Dear Friends of The Prairie Peddler – THANK YOU for being a great base of customers for the past FIVE years! You have been a great group of people to ride with, and it has been a blast sharing our love of riding in the Driftless area! We do have a couple of announcements to make: 1: Marty has accepted a position that he simply can’t refuse. It’s within an hour of both our families and Marty will be team leader in a new bagel sandwich shop with friends in Northfield, Minnesota. 2: As a direct result, we will be having a HUGE SALE coming in the next two weeks, starting at 40% off of everything! Prices will be slashed again the following week, but the selection may not be as good! 3: The bike shop will be closing on February 16th. We will gladly do any new bike tune-ups on the spot. Special repairs will also be available if needed. Please don’t be shy! Just call and ask! We want to see you awesome customers, before our shop fades into the great beyond. You, Loyal customers, deserve great deals anyhow, so please come by and get some of those accessories you had on your list! Again, thank you-- thank you and thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for the past fantastic five years. It’s been a great run, and if not for this new chapter, we’d be celebrating five years and looking forward to another great season with you! We will truly miss our Great Driftless Area and our riding pals, for the friendship, laughter and free-flowing route tips. Sale hours will be held: Wednesday February 6th through Saturday the 9th and Wednesday February 13th through Saturday the 16th. Hours are: Wednesday 10-6 Thursday 10-6 Friday 10-6 Saturday 9-4 ***We also offer appointments during this time—call 608-412-2786 4: We will continue to do be the official US distributors of the entire Singular line. We are offering products in two great store locations so far. They both have talented folks who love riding just as much as we do! Hiawatha Bikes 4301 East 54th St, Minneapolis, MN 612-727-2565 Mill City Bikes 311 Central Ave N, Faribault, MN 55021 507- 331-2636 I will always be available to answer questions about Singulars at: 608-412-2786

warm December day

warm December day, a photo by unclefuzzy_ss on Flickr.

66* on December 3?

66* on December 3?, a photo by unclefuzzy_ss on Flickr.

Surly Krampus: Ridden!

One of the happy denizens the Surly Empire happens to live not to far from me over in Decorah, IA. He also happens to be a giant, like me! Aaand, it so happens that he just took delivery of his very own special Krampus! Joy! So I says, can I ride it? Sure! Says the giant gnome. Color me happy. See, for those who don’t pay attention to the intarwebs, or the cycling press probably don’t know that Surly has done it again. First, the Karate Monkey, then the Pugsley, and the Big Dummy. They have this knack for creating bikes that fill a niche, or create a whole new niche. Obviously, the niche we’re interested in here is the Fat bike realm. The one created by what can arguably be called one of the greatest mountain bikes made, the Pugsley.

Those 4″ wide tires opened up a whole new world of terrain to us adventurous types. Snow, sand, lake shores, river banks, river beds, open forests, serious rock crawling. It was [ and frankly IS ] cool. I love what they can do, where fat bikes can go. Supremely capable bicycles for sure. About the only issue though, is that pushing those honkin’ big tires around can get kind of old and tiring after a while.

I heard a few rumors of a fat 29″ tire roaming around the QBP facilities, then I saw some of the first grainy images, and I got real interested. I knew that I’d be real interested in what came out of these thoughts from the diabolical [to your wallet] minds of Surly. At this point we know what this was, and the fat bike geeks and 29er geeks alike are just itching to get their hands on one.

And I just did. So what’s it ride like? Pretty damned good. Pretty damned good. Rolling through town, it felt pretty much like any old fat bike. Big squishy tires, a bit of hum, but rolled faster cause there’s less resistance. If you ride Nates, you know what I’m talking about! Once the tires hit dirt[hero dirt no less!] things got decidedly more interesting. The trail went up, over loose shaley limestone. The kind of climb that on a normal bike is difficult. Fat bike no problem, and the same thing with the Krampus. It climbs really quite well. The lighter tires certainly make climbing an easier chore on this bike. Normally, I’m a fan of short chainstay bikes. In order to fit the big ass 3.0 Knard’s, Surly had to lengthen out the stays on this bike. Yet it remains well balanced. Bonus there. Once up top, the trail mellows and begins dancing through the trees. With the 30″ bars this bike had, I was a bit worried about my knuckles. That width was nice on the climb, but here? I dunno. I shouldn’t have been worried though. the bar width was minor, and once used to it, was fine. I was expecting a bike with such a slack headangle to a be a bit slow in the twisties, kind of like the Mukluk I own. Sure wasn’t though. I had to keep in mind the bar width, but that was the only thing slowing me down there.

Slowing down on this bike is something that I doubt will happen much, especially when you get it pointed down hill. This thing just flat out RIPS. Other than the few FS bikes I’ve ridden, this is the most fun bike going downhill that I’ve had the pleasure of riding. Stable. Steers from the hip with just a flick of the bars. Comfortable, confidence inspiring in the bike feel. The Krampus is easily lofted over roots and drops. If you have the room to let this bike free, you will be quite well rewarded. It wants to go fast. Just let it go. It won’t bite you. Good luck with your impatience. Now that I’ve had a bite, its gonna be even harder for me to wait.

sun dappled

sun dappled, a photo by unclefuzzy_ss on Flickr.

morning trail ride

morning trail ride, a photo by unclefuzzy_ss on Flickr.

I have had more than a few Singular fans request when a Kite will be available here in the states. Due to the purchase of the Osprey frames, I wasn't able to bring in Kites in any significant numbers. Sam has several in England though, and he'd love to get them over here into the States and ridden! As such, lets get some over here! Fact of the matter is, the same goes for the Swifts. I'm out of the Larges and Mediums, and Sam has several he'd like to get over here. To do that I need your help. Half down on the Kite/Swift will pay for it and the shipping over here. When they get here, we'll get the rest of the frame cost covered and I'll get them shipped right out to you. To start the process, click one of the corresponding Paypal buttons below. In the comment fields be sure to let me know what size you need! Time line for this should be on the sooner side. I want delivery of these to come with in the first few weeks of cyclocross season.

Singular Kite

Singular Swift

Lets get this going!