Email Of The Day Yo dudes, Thanks for making such rad projects; I bought a Steamroller from a guy named Shipwreck out of the trunk of his car about 5 years ago and have never looked back. holla, George Thanks George, we'll take that in spite of your use of the term "holla". Shipwreck. Yeah. The rest of my droogs, my gravy train, my bitches, my homies, my people, all of them except Hairy Jim are at Interbike tradeshow in The Meadows, NV, so I am here doing mostly customer service all by myself while Jim ensures that the behind the scenes stuff occurs as it should so this ship of fools doesn't capsize. I'm typing back you people as fast as I can! In order to head off even more emails, here is a list of answers to potential questions: 1) The size you need is determined by effective top tube length and standover height, in that order. We have a bit about frame sizing over to the right, Spew #17 called Bike Fit. 2) Yes, you may have some toe overlap, no I can't tell you how much. Seriously people, the concern about toe overlap is getting out of hand. You're just being irrational now. Don't you think if it were a serious hazard there would be some sort of regulation, or least you would actually know someone personally who crashed because their toe got caught on the wheel? Come on people, be reasonable. 3) It's called Commando, and no, your ass won't hurt more without the padding. Get a seat that fits and you'll be fine. 4) New colors are coming for the LHT (Truckaccino replaces Hill Street Blue, Olive still available), the Cross Check (Misty Mtn Grey replaced by Beef Gravy brown. Think beef gravy), the Karate Monkey (Chum Bucket red replaces Ouch It Hurts blue), and the Steamroller (What A Maroon replaced by Creamroller, the color of Guiness foam). All new colors will be accented with all black decals. The Creamroller complete is particularly snazzy, with almost all black parts. Alll Riiight. Giggity. The KM and Big Dummy will be added as complete bikes (the KM as rigid single speed in both red and black), both utilizing our fine Mr. Whirly crankset. No, I don't have photos or other info up on the website yet, sorry, but it won't be too long. BD will of course include VRacks and Snapdeck. 5) At your local bike shop. They love you, you know. 6) The Long Haul Trucker and Cross Checks are both getting new Nick-at-Surly-designed dropouts, so when your shop says "Surly discontinued the Cross Check", they are incorrect. The part number they're looking up has been discontinued, but the frames and bikes themselves, if we're out of your size, will be here before too much longer. 7) Early next year, like January and maybe even sooner. -----

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I ate 40 crickets, some sautéed and some dry-roasted, for lunch last Wednesday. I've been reading wilderness survival and primitive living books since I was 12 years old. I've geeked out on most Survivorman and Man vs. Wild episodes on YouTube. The romance of living in a minimalist fashion is alluring, and having the knowledge to do so is confidence-inspiring. I do some ultralight camping, and I occasionally push myself through some endurance events. But I've never really put myself into a situation where I've had to catch and eat my own food to survive. Would I willingly eat insects, arachnids, slugs, and worms if I couldn't catch fish, mammals, or reptiles to eat? How would they taste? Early this year, I started reading entomophagy cookbooks full of information regarding the procurement, preparation, and cooking of insects, spiders, scorpions, centipedes and millipedes for human consumption. 'The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook', 'Man Eating Bugs', and 'Creepy Crawly Cuisine' enlightened me and made me think about the other foods we eat without question. Eating bugs is really not a big deal, unless you live in the US. For some reason, we've deemed the consumption of oysters, lobsters, clams and other bottom-feeders as normal. But stir-frying mealworms or grilling grasshoppers is perceived as odd. I have the recipes and know-how to prepare local-grown bug entrees. But until last week, I simply had not taken the extra steps to use my newly-obtained culinary knowledge. Other than the thousands (millions?) of bug parts I've inadvertently eaten over the years, I was a virgin of bug-eating. That changed last Tuesday night. When I arrived back at my house, after a pushing session on my longboard, a cricket hopped across may path. For some unknown reason, that triggered an hour-long bughunt in my front and back yards, yielding 40+ black hoppers. The vegetation along my sidewalk and driveway is where my meal was hanging out in the wee hours. I decided to eat my bounty for lunch on Wednesday. After 20 minutes in the fridge and 3 minutes in the freezer, the crickets weren't moving. I didn't have to worry about my meal hopping or crawling out of the pan or off the cookie sheet. 20 went in the sauté pan with butter and minced garlic and cooked for 3 minutes. The remaining crickets were placed on a lightly-oiled cookie sheet and dry-roasted at 225F for 45 minutes. The sautéed bugs were done first. I decided to try one hot from the pan. The apprehension of taking the first bite was stronger than I had anticipated. Would it squirt or crunch? Would it taste bad? Would the legs get caught in my throat? Only one way to find out. I tossed a cricket in my mouth and chomped down preparing for the worst. I chewed and swallowed. Then I ate another, and another, and another…until they were all gone. The crunch of the little bug heads surprisingly adds to the palatability. The taste of cricket is relatively neutral; it mostly took on the taste of the butter and garlic it was cooked in. Thumbs up for the pan-fried crickets. The oven buzzer sounded 30 minutes later. Time for crunchier fare. I pulled the roasted critters from the oven and pulled off their brittle legs and antennae. Much easier than I thought it would be. Then I seasoned the peanut-sized bug bodies in black pepper, garlic powder, and Lowry's seasoning salt. I cracked a High Life and snacked on my little victims until only a few remained. I saved some for my 5-year-old son, Noah, hoping he'd take me up on the offer for a small yard-fed snack. He didn't bite…literally or figuratively. Oh, well…more for me. Dry-roasted crickets taste exactly how they'd been described in print…crunchy with a nutty flavor. I would eat these again, too. Next time, I'll try some Cajun seasoning. So…you think this is gross? A bit unsettling, perhaps? Well, I hate to break the news to you - that bacon double cheeseburger you just scarfed down didn't grow on a tree. No, it probably spent much of its collective life wallowing in its own urine and feces, while eating processed chow in an overcrowded feedlot, until some dude electrocuted it with a stun gun or fired a bolt gun into its panicked skull. Nothin' gross about that. Bon appétit. -----

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Thanks UPS

Thanks UPS Your gentle touch is always appreciated. I've ridden these wheels in countless derbies, on trails in Napa, Fruita, Decorah, and a lot of other a's, and have not been able to kill them - despite my largitude. One trip on the Brown Pony and this happens. Goodbye fair Delgado. You died too soon. -----

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First, Blake wants you to know about this, happening at the Bedlam Theater on MPLS's west bank: Hey, that's tonight. Isn't there something else going on this weekend? Oh yeah... Being that this is Halloween weekend, costumes, though not mandatory, are encouraged. At all times. Brauer has his picked out already. Here he is giving it a test run: Uh huh. Aided by his costume and the false sense of confidence imbued by his Secret Super Sauce, that hapless lugnut managed to get himself tangled up in possibly the most erotic moment he has ever been a part of. Damn. Do you get the feeling that Brauer just went and had hisself a little ol' accident in his swimsuit area? I recently discovered that Cheever was Nick Gilder in the late 70s. He hasn't aged a bit. If you don't know who Cheever is, just keep riding. You'll meet him. Cheever: Cheever? And finally, I wanted to remind all of you that Surly turns 11 years old in 2009, proving that yes, we do in fact go to 11. But in the world of bicycles it can't be a milestone without a t-shirt. They come in short sleeve too. AND, we've got something else lined up. Something sweet. More on that, however, when they're closer to being here. Later daze, bike people. -----

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