My MTB, My Karate Monkey
I work at Blue Lug Kamiuma every Sunday. On my shift at the Kamiuma branch, I always look at staff bikes or talk about romance with my co-workers. These days, the Kamiuma staffs are so into MTB. Seeing them going mountain biking every week definitely got me a bit jealous, since Santa even bought an MTB and started going on the rides.
I already had an MTB, but I dented the downtube pretty bad, and I was a bit scared to ride aggressively on that bike. I felt like I was being left out. Darn it!
There is a bike that I have been very interested in…
Yes, that bike would be the MTB touring bike from Surly, the Karate Monkey. I have always liked how it feels whenever I would test ride it for customers. I think it’s safe to say that the bike is one of Surly’s masterpiece.
What I love about Surly is their knowledge of bicycles, their experience in the industry and their style of not taking things too seriously, I love that they don’t try to be create bikes that are serious, despite having the skills. Always thinking outside the box.
Okay, I’m buying this frame.
Hmm, It’s always hard to choose whether I go with silver or black handlebars…
These are the Nitto For Shred Bars. I have both silver and black. I think I couldn’t decide for at least an hour.
Their both the same bars, so there are no difference in terms of performance, but it matters, okay?
But I think this is the best part about building a bike. A bike is not an equipment, so it’s good to pay attention to small details. Things like this makes our job as a bike mechanic possible.
Aaand this is my Karate Monkey.
There’s a lot of nerdy things on this bike. I know, it’s better to not talk about those nerdy features, but I’m too stoked for this build. I am gonna explain them all.
First and foremost, I decided to go with the original color “Fools Gold”, instead of custom painting it and I have a reason for that…
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This is one of my favorite bikes. Travis’s Falconer.
Now, I’m not the type to choose a gold frame, but I think this one hit different, for obvious reasons. One being the resemblance of the color of Travis’s Falconer and that’s pretty much the main reason. Hoping on a gold bike every morning feels epic. It feels like I’m unstoppable, but I ate shit last week.
In my humble opinion, I think how the logo decals are applied when the frame is fresh out the box is a little too much, so I like to strip all of it off except the big logos on the downtube.
I really like the way the Paul Components Boxcar stem looks on the Karate Monkey.
The Boxcar Stem comes with torx bolts, but I swapped to regular M5 bolts so that I don’t have to carry a torx key when I’m out riding. I also like changing the color of the faceplate.
I laced these wheels up myself, but I wanted the wheels to look as generic as possible, so I laced them with black rims and spokes with silver nipples. 180mm disc rotors on the front, 160mm disc rotors on the rear.
I like tying the brake and shift cables with zipties. People would normally face the zips inside towards the tire, but I like to face them out. No specific reason. I just like how it looks.
One advice I can give you is to cut the zipties as flat as possible, so you don’t cut yourself with the sharp ended zipties.
Shimano XT 12 speed components, but I love to 10 speed XT cranks too much so I used it for a 1x set up. (the cranks aren’t boost compatible, so be careful)
When setting up a bike in a 1x set up, most people would use narrow wide chainrings, but I decided to bring back the old chain keeper. You see? Nerdy stuff…
Lastly, I wrapped some tapes on the chainstay to prevent the chain to dent the frame. I applied Cobra ties before wrapping, which makes it look all bumpy and cool. (Yes, I really like cable ties)
I took this bike into the mountains and I absolutely love it.
I think I will install a dropper post and maybe swap out the pedals, chainring and stem…
Surly always makes me feel like a kid again. Can’t and won’t stop loving them!
