Surly vs. the Mountain

Took the Surly out for a rip on Campbell Mt.'s "Classic Loop" this afternoon; what a hoot! I didn't hold back an inch compared to how I usually ride the trail, and despite the 'unique' steering with those monster tires, the MOONLANDER took everything that I threw at it!



The Bike Barn has the bike on hand for DEMO's if you are so inclined. Its not nearly as slow and heavy as it looks at first glance.

Andrew

Terri, Gus and I did the same ride about 20 minutes behind you judging by the temperature of your exhaust pipe in the parking lot. We had a great ride and found some very unusual tracks along the way. These tracks were "Surly" too big to be that of a mountain biker yet not destructive enough to be that of a dirt bike.

Gary



Gus @ the "DQ"

G.



Nice work Inspector; you've tracked down the elusive Big Fat Larry!

While riding, I couldn't help but think that this bike would be perfect for packing in 'green' trail; in fact, I took er' through "Gary's Extension" on the lower north face on the way out :-)

Here's another pic' of the Bruin:



Lemme' preface this with: growing up in Whistler I ran a couple of different rigid frames with 2.5" "boots" at low PSI; and could climb pretty much anything. Ya', and I got lots of flats... This bike is like some kinda' low-tyre-pressure-geek's dream machine - but much, much better!

While I might not want this as my 'only bike', I did get a hella' kick outta' riding er' flat-out on Campbell Mt. The nimble beast made it up and over that root-step-up on the frontside trail first try and that little sand-trap at the bottom of 'Crop Circles'? Didn't even feel er'!

The Surly doesn't handle like one might imagine. I had visions of a super-floaty feel, with a sense of 'travel'; like we're used to with full-suspension bikes. Instead, while the tires will soak up just about any embedded rock like its a pebble, there is really little feeling of travel in the sense that we've grown accustom to (spoken as an old fart who grew up on rigid frames).

Its quite a mind-bender; a fully rigid 'frame-feel' - but with a sense of suspension under you. The BIG FAT LARRY tires offer (((stupendous))) traction, as there is about eight square inches of contact patch on the ground at any moment - which is good, because leaning the thing into a turn requires a hero-commitment.

Look at the arc of those tyres; the MoonLander begs to cut deeply into every subtle suggestion of turning and offers traction for about 160 degrees of that arc! This gets interesting at around 40km/hr along a dished trail... I now see The Whoop! in a whole new light.

Finally; riding a rigid frame again, but without the bone-jarring factor = "what a blast"! Every nuance of input equals forward momentum. I forgot what that felt like after so many years of riding full-floaters.

"I may not be in love, but I'm definitely in lust with it all..."

"The traction alone will blow your mind!"

http://surlybikes.com (what a great website!) and https://twitter.com/#!/surlybikes

A.