Just about a bike: Surly Sorceress

 

Got a new bike the other day, a 2026 Surly Sorceress, the hot-honey bling flavored one, in fact.

It is fricken gorgeous.  And exceptionally rad.  I'm gonna tell you why in just a sec.

But first a few bona-fides and a little business...

I own several Surly bikes.  Like to think I was an early adopter of the brand.  Definitely a sympathizer, at least as far as their vibe goes.

My first Surly was a mud-brown Steamroller.  Got it as a frame-set in 2000.  Built it my way.  Still have it.  It's always been a fixie.  It's a very fun bike to ride.  But it will spank you in the ass without warning if you don't keep your head in the game. Not that that's necessarily always a bad thing...

Next I got a bean-green Cross-Check in 2001, likewise as a frame-set, likewise built it my way.  Still have it. It's a singlespeed at the moment, but it was a geared bike for a long time.  Recently "upgraded" to tubeless (rimbrake!) wheels.  Also a very fun bike to ride (especially lately, because less flats). 

My third Surly is a chili-pepper red Pugsley which I acquired gently-used and as a complete bike in 2013. Still have it.  It's currently set up as a singlespeed, but it too was a geared bike for a long time.  I prefer it as a singlespeed.  It's a very fun bike to ride this way, especially in adverse conditions, which is almost exclusively when/how it gets ridden.  No other bike I own gets rode-harder or put-away wetter than my Pugs SS.

In 2016 I bought another Pugsley (Park-tool blue, for the record), for my daughter.  She enjoyed riding it for several seasons but she doesn't really ride bikes very often anymore.  It's been on-loan to a friend for a few years and lives at his house full-time.

Then, somewhat karmically, in 2022 a friend who was moving away loaned me his cosmic-splatter black Moonlander, which I've been storing full-time in my garage ever since. We never agreed to any terms for this arrangement other than "I'll ride it whenever I come back to visit."  Which has only happened once in four years.  So essentially, I think of it as one of my bikes now.

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How did I end up with yet another Surly bike in my stable?

Art of the effin deal, my friend.

Back in July my Specialized Fuse broke while I was out on a ride.  Cracked at the weld that joins the top-tube to the seat-tube.  Not to worry!  All's well, despite the JRA failure. No JohnCoes were harmed in the breaking of this bike.  In fact, I was riding uphill when I initially noticed the crack.  Rode it all the way home down Schultz from the top of Lunar Tide, albeit somewhat slower and more cautiously than usual.

Cool fact: Specialized put a lifetime warranty on this frame.  However, they don't make this bike, or even one like it anymore.  So they offered me a whole new complete (Rockhopper Expert) bike as a replacement instead.

I took the deal.  But never intended to ride the bike.  Thanks to the generosity of my employers at Absolute Bikes in Flagstaff, I was graciously given store-cost credit for the Rockhopper.  It got put into inventory when it was delivered, and it quickly got sold about a week later.

I used my store credit to buy a brand-new large Surly Sorceress frame from Quality Bicycle Products (Surly is an in-house brand sold to bike-shop resellers by wholesaler QBP) at store-cost, which ended up being basically a dollar-for-dollar trade-out for me.  Even Steven.  Pretty cool.

Only problem: I've been broke-as-fuck pretty much this whole summer.  Lots of reasons for that.  From the get-go I knew I was going to have to limit my out-of-pocket expenditures in order to bring this project in way under-budget.

My plan: switch over as many parts from the Fuse to the Sorceress as possible... find a few parts in my old-parts bins to make up the difference... and buy as little as possible new (try to stay under $500) to get the project done.

The result: got lots of old parts swapped over: 650b wheels, saddle, fork (lowers), pedals, stem, shifters, brakes... found a few parts in my bins: cranks and handlebars... had to buy a few things, of course: headset, bottom bracket, cassette, chain, chainring (old transmission was fully clapped-out), fork crown/steerer/stanchion (old steerer was too short), dropper post (also old one too short)... finally, my boss, Kyle, at the shop gave me a very nice slightly used rear derailleur, which saved me a few bucks, too.  

Total out-of-pocket?  With my employee-discount, about $550.  Ten-percent over budget, but still, not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

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So what's it like, this new Surly Sorceress?  How's it ride?

Pretty damn great!

Surly's marketing copy describes the Sorceress as "a progressive trail hardtail built for ever-evolving trails... modern trail geometry grants it the ability to send steep, loose lines, climb efficiently, and float over trail features."

And it does do all that, really really well!

The Fuse, my first long-low-slack geo'd, plus-sized-wheel'd, dropper-post'd, 140mm travel'd bike will always be my benchmark for what a good "progressive trail hardtail" should be able to do.  Rode 6500 miles on it over nearly 10 years, and it was always a revelation. Kept making me a better rider, right up to and until the bitter end. I will always be grateful to it for donating so many of its vital organs (and inspiration) to this new project.

