I’ve been thinking of doing that, either a Unit X or a Bridge Club.
Not building a bike feels weird but probably smart, I’m pretty sure I do everything wrong and build myself terrible bikes for no reason other than a deep seated need to dither
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Most of us do. Isn’t that why we keep building them over and over,.hoping to end up with one we like.
Get a good bike and ride it with minimal changes. It’ll become your favorite bike I bet.
FTFU(s)
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Not a mid drive?
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SO true bestie
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Easier to temporarily convert back and forth from an electric bike to a not electric bike that way. Just swap out the front wheel and leave the battery off.
If you care about that anyway.
having had both, i really like my unit. it was actually an upgrade from my bridge club for something a little more trail ready that had thru axles. it’s really fun set up rigid, and can hold its own on most trails with a 120mm boingy fork
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Good to hear. I’ve had my eye on both for a while, but the Bridge Club is in stock all over whereas the Unit isn’t. Sounds like it’s worth holing out for though.
Interesting. Hadn’t thought about that.
Although I might sell off everything in a manic fit with the intention of buying a new bike for 1 Bike Life, then starting over again with the questions and the dithering and the buying and the parts storing
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bridge club is a badass hybrid, unit x is an underbiking mtb 
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bridge club is a flat bar disc trucker.
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LOL. But no way. Bridge Club is probably the greatest Surly ever. Disc trucker is meh.
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i haven’t been on either but i feel like midnight special is in contention for that title. would love your insight.
Midnight Special is a cool bike. Surly gonna surly with funky dropouts and it’s a weird middle ground between underbiking machine and “road plus” but for people who are going to get ONE drop bar bike, it can do a lot of things well enough.
One of my people has one and loves it.
Bridge Club is a legit bike. I have customers that use them as rigid mtb, ATBs, commuters, etc. The massive range of tire sizes it can handle elevates it above your average “sick hybrid”. Only real downside is QR dropouts, but most riders don’t seem to care.
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Bridge club is tight for sure, but sometimes I wonder why people gravitate to it so intensely.
We stock it next to Deore 10s Journeyers and timberjack/karate monkeys. I find it sits sorta between those two bikes in a funky no-mans-land.
It do say surly on the side and people love when bikes say surly.
[edit:] and ya know what its got a more MTB gear range on it so I guess that makes it a little more distinct than a heavy Journeyer. I am a Stan for the Journeyers though.
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for most people that seems right - I liked mine because it was solid even with a bunch of crap in panniers and I’m heavy enough that the oversized tubes sort of made sense?
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For sure.
I think the Surly approach is really good but not for everyone. With the exception of the Trucker, most of their bikes seem designed to create fill a niche that doesn’t really exist for anyone but riders who only want ONE bike. Want a decent hardtail but ALSO a braappacking bike? Karate Monkey is good enough at both that you don’t need two bikes. Want a gravel bike that can also be a touring bike? Midnight Special is your huckleberry. Commuter/hybrid to also hit some shred-portals on the way, Bridge Club.
But for the certain type of nerd here that is willing to have a crowded bike mess with too may bikes that are optimized for hyper-specific uses… meh.
Surly is also very good for shop rats that can access the QBP B2B and weed at the same time.
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Unless you want to add new layers to your dithering, it’s probably better to just buy an ebike instead. Otherwise you have to research kits, then dither that onto the bike, and dither with whatever ebike settings are available, all on top of the regular dithering for that bike.
My Lorry got the kit it did for reasons, and I only know about converting it back and forth to being an ebike vs not because the Lorry’s front wheel has a 10mm axle and that’s not useful for really any other bike so why not try it. It did make for a decent winter bike without the hub motor to help generate more body heat and not lose it to a faster ebike speed. Next time I’ll probably just buy an ebike instead.
Yeah the more I read about ebike kits the less appealing they become. Batteries and controllers and wiring harnesses and zip ties and all that sounds like it ends up becoming a cluttered heavy mess. My dyno hub wiring is already hideous, doing that all over again with more wiring sounds not fun.
If it’s a moped with any sort of range or power it’s gonna be heavy because those motors & batteries aren’t featherweight.
If I ever build up a moped (and don’t build my own frame to fit the electricals to), I’ll source a frame with swol tubing so there’s plenty of room to snake the power cables from wherever the battery/controller sits down to the BB/rear axle. Clamping the cables outside the tubes might make for faster assembly, but as you mentioned it becomes more of a pain to keep them in place.