Customer Interviews: Commuter & Trail Rider Dylan Menges

Dylan Menges was the proud recipient one of the first Surly ECR builds we put together after the bike model was released last year. Dylan lives in Columbus, Ohio, and uses his ECR to commute around town and explore the bike paths and trails along the Scioto River. He is a true adventure rider and wanted a bike durable enough to serve him reliably for rides of all kinds for many years to come.

Read on to learn more about how Dylan uses his Rohloff SPEEDHUB-equipped bike and what other features stand out on his ECR.

Phil Attends the "Meet Your Maker" Tour Through Oakland

Last weekend I rode the latest edition of the “Meet Your Maker" tour, a pedaling expedition to the workshops of some of the Bay Area's finest frambuilders and component manufacturers. This regular series of rides was started last year by a tight-knit group of framebuilders who rode together regularly but wanted to show their customers and friends the sense of passion, collaboration, and camaraderie that defines their local scene. The rides are kept at a “party pace,” bike business and engineer talk is kept to a minimum, and the idea is simply to show people a good time. Based on the smiles on peoples’ faces on Saturday, the Meet Your Maker tour has definitely stayed true to that original idea.

Nearly 100 riders had gathered in Paragon's parking lot by 9 a.m.

Phil and Tyler's November North Bay Camping Trip

Tyler's Surly Krampus and Phil's Budnitz No. 3, just before heading over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin.

Tyler and I, two of the newest members of the Cycle Monkey team, are big fans of bike camping. We often spend downtime at the office dreaming up fatbiking trips and road tours to tackle someday. But for a more immediate thrill, we headed out into the North Bay on a recent weekend for a bit of Rohloff-equipped bike camping. We were excited to get out for a full weekend before the weather got wet, and had been looking forward to the mini-tour since we had planned it just a few weeks before.

The plan was to take the BART train from the East Bay to downtown San Francisco before pedaling over the Golden Gate Bridge and north to Samuel P. Taylor State Park. The park has a popular campsite in a big redwood grove, and the ride there has some of the most beautiful and varied scenery that the Bay Area has to offer – rolling hills, dense forests, waterfront bike paths, and ritzy neighborhoods were all on the route.

Joining us was Cycle Monkey friend Bishnu, who is the roaster at our local coffee shop and quite an experienced bike tourer himself. Tobe, one of the mechanics in our Monkey Lab, was to join us later that night at the campsite. Our motley crew had quite a range of bike styles, packing lists, gear-carrying setups, and pedaling paces, but we all had the same goal: getting outside the city, packing on the miles, and simply enjoying the weekend.

The whole squad: (from left) Tyler, Bishnu, Tobe, and Phil.

NAHBS 2012 Sacramento

Cycle Monkey had a busy three days in Sacramento during the 2012 edition of NAHBS. This year's show was the biggest to date with over 8100 attendees and 171 exhibitors. Friday was busy, Saturday was very busy, and Sunday was steady. There were many beautiful bikes on display, though we didn't get to see the whole show because it was difficult to get away from the booth. The Schlumpf and Rohloff cutaway models that we had on display attracted a steady crowd of onlookers, and the two bikes we had mounted on trainers offered visitors a chance to try out the Rohloff SPEEDHUB 500/14, Schlumpf Speed Drive, and Gates Carbon belt drive system.