NormanF

Pic:




From Surly's Description:


"We think by now, most of you get what Straggler is. It’s a Cross Check with disc brakes instead of rim brakes. We also think you get why that’s good. The Straggler is a madly versatile bike that can be used for most types of riding and riding surfaces. It can be set up as a hauler or a mauler and so can Straggler. Better still is that you now have the option of 650b wheel size. 650b wheels were popular for a long time many years ago on ‘Constructeur’ style bicycles and we all know how real **** was back in the day…. 650b wheels strike a nice balance between the benefits of both 26” and 700c sizes. The smaller wheel allows smaller riders to fit well on smaller frames, produces a stronger wheel, makes fitting big ass tires easier and are more agile than their larger counterparts."

Wicked cool! Why would one consider a Surly tribute to the beloved Rene Herse?

"Straggler shares all of the Cross-Check’s braze-ons for fenders, racks and bottle cages. The Straggler's geometry is slightly different, with angles and tube lengths very close but not identical to the Cross-Check, but like the Cross-Check it's ready to take you just about anywhere. It’s a day tripper and a weekender. It’s a ‘rough road’ road bike. It’s a cyclocross bike with no pretense about racing. It’s a utilitarian townie. It’s a light-duty touring bike. It’s an all-weather commuter. And when you get tired of one set up, you can swap parts around and turn it into something else."

I'm all in for their utilitarian townie, day tripper, weekender, "rough road" bike, light duty touring bike and yup - all weather commuter sh*t. Easier you love it or or you hate it! I'm smitten with Surly's take on the classic French vielle de velo/constructeur bike of the 1940s and 1950s. Good things always come back in style! Thanks, Surly!

-=(8)=-

Gorgeous!
Thanks for posting!

RubeRad

I was just thinking of this the other day; with disc brakes, is there any reason not to just take a "700C" straggler and put 650 wheels on it? I mean, is a 54cm "700C Straggler" any different than a 54cm "650B Straggler" other than rims, spokes, tires and tubes?

J.C. Koto

Yeah, the bottom bracket will drop a bit, all things equal ~19mm or so

gsa103

One would hope the geometry is slightly different. You'd ideally like a shorter wheelbase and chainstays to reflect the smaller wheel. Which they did 16.9cm (700c) vs 16.1 cm (650b).

icepick_trotsky 

Other than the size of the wheels, how is this an homage to constructeur bikes? The sloping top tube, compact geometry front to back, and especially the black components are rubbing this retro grouch the wrong way.

grolby

Literally the ONLY features that the 650B Straggler shares with "constructeur" bikes: 1. It is a bike. 2. It has 650B wheels.

As a 650B bike, fine, I can understand that. Calling it an homage to French constructeur bikes just makes no sense at all. They have altered the geometry somewhat to be better suited for the smaller wheels, but it's still a very conventional mid-trail geometry design. About as un-French as it gets. Nothing wrong with that by itself, but calling it "Surly's take on the classic constructeur bikes" doesn't make sense in that context. It's not at all constructeurish.

alan s 

"Constructeur"
"Homage"
"vielle de velo"

Srsly?

cobrabyte

I see the semantics army is out in full force this morning lol

OP; take a look at Boulder Bicycles, if you haven't already.

Darth Lefty 

I like this bike. It would fit with the convertible idea I was testing out with my tubeless topic: 679 mm ≈ 47-584 ≈ 28-622 (and ≈ 60-559 if you have the width).

I feel it still has the same Surly oddness of short head and seat tube to lower the top tube for a given length, which then results in a lot of head tube spacers and exposed seat post. I think they do this from the top on the seat and head tubes to keep the standover under control with fatter tires, and still use modern rake & trail*, and then they shorten the head tube from the bottom a bit more to raise the tire clearance. The new 650b, less so than the 700c version. The 700c 54cm has a head tube of 107mm and a standover of 792mm, the 650B 54cm version 145, 806. Why the 650B version is overall taller, I couldn't tell you. It seems like they should have come out the same.

* My Super Sport has tons of clearance to use center pull brakes and fenders over 630-32 tires. This is possible due to having plenty of rake & trail, which puts the wheel much further forward. There's no toe overlap either. But it's not modern handling.

grolby

I see. You are apparently under the impression that words do not have actual definitions that mean something real, but instead represent whatever it is that a copywriter wants them to. Yeah, that's not how it works. Saying that it's not a constructeur style bike isn't "semantics," it's just the facts. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the bike, but it bears literally no resemblance to and shares no heritage with an interwar French bicycle apart from 650B wheels. I don't have any particular affection for or emotional attachment to French-style constructeur bikes of the mid 20th century (and think there's a certain wax-mustachioed silliness about the people who do), but calling this a constructeur homage amounts to false advertising.

Medic Zero

This.

And this is for Surly:



Quoted for truth:

cobrabyte

Such vitrol!

Darth Lefty 

That's what Humpty Dumpty told Alice, anyhow.

Andy_K 

To me, the most shocking thing about that picture is that it's a Surly with a sloping top tube. I guess that happens in the smaller sizes?

Medic Zero

Would you like to buy an "i"?

RubeRad

For the record, the description from the Surly page ONLY makes the wheelsize link to constructeur bikes.

As for the rest of you piling on OP's enthusiasm, way to poop on a party.

Unsubscribe!

alan s 

Surly should have called it the Straggleur.

cobrabyte

Nah, I prefer the Olde French spelling myself

jeffpoulin

LOL!

As for the French terms being bandied about, I live in France and I've never heard anyone use the terms constructeur, homage, and vielle de velo when talking about bikes. Well, maybe if they're referring to bikes in a museum. I do occasionally see old Peugeots and Motobecanes, though (real ones, not the kind from Bikes Direct!).

Darth Lefty 

In any given wheel size at smaller frame sizes. The head tube end sort of bottoms out - you can't make a negative length head tube. They shorten the seat tube to get the standover. Going to smaller wheel sizes fixes it. Find a picture of a Terry bike and cover up the rear triangle, and it looks normal because it's normal geometry in miniature, instead of trying to fit the forward frame over a wheel that's too big.