Surly Bridge Club all road touring bike will help you get out there and over it

Written by Zach Overholt Apr 02, 2018 10:54 a.m. ET

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Ready to invest in a Bridge Club? No, not the card game your grandma was fond of. We’re talking about Surly’s newest bike – named after the Minneapolis tradition of riding and congregating under certain bridges to perhaps share a beverage. While the name is certainly interesting, the bike is also a curious addition to the line up. Calling it an all road touring bike, the Bridge Club is also pretty affordable which should allow you to drop some dollars into other touring gear and hit the road… or trail.

Calling it a great option for someone who’s new to bikepacking, who wants a starter touring bike, or just an affordable option, the Bridge Club starts with a 4130 CroMoly steel “‘Natch Tubing” frame with a matching 4130 CroMoly ridgid fork. That non-suspension corrected fork measures 420mm axle to crown and includes three pack mounts on the legs plus rack and fender eyelets.

Surly points out that the braze-ons are kept to a minimum on the Bridge Club, but you’ll still find full rack and fender mounts, triple bottle mounts on the tops and bottom of the down tube, and three bottle mounts on everything but the XS frame.

Sold with 27.5 x 2.4″ tires and wheels, the frame has a maximum tire clearance of 27.5 x 2.8″ or 26 x 3″.

Sticking with QR dropouts front and rear, the Bridge Club continues with the use of Surly’s Gnot Boost spacing. That means it’s 138mm – not Boost, but also not standard 135mm spacing either. Get it? The spacing in the middle means you can stretch it out to fit 141mm Boost QR hubs (which is what’s included with the build), but it will also squeeze down to fit 135mm QR hubs in a pinch. The front is a standard 100mm wide QR hub.

Other features are all classic Surly. A simple 73mm threaded bottom bracket, options for 1x, 2x, or even 3x gearing, a 27.2mm seatpost, and external cable routing.

Using a geometry that is similar to the Troll/Ogre, the fit has been tweaked for the 27.5 x 2.4″ tires and is a little more suited towards road use. However, it still should be comfortable on the trail for off road touring use – not necessarily for shredding trail.

Sold with a Salsa Bend Bar, wide range SRAM X5/GX 2×10 drivetrain, and tubeless ready WTB i29 rims and 2.4″ Riddler tires, the Bridge Club will sell for $1149 and is available now.

surlybikes.com

Zach Overholt

5,630 articles

Zach Overholt is the Editor in Chief of Bikerumor. He has been writing about what’s new in the bicycle world for 12+ years. Prior to that, Zach spent many years in the back of a bicycle shop building and repairing nearly every type of bike, while figuring out how to (occasionally) ride them.

Based in Ohio, Zach is now slowly introducing a new generation to cycling and still trying to figure out how to fit the most rides into a busy schedule as a new dad.

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terp

6 years ago

one hunder

onrhodes

6 years ago

It’s like a troll and a Salsa Marrakesh had a baby. Not too shabby.

6 years ago

And I thought they couldn’t possibly come up with another redundant boring variation of the same thing. Though it looks like this one has the ultra-desirable feature of “braze-ons are kept to a minimum” differentiating it from the rest of the lineup. Nothing I hate more than versatility on my all road touring bike.

Fred Gravelly

6 years ago

Reply to O

Second this

JBikes

6 years ago

Reply to O

Always amazing witnessing consumers against choice. And if its really redundant sans lots of braze-ons, seems they make one with lot of braze-ons to suit your high versatility all road touring bike needs.

dixls

6 years ago

I’m sorry, Boost QR? stop. please.

Author

Zach Overholt

6 years ago

Reply to dixls

Yes, but to be fair it was launched back in 2016. Essentially, it’s the same thing as 135mm QR was to 142mm thru axle. 141mm QR allows manufacturers to change the end caps on Boost 148mm thru axle hubs to work with QR dropouts. And in this case, you can use 135mm or 141mm QR hubs.

Brendan

6 years ago

Reply to Zach Overholt

Sorry Zach, I’m with dixls on this one. There’s no reason for 141 QR to exist. If you need the extra frame clearance of a wider drivetrain spacing, go 12×148. a 141 QR hub shouldn’t be any cheaper to produce than a 12×148 hub, so what’s the point?

Author

Zach Overholt

6 years ago

Reply to Brendan

Oh, I agree that you might as well go thru axle at that point, but was just pointing out that this was not the first time 141 was used (even though this is actually 138mm). However, thinking as a product manager, I was told at least once that even at the OEM level a thru axle can be a few dollars more than a QR skewer. Multiply that by a bunch of bikes and you can see why a company would use QR to cut down on costs. Not that it does the consumer much good, but you know how that goes. Also, a 141mm QR hub should still allow for a stiffer wheel build than a 135mm. It won’t benefit from the extra frame stiffness of the thru axle, but the wheel should be better.

Smallwood

6 years ago

I think the “Bend bar” is from Salsa, not Surly. Is it indeed the Salsa bend bar? Or some other bar from Surly?

Author

Zach Overholt

6 years ago

Reply to Smallwood

Sorry, it is indeed the Salsa Bend Bar that comes on this bike.

Greg Tillery

6 years ago

As the proud owner of an older Long Haul Trucker, I’m not sure why, when bikes like this are available, would someone still buy a new dedicated touring bike. I’d much rather have something like this – it can do anything my LHT can do, but I can also throw some really fat tires on it. Also, I realize it’s not suspension corrected, but with that low BB, seems like a fork with about 100mm of travel would work nicely on this if you want to.

