The Surly Steamroller:
It’s made from Surly 4130 CroMoly steel because steel is durable and responsive, things we like and we’re pretty sure you do too. Its geometry is tight compared to road frames and relaxed compared to twitchy track frames. It takes big tires because big tires make sensetire casings flex before the frame. It’s got almost no ‘features’, no pump peg, no housing stops, no cell phone or GPS mount. Just a set of water bottle braze-ons. Well, it does also have a nice brazed fork crown we think looks pretty snazzy. If you’re like us, you may consider less tangible elements (such as ride quality) to be features, and it’s got these in spades. This is a frame meant for riding. Everyday. It was designed by cyclists for cyclists. It’s most at home on the street, but it’s also track legal and does a pretty fair job on trails too. It’s a fixed gear frame in the tradition of fixed gears, before there were freewheels or handbrakes (effective ones, anyway), harkening back to a time when big tires weren’t a design feature but a necessity, when a ride was an adventure. But hey, don’t let us convince you. Try one out. It may just become your favorite bike.
The Surly Steamroller Fixed Gear Bike
About Surly Bike Co:
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 Minnessota'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 embeded 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.