It didn't make much noise in the mainstream, but personally, a very sensational piece of news came racing in last week. I received a somewhat lonely email from Peter, the brand manager at Surly, notifying me that he had been let go from QBP and Surly.
He started working as a delivery clerk 16 years ago at QBP, the largest bicycle wholesaler in the U.S., and was promoted to Surly manager about 10 years ago. In the email from this man who really cared deeply about the Japanese market—no, about the bicycle system of the entire world—the last line read, “Surly will be fine.” I think so too. After all, they are always too far ahead of their time. It always takes time for the true value of Surly to be discovered.
I took a shortcut by bypassing the elements we really should have conveyed (since it would have become a very, very long story) and used the aggressive tactic of "respraying the surface," so to speak, to shorten the process and make it popular in Japan. But I had my own justifiable excuse for that: I knew that no matter the model or the color, if people just started cycling on a Surly, there would surely be a bright future ahead for them.
Because of that, I ended up reluctantly selling a SteamRoller I owned to a friend (the wholesaler was out of stock, and I really wanted him to ride it), and now I truly regret it. It’s a simple track bike. But it is a super simple bike that has been thought through to the very end.
About 10 years ago, there was a track bike boom in Japan. The Supreme crowd would bring in these ultra-steep head-angled bike frames that looked like a nightmare to ride and ask me to make them look cool. Off course. I'll do it. It's my job. As long as people ride bikes in their daily lives, that’s all that matters. But I’d always suggest the SteamRoller as the next bike once they got bored. It was truly the bike that paved the way for the Heisei era. It served as a benchmark for those who couldn’t understand "cool" unless you called it a "commuter bike" and acted sophisticated about it. It is, in every sense, a super-tool bike that perfectly leveled the ground for the modern bicycle industry. The fact that it’s now only sold as a frame with fender eyelets is another touch of class.
Normally, buying a SteamRoller specifically without repainting it would be the coolest thing to do, but the general market rarely makes it that easy.
But those of you calling yourselves cyclists reading this might want to remember the coolest way to order a city bike. Go to a shop and say, “Please build me a SteamRoller that’s super easy to use for daily life, durable, and affordable!” Anyone who understands that is a broad-minded, true cyclist who can surely become a trusted partner of yours.
New sportif concepts, long-tail bikes, fat bikes, 29+, cargo bike trailers—Surly created them all first. But they are too far ahead, and eventually, that creates problems. That, I suspect, is the point of this recent firing. But I’m sure they knew that could happen. Still, you want to do it, right? Yes, we want to do it. Faster than anyone. Stronger than anyone. Simpler than anyone. And beautifully. That is why I love Surly so incredibly much.
I have such a strong desire to talk face-to-face with Peter, Dave, Andy, and Nick.
I want to tell them properly that my life is truly better because Surly exists.