Surly Bikes
One of the things I have always appreciated about Surly (long before I weaseled my way into their ranks) is the flexibility of the frames they make. I don’t mean the flexibility of steel as apposed to other materials to build bikes out of (but that too), what I mean is that you can do so many different things with several of the frames that they make.
As an example, my lovely wife has two Trolls and many people would never believe that they are the same basic bike, though you hardcore bike geeks out there would spot it in an instant, to the eye of the nongeektafied they totally different. She’s got one set up as a standard mountain rig, and the other is a cruiser style city bike. They both work perfect for what she needs and they ride and feel very different (at least as different as two bikes with the same geometry can ride and feel). This is achieved with stem height/length, handlebars, saddle, tires, drive train and even pedals.
Over the weekend I had one of my by-annual bike switcharoos in my basement. This is where I take some bikes that I don’t ride as much as some other bikes, and rifle through my parts bin and rebuild. It's a great way to kill a morning, and then you can spend the rest of the day riding around on your new creation and doing some fine-tuning.
That's what I did, and so the single speed, v-brake, slick tired Ogre was born. The bike was built entirely from my parts bin. Now to be fair, the wheelset was in my parts bin, cuz a friend of mine gave it to me, and the Paul brakes and levers where there, waiting for the right bike, but the rest of the parts are things that were once on another bike that got taken off, and thrown in the pile.
Here are some before and after shots of the bike.
Before
and the After
As you can see, I didn’t have it built up in any traditional way to begin with, so here is a shot of the stock bike as it ships from Taiwan.
I love that I have bikes with so many possibilities built into them, plus it’s cool to work for the company that makes them happen.
Riding them isn't so bad either, until next time, get out and ride!!