Surly bikes – all they are cracked up to be?

Ta for the reply.

But nearly 100% difference?
Really?

I’d like to see a breakdown of the figures.
I wonder what percentage of the increase is ‘niche tax’?

RRP on Surly 1×1 F+F is £399 (also includes seatclamp)
RRP on On One Inbred 26″ is £269.98

So roughly a £130 difference on a branded frame with a slightly better steel tubing.

On one frame travels:

Factory (far east) – On One Warehouse (uk) – Customer

Surly Frame Travels:

Factory (far east) – Surly??? (USA) – Surly distributor (Ison-UK) – Retailer (UK LBS) – Customer.

So for the extra £130 there is a more travelling/hand to go through and more people to take a cut. (This is all taking aside which is the better frame as for most this will be personal preference)

This does show the advantages of the direct to market brands like OO/Planet X or Canyon and why they are taking a market share from brands you could buy from your lbs.

Also if you get your surly from a trusted LBS (How i got mine)you get the benefits of back up if anything goes wrong locally and the frame being checked, chased and faced. (again another variable as OO do have a shop that will be local to some people)

shermer75 – Member
simonk – Member
I just ordered a Troll frame to build up for trail, commuting and touring, I like the do it all ability of the bikes, the one I tested felt solid but not as heavy as it actually weighed.
Awesome frame. Orange?

I went with purple, I fancied something different, I am really looking forward to it, sadly I won’t have it in time for my France tour in April.

Singlespeed_Shep – Member

So roughly a £130 difference on a branded frame with a slightly better steel tubing.

How is the cro moly tubing used by Surly different to the cro moly tubing used by On One?

And yes, I agree that the frames are better value than the full builds.

Can’t fault my lht. Yes a little heavy but its cheap and good paint and lots and lots of thought on the fittings and braze on
I have it as a hack/winter bike it gets beaten about and very little care
Can’t fault it.
As for the image I could not care less ,
I’d have another if it goes walk about in an instant

How is the cro moly tubing used by Surly different to the cro moly tubing used by On One?

The first On one frame I looked at didn’t state it was double butted, (like the Surly) But looking at others the do, and I can’t see On one using different steel tubes on dif 26″ inbreds. So in that case the tubes themselves have no difference and you’ll have to decide which is better. personally I think the 3d dropouts of the surly and the Paint are superior.

I’ve had both a Pompino & a Cross Check in the past – currently own an Inbred 29er & a Troll too. I’d say Surly have the edge in terms of “neatness” of welds & paint finish, but geometry plays a big part in how good the frames are – Nowt wrong with Surly but I prefer the mtb geometry of an Inbred, & I personally preferred the geometry & design of the Cross Check over the Pompino. None of them are bad or much better / worse than the other – just subtly different. Surly probably have the edge in terms of versatility.

Just had a look at the website, the purple looks amazing. Enjoy!

Bubbles the karate monkey is awesome and worth every penny.

to answer the thread title, yup

Dirty rider – Wow pant spoilingly cute! Big tyres make downhills smooth but uphills suck worse than paying tax. Surly do things different; deal with it, http://surlybikes.com/bikes/disc_trucker.

I pulled my 1998 1×1 out for a ride not long after this thread was first started.

It reminded me of why I’ve hung on to it so long. It’s a good bike.

I bought the frame 2nd hand because I wanted a SS specific frame, I knew nothing of Surly at the time.

It’s had many incarnations, done several 24 hour races and I’ve never felt limited by the bikes handling.

I moved to 29ers but hung onto the 1×1 because its massive mud clearances gave it a new life as my bog bike.

It lost that job when I discovered fatbikes, but it became my icebike because decent ice tyres were only available in 26″ then, and again the big clearances are good when slush tries to pack itself around the BB.

For the last year or so it’s sat in my attic because 29er ice tyres became available but I knew I’d find another use for it because it’s so versatile.

Now Surly have introduced Dirt Wizard tyres, nominally 3″, which fit, so I’ve ordered a set of those and it will get yet another lease of life with wheels at 650B diameter. Oh, how the trails will come alive…! 🙂

In the interim I’ve had a host of other bikes and moved most of them on, so the long and the short of it is, the Surly has proved to be a keeper, and what was fun to ride over 10 years ago is still fun.

If you want a bike to ride rather than one that “reflects your personality or status”, then buy one.

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epicyclo – what bars are those?

Seen them with a few names, eg One23 Minotaur, Satori Bull bar. Comfortable and not excessively wide.

Basically an almost identical bend and drop to the old North Road bars I grew up on.

The On-One Mungo is also similar but is a road diameter so it needs road levers and bar tape which is a bit too much faff in comparison. Shame they don’t do a mtb version.

My 1×1 was probably the the bike I liked the most until it was stolen – commuter on skinny tyres, rigid winter off road bike and just so bouncy and involving on twisty singletrack. The perfect bike for somewhere like the Surrey Hills and most trail centres where you really just don’t need any suspension if you can ride properly.

Hey all.

Guess this thread isnt dead as a few curious folk still seem to be hitting my blog.

For the curious amongst you, i recently changed from an Ogre to a Pugs and plan to head north through Peru, Ecuador and Columbia.

Still loving the Surlys.

Blog url: http://www.mikehowarth
.co.uk

Nice site Mike…

Home

Deleted.

Thought we’d done this recently!

I have an 2 1X1, a Karate Monkey, 2 x Pugsley. I like them, cos they do what I want them to do. They are no race bike, although the 1st 2 fixed bikes across the line at Gravel Dash were Surly. They are well made and the guy’s in the factory even answer silly questions. I have other bikes but if I could only have 1 bike it would be the Karate Monkey (oh and the Pugsley………)

Well they started a niche in 29+ tyres, & 2 yrs later still the only one actually on sale.
Oh…hang on, yes, there’s all those 29+ tyres we see in glossy pics, that are coming out soon…
Grrrrf.

Couldn’t agree more Rusty Spanner, as much as I love my ECR, god it’s a ripoff, £650 for a frame with standard steel tubing? You cannot say that that is reasonably priced, it’s just unjustifiable. I luckily managed to find one used for £450 thanks to STW!! Built it up as an ultimate expedition bike, can’t wait to go get started on some adventures! Pics available on request!

What’s really taking the piss is when you start looking at the UK/Europe vs US pricing, especially considering all the bikes are coming from Taiwan anyway. Even after accounting for duties and VAT it’s a steep, steep markup for the complete bikes.
Surly’s whole USA policy of no mail order shipping at all (you can only buy from LBS there and they are prohibited from shipping bikes), is arguably in my opinion more about maintaining this price differential than any fluffy look-after-the-LBS motives.
When I raised this point on the Surly FB group I got flamed senseless.
Which pretty much proves all the points that Rusty made i.e. they DO make some good bikes, their new modular dropouts are particularly nice, but some users are really drinking the kool-aid so to speak.
I say this all as a Karate Monkey OPS owner (built from frame) of which I am pretty happy so far.