This isn't breaking news but last week one of the great ones passed.  I saw Alex Chilton play solo a few times in the 80's.  There was nothing about him that said "pop star" but man was he fun to watch.  In college I must have played Big Star's #1 Record about a thousand times.  Take it easy, Alex.

This is Yokoi-san. He owns a shop in Nagoya, Japan and is one of the hardest working people I know.  Click on this link to his website if you like, but be warned that it is in Japanese and the text might show up as mojibake.  You can still look at pretty pictures though.  Yokoi-san is a loyal Surly fan and dealer, and always comes to Interbike and Frostbike, just because... As I was cleaning out my stuff the other day I found a memory card that Yokoi-san left me when he was here for Frostbike last month.  It was filled…

  Did you know we now have tall wool socks?  These things will make you feel happier than a mule eating an apple when the weather is cold or, like it is around here currently, pretty chilly.  Made for us by DeFeet, they overlap nicely with over the knee height riding tights (known in America Inc. as Knickers, which is the word for ladies' undergarments in most portions of Britain, though in Scotland, underwear is known as "What's that?").  Here is a photo of our intern FiftyEight sporting the new Surly Tall Sock after his/her commute in.      ************************************************************************************************…

Greetings Friends, It's time for a new installment of Skip's Tips - a handy guide to bicycles, string theory, and the art of child rearing. Today we're going to talk about racing on your bicycle. I've compiled a few of my sage words of wisdom regarding the passtime of riding bikes real fast in order to gauge self-worth and fitness. They are in no particular order - except that they're in order of importance. Here they are: 1. It's nearly Spring here in the MiddleWestoftheUSA. The snow has largely melted into largely dangerously swollen rivers. Whenever possible, when out on…