Surly is fast becoming the brand of bike we sell the most of, and for good reason.  We really like Surlies.  They are terrific value, and have a great deal of potential for customization.  At least half of the Surlys we sell are customised to some degree.  We often rebuild the front wheel with a dynamo hub, fit racks and mud guards, swap handle bars, and a number of other small scale things.  Some are customised to a very large degree, including adding braze-ons, totally changing the parts specs and so on.

Surly are an American company who have bikes made in Taiwan.  Their bikes are all based around steel frames, and are all intended to be practical, with features like clearance for wide tyres, braze-ons for racks and mud guards and tough, comfortable frames.

Surlys in general are great in that right out of the box they come with high quality, sensibly chosen parts that will work reliably and well for a long time.  They do not take short-cuts on the commonly overlooked parts, and you can ride them for years with the parts they come with and nothing will cry out for replacement.  On the other hand, they are also great in that they are designed with versatility in mind, and so can be heavily customised to suit the needs of the rider.  Most of the models have been around for a while, and only change year-to-year in fairly minor ways, so any little bugs get ironed out along the way, and they wind up being compatible with a huge range of parts.  Small details that can bring other bikes unstuck when you come to change things are normally well worked out.

Here’s a post we wrote a wile ago about some of the customization we have done.  We’ve been finding ourselves doing more and more custom builds for interstate customers, including one

There are two models that we sell more than any others.

The Long Haul Trucker.

The Long Haul Trucker is probably our favourite of the lot.  It is a terrific loaded touring bike and makes a terrific commuter too.  They have steel frames, 700c wheels in the larger sizes and 26″ wheels in smaller sizes (and now the larger sizes as an alternative option).  They are extremely well designed touring bikes with longer chainstays to avoid clipping your heels on your panniers, all the necessary braze-ons for racks and mud guards, a low bottom bracket and an oversized top tube to stop the bike flexing too much when carrying a load.  They are stable and comfortable both loaded and unloaded, they fit wide tyres and allow you to set up you bike with relatively high handlebars for comfortable all-day riding.

They also come with a fantastic mix of parts, including XT hubs and rear derraileur, a well-chosen gear range, bar end shifters and cantilever brakes.

Here’s a post we wrote about customized LHTs.

Here’s our Flickr group of some LHT bikes we’ve built.

The Cross Check

The Crosscheck is a cyclocross bike, but in many ways is similar to the LHT.  It is a touch more racy and nimble, thanks to a shorter wheel base, steeper frame angles and a higher bottom bracket, but it is still a comfortable, stable bike and it can still handle wide tyres, racks and mud guards.  It has 700c wheel in all the sizes.  The parts it comes with are similar to those on the LHT, with Deore parts instead of XT, and a narrower gear range.

Here is our Flickr group of some of the Crosschecks we have built.

The Crosscheck would be the pick of their range for a Gravel Grinder bike.

Others

We have also built a number other Surly models in a variety of ways.

The Big Dummy is Surly’s long-wheelbase cargo bike.  It has a long rack that extends out the back with large bags on either side and a long platform on top.  There are a range of accessories that attach to it for carrying particular thing.  It’s a great way to carry oversized thigns that are normally difficult to transport on bikes, and is great for carrying kids around.

The Karate Monkey is Surly’s rigid 29er.  It also makes a great go-anywhere commuter.

The Steamroller is their singlespeed.  Unlike a lot of singlespeeds, it has room for large tyres and can be pressed into service on a variety of terrains.

Here’s our Flickr group of some of the various Surlies that we have built.