Surly bikes has released a new version of its famous Pugsley. Known as the Pugsley 2.0 it’s billed as the “ultimate off-road escape vehicle.” It is decidedly not a trail bike. Featuring a crazy offset fork that allows for a backup single speed drive on your front wheel, you can’t even easily fit a suspension fork to this bike. The backend is offset as well, which was Surlys original solution to building a fatbike with regular mountain bike components.
Surly has made a number of improvements like greater rack compatibility and clearance for a 4.8” tire on an 80mm rim. Geared toward off-road touring and bikepacking Surly fits the bike stock with Moloko bars.
With todays 4 piston brakes, carbon bits and bobs and Eagle drivetrains the spec sheet on the complete build of the Pugsley may look a little odd. Surlys bike comes specced with BB7 mechanical brakes (gasp!) and a mixed drive train featuring a Shimano SLX RD-7000 GS 11 Speed derailer, a Sunrace 11 speed, 11-46 cassette and a Race Face AEffect crankset.
In many ways being a “do it all” bike is no longer what this Pugsley is about. It’s a machine designed for a very small niche of riders. You can bikepack on just about any bike from a carbon full suspension enduro bike to a cyclocross bike. The Pugsley seems squarely aimed at people who don’t actually want their bike to do more than one thing. Instead it seems like a fit for those whose main goal is extended backcountry adventures.
C’mon, man! How is the Pug 2.0 not a do-it-all-bike!!?! Fatbikes are do-it-all bikes, no matter what their geometry is. You can’t deny that.
The Pugsley 2.0 is optimized for off-road touring and it fits really well with the rest their offroad touring line along with the Troll (26er), the Ogre (29er) and the ECR (29+). The fact that it’s optimized for off-road touring doesn’t mean you can’t shred your local trails with it too! It’s an awesome bike, a swiss knife of a bike, and I’m glad as hell to see Surly bring it back to life.