The Surly Karate Monkey is a fan favorite and for today’s Readers’ Rides, Neil shares his longest standing, most ridden bike with us…
This has been my longest standing, most ridden mountain bike from the quiver, although it has been through a number of iterations like the Ship of Theseus. Originally starting life as a 2008 Gary Fisher Superfly with a 2×9 XTR m970 groups, parts were replaced as they began to wear out, or fail under warranty.
After a couple of years, the original frame cracked at the rear dropout disc brake mount. In need of an immediate solution to make a specific group ride through the Santa Cruz mountains the next weekend, the frame was replaced with the 2011 Surly Karate Monkey since it was in stock and available in a 22 inch size.
This particular year of the Monkey was the last to offer cantilever brake mounts, used standard 100/135mm QR dropouts and a straight 1-1/8″ headtube, the latter allowing use of a titanium King no threadset I had opportunistically bought years earlier without a specific bike in mind. This became my primary, and for a while only, mountain bike which I rode everywhere enjoying its relative simplicity and reliability.
A particularly fond memory was the first mountain bike trip to Bend, OR with my wife shortly after getting married in 2016. While riding the Phil’s Trail system we passed another rider on a 140mm trail bike who said “cool Surly, I used to have one of those.”
It always feels good to meet another Surly owner on the trail, but then he proceeded to chew me out saying that my bike had “out of date geometry” and that I was “being negligent riding that bike on these trails because it was so dangerous!” He then pedaled off while my wife stared in confusion at what just happened. Many years later I still enjoy riding my ‘dangerous bike’.
Like the frameset, most parts have changed; new fork with a thru-axle and boost spacing, warrantied brakes when the original ones leaked, switch to a single front chainring, changed to a ten speed shifter and derailleur to add a clutch, and a set of titanium post and handlebar to better fit the ridge bike. But the crankset, spd pedals and king bottle cages are still from the original build.
Build Spec:
- Frame: 2011 Surly Karate Monkey 22in
- Fork: Surly Krampus fork
- Headset: King Ti NoThreadset 1-1/8
- Stem: Thomson X4 120×10
- Handlebar: Thomson Ti
- Seat post: Thomson Ti
- Saddle: Fizik Aliante
- Brakes: XTR m9020
- Crankset: XTR m970 177.5mm
- Chainring: Praxis stainless steel (pre SRAM lawsuit)
- Shifter: XTR m980
- Derailleur: XTR m986
- Rear wheel: XTR m9000, Stan’s Crest, Wheelsmith DB14
- Front wheel: XTR m9010-B, Stan’s Crest, Wheelsmith DB14
- Tires: Teravail Kessel 29×2.6/2.4
- Cages: King Titanium
- Pedals: XT m8040 flat / XTR m970 spd
We’d like to thank all of you who submitted Readers Rides builds to be shared here at The Radavist. The response has been incredible and we have so many to share over the next few months. Feel free to submit your bike, listing details, components, and other information. You can also include a portrait of yourself with your bike and your Instagram account! Please, shoot landscape-orientation photos, not portrait. Thanks!
