Surly Ogre/Bridge Club owners please.

My partner and I have Sonder Caminos but she’s never been terribly comfortable on it and prefers flat(ish) bars and to stay off road more than on, so I’m looking into swapping it out for a Surly Bridge Club and possibly one for myself (or even an Ogre).

I was wondering if anyone is running one as a tourer type with racks and full ‘guards? Any potential pitfalls or positive experiences? Personally I’m keen on the Ogre but the rear dropouts do look like a pain in the bum.

I don’t have an Ogre but I have an ECR and I used to have a Troll. Both of these are similar to the Ogre. I think the ‘dropouts’ are great because you have options. I ran a Rohloff on the Troll and may well do the same on my ECR some day. If you don’t want those options and don’t want to use 3inch tyres then it may not be worth opting for the Ogre as the bridge club will do all the rest of the stuff the Ogre does.

The Ogre dropouts allow you to use all kinds of axle types from OR to through axle and Rohloff. Some will allow the wheel to drop out from below and they are easy to use. I also have a longitude which has horizontal frame ends and they work fine too. Indeed the Longitude is another bike worth looking at.

Thanks Gowerboy. I do fancy the option of a Rohloff so I might plump for the Ogre for myself. I’m a bit torn on spec. I was thinking at 2 x 10 would be best. I have a 1×12 I can pinch parts off for now for one bike, but I’ve already bent 2 Eagle mechs and want something a bit more robust for a bike I expect will get rougher treatment.

Could you comment on sizing at all for your height?

Cheers.

I have been commuting on an Ogre for years. It has full mudguards and a rear Tubus rack. It rides really nicely and the frame works well whan carrying a load.

I was running it single speed but have recently fitted gears as I have retired and I am going to use it for touring. The dropouts do make it a more fiddly to remove the rear wheel with mudguards but not it’s not a huge issue.

I have Jones loop bars on mine which seem to suit it. I have a medium and I am about 5ft8 with a long torso and short legs.

Former Troll owner here, definitely my most loved bike so far. Surly frames have always felt very comfortable to me, real mile munchers. The frame finally died after 9 years and a lot of (very enjoyable!) mileage…

My OH has a Bridge Club and its replaced a Fatbike, Roadbike and Full-susser!

I’ve fitted the SKS 70mm square edged mudguards to it, they work well on the rear but run close to the 2.25 tyre on the front. While the BC can take 2.8s with 70mm guards it restricts how high you can mount them. If we wanted to fit bigger tyres I’d probably pop some notches in with a dremel. Or just get narrower/more curved fenders.

It’s also fitted with the Surly 24 pack rack and an Ostrich Rando bag and a redshift stem and Cirrus suspension post.

On paper I’m sure most riders would look at a basic steel bike with no suspension correction, etc. and wonder what all the fuss was about. It really is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

I ran it with guards and a rack. The mudguards took some bodging to be honest, there was a big gap under the bridges and the fork crown. Worth it tho!!

Re sizing I’m 192cm and had a large, but I’m long legged/short torso so tend to go a size down to make it work

If they had been available at the time I would def have replaced with a Bridge Club. Mostly touring, commuting, ‘life bike’, that sort of thing

Size; I’m just over 6’ and I ride a Large ECR and Pugsley and had a large Troll. All fit me really well.

Re dropouts; the newer Knot-boost ends make removal of through axle wheels a little easier as you can um… drop them out through the bottom of the dropout.

Drivetrain: I have Eagle on my ECR at the moment. It works fine but I only built it up recently and I am relatively new to 1x. The Rohloff worked well on the Troll. I had a qr axle on mine but if I was building one for the ECR I would go for a bolt on axle version Rohloff I think.

2x would be good I recon because you’d get good range, better chainline than 1x and I guess a shorter mech would keep clear of the mud, puddles and rocks?

Thanks all, I think I’ll start pestering shops for stock alerts 🙂

I’m the same height and leggy as well @Shermer75 so that’s useful info, thank you.

I owned 2 Ogres at separate moments in the past, back when Surlys where a reasonable value and pretty much the only option in their respective segments.
It seems to me like today there are plenty of options either at the same price bracket or even cheaper but with way more modern geometry and better finish

Hi @zezaskar can you suggest any others?

I looked at bikes such as th Brother Big Bro and that seems great baring the rear calliper being on the outside of the rear triangle, so it looks like some jiggery-pokery may be required to get a rack AND a ‘guard on (which is a definitely requirement). And the point about geometry is I’m not sure I do want it to be that modern for something to be able to do the shopping on every now and then and spend a lot of time on by-ways and bridlepaths. I have a Sonder Signal Ti for ‘proper’ riding. That said, both my partner and I are leggy in proportion so long bikes with low stacks are not our friend.

I tend to agree that Surly frames are getting expensive but:

It is hard to find anything that replaces what they do that isn’t custom.
The geometry of the Ogre and BC is kept less ‘progressive’ because that is what works for a do it all bike that can handle touring, utility cycling, general off-road and bikepacking.
They do make sure that some of the detail that others ignore is right (‘braze ones’, ED coating, dropouts that work).
They have a reasonable resale value.

They aren’t perfect but I decided to swallow the extra couple of hundred quid and buy the ECR.

A longitude, for example, comes close but it doesn’t handle load was well, the dropouts aren’t as versatile, It’s not ED coated and I’m not sure it’s lighter.

I was in the exact same boat as you last year. Could not decide which to go for but in the end I plumped for a…

Genesis Longitude. Seriously pleased I did.

At 5′ 10.5″ I got a 2021 L frame and its perfect. Lots of room, lots of mounts, nibble and pretty light (It’s basically a 4130 frame). I’ve got build paired with 2.6 Mezcals on Hope Fortus 30, Salsa Rustler bars, 90mm stem, Deore 10spd groupo and Magura brakes.

The only niggles, and they are small ones to me, are horizontal rear drop-outs can be a faff and it’s not boost (if that’s your flavour). Otherwise it’s a lot of bang for the buck and has been perfect for my long days out and bike packing.

It seems to me like today there are plenty of options either at the same price bracket or even cheaper but with way more modern geometry and better finish

Pipedream Alice does everything a Bridge Club will.

Surly are ridiculously expensive over here though, there’s no getting round that. Lowsides are nice but not at that price, you could have 3 Fairdale Taj’s that would do as near as the same thing.

I’ve never owned on the put Kona Unit x ticks some of these boxes. A Deore build is £1400. It has space for 2.6 inch tyres and sliding dropouts. There even some deals on last years bikes

I was close to getting a bridge club, also brothers big bro. But I settled for the pipedream Alice and it’s been great – setup with 2×10 deore, schwalbe Moto X tires and front rack. Use it for commuting, larking around in the woods and all day mile munching rides. Plenty of mounts and tire room

The Pipedream and Kona look like good options. But the geometry is different and, for example, you would have to be happy with the steeper seat angles.

The ALICE suggestion really puts a spanner in the works. As it’s primarily a drop bar bike which can be run with flat but sizing up it mentally suddenly throws a Fargo into the mix as well.

Then there is Bombtrack 😂

@cupotea , I’d suggest a look into:
– Pipedream
– Nordest
– Cotic
– Kona
– Pace maybe
– more around