Pugsley: Love at first ride
Over the past couple of weeks, I´ve been seriously considering a Surly Pugsley, a sort of "monster bike" with huge tires which allows you to ride on surfaces that wouldn´t normally be possible, such as deep sand or snow.
Although I was pretty sure I wanted to own for at least a while to test its capabilities, I was hesitant to take the plunge and drop a couple of thousand dollars on a bike I´d never even seen an example of in person. However, after talking to the friendly folks at Freerange Cycles in Fremont and getting a price quote from them, they decided they would order one in to have in the shop, which I´d be able to take a look at.
On Thursday afternoon, I got the call that the Pugsley had arrived, and within a few minutes I was out the door and on my bike to take a look. I took the bike for a spin after spending a couple of minutes admiring the humongous tires and all the weird stuff they had to do to the frame and fork shape get them to work with otherwise fairly standard bicycle components.
Given the size of the tires and overall weight, I was expecting it to be quite slow. Yes, it was a bit slow to accelerate, and yes, I sincerely doubt that you will ever see a Pugsley being raced in the Tour de France, but really it wasn´t all that different from a normal mountain bike, at least with the pressure in the tires at the maximum rated level. Unfortunately, there wasn't really any good terrain close by to test its true capabilities, but I got some idea of them by rolling over some curbs without even having to lift the front handlebars.
After fiddling with the saddle height and trying out a few different stems to get the handle bars positioned in a comfortable spot, I decided to buy it. I could probably have gone with one frame size bigger, but the fit seemed pretty good, and an extra 1.3 inches of standover clearance seemed attractive, given some of the terrain I'd be attempting. Forcibly bashing your crotch with your full body weight into a metal tube isn´t all that much fun after all.
That night, I took it out on a group ride, letting a bunch of people try it as we were waiting around to start. I didn´t have any problems keeping up on the ride, but then again it wasn't especially speedy. At one point we passed a section of road that had a bunch of apples on the pavement, fallen from the trees above, and those big tires just rolled right over them.
After quite a few stops for flats and mechanical issues with other peoples´ bikes, as well as a stop for food, drinks, and firewood at a grocery store, we headed down the dark, steep, forested trail to Carkeek. I think the Pugs was rejoicing that it FINALLY was getting off the pavement, even if it was a tame enough trail that road bikes and skinny tired fixed gears were riding it without too much trouble. On the final, paved stretch up to the fire pit, I joked with another rider that if I had known we were going offroading, that I would have put on the fat tires. "Those AREN'T the fat tires?" he asked incredulously, with a double take down at them, nearly twice the width of a standard mountain bike tire, then realized I was joking.
After a couple of hours around a campfire, complete with roasting marshmallows and wieners, not to mention plenty of beer, ginger vodka lemonade, and fiery drops of chipotle infused mescal to go around, I headed back home in the rain, happily listening to the hum of those freakin' huge tires, and not even minding the occasional chunk of mud they threw up into my face. It must be love.
The next morning on the way to work, I stopped at the Colonnade mountain bike park, letting out some of the air in the tires to run through the trails a few times, getting used to the handling on the tight switchbacks, narrow log bridges, and bike teeter-totters. There were also a few sections that approximated some of the big, chunky gravel common on some roads in Central America that had made biking difficult on my 2" tires, but the Pugs just rolled over it with no issues at all. I didn´t bother to pump up the tires when I left, and discovered with the lower pressure that indeed "it corners like a bus with a flat tire" at higher speeds. But at the max rating of 30 psi, it actually corners quite well on pavement. And those huge tires are great for fast descents on rougher pavement, since they just roll over anything and feel incredibly stable.
Later that afternoon, I headed out towards Golden Gardens, stopping to practice riding UP a couple of short flights of steps, with another quick stop at Freerange to pick up a Surly rear rack, since the Tubus rack I had wasn´t compatible with the tires.
When I reached Golden Gardens, it had started raining, and rather more heavily than the typical Seattle spit 'n' drizzle, but I didn´t really care, and rode out on to the beach, for once not sinking into the deep sand, but gliding over it! I played with tire pressure, probably going down to something like 5 psi (only a guess, since my gauge doesn´t register pressures that low), then had loads of fun riding all over the beach: riding in circles in the sand, chasing waves, riding over driftwood logs, riding over the deep, loose rocks on one section of the beach, feeling again like a little kid who is reveling in the joy of just having learned how to ride a bike.
I found you have to take care when cornering, since trying to turn too sharply on deep sand results in the front tire digging in. But otherwise, riding on the sand was surprisingly easy and fast. Not as fast or easy as riding on pavement of course, but much faster and more effortless than trying to walk through the same deep sand. I was having so much fun, I didn´t even realize that it had stopped raining until quite a while later.
Not so much fun was pumping the tires back up to pavement pressures afterwards. Those things hold a LOT of air!
