Bent Rims

Two years later (’96) I started working at QBP as their first product designer. At the job interview I was asked by Steve Flagg where I saw the industry heading. Like a lot of “normal” riders, I was fed up with guaranteed-to-taco 19mm rims, 3-degree wrist-tweaking flat handlebars, back-jacking 150mm stems, and eminently-broken anodized billet parts, so in my mind it was easy to predict that the industry would be heading away from the XC racing-inspired equipment and geometries that even crept down to entry-level bikes at the time. My response was that designs inspired by REAL RIDING as opposed to DREAMS OF RACING would begin to get traction, and that niches like cruisers, cyclocross, touring and BMX would be re-emerging and expanding. I couldn’t have foreseen that single-speed mountain biking would become a thing, but that subgenre would certainly come to satisfy both of my predictions, and – ultimately – lead to the creation and success of the Surly brand.