Just about a bike: Surly Moonlander

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This is my Surly Moonlander. It's been in my possession since 2021.

Actually, technically, it's not really mine.  It's a loaner from a good friend who moved away. He asked me, while I was helping him load the last of his family's stuff into their moving-truck, if I would be willing to keep it in my garage, on stand-by, for him to ride whenever he ever came back to town to visit.

He's a good friend, so obviously I agreed. Especially after he told me it would be fine with him if I rode it around whenever I cared to. And thus, in the years that it's been housed here on-site at my place, of course, I have.  Many, many times.

Meantime, my friend, well, I'm happy to say he has been back to visit several times. 

Nonetheless, despite his repeated visits, he's ridden the bike just one time... in the last four-plus years... So...

I've now come to consider it formally adopted as a legitimate member of my no-kill shelter.  My buddy will always be welcomed to ride it (and I hope he'll come back to town someday soon to do so), but at this point it's safe to say I've been treating it as if it was mine for some time, and that's just the way it is.  Every cool bike deserves to have a forever-home (and the chance to run around off-leash out in the woods now and then), that's what I think.

Cooziecage™ Long-Ride system equipped.
Because having two beers on-board is always better than having only one.
And sometimes the ride down is just as hard as the ride up.

The very first thing I did upon taking full possession of this bike (after installing the requisite Chris King headset... you see, some no-kill shelters spay and neuter, others always install a Chris King headset... mine's the latter, in case you were wondering) was take off the fancy-but-lethal 45NRTH shindaggers my affluent pal had installed and put on a set of old, beat-down, but still (literally) quite serviceable Suntour XC-II pedals on the original Mr. Whirly cranks.  They've looong been my go-to flat pedal of choice and they're especially appropriate on this bike due to their amply platformed interface which is so well-suited and stable for big-ish cold-weather boots.

The next upgrade required that I spend a minute or two installing a bespoke Surly rack on the rear triangle.  Took a bit of experimentation to find the right number and placement of spacers (presta valve nuts, as per usual) to compensate for the wild 28mm rear-wheel offset that was common on all early iterations of Surly fat-bike frames.  But ultimately, after solving the spacer equation, it bolted on with good tire clearance and without any appreciable protestation or provocation.  

Never lost on Lost Dog.

I zip-tied a standard-sized old license plate to the top of the rear rack, which fit perfectly and performs effectively as a kind of half-fender.  I figure it keeps at least half the mud off my back-side when conditions become variable (mud, snow, ice, repeat), as they so often do (and often quite quickly post-storm) here in northern Arizona.

This first-gen Moonlander (circa 2011) is a Surly-size large. That means it's a legit big-rig. Thus it can be a real challenge throwing a leg over it, especially when attempting to remount after dabbing (or wrecking) in deep snow.  The massive 4.8" Surly Bud and Lou tires on the stock 100mm Clown Shoe rims are not set-up tubeless, which means I do sometimes flat this bike, usually on one of those aforementioned "variable" days.  Nonetheless, big tires and low pressure mean this bike can ride further and more capably in snow and sand than almost any other human-powered rig out there.  For what it's worth, I usually start out at about 6psi and drop pressure as the riding in deepening snow becomes incrementally more difficult... it's not unusual that I get home and the gauge on my pumps says I'm at about 3psi.

#firsttracksmatter

The addition of a tall-short 40mm reach Crust stem, a  swept-back Jones H-bar, and a black Thomson seatpost with 16mm of setback puts me, the rider, in an upright and rearward position which I find ideal for riding in challenging conditions... lets me get a lot of my weight off the front end of the bike, thereby letting the front wheel get a little more floatation, which I find ideal when chugging away in deeper snow.  That's my working-theory, anyway.

Prone to flatting in variable or dry conditions (because tubes).  Awkward to ride at speed (the faster you go the more massive the centrifugal force of the big wheels becomes). Nonetheless, I could not be more stoked on this very conditions-specific bike!  It is a full-on Clydesdale.  An M1 Abrams tank of a bike, for sure.   But (and this applies to all of my other Surly bikes, too) it is a total hoot to ride, especially when conditions are cold and soft and beautifully adverse.