Minnesota winters are fun; however, the chemicals used by public utilities to fight road ice makes conditions harsh for bicycles. Back in February, the back of my Big Dummy frame rusted and broke off, this was after I applied boiled linseed oil to the inside of the frame twice; once in 2011 and once in 2016.

Surly was kind enough to offer me a crash discount on a new frame. I lusted for the Big Fat Dummy, but I’m still loving my Rohloff rear hub and having recently picked up a second Rohloff, I struggled with leaving my 135mm Speedhubs and having to get new ones with the 190/197mm spacing – that would have cost me several thousand dollars.

I was sad to pull my Military Green frame with swooping top bar out of service, but thanks to Freewheel, it was easy to move my components over to a new Blacktacular frame. Before building it up, I applied boiled linseed oil and while doing it, I noticed why my last Military Green frame failed where it did. The curved bars that rusted through, just behind the rear wheel dropouts, are only 16mm in diameter and getting boiled linseed oil to go back there is difficult. To anyone riding winters with their Dummy, I strongly encourage you to spin the frame in all directions and plug the weep holes to make sure you’re getting a good coating on the curved bars behind the rear dropouts. I’ll keep you posted how long this frame lasts 🙂