Get Fancy: Surly Wednesday

This week we’re looking at a Surly Wednesday that almost stole the show this year in our booth at Frostbike. Owner Dan Rasmussen shares the story behind his brightly-colored beauty:

“The idea was, ‘what’s the lightest, fastest, most out-there Surly fat bike I could build?’ I wanted this Wednesday to be a ripper of a bike, so I set out to see how light I could make it. I don’t usually care about weight, but it was just such an out-there, fringe, ‘Surly’ type of thing to do.”

A stock Surly Wednesday weighs about 35 lbs. This one is just 26 lbs.

Rasmussen started by adding a Whisky Fat Fork. “It’s really nice for that added stiffness and accuracy at speed,” he said. The Wednesday’s wheels also got a major upgrade to carbon rims. As Dan put it, “100% the biggest game changer was the wheels. Whenever you upgrade to something like a Whisky No.9 70w carbon set, it makes a huge difference in speed and performance, especially with fat bike tires.”

So how does it ride? “Now it feels like a totally different bike. It still has that ‘steel’ feeling, which has a more forgiving, soft plush ride to it that eats up a lot of trail chatter. But now it’s just a lot more lively.”

The first thing most expo-goers noticed when they saw this bike on the show floor was the custom Surly Wednesday headbadge:

“The headbadge was actually not something that I planned on adding. Jen Green, who makes custom headbadges and bike-themed jewelry, had designed that for somebody else and when I saw it on her Instagram profile, I was like ‘that thing is friggin’ amazing!’ I knew I needed one on my bike. So I reached out to her and it turned out awesome! I think the headbadge is one of my favorite parts of the whole bike—it’s a good homage to the bike’s namesake, Wednesday Addams,” said Rasmussen

When asked what other questions Dan gets the most about his build, he shared an unexpected answer:

“A lot of people have asked why I chose mechanical brakes for this build. Basically, I like riding in really cold weather. Like 10, 15 or 20 degrees below zero. So I chose Paul Components I.S. Klampers and Love Levers because they are very reliable and serviceable in those types of conditions. I don’t worry about them freezing up or having issues while I’m out on a trail.”

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