Ever since the early days of Surly, the 1×1 has held a special place in their line up. As Surly’s first frame, the 1×1 Rat Ride opened a lot of doors to the world of single speeding, and up until its discontinuation was a popular bike for Surly. But things change, and a 26″ single speed needed some updates to compete so Surly wanted to create a bike that honored the 1×1 lineage, but offered a modern ride that customers were looking for. Enter the new Lowside.
The Lowside is still a 26″ wheeled bike, but this time it runs 26+. The Surly Dirt Wizard 26 x 3.0″ tires on Alex MD40 rims offer a wider foot print but also a larger overall diameter for whatever trouble you want to find on the new bike.
Still rocking an ED coated, 4130 chromoly steel frame and 1×1 inspired fork, the frame keeps it modern with Gnot Boost 12mm horizontal dropouts which allow for the use of 148 x 12, 142×12, and even 135 x 10 QR hubs (with Surly 10/12 adapter washers), on the same dropouts. And in a move that even Surly says is a bit sacrilegious, the dropout includes a derailleur mount, and the hub is a cassette hub with spacers for single speed so you could technically run gears. Not that you would, or anything. We should point out that the fork is not suspension corrected, but the frame has been tested with up to a 120mm suspension fork. There’s also provisions for an internally routed dropper post too.
The rest of the build features some cool parts like the 820mm wide Surly Sunrise moto bars with shim, Truvativ Descendant cranks, Formula hubs, and Promax mechanical disc brakes to slow you down (or do some sweet skids).
All in, the complete bike will run $1,200 and framesets will run just $600 which could make this a good parts build if you have a bunch of stuff laying around in the garage.
