Surly Bikes is a manufacturer of bicycles, frames, parts, and accessories in Bloomington, Minnesota, established circa 1998. Distinctive products made by Surly include the Dingle cog, cranksets with separately detachable spiders, and reversible chain tensioners. The Surly Singleator chain tensioner is credited by many with having started the single speed craze. The Singleator was Surly's first product, before they even had a brand name. The company aims to build solid components for a reasonable price, this approach and the honest and down to earth attitude along with a dash of eccentricity is what has elevated them to their current status within the singlespeed culture, as Minnesota's The Rake magazine stated, "carving out a solid niche".
All Surly frames and forks are made from cromoly, a low alloy steel. The company is well known in bicycle messenger and single-speed culture and helped establish the Single Speed World Championship (SSWC). A Surly frame was given as a prize at the 2005 SSWC, it was decided the frame should go to a volunteer to acknowledge their efforts. Surly chose the location of the 2006 SSWC as the victors of the derby in 2005, demonstrating how embedded the company are in the world of single speeding.
In 2005, Surly began selling the first mass-produced mountain bike with extremely large volume tires for deep snow and sand riding. This model, the Pugsley, required different tire, tube, bottom bracket, and frame design than had been seen before in mountain biking. The bike's front and rear wheels share a common hub size and can be interchanged, allowing for additional gearing combinations. The Pugsley is still sold, as of 2008, but has inspired similar models sold by other manufacturers. Noted bicycle technical authority Sheldon Brown said, "Pugsley is, in its way, as revolutionary as the original mountain bikes were in the early 1980s."
Surly also produces a mountain unicycle, the Conundrum.
Surly now expects to sell 10,000 frames a year. They are owned by Quality Bicycle Products, and share a location. The companies have certified sustainable practices, including on-site worm-composting. The company offers indoor bike racks, showers, changing rooms, and a competitive league challenging teams of employees to rack up the most bike commuter miles.
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Surly Bikes (Wikipedia)
Surly 1×1 Bike Review Frame-set and custom groupo:
Bike ridden for: 7 years / various build kits
Ride and Handling: The best way to describe how a 1×1 rides is: it rides like a bike. There is nothing special about its frame geometry or its intended use, it is meant to be ridden on and off road and can handle just about anything you can put under its wheels. Whether climbing, descending, going fast or riding slow the 1×1 feels at home in just about any condition. If your trails have lots of roots or rocks NO PROBLEM the 1×1 can take up to a 2.7″ tire with room to spare, if you ride the street just mount up some sweet beach cruiser tires and rip up the roads. The frame is stiff enough to fly up the hills but compliant enough to do endurance(35miles +) rides and still feel fresh when you are done. The adaptability of the 1×1 allows it to handle any style of riding imaginable… minus jumping off of buildings and or 50mph World-Cup downhill races.
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