Fred's Bike: Surly Karate Monkey

Friday, June 29, 2012

Surly Karate Monkey

I just got a new used Karate Monkey! I traded an American Deluxe Fender Telecaster. I think the other guy got a little better deal but I am completely happy! The bike is fast and nimble. I highly recommend the Surly Karate Monkey to any trail rider who doesn't have $3500 to spend on Fred's carbon dual suspension complicated high maintenance overpriced bicycle.

I saw this review and I wanted to repost it!:

Submitted by Guerdonian a Date Reviewed: June 28, 2012
Strengths: Rock Solid quality frame. The Geometry is perfect. Looks good, rides better, take it anywhere and have a smile on your face.

Weaknesses: A bit heavy, but it is a budget steel frame so not much room to complain about that. Best to convert or purchase a rear wheel with a thru axle that you can crank down if going Single Speed. A regular Skewer does not provide enough compression to prevent the rear wheel from clocking out of line in the horizontal dropouts. Should be given rust protectant on the inside of the frame ASAP, to prevent compromising of the material.

Bottom Line: I have kicked this bikes ass for 8 years. Now it has been lent to 2 friends who have also kicked its butt. It has been in 24hour races, SS short track races, Several day bike trips, Rain, Mud, Rivers, Sludge, Ice, Snow, Dust, (no fire... yet). I have ridden this bike in California, Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico. It has seen well past 6000+ miles and never missed a beat. I have taken newbies out on this bike, and lent it to a Cat 2 road racer, both types of riders had a blast on it. It is composed primarily of unicorn tears, sasquatch hair, chupacabra venom, and pixie dust, it is pure MAGICAL CREATURE!

One word to descibe it: FUN.

So much fun in fact that I tried to match my 8K titanium custom dream bikes geometry after this bikes geometry. You will not regret this purchase. It is the best $$ per smiles ratio of bike out there. Seriosly just buy one!

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Bike Quotes

As I get older the tendency to stick my foot up someone's ass is starting to subside. - Fred on Pump Track Pricks

The 29 inch chingaderra rolls best downhill! ~ Fred

I thought of that while riding my bicycle.

~ Albert Einstein on the Theory of Relativity

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving ~ Albert Einstein

If constellations had been named in the 20th century, I suppose we would see bicycles. ~ Prof. Carl Sagan

It never gets easier, you just go faster. ~ Greg LeMond.

~ Charles M. Schulz

The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind. ~ William Saroyan Nobel prize winner

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle. ~ Ernest Hemingway

Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race. ~ H.G. Wells

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia. ~ H.G. Wells

When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Get a bicycle. You will certainly not regret it, if you live. ~ Mark Twain Taming the Bicycle. 1884

PEDAL. Pray Every Day And Listen. ~ Rev. Johannes Myors, The pedaling preacher

The bicycle is a curious vehicle. Its passenger is its engine. ~John Howard

A bicycle does get you there and more.... And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. And getting there is all the fun. ~Bill Emerson

Until mountain biking came along, the bike scene was ruled by a small elite cadre of people who seemed allergic to enthusiasm. ~Jacquie Phelan

Bicycling is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of birds. The airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient Pegasus; it gives him no wings of his own. ~Louis J. Helle

The secret to mountain biking is pretty simple. The slower you go the more likely it is you'll crash. ~Julie Furtado

If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on. ~ Lance Armstrong

Never use your face as a brake pad. ~ Jake Watson

Refrain from throwing your bicycle in public. It shows poor upbringing. ~ Jacquie Phelan

When I was sick, I didn't want to die.
When I race, I don't want to lose.
Dying and losing, it's the same thing. ~ Lance Armstrong

"It is no longer a beast of steel,
no it is a friend it is a faithful
and powerful ally against one's worst
enemies. It is stronger than anxiety,
stronger than sadness. It has all the
power of hope." ~  Maurice Leblanc