My 3rd SURLY
While Matsumoto-san got his first Surly, I decided to get my 3rd.
All the bikes I got for myself these few years have their own specific feature. Touring, gravel, track, road etc…
For instance, IF and ANT are for pavement, Rambler, Monster cross and WOMBAT for dirt, REW10, Disc Trucker and Dreamer for touring.
As the time passed by, I realized that I don’t have an everyday bike suits my daily life.
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Surly used to make a model called Pacer which was my first Surly, around 10 years ago. I opened the “gate” of Blue Lug Hatagaya when I was 20 after I got the shock of MASH as many bike kids did. I ended up to buy a Pacer instead of a track bike for my first bike as I expected because of the encounter with someone important in my life.
I still can recall Kaneko-san told me that “Hey! Your Pacer is built by me, isn’t it??” while he’s smoking in the smoking area which used to be in front of the Hatagaya shop.
Pacer (50)
Caliper brake road bikes are still popular for some people even though the ones with disc brake are main stream in the sport-bike scene. Pacer was different in that kind of bikes.
The Pacer frame was full of Surly’s essence while it was a proper road bike too. I went to a ton of ride with my Pacer even for gravel adventures with chubby tyres and it was an epoch-making bike for me didn’t know anything about bike back then. I ended up to give the frame away but it is still special to me. I think I was very lucky to choose this as my first bike because back then I was just like “American bike! Chromoly! Road bike!”, I had no idea what exactly to choose.
My 2nd Surly is DISC TRUCKER, I toured all around Japan with.
“Why don’t I just custom this to an everyday bike?” of course I thought so but then I faced a problem.
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disc trucker (52)
When I tried to ride it with the normal fork after removing the CRUST’s cargo fork (both fork were painted in the same color), it didn’t ride as I want to currently. Well, it’s good of course, rather the best for going slow but I was like “Mhh actually I want something faster as I live in Tokyo, the concrete jungle”.
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midnight special(50)
In the end I happened to get a Midnight Special, the immediate ancestor of Pacer, My first Surly. 
Surly bikes are the best canvas to throw any leftover parts so I used the parts in the storage container as much as possible. (some of you might know that in the end you spend a lot to get small parts though)
The hubs are from Wentz-san before he flew to Argentina and the fenders are from Circles in Nagoya I bought 8 years ago when I was preparing for the all around Japan tour. Even the rims are reinstalled from the Pacer and ALL TERRAIN tyres are the one I used to use for gravel rides. Frankly this bike shows the history of my bike life and it makes me emotional.
Midnight Special is a geared frame but I used PhilcentricBB, my favorite product as I talk in this video (English subtitles are available) to make it a single-gear bike. Personally, having a geared bike as an everyday bike is a bit… you know?
Cross Check and Straggler crossed my mind because they don’t need a lot of things to single-speed. 
CROSS CHECK (50)
straggler (52)
But then Cross Check is almost sold out and too similar to BMC’s Monstercross and I can’t choose 700c wheels for Straggler in my size. That’s why I chose Midnight Special.
I wonder if Straggler will take over the role of Cross Check, our classic frame for last 10 years. (wouldn’t it be fun if there is a dark horse nobody has seen yet?)
There are some classics such as NIKE Air Force1 or Levi’s 501 and there must be a reason why they can be the same but the bike’s classic might need to change gradually and slowly because of the functional evolution. Even if you feel “Whoa, that’s cool!” when you see an old classic bike, it’s a totally different topic that if you can ride it good now. 
Since I got this as my everyday bike, I have been enjoying customizing it to fit my life better. It’s fun yet annoying to adjust daily commute bike to my whimsical feeling (I can’t ignore any small thing I don’t like maybe because I’m a mechanic).
Anyway, it’s quite fun to think “what’s next to custom?” like when I only had one Surly.
Currently I’m in the maze of handle bars…
JJJ → old Salsa from Kaneko-san → FLAT 10 → Cheater bar (current)
Seems like I’m into flat bars not swept back too much. (Let me tell you that Surly’s Cheater Bar is awesome, this is good)
It’s interesting that I feel different about SURLY as first bike and as a bike after countless others. I don’t know if I got a perspective but maybe SURLY is the destination after all.
