Hello. Do you like to suffer? You do? Then you've probably dreamt about the TransIowa race. Most of you inclined to participate have likely already been following this year's TransIowa developments, but Kerkove and Guitar Ted want you slackers to know that version 3.0 is happening in April, registration is open, and the deadline is looming. Get on it. -----

Speaking of rodents, I discovered a new seasonal sport today called Bowling for Muskrats. When the cold temperatures up here starts to freeze the lakes, there are open patches of water where muskrats like to hang out. They will sit on the edge of the ice and flop in and out of the water. The sport consists of rolling a rock across the ice and scaring them all into the water. Getting them all to jump in the water is a strike. I know you animal lovers are thinking it cruel and inhumane, but have you ever had one lunge…

Occasionally, we get questions about how to haul a Pugsley with an automobile roof rack. Pugsley uses an offset 135mm-spaced fork, so it won't simply plug into a fork-mount type of rack. Some racks will allow the retrofit of a longer dummy axle to accommodate the wider-than-standard fork dropout spacing. But it makes more sense, in my opinion, to leave the car rack alone and build a removable adapter instead. That way, the rack can be used for 100mm-spaced and Pug-spaced forks without having to change hardware. Hurricane Components makes several Fork Up adapters to fit a wide range of…

Fat Squirrel Season Everybody knows that squirrels store nuts for the winter. They store them in the ground, probably up in trees and they eat them to get a nice fat belly for the winter. But what I notice most about squirrels this time of year is that they are particularly slow, sluggish, indecisive, unpredictable and psycho. Case in point, I'm riding my bike in a quiet residential neighborhood this morning (with a 100+ pound trailer in tow) and I see a squirrel walking her dog. She's stopped on the corner of an uncontrolled intersection while the leashed dog sniffs…

Upcoming New Surly Stuff We introduced a few new things at the Interbike tradeshow this year. Things that aren't available right now, things that still need quite a bit of developement and testing and things that we all have to wait for. New colors (they're up on the frame pages now) - available Spring 2007 Crosscheck - green goes, Misty Mountain Grey is new, black remains Karate Monkey - brown goes, Husker Blu is new, black remains Pugsley - purple goes, new color is Metallic Thunderhead Gray Instigator - black goes, new color is red Rocket Steamroller - charcoal goes,…