Surly Bikes


Surly Bikes, or Surly, is a bicycle brand based in Bloomington, Minnesota, United States, that was founded in 1998. It is a division of Quality Bicycle Products, a manufacturer and distributor of bicycles and bicycle parts. Despite sharing a similar name and being headquartered in the U.S. state of Minnesota, Surly Bikes and Surly Brewing Company are separate enterprises, with an agreement between the two companies allowing the bicycle company to display the single word "Surly" on its products.

History

The Surly brand was developed in house at the Minnesota-based Quality Bicycle Products in the 1990s as a compliment to its other brands, such as Salsa Cycles. At the time, "fatbikes" were emering on the market for winter use in snowy climates, but they were considered exotic and too expensive to produce. Quality Bicycle Products hoped to standardize parts to make mass production easier. Soon after its founding in the late 1990s, the Surly brand was mostly known for in the bicycle industry for its single-speed bikes, but in the 2010s it became known for fat-tire bikes that it helped pioneer with machinery it owned. By the 2010s, many brands that manufactured fat bikes used Surly tires. In April 2020, Surly's parent company announced layoffs for 12 percent of its workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Products

Surly's Pugsley fat bike that debuted in 2005 was praised by reviewers for its common hub feature that allowed for interchanges, additional gearing combinations, and ability to handle a variety of conditions. In 2019, Surly faced a product recall of 5,000 bike racks due to crash hazards.