Karate (monkey) Lessons

Got up with the sun this morning to sweat out an hour long bike ride on the new Monkey. Kind of felt like a training ride. I was pushing hard the whole time, and forced myself to sweat and be huffing. Good times. The bike feels great. A few changes will be coming though. I will be looking for a different saddle. I’ve got a WTB Speed V on my fixie, and I love it. I tried the WTB that came on the bike briefly, and may give it one more chance, but I wasn’t too impressed with a quick ride right after I brought the bike home. Today I tried the Velo saddle that came stock on my LHT. This wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t too good either. Every time I’ve set up my Speed V, I’ve been immediately comfortable on it, even if the angle or height of the saddle needed a bit of tweaking.

SPDs will be going onto this bike. I won’t be commuting on this stead, except maybe in the winter, we’ll see. And, a few times I was hauling over some wash-board and my feet were moving on the pedal. I had to stop pedaling and re-position my foot, which is very distracting and makes you momentarily loose the line you were riding.

Brakes are great. Size still feels excellent, but I might want a slightly longer stem. I don’t feel uncomfortable, but I kind of wish I were in a more aggressive riding position. I’ve got one that’s 20mm longer and I might give that a try.

Road find: Remnants of last nights "picnic"?

Eventually I’d like to get some Ergon grips, but I’m not in a huge rush for those. I’ll probably wait until these stock ones start to show some wear.

All in all, what a great and fun bike. Very smooth on the gravel (which is mostly what I rode this morning) and I’m really excited to log more and more miles on this bike

Surly, you make good bicycles.