Home of Portland's premier Unicycle Gang: the Unicycle Bastards > Reviews > Surly Conundrum; a review
Some time ago, the good peoples at Surly blessed us, the Unicycle bastards, with a conundrum unicycle frame. Actually MJ15 sent a shot in the dark email to the folks at Surly wherein he asked for some type of sponsorship (what, Bastards can’t be greedy and self centered?). Surprisingly, Andy Corson replied in an unexpected yet deliciously curious manner; ‘You guys are strange, tell me more’. Not expecting such a favorable outcome to his initial salvo, I think MJ15 caught a severe case of stage fright. He asked yours truly to follow up and go ahead and ask for something we didn’t have. I asked. Andy said “no, nuh uh, no way in hell, yes, not gonna happen”. Wait! he said yes! The corporal form of Andy’s Yes appeared to us as a brand spanking new Surly Conundrum 26 Frame! On my doorstep it appeared; delivered by a man with short, tight, brown shorts. Unbelievable! The Bastards scored a righteous new frame! In the end, 5 of us cared for it, loved it, and built it up into a complete unicycle.
These are our thoughts. Our barenaked souls stripped of all sheathing and pulsating with defenselessness. Tommy, can you hear me?
Here’s what we built Frame: Surly 26” Conundrum Wheel: Surly Large Marge 36 Hole Tire: Surly Endomorph 3.7 Brakes: Magura HS33 Saddle: KH Cranks: Sugino 165mm Pedals: $11.00
Initial thoughts: Upon opening the box, I immediately noticed that this frame bore little resemblance to the P.O.S. Thaiwanese steel frames I have been riding for the last half decade. The Legs are made of chromoly aero tubing, with Beautiful lugged bearing dropouts. The bearing caps are not your traditional stamped steel, but instead, solid cast metal. Very attractive. Probably illegal in Alabama. So very cool.
the ride: while we were saving our pennies to build up the large marge wheel, we first tried the frame with an over the counter 29 tire/wheel. I can’t say what, but there was something special about the way it rode. it’s just a frame, right? I know, I know, but there was something there. maybe the aero steel frame allowed for some suspension effect? maybe we just got a really cool frame because we asked nicely? maybe because the folks at surly rock? Maybe I had one too many beers at the polo court.
so we finally built it up w/ mostly surly specs. large marge went together easliy . easiest wheel build i’ve ever done. Now that we had this huge new uni with a fat tire. we tested it. We tested it. we tested it. Here are the results:
pluses: stairs- up, down, no matter. The endomorph can do it. drops- oh please! even I am not afraid to take a 1+foot drop with Marge between my legs. ruts-what ruts? logs- easy as “log Pie”. multiple logs- did I run over something? Arms,legs, torsos, multiple torsos- tee hee hee! Mud- sluuuuurp! snow- gnar gnar pow pow, dude! Santacon- Dizzy wobbles but he don’t fall down.
Minuses: sidehilling- no one likes the conundrum when presented with a traverse. you never know which direction she will go. Well, she’ll always go up or down, but never stay on the trail. climbing- as one clydesdale to another, “Marge, I know exactly why you don’t like going up hill”. while we are on the subject of climbing, there is a noticeable brake chirp during each pedal stroke. I can only guess that this is due to too much flex in the frame. The wide tire/rim combo makes brake calipers vulnerable- the brake braze ons are so far outboard that when one tries repeatedly to ride the ‘fountain of deth’ and fails everytime, the last attempt will allow the caliper to take a direct impact from a concrete corner and snap off the crossover tube nipple. OK, I realize that this failure was all due to operator error and the calipers have to be so far outboard because of the width of the large marge rim, but may I suggest that Surly adds some kind of shroud accessory, you know, a foreskin of sorts? Pavement-Well, pavement doesn’t suck as long as the tire pressure is up above 25-30psi. Anything less than that causes the tire to wander all over the road.
Final thoughts: Looking back at this review, I see that we have a few gripes about the conundrum. We also LOVE our conundrum. A closer analysis reveals that most complaints are directed at the endomorph tire/ large marge rim. However, this rim/tire is such a unique beast, so unlike anything we have ever ridden, that we must forgive all of its transgressions. The Conundrum is what it is. It excels sometimes. It sucks on other occasions. I like to think that Humankind also exhibits this same duality. sometimes we suck, sometimes we don’t. Personally, I think Humans suck a little more on average than the UnicycleBastards’ Surly Conundrum.
-Love, Doper.