http://surlybikes.com/ en bob@surlybikes.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-06T16:05:07+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/graphic_sexuality http://surlybikes.com/blog/graphic_sexuality#When:20:59:13Z This may or may not have taken place at un undisclosed location at or around the time of Interbike 2011.   WARNING this video contains grown men in their underpants.             Big thanks to MAnderson for sharing this "found" video footage.     Cheers,   BoB (not Off)             2012-02-07T20:59:13+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/hmmm..._i_think_ill_have_the_700c_rod_brake_commuter_bmx_freestyle_with_dru http://surlybikes.com/blog/hmmm..._i_think_ill_have_the_700c_rod_brake_commuter_bmx_freestyle_with_dru#When:16:05:07Z     2012-02-06T16:05:07+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/its_monday_somewhere http://surlybikes.com/blog/its_monday_somewhere#When:03:14:10Z     2012-02-06T03:14:10+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/the_morning_after http://surlybikes.com/blog/the_morning_after#When:22:37:18Z Okay, we’re not perfect. Sometimes we have a beer or two too many and things happen that we regret.  Sometimes the morning after sucks ass.  We wake up, the smoke has cleared, and however awesome we thought we were the night before, it turns out we screwed the pooch. And now we’re sore, really sore, in our secret spots, and we’re sorry. We’re sore and we’re sorry. Recently one such event happened in the Surly Camp. We woke up one morning after a night of beer, brown liquor, fancy shirts and alleyway dancing dressed as giant stuffed bears, and this is what we found. We screwed up the Karate Monkey.  The new version, which we love, has a flaw in a couple of versions. If you bought or want to buy a 20” Karate Monkey and want to run rotors larger than 160mm, you can’t. If you bought or want to buy a 18” and you want to run a 185mm rotor, you most likely can’t. 22” can’t do 203mm. Well, you can, but only with some modification of the adapter for the brake caliper or the rear rack braze-on.  We never think it’s a good idea to go cutting things off your Surly, though that’s never stopped anybody in the past (I do it all the time). However we often think it’s a great idea to take a Dremel tool to other people’s stuff, so shaving bit of the corner of the brake adapter could work it for you. That all being said, if you want more stopping power, and you ride a Karate Monkey, we suggest 185mm rotors on the front and the 160’s on the rear.   Most of your braking power comes from the front, so we find that this provides sufficient stopping power. At least for us (the real advantage of bigger rotors comes from better modulation and heat distribution. This becomes prevalent when you’re going downhill fast and braking a lot. Otherwise it’s less of an issue, or so say the nerds who design our bikes.). However, if you want them big brakes for even more stopping power, or other reasons we may not have thought of or don’t want to think of cuz we’ll think they’re gross or just plain unnatural then you’ll have to take extreme measures, and take them into your own hands to boot. Consider yourself warned. All in all, what I’m really trying to say is, “Sorry we screwed up.” We’re not just sorry, by the way, we want to fix it. We’re working on just that for future production lines. That’s pretty much it, and thanks to Guy.Ford on mtbr.com for pointing this out to us.  Back to drinking now. Go ride your bike asshole! 2012-02-02T22:37:18+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/surly_fatso_kill_kill_kill http://surlybikes.com/blog/surly_fatso_kill_kill_kill#When:14:41:03Z Last Sunday (not just this last Sunday, but the Sunday before…so two Sundays ago) was the 6th annual Cold Bear Challenge Winter Racing Series in Hillside Park, Elk River Minnesota.  Beer, fire and fatbikes, fuck yeah.   Surly was well represented and, though many racers brought their tricked out Gucci fatbike wall-art steeds to race upon, the two fastest hammers in the woods that day were running the bike that started it all, the tried and true Surly Pugsley. 1st place was Larry “Sarge” Sauber, and 2nd was Heath “Red Squirrel” Weisbrod (who incidentally was riding a single speed Pug).   Larry told one of our engineers, Thor, that he wasn’t really tempted much by the lighter weight “Gucci” stuff out there because he wanted to be able to abuses his fatty without worrying about braking shit. Or it was something like that, who can remember the exact wording between all the snow, the bicycle pedaling and the gentle sipping of sweet, sweet beer. A shout-out is in order to the folks at Ramsey Bicycles who donated 1600 bucks worth of swag for the race, including a Pugsley frame. You can find them at www.ramseybicycles.com. Thor was there with some demo bikes (the Surly engineer, not the God of Thunder) enjoying the race the weather and the massive fire stoked with a leaf blower. I should also mention that there were five unicyclers in the race, the radest of whom was riding a Surly Conundrum!   