Minnesota’s Surly Bikes is understood for lots of actually cool issues, however light-weight bikes will not be considered one of them. And, they’re OK with that. Surly’s bikes are iconic, versatile, metal, sturdy, accessible, distinctive, and in lots of instances groundbreaking phase starters. The Surly Preamble is a part of that household.
In one of many newest Surly Transmissions, there was a weblog titled, Make it Your Personal: The Unattainable Preamble. The title piqued our curiosity. We thought it was fairly cool, and thought we should always share it. So learn on beneath.
The Surly Preamble
Retail: $899 ($549 frameset solely)
The Surly Preamble is a motorcycle that Surly got down to give attributes that matter most. It’s fast and comfortable on the pavement, and assured and compliant on the degraded surfaces. Surly calls the Preamble a “pavement and gravel employee”. Persevering with to say it “proves you don’t want to chop corners, or clip coupons to make a extra reasonably priced metal bike”.
The Preamble has a double-butted essential triangle, making it each easy and environment friendly. This additionally helps it face up to the abuse a less-than-perfect highway can dish out. It could possibly run racks, and fenders, and carry ample water bottles. It could possibly run flat bars, drop bars, a basket, or luggage. Surly says that “on the highway to metal euphoria, Preamble is a gateway drug”.
And Now The Sub 19lbs Preamble Weblog Submit
This subsequent half is taken straight from the Surly web site and is the precise Weblog Submit.
Greetings,
One in every of Surly’s most interesting industrial designers, Ryan Callahan, has achieved the respect of introducing his ultra-light Preamble construct to the world. Now that the metaphorical curtains have been pulled again, it’s time to tune these senses and see what it took to get this metal bike to a sub-20 state.
First Iteration
This Surly began its life as a pre-production pattern. I used to be lucky sufficient to be concerned within the growth of the Preamble, so I obtained one to check trip for analysis. I rode it round as a flat bar with “manufacturing spec” for about 16 months earlier than I obtained to tweaking it. As I began plotting the construct, I used to be centered on amplifying what made my particular bike particular.
See, due to an oversight on our facet, the primary spherical of prototypes was shipped with out rack mounts on the seat stays. Historically, Surly bikes are so versatile, and the exclusion of a rear rack mount had me considering a construct round “min/maxing” among the attributes of the bike. What if I leaned into diminished options within the pursuit of a light-weight and enjoyable highway bike? So, I obtained to sifting in my components bin…
Second Iteration
I had entry to a SRAM Drive 22 Hydro group set. Not solely was this a lot lighter than the inventory parts, within the fashionable world of motor-actuated, battery-powered and clutched derailleurs, it holds its personal towards costlier gruppos. Subsequent, I obtained my arms on a Whisky carbon fork that was designed for the straight 1 1/8” headtube, which shaved properly over a pound.
I constructed up some Whisky GVL rims and wrapped these within the new Teravail Telegraph 700x35c tires. I wished the construct to be gentle however nonetheless useful for gentle blended terrain using that I love to do right here within the Twin Cities.
After throwing a number of different odds and ends on the construct, I threw it on a Park Device scale and noticed 21lb 2oz. Agonizingly near a “sub 20lb” metal highway bike. I rode the bike on this situation by the summer season of 2022 and tore it aside within the winter to pursue the previous couple of grams.
Remaining Kind
At this level, getting a lighter bike meant both spending far more cash or getting inventive with materials. My first thought, “properly, If I don’t have rack mounts on the seat stays, why do I’ve them on the dropouts?”. We rapidly obtained the die grinder out and shaved some metal out of the body within the type of the eyelets for racks and fenders.
Subsequent, I like how E.D. coating and powdercoating the body makes for a long-lasting and sturdy body. Nevertheless, there’s quite a lot of materials on an enormous bike, so I media blasted the surface right down to the naked 4130 tubes. Instead of the Skyrim Blue, I opted to have the body Cerakote’d domestically within the “FX Riot” colour. Anybody at Surly will inform you I can not assist myself relating to obnoxious color-shifting coatings.
Cerakote simply occurs to be one of many lightest/thinnest choices. Except for that, I shaved the headtube down, lower off unused seat submit, and stretched my bartape additional tight to hit the ultimate weight of 18lbs 13oz. There’s undoubtedly room to get lighter, however this was by no means meant to be a kind of British hills-climb bikes with crucial parts lacking. The bike seems nice with the brand new completed and the shaved/streamlined options and it’s a blast to trip.
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