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Dirt Rag Articles
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Tester: Brad Quartuccio
Age: 24
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 165lbs.
Inseam: 34"
Vital Stats
Country of Origin: Taiwan
Price: $575 frame and fork
Weight: 35.8lbs.
Sizes available: 16", 18" (tested), 20", 22"
Contact: www.surlybikes.com
Surly has carved out a certain niche amongst function-oriented cyclists over the years. Their frames and other products tend to fill holes in the market through innovative engineering and attractive pricing. The difference is in the details, and Surly has them covered.
The Pugsley is Surly's take on creating a bicycle that can accept significantly larger than normal tires. People have been building and riding bikes with ultra-wide tires for quite some time, but never has there been an off-the-shelf, readily available choice. Ice, snow, wet rocks—many surfaces that are impassible on garden variety tires suddenly become rideable with a larger footprint. While I did the bulk of the riding on this bike for the review, the 18" size let Karen, Michael and even Maurice ride the bike with a different stem. Honestly, the winter here has been quite tame up through February, with only two or three significant snowfalls.
The inaugural ride on the Pugsley was at the annual Punk Bike Enduro. There was a snowfall of 3" or 4" in the days prior to the event, freezing up the mud and putting a powdery layer down on top. First dash into the woods was very cool. Dirt-like traction on nearly everything. Riding through a submerged creek bed without trouble was interesting, as was the option of riding lines not seen before. The snow-covered trails were packed down by other riders, which was key. While others slid around and broke through the snow, the Pugsley steered as well as you would want. Granted, Karl rode the Lemond Poprad reviewed on page 62 throughout the entire course, as did fifty or sixty other riders not on 4" tires.
Experimenting with air pressures is necessary as too much gets you bouncing like a superball, while "just enough" gets you the optimal traction for the given surface. My magic spot was around 20psi, give or take 5 pounds for trail conditions. While the Pugsley is hefty, at cruising speed through the woods it feels lighter than it is due to the power transfer of the fully rigid frame and pneumatic suspension.
The Surly Endomorph tires have a rather shallow chevron tread on them—perfect for packed snow and other slippery surfaces, as the actual amount of tire on the ground achieves enough friction to avoid slipping. Not so good for slick mud and fresh powdery snow. After a fresh 5" of powder came down, I managed to hit the trails and lay the first tracks. Slowly moving through flat sections wasn't much trouble, though the front tire did sometimes skid to the side through the snow, rather than tracking through turns. Uphill sections were exercises in walking, as the shallow tread that works so well on packed snow doesn't have enough bite to prevent spinning out. Riding in fresh snow was pretty much like riding in fresh snow on any other bike. Even with the air pressure down to the low teens, traction in fresh powder and mud was less than desired. Larger knobs would likely solve the problem.
On the road, the Pugsley was completely manageable. Riding to the trailhead or on short road stretches between sections of trail wasn't nearly as painful as you'd think. The tires do pull hard when turning due to their width across the pavement, but at cruising speeds things are just fine. Steep road downhills over fresh snow should be avoided, as one such adventure was quite the frightfest for me.
Squeezing 4" wide tires into a mountain bike frame may at first seem to be little more of a design challenge than making the fork and chainstay clearance extra-wide, but there is far more to the story. To maintain usual handling characteristics, the chainstays need to be kept within the usual range of lengths, which requires a 100mm wide bottom bracket shell to keep the chain, chainrings and front derailleur from rubbing on the tire. This wide bottom bracket shell consequently moves the chainrings outward by 17.5mm compared to the chainline given by a 68 or 73mm shell. This then requires the rear end of the bike to be offset by the same amount to the driveside to maintain good chainline. Go on ahead to the front of the bike, and the fork has the same 135mm spacing and 17.5mm driveside offset of the rear wheel, making front and rear wheels interchangeable, and allowing the big inflated tire to clear the dropouts and brakes without deflating. Like the rest of Surly's line, the Pugsley is made of no-frills, butted 4130 steel tubing.
Geometry wise, the Pugsley is kept as normal as possible. All frames feature 70.5°/72° head/seat angles and 17.6" chainstays with 2.2" of bottom bracket drop. Our 18" test bike has a 23.5" effective top tube. Both the frame and fork feature disc and cantilever brake mounts; however, the straddle cable on linear pull brakes does not clear the tire. The horizontal rear dropouts have a derailleur hanger for either geared or singlespeed fun. Cargo racks will fit front and rear.
Once the frame is taken care of, the other parts need consideration. Currently, Surly seems to manufacture the only readily available rim in the necessary size, their 65mm wide Large Marge rims at $135 and 1150g each. Tires, tubes and rimstrips are also covered by Surly, with the 3.7" Endomorph tires fetching $110 each, tubes at $13.50 each and 50mm wide Rox rimstrips at $11 per wheel. DH specific, 100mm shell ISIS bottom brackets are available from a couple of manufacturers for around $65. This puts the "foot-in-the-door" price of frame, fork and all proprietary parts at around $1200 with complete build prices going up from there depending on parts selection.
The exploratory nature of having consistent traction on very loose or slippery surfaces in the woods is clutch. For explorers, this is the bike. If your area regularly has long lasting snowpacked trails, snowmobile or otherwise, this bike could significantly extend your riding season, and your riding limits. It won't magically make riding in powdery snow like SoCal, but the big tires are no joke. More traction, on more surfaces. Just not absolutely all of them.
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| Comment from Joe on 2009-09-13 |
| getting ready to pull the trigger on my own Pug!!! I can't freaking wait!!!
Peace |
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| Comment from pepperoni-cycles on 2008-09-06 |
| nice bike!
but what I really want is the tires! I´m a custom bike builder in Portugal, and since I saw this bike, I have been dreaming of building a bike with these tires! So, if anyone have one or two old tires of these, and wont use them anymore, PLEEEEEASE send them to Portugal, and I would be glad to pay the shipment to here.
Thanks! |
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