The Sorceress takes everything the Fuse was good at and ramps it up in a wonderfully future-forward kind of way.  The Sorceress' stand-over (and dropper travel) is much better, its at-speed handling is way sharper and carvier, the frame's dampness (in every dimensional direction) is far suppler, and its overall honey-gold blinginess is incredibly striking in a way that the industrial matte gray Fuse could never be.

Couple more caveats from the Surly Sorceress FAQ... "Sorceress is set up for faster, rougher, steeper riding... We built it to be fun, playful, and capable across all kinds of dirt, from steep and chunky to full-on flow state, so you can ride hard, move fast, and keep it simple... [the] suspension fork is longer, head tube angle is slacker, seat tube angle is steeper... more room for longer travel droppers, and more stand-over... We built it to be fun, playful, and capable across all kinds of dirt."

Hype or not, my Surly Sorceress (even when built my way) lives up to every word.

There are a few things, however, that will likely set my particular build apart for most others, starting with the wheels.  See, Surly very wisely designed this frame around 29-inch (700c) wheels.  Almost everything's 29 now.  Over the course of the last couple years, it's become quite challenging to find good tires in any other sizes, top-tier 26s are completely gone with the wind, and  27.5s, especially decent plus-sized ones, are becoming increasingly hard to come by lately, too.

My Fuse was sold back in the day as a "6Fattie" due to its plus-sized 3-inch 650b (27.5-inch) wheels and tires.  And I swear to you, instantly and forever, first ride, I fell in love with them.  Heck, I still consider a 650b wheel with a good plus-size tire on it to be nearly-perfect for the kind of riding I like to do.  So my very first objective, when it came time to consider replacing my Fuse, was to try to find a frame that would be able to accommodate these now practically obsolete wheels and tires.  That's just how I roll.

(eye roll)

Fortunately, Surly dropped the Sorceress on us just a few weeks before my Fuse decided to fatally fail.  Therefore, as an aided-and-abetted, hundred-percent avowed American aquarium-drinker of all the all-natural flavors of Surly swill (see my bona fides above in case you skipped that part), I started my investigation right fukin there.  Just imagine my stoke when I found out that the rear drop-out thru-axle dimensions were the same (12x148mm), and that my existing 140mm Fox 34 fork would install up-front no problem.  Sure, the question of whether clearance between the stays for a 3-inch (74mm) 650b tire was gonna work was still unanswered. But my gut told me "surely Surly is still committed to their longtime fff™ Fatties Fit Fine ethos (despite it no longer being touted as such in Surly's once ubiquitous scribble-script font on the chainstays). Right?"  

Happy to report: they were!  My (awesome, bomber, rippin') old wheels bolted right on, easy-peasy.  With at least 5 mils of clearance on either side! Maybe 6!

Same situation for the old but still-functional Avid DB3 brakes, the SRAM GX shifter I swapped over, the new transmission parts I purchased, and the 175mm Shimano XT crankset I excavated from the toolbox for this build.  None of it state-of-the-art tech by any stretch, but more than adequate for my purposes, despite their age and mileage. All of the above played a major role in keeping my out-of-pocket expenditures under-budget, too. 

No issues with the vintage brakes or NOS transmission parts.  Have had maybe 3 pedal strikes in the first 100 miles of singletrack riding, prolly could/should have gone with 170s to avoid this, but I really do prefer to ride 175s (5 mils more leverage, obviously).  I'm kinda an old-school curmudgeon that way.  Once again, that's just how I roll.

(eye roll)

Really, there's just one thing about the Sorceress that's taken me a minute to process: low speed front-wheel flop. Surly says the head tube angle for the Sorceress is 65-degrees with a 140mm fork (25-percent sagged).  Maybe some of the flop I'm feeling is due to the slightly smaller-than-spec wheels I'm running.  But I think most of it is actually due to the headtube/fork combo and the frame's inherent design characteristics. "Most modern bikes have a little flop," says my good friend Ken, who gets a new bike every year (because he owns the bike shop, natch) and rides bike a lot (and also rides them very well), "You learn how to compensate for it pretty quickly."  Having known him for some 30 years, and having watched him ride countless times, I'm inclined to trust his insight here.

Anyway, overall, I could not be happier, both with the budget-friendly deal and with the amazing bike.  

If I could beg of this Sorceress one simple incantation, it would only be that she allow this bike to follow in the well-worn tracks put down by the Fuse: work your magic on me, make me a better rider, up to and until the bitter end.

I don't think that's too much to ask of any bike.  And I'm confident this one will not disappoint.

Thanks Absolute Bikes for makin' it happen!  

Thanks Surly for makin' super-rad shred-worthy bikes!