This, ladies and gentlemen, is the super awesome bike I get to ride for the next few days:
(check out those handlebars!!)
No, I haven’t purchased a new bicycle, nor have I become any sort of awesome sponsored bikepacking athlete — I just dropped my bike off at Gladys Bikes for a before-I-go-on-a-trip-in-the-middle-of-nowhere tune-up. And since at the last minute this tune-up is going to take more than one day and since I rely on my bike for everything, Leah gave me their Surly Ogre to ride until my bike is done.
Best. Thing. Ever! So far, I’ve biked around with a giant goofy grin on my face all day, even though all I’ve been doing is my normal-life errands and commuting. This bike is amazing! It makes me want to ride and ride and ride into the great uncharted beyond! I want to put stuff sacks all over it and camp my way into the middle of nowhere! It’s sort of too bad that I’m just going to ride it to work tomorrow, though I’m pretty excited to hit up Powell Butte on the way home and see what it’s made of.
It’s kind of awesome to switch up your bike once in a while:) And it’s kind of awesome when a bike shop will give you a brand-new bike to ride while yours is getting fixed. Thanks for the smiles and the solutions, Gladys!
Hey! That’s cool. But I thought you had more than one bike?
I have my old roadbike that’s in a semi-functional state in the basement right now. But so much more elegant (and convenient!) to just switch for a fully-functional bike at the bike shop! :)
You can never have enough bikes…..I’ve got a casual interest in the Surly Troll for bikepacking trips where the Salsa Vaya would be out of it’s comfort zone. Is that an Ogre or Troll you have? I thought the Ogre was 29″ wheels and the troll is the 26″ version. Those look like 26″.
It’s definitely an Ogre frame (and I THINK 29″ wheels!), though since I’ve already returned it I guess I can’t vouch for the wheels either way.
It sure was fun to ride:) Way more fun than the Vaya I test-rode a really long time ago before I decided to build my Soma:)