A Good, Solid Bicycle

A 1999 Surly 1X1 Frame & Fork

 Those Facebook memories posts you see when you first open that social media platform up can be jarring. "Was it THAT long ago already!" Ha ha! Sometimes it is a good thing which pops up. Sometimes not so much. Well, on Monday, the 10th of November, this image here popped up. 

I came into work at Europa Cycle and Ski, just like any other Monday, and saw this as you see it in the image. There was a note which told me the frame and fork was now under my care. The former owner, Brian Bottke, used to work for Europa. In fact, everyone who has ever owned this worked there at one time or another. (See THIS post for the story.) 

I could go on about the string of seven guys who have owned the bike, and maybe this would make for an interesting post. However; I also wanted to go to the point of this bicycle being such a practical, versatile piece that seven different people found a reason to make it their bicycle. 

I think this is pretty remarkable when you stop to consider how most bicycles are so niche and specific the string of one or two, maybe three owners a bicycle may have in its lifespan use the bike in the way it was intended to be used. The bike doesn't see a lot of variance from the main idea. However; in the case of the 1X1, it saw use cases which were vastly different during the times it was passed on from one person to another. 

Consider this: The bicycle you see above was a "grown man's BMX bike, a single speed gravel grinder training device, a commuter bike, a cargo bike with the addition of an Xtra-Cycle attachment, a fixed gear bike, and back to a commuter bicycle again.  Of course, 1X1's have been used as MTB's, "plus" bikes, and even fat bikes. Just this one singular model. 

This is amazing to me. 

Surly used to be known for this sort of thing. Many of their early models were bicycles you could bend to your own "use-will", so to speak. This has kind of disappeared in their line of late. I like a good, solid bicycle which can be purposed in several ways. I think the world needs more of just that. Not 50 variations of a 'thing' which can only do one thing. 

If you know of any bicycles which would be like the old Surlys, let me, and the rest of the readers, know in the comments.