Eurobike 2017 - Surly

Surly Update Krampus and Karate Monkey

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The story for Surly this year at Eurobike was evolution rather than revolution, but with a few major things introduced for one of their main audiences: bikepackers!

This is the 2017 Karate Monkey:

Eurobike 2017 - Surly
The Karate Monkey already had an update for 2017.
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Among the main revisions were a new tubeset and slightly slacker geometry, both of which Surly have carried over to the 2018 Karate Monkey. Here it is:

Eurobike 2017 - Surly
For 2018, the Krampus follows suit.

The fork is corrected to match a 120mm travel suspension fork, though they’ve tested the frame with up to 140mm of travel. The new Krampus is tiny bit slacker than in years past, with a 69º head angle, a slightly longer top tube designed to match up with shorter stems, and chainstays around half an inch shorter than before. The rigid fork also has enough bosses on it that you could fit just about any conceivable piece of bike luggage on them.

Unlike previous editions of the Krampus and Karate Monkey, which came with Knard tyres, both now come with Surly Dirt Wizards. The Krampus frame will happily home tyres up to 29×3.0″, and the Dirt Wizards certainly don’t mess around with file tread, featuring aggressive knobs all over (if you plan to do something like the Highland 550 or Tour Divide on them, best get training… ).

Eurobike 2017 - Surly
Surly’s first 26×2.75″ Dirt Wizard predated other manufacturers plus tyres by quite a long way.
Eurobike 2017 - Surly
The tread pattern doesn’t mess around.
Eurobike 2017 - Surly
A 1x SRAM NX drivetrain rounds things out.

The dropouts on the newest revisions of the Karate Monkey and Krampus are Gnot-Boost, which is Surly’s own 145mm standard. That doesn’t need yet another hub though, it’s designed to work with nearly anything. The chain- and seatstays flex outward or inward 1.5mm on each side, allowing you to use 142mm, 148mm Boost, or 135mm QR hubs in the back of the frame. In the latter case, a 135mm hub needs some extra adapters to beef it up to the dimensions of a 142mm thru axle. If this doesn’t quite make sense, here’s Adam from Surly with a quick demonstration:


(No video? Here’s a link).

Eurobike 2017 - Surly
Surly’s forks are well endowed with bosses for luggage.
Eurobike 2017 - Surly
The new Krampus and Karate Monkey are aimed at trail riders who also want to do a bit of bikepacking.
Eurobike 2017 - Surly
The Krampus rolls on Salsa hubs and Alexrims MD40 rims.

As well as that, Surly had a couple of other bits to show us. Firstly, their new Moloko Handlebar is shipping with a few of their bikes as standard (not the Krampus or Karate Monkey, but the Troll, Ogre and ECR), and is available separately too. For the sake of comfort, it’s designed to give riders who are racking up the miles a bunch of different hand positions.

Eurobike 2017 - Surly
Surly’s new Moloko handlebars give riders a load of different hand positions, as well as loads more bar to strap bags and accessories to.
Eurobike 2017 - Surly
It’s going to be shipping as standard on certain Surly bikes.

Designed to go with the Moloko bar is this handlebar bag:

Eurobike 2017 - Surly
Extra bungee retention on the outside, absolutely maximising luggage space.
Eurobike 2017 - Surly
Rubberised straps to help it stay put.
Eurobike 2017 - Surly
As well as the external elastic, it has these webbing loops too.

If you’d like to know more, you can find out at surlybikes.com.

David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly. Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.

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