Just about a bike: Surly Moonlander

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This is my Surly Moonlander. 

It is a first generation Moonlander, which Surly debuted in 2011, and discontinued in 2016.  This bike should not be confused in any way with Surly's new freaky-deaky ground-up redesigned 2025 Moonlander; they are two completely different bikes.

Actually, technically, this bike is 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 came back to town to visit.

Like I said, he's a good friend, so of course I agreed. Especially after he told me it would be fine with him if I rode it around whenever I cared to. 

In the years that it's been housed here 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 once... So...

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.

I now consider it formally adopted as an official 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.

The very first thing I did to this bike, once I decided to "make it mine" (after installing the requisite Chris King headset... you see, some no-kill shelters spay and neuter their new adoptees, 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, slightly modded, more-blunt-than-sharp, still 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 to big-ish cold-weather boots.

Hang on a sec. What's this, Grip Shift X-Ray?  Shit sucked out of the box!  Moonlander, say hello to your nearly-new set of 7-speed Shimano XT thumbies (set to friction, and now shifting 9)!

#firsttracksmatter

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.  

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 is a Surly-size large. That means it's a legit big-rig. Even on dry ground, the not-very-sloping top-tube is at least an inch, maybe two, higher off the ground than most bikes this size due to the "lift kit" created by bike's big volume tires. As a 6-footer with a more-or-less standard 32" inseam, I'll tell ya, it can be a real challenge throwing a leg over it 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 also mean this bike can ride further and more capably in snow than almost any other human-powered rig out there.  For what it's worth, on snowy winter days, I usually start out at about 6psi and stop to 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 floor-pump says I'm at about 3psi.

The addition of a new tall-but-short 40mm reach Crust LD stem, a  new swept-back Jones H-bar, and a new Thomson seatpost with 16mm of setback puts me, the rider, in an upright and rearward position which I think is 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 optimal when chugging away in deeper snow.  That's my working-theory, anyway.

Moonlanders, with their monstrous tires and super-wide rims, are at their best when ridden at slow speeds and can become surprisingly awkward to handle when descending on faster terrain. The massive the centrifugal force of the big wheels quickly becomes apparent, especially the front wheel's at the handlebar, as your speed increases. 

You have been forewarned.

Nevertheless, 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, honestly, this applies to all of my other Surly bikes, too) it is a total hoot to ride, especially when conditions out in the woods are cold and fresh and beautifully adverse.