Make It Your Own: Emma’s Grappler All-Terrain Bike

Ottawa-based Emma and Brendan (A.K.A. @bike.breath) document the aspects of bikes that make them happy, “including but not limited to: steel bikes, all terrain riding, coffee (inside & outside), community group rides & fun bike events, old bikes, new bikes, colourful bike shit — you get the picture. We take the unserious bike world very seriously.”

They sound like our kind of people. Here to confirm it is Emma’s latest build: a Grappler made for the pavement-to-gravel-to-dirt riding she does from her front door, plus the ability to pull overnighter duty. Dig into it below. And if you’re wondering what “bike breath” is and whether you have it, well…

“While technically not a medical condition, Bike Breath is a symptom of being so deeply immersed, obsessed or even pickled in cycling culture it can be smelt on your breath.”

We’ll let Emma take it from here:

After years of trying to make my trusty commuter/touring bike roll over a few too many rooty East Coast trails, I decided it was time to build my ultimate, dream all terrain bike. I’d never put together a bottom-up build before, I was intimidated but also very excited. Where I live (Ottawa, Canada) we have a ton of multi-use path infrastructure connecting to single and doubletrack trails in Gatineau Park, so I wanted to build a bike that would roll well on pavement, handle any singletrack I threw at it, and be a fun setup for overnighters! A Surly felt like the right canvas for this build since there are so many models capable of veering off the beaten path- but which frame was the right canvas?!

Why the Surly Grappler:
The Krampus had always captured my imagination; I love the lore of Krampus and Krampuschaucht and I pictured myself riding around my local trail cuts hitting children with branches. But alas — 29-inch wheels and I are not particularly good friends; On the small frames I usually ride I’m more at home on 27.5s. So my attention turned to the Grappler — it seemed to hit a lot of the right notes- the playful feel and geometry with the slack front end and tucked rear, room for big 27.5 tires, and all that frame space, my god…all that frame space. It’s rare to get so much room for a frame bag on size small frames.

I often stumble across photos of builds that get me all hot and bothered about a frame, only to realize it’s a medium or large, and that the small looks a bit…smol. Or smushed, perhaps. Like a kid’s bike that should have streamers on the bar ends. BUT not the Grappler. This size small dust bunny frame brings the heat. The clean, satisfying continuation of the line from the top tube to seat stay, the tucked rear geo that looked like it would at least 2x my speed on the trail and road. It just felt right.

Cockpit Controversy:

To address the flat bar elephant in the room, these bars are indeed not drop bars. I had these SimWorks Getaround bars in the Stealth colourway on hand and as soon as I unboxed the frame I knew they were destined to be on this bike. Yes I know, the Grappler is designed to be drop bar-ed! But drop bars in the trail are not my favourite, and I really like this frame. Plus, flat bars with a short stem bring the reach in right where I want it and you’re not my real dad so you can’t tell me what to do.

Build Concept:
I’m just one of those people who can’t compromise on aesthetics. How it rides is equally as important and trust me, we’ll get there but it had to start with an inspiring colour palette. I love a desaturated colourway and this purple is a perfect tone, colourful but not too bright. The idea of a purple and green colourway that wouldn’t evoke images of Barney was exciting to me as a colour theory nerd. Let’s call it a desaturated Frankenstein theme, or Gravedigger lite.

This custom matte grey Velocity Blunt SS wheelset was the first piece of the puzzle to fall into place. I wanted the green accents on the bike to lean yellow or olive in tone, and the way the lime green nipples make the Ultradynamico logo pop on the grey 2.2 Rose Race tires was a happy accident that makes my brain buzz (in a good way).

Rounding out the Specs:
The SimWorks olive green cable housing was the last crucial hit of green this bike needed, and then it was time to see how Pewter-ed out I could get this thing. Pewter Headset? Thank you Stridsland. Pewter brakes — Growtac Equals for major style and major stopping power? Check. It was going too smoothly, until I encountered the final boss, the 33.1 seat collar. I just love when the headset co-ordinates with the seat collar to bookend a build, and pewter isn’t the most popular finish out there (yet)- but after a long search the bicycle gods smiled upon me when I found this 33.1 pewter seat collar from Analog Cycles.

I went with the new Microshift 11 speed Advent MX, an MTB gear range was essential, and having never tried a Microshift setup I was curious what the world outside of the two big S’s had to offer. I moved the White Industries crankset with 36 tooth chainring over from my commuter. A PNW Loam dropper with an olive midcap band topped with a mud green C17 carved has my butt set up to drop it like it’s hot when the singletrack gets spicy.

You can check out our build video on YouTube for full details and to watch all these bits come together!