Full Metal Circle: A Steamroller Story

We’ve resurrected our legendary Steamroller model with a limited-edition Anxious Lavender frameset. This fixed-gear/single-speed bike was one of the first models in our lineup, launched all the way back in 2000.

Two Surly stickers on a textured surface

Times were simpler then. That analog era before “let me email that to ya” meant that there were far more bike messengers prowling the streets, like Martin Rudnick here in Minneapolis.

Person holding a bicycle in front of a store with a rainbow flag on the door.

Martin started as a messenger back in 1992 on an old mountain bike, hustling blueprints, bank deposits, and legal documents to points all over the city (the weirdest thing he ever got paid to transport by bike? “Some kind of taxidermy.”) Nice.

Side-by-side comparison of a person on a bicycle, one in black and white and the other in color.

In ‘94 he started riding fixed-gear, which hadn’t fully caught on in Minneapolis yet. “It was a sign of the disconnected times,” Martin said. “This guy from D.C. showed up in the MPLS messenger community and showed us that fixed-gear was better in the winter, and it started to gain traction.”

Two images side by side; one of a person with a fallen bicycle on a city street, the other of a person riding a bicycle on a sidewalk.

Martin and other MPLS messengers regularly ventured to other cities for alleycat events they found out about in zines. “We traveled to SF for the 1996 Cycle Messenger World Championship and raced up and down those hills, Chicago for the Chi-town Showdown to take on those fast cats, and NYC for the Acropolis to serpentine thru traffic,” Rudnick said. It made them want to host their own event.

Bicyclists riding on a city street with urban architecture and greenery.

Person riding a bicycle on railroad tracks with graffiti-covered trains in the background

“We wanted to showcase our piece of the messenger pie and have an alleycat during the winter. In 1997 we started planning and we figured the third week of January as being a pretty fuckin’ cold time of the year, and we went with the name Stupor Bowl because that timing happened to coincide with the Super Bowl.”

Group of people with bicycles gathered in an urban setting

Two people looking at a map on the ground, with one person wearing a helmet.

By 2000, just as we turned Steamroller loose in the streets, Martin was on his way out of the messenger grind. “I wanted a house and kids, so I went corporate,” he said. But he never fully left the scene, continuing to commute daily on his fixed-gear and work with the messenger community planning alleycats like the infamous Stupor Bowl.

Person in yellow jacket holding a megaphone with 'Surly' branding against a brick wall.

The breakneck debauchery of Stupor Bowl has kept rolling for nearly 30 years now. This year’s women’s category winner, Jess Santiago, took home a primo prize: the very Steamroller frameset you see before you.

Two images: one of a group of people posing together, the other of a group on a stage with colorful lights.

Jess is a quantum computing engineer who started riding fixed-gear in 2024 during a three-month work trip to Tokyo (“It was so great…Tokyo is flat and the drivers are so much more respectful.”). Back in Minneapolis and freshly hooked on fixed-gear riding, she found the local messenger scene through rides at Behind Bars bike shop and races like the No Name alleycat — which eventually led her to Stupor Bowl.

Person holding a bicycle in an urban setting with buildings and other bikes in the background

Person riding a bicycle on a wooden ramp with a scenic background

Jess is stoked on the Steamroller; after a quick build to get it rolling, she has big plans to dive in and make it her own: going brakeless, building her own wheels, and adding green anodized components “to make it obnoxious and flashy.”

Purple bicycle with a brown seat against a brick wall.

As for Martin? There’s only so much corporate one can take. “I got sick of spending all day on the phone and listening to bullshit.” He retired and got back to bike deliveries (these days it’s more sandwiches and lattes than documents). In 2024, his partner gifted him a Steamroller frameset that had been hanging in One on One bike shop, and he built it up his way. “I’ve always been Steamroller-curious,” he said.

Bicycle parked on a street with a blurred background

Person riding a bicycle on a dirt path with trees and vehicles in the background

With Jess’s new bike fresh out of the stand at Behind Bars bike shop, we got her and Martin together to steamroll around a few of Minneapolis’s current and former messenger haunts. There were plenty of skids and bridge hangs as the two of them swapped ride stories and build ideas — a fitting full circle of fixed-gear goodness.

Person working on a bicycle in a workshop with tools and equipment around

Person adjusting a bicycle wheel with a blurred background

Person standing next to a bicycle frame in a workshop setting

People sitting around a table with bicycles in the foreground, against a blue wall.

Person riding a bike on a bridge over a canal with graffiti and urban buildings in the background

Person riding a bicycle over wooden pallets with a cloudy sky in the background

Two people with bicycles sitting on a wooden platform in an urban setting.

Bicycle leaning against a tree with a wall featuring star-shaped cutouts and text in the background.

Person with a backpack and helmet on a bicycle in an urban setting

Person riding a bicycle with a blurred background

Want a steel single speed or fixed gear to make your own? Our Steamroller frameset in Anxious Lavender is available now here and at your local Surly dealer. Get simple.

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