They’re creepy and they’re kooky, Mysterious and spooky, They’re all together ooky, The Addams Family.
No matter what else was happening in an episode of the Addams Family TV show, you could be sure that the daughter Wednesday was trying some scheme to kill her brother Pugsley.
Wednesday finally accomplished here quest to kill off Pugsley at my house.
For a decade Surly Bicycles, have been purveyors of fat bike frames, rims, etc. They now have a new hottie of a fat bike to ride, Her name is Wednesday. Unlike her twisted brother Pugsley, Wednesday’s stays are straight. Pugsley was cleverly created when 135 mm rear hubs were the widest option available. Because of this, the Pug’s frame had to be built with asymmetrical rear stays to accommodate this limitation and avoid his chain from rubbing the sidewall off of his rear tire.
Wednesday is not plagued with such issues. She sports a Formula 177 mm rear hub laced to her/My Other Brother Darryl (pinned ) 32 spoke 80 mm wide rim. If that were not enough, this swell wheel is attached to her wicked-sweet,horizontalrear dropouts with a 12 mm Surly thru axle!!! 
The front wheel with it’s 150 mm Formula hub locks onto Wednesday’s 4130, tapered, straight blade fork with a 15 mm thru axle. All of this thru axle fun tidies up the stiffness and handling. Combine all that engineering with her 69º angled head tube,73º angle seat tube and you have a Surly Steel bicycle that likes to snake around trails.
Reality check! Even with so much Surly love, this bike has a low MAP and MSRP price of $1499. This is really inexpensive for a high quality bicycle. How did they do it? To get there the Surly folks had to compromise somewhere. Heavier, less expensive, 27 thread per inch, wire bead 3.8 Nate tires were specked instead of the lighter weight, higher priced 120 thread count kevlar bead 3.8 Nates. I can live with that. When Wednesday and I wear out the stock tires, Wednesday will be shod with the lightest tires I can afford. If she wants to go to 4.6 size tires she can. The Surly Steel fork has room for these fatter tires, as does the frame. The Surly Enginerds designed the horizontal rear drop-outs so you can slide the wheel backwards to accommodate the bigger footwear. Way cool.
The Surly folks also kept Wednesday’s cost down by using high quality / low cost Hayes MX Comp V mechanical disk brakes, instead of some high zoot hydraulics. SRAM X5 derailleurs, crank and shifters get the job done well. These blue collar components make no excuses. They all just work, and play nice together. The Velo saddle suits my big butt just fine. Wednesday’s handle bars are flat and 750 mm wide. Too wide for this cowboy. My tubing cutter really want’s to remove at least 25.4 mm from both sides, of this handle bar and then put back on the lock-on rubbery grips. This width should still leave me enough leverage to crank the front tire to and fro with ease, but let my arms be in a more comfortable position. We will see what happens after a few more rides.
I had to do some stuff to make Wednesday truly mine. The ED coated ( Electro Deposition, Electrophoretic deposition) Surly Steel frame and fork still benefit from some love being bestowed on its inner regions. I used Amsoil Heavy-Duty Metal Protector. This Amsoil spooge, coats the inside of the Surly Steel and when it dries adds an extra layer of rust protection to Wednesday.
Every bike I touch turns into an art project. I showed Wednesday an Arundel Sport water bottle cage, and she demanded one in orange. With that cue, An SKS Xtra-Large Tour Bag was attached to her seat post, because of its signature orange highlights and massive 1.4 Liter volume that can expand to 2 Liters which is handy for her big tubes, pump, co2, and tools. We then switched out all of the black cable ties to orange. Finally a pair of iSSi Trail Triple pedals, also in bright orange, capped off the X5 crank arms. iSSi build these two sided mid-sized SPD compatible pedals with three sealed bearing in lots of eye popping colors. I love this bike. Wednesday and I have been out on a few modest rides and she seems to love me back. She handles great. Quick but not twitchy, with a comfortable ride. My only quibble, is Wednesday’s Robbins Egg Blue coloration. Seriously, I like this color, but, to be historically correct she should have been clothed in black as she was on TV.
Regardless, the two of us are looking forward to some fun on Global Fat Bike Day.
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