In a sea of Surly bikes with large tires, the Pacer stands out. For the longest time, the Pacer has been the road bike place holder for Surly – until now. While the Midnight Special is a completely new frame, it still borrows some of that original Pacer DNA and even some of the tubing. However, the Midnight Special is obviously build around road plus to create a bike that excels on the road but still offers plenty of comfort when things get rough – think of it as all road, all day.
The Midnight Special is most definitely a Surly, but there are still a surprising amount of new standards incorporated into the build. Up front you’ll find a 44mm head tube so you can upgrade to a tapered carbon fork if you see fit (don’t worry, the 4130 steel fork is still the only stock option). Then there’s the flat mount disc brakes front and rear. Of course the double butted (front triangle) 4130 ED coated chromoly has plenty of mounts for both racks and fenders. You’ll also find 12 x 100 and 12 x 142mm thru axles front and rear, though they use a slotted dropout design.
Designed around the WTB 650b x 47mm Horizon tires, Surly says the bike has a 650b x 2.2″ max tire size though it’s also compatible with 700c x 42mm wheels and tires as well.
Offered in a huge range of sizes, the Midnight Special will be available in 40-64cm frames.
As a complete, the Midnight special will include a SRAM Rival 22 2×11 drivetrain with a 50/34t SRAM S390 crankset and a Sunrace 11-32 cassette. You’ll also find TRP Spyre mechanical flat mount disc brakes, and Alex XD Elite rims laced to Formula hubs. Pricing will be $1,799 for the complete, and $625 for the frameset, with bikes already available at 26 dealers as we speak.