Sam

6 years ago

Reply to Greg Tillery

well if you don’t plan to go off road the LHT will be more comfortable and handle panniers better

Dinger

6 years ago

Are we getting past “peak 650b” yet? Seems like an odd wheel/tire size choice for something that’s supposed to make light touring easy. It’s still not an overly common stocked size in shops. Good to see regular QR’s, though. T/A is a waste of money on bikes that hit these price-points, yet bike makers can’t seem to resist shiny stuff..

lop

6 years ago

Reply to Dinger

I don’t know where you are shopping, but where I am, 27.5/650b bikes and tires are everywhere.

If you need a tube and can’t find one (and I can’t imagine what shop isn’t stocking 650b inner tubes, at this point), you can just stretch a 26″ in there and you’ll be fine.

650b isn’t going anywhere.

JNH

6 years ago

Reply to Dinger

Peak 650b happened a while ago in mountain bikes, so now the infection is spreading into roadies. 650b road tyres are getting pretty common, WTB and Continental seem to be the early leaders.
.
I am not a fan of quick release, thru axles are stronger, safer and not particularly expensive or difficult anymore, all bikes should have a thru axle fork at minimum.

Fred Gravelly

6 years ago

Reply to JNH

Nah, QR works fine & always has, especially for this kind of riding: light bike packing and light single track.
It’s like everyone’s been brainwashed…

*I need a 650b gravel adventure all-road plus or I can’t ride*

JBikes

6 years ago

Reply to Fred Gravelly

QR does work fine but I am not sure the problem QR solves on a bike like this, designed for hub spacing that will ensure the majority of hubs available are predominantly TA.

It’s purely a cost savings measure and I am not convinced how it can really save much in the grand scheme of things.

jimbob

6 years ago

Reply to JNH

TAs are “stronger?” Do you often find yourself breaking quick release skewers?

Dolan Halbrook

6 years ago

Reply to jimbob

Haven’t seen a broken skewer, but I’ve seen a broken QR axle.

Tim Tim

6 years ago

Reply to jimbob

It’s not about breaking stuff, it’s about flexing stuff.

Tom in MN

6 years ago

Reply to Dinger

There is no close up of the front fork dropouts, but it looks like they point down still. Fork QR dropouts need to point forward with disc brakes to make sure braking does not eject the wheel. Seems odd with a supposedly new fork to still get this wrong, just like all their other forks.

Tom in MN

6 years ago

Reply to Tom in MN

And I would add, TA’s avoid this problem completely.

Rustilicus

6 years ago

Reply to Tom in MN

Using a Q/R correctly avoids this problem as well

Scott

6 years ago

It has bigger tires than my mountain bike. I’m pretty sure that’s just a full rigid 27.5 MTB.

Smallwood

6 years ago

Reply to Scott

Except that the current/modern definition of mountain bike assumes some kind of suspension and the frame geometry to accommodate that suspension. I would say this bike is different in that respect.

Eddie Bones

6 years ago

Poor Surly. They seem to be having an identity crisis. Needing to just keep throwing new options out there to muddy the lines between the already grey area of their line up.

Anyone see the video on their site? Plenty of loud music. Drone footage. Beard. Cut off shorts.
It hits all the notes needed to pump up interest in a bike.
Otherwise- i’m sure it’s a fine sure footed bike.

-Bones

Kernel Flickitov

6 years ago

Somebody doesn’t know how to level a front rack.

Erv Spanks

6 years ago

Reply to Kernel Flickitov

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Dockboy

6 years ago

Does it fit 700c?

Federal Bureau of Bicycle Standard Scrutiny

6 years ago

141qr is fine in theory, but in reality, it’s a ghost standard. 2+ years after its release, there is still no dedicated aftermarket wheel or hub options.

Shimano has some entry level hubs coming out supposedly, but even talking to QBP whose brands are behind at least 2 141 bikes, they say they are waiting for their suppliers to release 141 options and have nothing available currently. Most of the 141qr bikes are $900-$1400, making the rear wheel options on the market prohibitively expensive ($250+).

Aftermarket wheels that use the same endcaps across models, such as stans or dt can work, by converting a boost hub with qr endcaps. The stans s1 series is an option at $278 for a rear wheel and $23 for qr endcaps.

joshhh

6 years ago

Reply to Federal Bureau of Bicycle Standard Scrutiny

Did you know that you can use a regular 135mm QR wheel on these dropouts with no adapters or fuss?

danv1

6 years ago

You don’t absolutely need a rear 141qr hub for a second wheelset. One could grab any decent 135qr touring wheel with 700x (35-44) tires for more road oriented rides.

JBikes

6 years ago

Reminds me of my ’92 trek 8000 with disc brakes and some touring oriented additions.
My old trek was probably lighter though

yard dog

6 years ago

141qr? Yeah, sure, that’ll be a long lasting standard 🙁

joshhh

6 years ago

I don’t understand why anyone is making a big deal out of the QR Boost compatibility. If you read the frame description, you’d easily see “Vertical, 10 x 138mm “Gnot Boost” hub spacing for 135 or 141mm hubs”

Concerned about an obscure standard? No need to worry, just read about what you’re complaining about first! 🙂

Smallwood

6 years ago

Reply to joshhh

Yea, ya nattering nabobs o’ negativity.

yard dog

6 years ago

Reply to joshhh

Sure, run 141qr until it wears out. Then when you put that 135qr in there wonder why yer frame cracked. The Gnot Boost is prolly OK as long as you don’t swap standards back and forth. Even steel has it limits of flex.