The Karate Monkey is Surly's 29" wheeled do-everything mountain bike
Short chainstays, relative to other manufacturers for fast cornering. This was accomplished by curving the seat tube away from the rear tire, effectively. creating more front derailleur/rear tire clearance and putting the rear wheel under your butt
Toe overlap with the big front wheel was eliminated by some tweaking of the geometry, while still maintaining the ride of a sweet singletrack machine
Surly uses horizontal dropouts with a derailleur hanger so you can ride it single-speed, fixed gear, internally geared or with derailleur multi-gear drivetrains.
Spec'ed it with International Standard disc brake tabs and removable cantilever bosses, so you have all possible brake options
Want a beefy touring/commuting/cyclocross/all-around bike? Just swap the tires for some 700c skinnies and go
100% Surly 4130 CroMoly steel. Main triangle double-butted. TIG-welded