Monday, December 8, 2008

Surly Pugsley in the shop.

From Pugsley


So what's a Surly Pugsley? Well, for the uninitiated, its a bike designed to be ridden nearly anywhere. Soft conditions are its natural habitat with its 4" wide tires. Normally, a bike tire will be half that width and run pressures anywhere from 25 to 45 psi. Because of the sheer volume in these tires, one can easily run down into the single digits for tire pressure, making the effective footprint HUGE, creating a bike that flaots rather than sinks in sand and snow. These are very capable bikes, and very versitle.

And this guy is here for ALL to use. I've purchased this bike for you, the customer to come in and check out. See what the weirdness is all about. Of course there are limitations. You should be fairly tall. At least 5'10" to ride it. See, I got it so it'd fit me too. Kind of. Its a bit small for me, but will suffice.

In fact, its already been reserved by Colin on January 10 so he can attempt the Triple D down in Dubuque. Good luck Colin! I see him riding by the shop almost daily, even in the cold we've been having, so I think he'll do just fine.

From Pugsley


For those familiar with the Pugsley, you'll notice that it doesn't have the Endomorph tires[yet]. They're still out of stock at QBP, but should be in this week. The tires on there now are 2.7" Maxxis Minion DH tires. Big Heavy Beasts of tires. Gripped pretty dang well this morning though. I think I let pressure down to near 10psi. They do tend to climb up the sides of ruts though. These will make good ice tires in the end I think. Nice flat profile [talk about edgy!], and a thick casing should make getting screws in easy. I'll have to try to make it up to Mpls for the ice races....

So when I get the tires in, it'll be ready to go. I've got it set up with a smart package of parts. The SLX shifters and derailleurs are working quite well right now. I like the double action on the 'trigger' shifters now. Makes shifting with gloved hands pretty easy to do. The action of the shifters is no where near as sensitive as the SRAM version either. This is very good news.

From Pugsley


From Pugsley


The thing that's going to be the oddest to get used to is the 100mm wide BB. The pedals are waaaaaayyyy far apart. After riding it, I feel kinda bow legged.

Again, if you're curious about these monster bikes, please do come in and schedule a time to take this creature out. Yes, even in this cruddy winter weather. I'm sure you'll like it!

Listening to: SOMA fm; groove Salad.

5 comments:

The Original Adam Kelly said...

That looks a bitching good time to ride Marty. I am loving my Innova studded tires. I took the first run on them through about 3-4 inches of slightly packed snow...No Falls or slips felt here. The second ride was tonight's commute to my jiu jitsu class, we are in the midst of getting 4-8 inches of snow, and my ride came at a very windy, wet, and cold portion but the snow accumulation is only about an inch so far. That doesn't count the 5-6 inches we already had though.

Head Honcho said...

Sweet Adam, just wait till you get a nice ice storm there. Then you'll REALLY like the studs!

The Original Adam Kelly said...

I'm thinking about buying two more bikes this year (not getting rid of mine), any highlights or cool new things to show?

Anonymous said...

Those are fun riding bikes. My pal Grayboy had fun designing them. I got to ride the River Bottoms with him right as they were coming out. Now we just need aq real winter here so I could justify one!

Oliver said...

Nice looking Puglsey. I can't agree with you more about the bottom bracket taking some getting use to. It always takes me a few rides on my Pugsley after not riding it for a while to get accustomed to it again.

This'll be my first winter with my Pugsley, so I'm patiently waiting for the snow.