So what adventures will Pugs and I get up to now? Stay tuned.
Although I was pretty sure I wanted to own for at least a while to test its capabilities, I was hesitant to take the plunge and drop a couple of thousand dollars on a bike I´d never even seen an example of in person. However, after talking to the friendly folks at Freerange Cycles in Fremont and getting a price quote from them, they decided they would order one in to have in the shop, which I´d be able to take a look at.
On Thursday afternoon, I got the call that the Pugsley had arrived, and within a few minutes I was out the door and on my bike to take a look. I took the bike for a spin after spending a couple of minutes admiring the humongous tires and all the weird stuff they had to do to the frame and fork shape get them to work with otherwise fairly standard bicycle components.
Given the size of the tires and overall weight, I was expecting it to be quite slow. Yes, it was a bit slow to accelerate, and yes, I sincerely doubt that you will ever see a Pugsley being raced in the Tour de France, but really it wasn´t all that different from a normal mountain bike, at least with the pressure in the tires at the maximum rated level. Unfortunately, there wasn't really any good terrain close by to test its true capabilities, but I got some idea of them by rolling over some curbs without even having to lift the front handlebars.
After fiddling with the saddle height and trying out a few different stems to get the handle bars positioned in a comfortable spot, I decided to buy it. I could probably have gone with one frame size bigger, but the fit seemed pretty good, and an extra 1.3 inches of standover clearance seemed attractive, given some of the terrain I'd be attempting. Forcibly bashing your crotch with your full body weight into a metal tube isn´t all that much fun after all.
That night, I took it out on a group ride, letting a bunch of people try it as we were waiting around to start. I didn´t have any problems keeping up on the ride, but then again it wasn't especially speedy. At one point we passed a section of road that had a bunch of apples on the pavement, fallen from the trees above, and those big tires just rolled right over them.
After quite a few stops for flats and mechanical issues with other peoples´ bikes, as well as a stop for food, drinks, and firewood at a grocery store, we headed down the dark, steep, forested trail to Carkeek. I think the Pugs was rejoicing that it FINALLY was getting off the pavement, even if it was a tame enough trail that road bikes and skinny tired fixed gears were riding it without too much trouble. On the final, paved stretch up to the fire pit, I joked with another rider that if I had known we were going offroading, that I would have put on the fat tires. "Those AREN'T the fat tires?" he asked incredulously, with a double take down at them, nearly twice the width of a standard mountain bike tire, then realized I was joking.
After a couple of hours around a campfire, complete with roasting marshmallows and wieners, not to mention plenty of beer, ginger vodka lemonade, and fiery drops of chipotle infused mescal to go around, I headed back home in the rain, happily listening to the hum of those freakin' huge tires, and not even minding the occasional chunk of mud they threw up into my face. It must be love.
The next morning on the way to work, I stopped at the Colonnade mountain bike park, letting out some of the air in the tires to run through the trails a few times, getting used to the handling on the tight switchbacks, narrow log bridges, and bike teeter-totters. There were also a few sections that approximated some of the big, chunky gravel common on some roads in Central America that had made biking difficult on my 2" tires, but the Pugs just rolled over it with no issues at all. I didn´t bother to pump up the tires when I left, and discovered with the lower pressure that indeed "it corners like a bus with a flat tire" at higher speeds. But at the max rating of 30 psi, it actually corners quite well on pavement. And those huge tires are great for fast descents on rougher pavement, since they just roll over anything and feel incredibly stable.
Later that afternoon, I headed out towards Golden Gardens, stopping to practice riding UP a couple of short flights of steps, with another quick stop at Freerange to pick up a Surly rear rack, since the Tubus rack I had wasn´t compatible with the tires.
When I reached Golden Gardens, it had started raining, and rather more heavily than the typical Seattle spit 'n' drizzle, but I didn´t really care, and rode out on to the beach, for once not sinking into the deep sand, but gliding over it! I played with tire pressure, probably going down to something like 5 psi (only a guess, since my gauge doesn´t register pressures that low), then had loads of fun riding all over the beach: riding in circles in the sand, chasing waves, riding over driftwood logs, riding over the deep, loose rocks on one section of the beach, feeling again like a little kid who is reveling in the joy of just having learned how to ride a bike.
I found you have to take care when cornering, since trying to turn too sharply on deep sand results in the front tire digging in. But otherwise, riding on the sand was surprisingly easy and fast. Not as fast or easy as riding on pavement of course, but much faster and more effortless than trying to walk through the same deep sand. I was having so much fun, I didn´t even realize that it had stopped raining until quite a while later.
Not so much fun was pumping the tires back up to pavement pressures afterwards. Those things hold a LOT of air!
So what adventures will Pugs and I get up to now? Stay tuned.
posted by Matt at 01:07
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