Check out that fire!   Shine on.   2012-01-31T14:41:03+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/each_time_i_feel_it_slip_away_just_makes_want_to_cry1 http://surlybikes.com/blog/each_time_i_feel_it_slip_away_just_makes_want_to_cry1#When:03:40:47Z     2012-01-29T03:40:47+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/aftermarket_fat_tire_forks http://surlybikes.com/blog/aftermarket_fat_tire_forks#When:15:53:14Z There are a few excellent manufacturers out there who are making aftermarket fat tire forks and if you are planning on getting one for your Surly steed there are a few things you should know.   White Brothers makes a fork called the Snowpack and it’s available in two different lengths, 450mm and 468mm (we would recommend 450mm for our bikes). It has carbon fiber legs (if you’re into that sort of thing though we say a Surly rejects carbon fiber like a cat rejects hairballs) and is designed around a 135mm front disc spaced hub. White Brothers has the tire clearance listed at 4.96”.  Here is where you want to pay close attention. Our forks and front 135mm hub use rear disc spacing. The Snowpack will not work as an out of the box replacement unless you are using a Phil Wood or Paul Components hub. Salsa also makes a fat tire adventure fork called the Enabler. The Enabler is designed to work with the 135mm rear disc spacing hubs (like Surly) and Salsa lists the tire clearance at 4” of adventure on an 82mm wide rim. The length of the Enabler is 468mm axle to crown. Our fat forks have a listed length of 447mm axle to crown; that’s what the frame was designed for. Got it? So if you are adventurous and you are thinking about putting this on a Pugsley be prepared for the front end to adventure up significantly-which technically voids your Surly frame warranty, be warned you adventurers’.   9:ZERO:7 manufacturers an Aluminum fat tire fork that is available in two different lengths, 450mm and 468mm (once again, we recommend the 450mm). 9:ZERO:7 has a tire clearance listed at 4” with their 100mm rim (called the FlatTop). This fork is designed to work with 135mm rear disc spaced hubs (like Surly) so this fork should work fine on our Pugsley. I say should because I have no idea of what type of tire, rim, fender, rack, light-system, gun mount, or other random ass shit you have on your bike. Make sense?   I’m not even going to bother getting into fat front suspension forks. In my humble opinion there is just not enough information available yet. Do you need a fork with travel on a fat tire rig? Maybe you think you do. Who knows, I’m just not that adventurous.   Update: Adam was kind enough to supply me with some more information. I mentioned the difference between our front 135 hubs [with rear rotor spacing] and the Paul/Phil front 135 hubs [with front rotor spacing], but it is also worth mentioning the offset wheel builds. For example, the 450mm 9:ZERO:7 fork would fit fine on the Pugsley, as the ATC and rotor spacing match, but the fork is designed for a symmetric wheel build, where as the Pugsley has an offset wheel/fork. If a customer has a stock Pug complete, they would need their wheel rebuilt.  The other consideration is the disc caliper adaptor. The Pugsley uses a rear disc adaptor, where as the Moonlander and the Enabler forks use front rotor adaptors. This is a bit confusing, so one more time for clarity. Pugsley, Moonlander, and Enabler forks all use the rear 135mm rotor offset, but the Pugsley uses rear caliper adaptors, Moonlander and Enabler use front caliper adaptors. The Snowpack fork uses the front caliper adaptor standard, and I could not find the specs on the 9:ZERO:7 fork.  As always please, feel free to call us or send us an email and we’d be more than happy to answer your questions.   Random creepy bastard Stay Surly.   BoB 2012-01-24T15:53:14+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/mount_up http://surlybikes.com/blog/mount_up#When:13:48:23Z What are you doing this weekend? Oh... heading to TGI Fridays for some fajita poppers and then out to the flea market? YOU ARE GOING TO LAKE GENEVA WISCONSIN FOR THE TEAM SNOW BIKE ENDURO. I'm going to Lake Geneva for the Team Snow Bike Enduro.   THESE ARE THE MOONLANDERS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR. These are the Moonlanders we're looking for.   MOVE ALONG. Move along.   2012-01-20T13:48:23+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/an_engineers_desk http://surlybikes.com/blog/an_engineers_desk#When:15:08:06Z Surly engineer extraordinaire Adam took this photograph of his desk the other day and I thought I’d share it with you.   Adams Desk   That's NOT a drawing of a full suspension fat tire bike on his monitor by the way.   Here's a picture of Adam getting rad.     And here's a picture of Adam feeling not-so-rad.   Hugs all the way around.   BoB 2012-01-17T15:08:06+00:00 http://surlybikes.com/blog/thought_for_the_day http://surlybikes.com/blog/thought_for_the_day#When:17:39:20Z     2012-01-11T17:39:20+00:00