market is much different than the US market. Having about 25% of my time to leave the booth to walk around and check out products, I saw some massive 40 x 60 foot booths filled with brand name bicycles I've never even heard of. Not just brand names of city bikes with fenders and generator lights, I mean brands with a full on selection of mountain, road, kids, BMX and city bikes. After 15 years in this business there are still so many things I don't know. There is also a serious lack of creativity when it comes to many of these bikes. High tech, yes. Creative, no. I mean, aluminum this and carbon fiber that gets old. "nano technology" my ass, it's still carbon fiber to me and I know it would last me and my friends about 4 rides before we'd have to retire it to the bike parts garden. Even though I don't care for alot of the new technologies that are out there, it's still very cool that this industry is still moving in the direction of anything NEW. Which implies, at least in Europe, that people are still riding bikes and wanting some of the latest and greatest. So when I wander back to Cosmic's booth to see people glaze over our Surly products, they finally catch glimpse of Pugsley, sitting there in it's purple glory with massive 3.7" Endomorph tires and Large Marge rims. "Vat is zis for?" they ask. I show them the video clip on my camera riding Pug through a local stream in a foot of water over slimy rocks. I reply, "you can ride it almost anywhere you want, rocks, snow, sand, logs". They are mildly freaked out, smiling, and probably have the gears going in their heads of all the local obstacles in their 'hood that they could blast over with this machine. At least we hope the gears are turning in their heads. Having Pugsley there made the entire trip worth it, as it got more attention than the 8 other Salsa Cycles bikes that were nearby and our other bikes combined. With a freaky and expensive project like Pugsley, we sure hope people catch on to it like we have. We learned alot about the European cyclist and consumer. They are fickle, frugal, detail oriented and want to know how much EVERYTHING weighs and costs. Yet so many of them still ride broken down city bikes, hmmm? Part of us being there was to simply show people our name and brand. Here in the US, it seems many people have heard of Surly. Not so in Europe, and it was obvious by the way they pronounced it SH-ER-LEE. So we passed out over 1,000 catalogs and ran out before the 2nd of 3 days was over. We spoke to many people and hopefully enlightened them a little bit on the simplicities of bicycle, not the high-tech complexities. Somebody has to keep it simple. Just knowing there are Surly stickers being tagged throughout Europe right now makes me feel all fuzzy inside. Here are some not-so-bike related things we saw and ate while at Eurobike. I would've taken spy photos of bikes if I felt they were cool, so just think of fat-tubed aluminum or carbon fiber frames and splash some flashy colors on them. ZZZZ, wake up. We were in apple growing country Town of Ailingen This is tradeshow food? Potatoes, sausage, onions with bacon and a beer for 6 Euros Time to put our feet in the water Mobile DJ -----

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Germany 2005- The Pleasure Hopping a train out of Munich for an hour to the town on Herrshing, I find my way through town via tiny road signs. They point me on a zig-zagged path through this little lakeside village and up through the forest. The creek runs with clear water as the grade steepens. It's lush, green, rooty and rocky. I'm in F'ing Germany and I love it. After an hour hike, I come upon what appears to be the end of the trail. There is a gate and the noise of a group of people. As I walk through the gate, I'm instantly in a beergarden at my final destination, Andechs monastery and brewery. Let's see what the monks have brewed for me today. Feeling the need to eat and sit, I plop down in front of the big church and eat my euro sandwich that's been festering in my backpack since I left Munich. Tasty! The churchbells begin to ring and I'm drawn inside. It's unbelievably ornate and huge inside. White walls, arching beams with gold ruffles, hand painted murals depicting scenes of what the catholics deem holy acts, and people kneeling down to honor their god. I'm feeling pretty good. Then I see some people plop a Euro coin into a turnstyle and go through a little doorway. "What the H&<< ?" Oops, can't say that here. It's a doorway leading to the churchbell tower and I'm going to climb it. Have you ever been somewhere that keeps the less healthy and/or obese people from being able to go somewhere, like the boundary waters canoe area, for example? This is one of those places. The steps become so steep, my ectomorphic frame and backpack barely squeeze through. Everybody is breathing hard and taking breaks to get to the top. There is no way they could ever make this handicap accessible or throw a lazy man elevator in there. But it's all worth it for the view at the top. I can see the entire monastery, Lake Amersee and village below. Did I say I'm in F'ing Germany and I love it? But where are the monks, I've only seen one and he was holding some smoking chamber down below in the church. I venture down to see where else I can play hide and seek with god. Ahaaaa, another beergarden. How can one like myself possibly forego two beergardens in a row? You're right, it's not possible. Beer me, or in German, "Ein masse bitte, dunkel doppelbock". I'm really not sure if I'm saying " one big ass mug of dark lager, please" correctly, but that saying has gotten me through a week already and now it's stuck in my head. It works again. Then I venture to the food line to pork out, literally. I point to what looks like fried pork and somehow utter the word for potato salad in German. Success again. Taking my lunch onto the busy patio, I sit down and realize this patio is a frenzy of beer drinking activity. Grandmas and grandkids all joined together, raising mugs as if it were the last day to drink beer, ever. Two grandmas sit down across from me and don't speak a word of English. When they ask if I speak German, I answer with mug raised "PROST", and we laugh at my inadequacies. Stupid American! At least my Toucan Sam nose led me to the beer. Follow your nose, it always knows. It was obvious those monks knew what they were doing after downing that mug of heaven. But what was with the deepfried 2" thick slab of bacon they call pork knuckle? There is more ground to cover, so I set out to find more monks and the brewery. I see hops growing at the bottom of a road, so I know the brewery is close. WOW, it looks like an old farmhouse, but inside is some very modern and sophisticated brewing equipment. My camera is working overtime because I'm buzzed and inspired, it's also a picture perfect blue sky and 80 degrees F outside. In addition to being a monk-run monastery and brewery, there are also other signs of self-sufficiency. The cows and sheep are probably some of the happiest animals in the world, since the get to eat all the spent barley from the brewery they want and roam freely through the green grassy pasture. It's no wonder the monks settled here in the early 1400's. It's also no wonder that I'm thirsty again. So before I hike back down to the lake to soak my feet, I order a liter of "hell" lager beer, which means "light in color" in German. It's absolutely amazing, as I'd heard from a fellow homebrewer years ago. It's also very ironic that in a place "so close to heaven", there could be a monk created beverage called "hell". Back at Lake Amersee, I soak my tired feet and watch the sunset. As much as my photos, recalled memories and stories of the trip will tell my friends, there is no way to capture how happy this place has made me feel. Go there someday. -----

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