Our friend Josh of ATB Rides recently teamed up with framebuilder Chris Schmidt of Good Grief to restore a damaged Surly Rat Ride to its former glory with a couple of fresh steel tubes, and the result is a stunning embrace of imperfection. Take a closer look at the one-of-a-kind Surly x Good Grief Mountain Klunker here…

Photos by Josh Uhl

Earlier this spring at a coffee outside meetup in Boulder, my friend Josh was talking about a project he’d been scheming. After a long time searching, Josh had finally found a cult classic 11-year anniversary Surly Rat Ride 1×1 frame, but the catch was that the top tube and down tube were bent beyond repair. Not wanting an otherwise perfectly good frame with some history to go to waste, he sought out a framebuilder who could also see the value in a 15-year-old steel frame.

Surly Rat Ride
  • Surly Rat Ride
  • Surly Rat Ride

Thankfully, framebuilder Chris Schmidt of Good Grief down the road in Colorado Springs was equally excited about the project, and the two got to work figuring out how to revive the Rat Ride. Chris replaced both damaged tubes with Reynolds Zona Tubing and fillet-brazed them back to the original headtube and rear triangle. Josh recently shared some photos of the final project, which turned out beautifully, has a story to tell, and will be a trusty companion for many years to come.

Surly Rat Ride
  • Surly Rat Ride
  • Surly Rat Ride
  • Surly Rat Ride

The resulting half Surly, half Good Grief is a fixed gear freestyle mountain klunker with 36 x 17 gearing. Among other carefully selected bits, it’s sporting a hand-polished Cane Creek 40 headset, stripped and polished Surly Mr Whirly cranks, Mone brass spacers and top cap, a 25.4 Doom Klunker Bar, Velocity Dually wheels, 26 x 2.8″ WTB Ranger tires, and BMX pedals with straps. Once the final project came together, Josh wrote, “It’s a dream bike made even better by the new tubes and filet brazes. It rides amazing, and I couldn’t ask for a better bike to get loose on.”

Surly Rat Ride

Follow Josh’s lovely builds and rides on Instagram and see more from Good Grief at GoodGrief.Bike.

Further Reading

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