Surly Bike Owners

No rack - had to improvise with the mechanic's refreshments.

Turns out it was the file size holding me back...

@Dom looks great. Porteur rack is a great idea. Pizza is a better idea.

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Didn't surly do a cross check with s&s couplers called the travellers check? Or did I imagine that?

you're remembering correctly.

Nicked a piccy from Surlys website :)

I am sure the travelers cheque did get dropped for a year or two, but it's there along with the World Troller.

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Lifted a Troller photo too.

There used to be another travel frame, went digging, the Long Haul Trucker Deluxe came after the Crosscheck as feedback on the CC was it needed smaller wheels as 700c are a tight fit in airline regulation size bags, so the 26" Trucker came about.
If you can squeeze a bike and wheels into a standard size suitcase it's way cheaper to transport.

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Yeah, they re-introduced it.

Saw your name in here and thought you'd be posting your old ECR. Go on, JB!

Someone has to have a Krampus! My riding buddy has one, and once it gets up to speed, it takes some stopping!

Put gears on my Karate Monkey. Cranks are borrowed, just waiting on a new spider from Middleburn and a seatpost with slightly more setback but other that it's pretty much sorted for the summer...

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Do miss riding single speed though so I'll be picking this up at the end of the month to add to the collection... Will be a very slow build...

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Had a good look at one at the weekend funnily enough.

Considering this of full fat

He put a thud buster seatpost on and ghetto tubelessed the wheels, and it's a hoot to ride....you don't have to bother picking a line, just crash through things! And once it's up to speed, it holds it easy....I want one, but have a steel hard tail that's very similar, so can't justify it.....

Got a set of the Rock'n'Road tyres shipped over from USA, really finish off the Straggler! Brilliant they are, did the entire South Downs Way in one day on it last weekend as part of the CX100.

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Nice build....how much did the Gordon's cost you?

Someone has to have a Krampus! My riding buddy has one, and once it gets up to speed, it takes some stopping!

I have a Krampus Ops, it's a real bowling ball of a bike.

I found it under-braked and seriously over-geared from factory. Also had to cross-lace (as in, cross-lace side-to-side, so LH hub spoke goes to RH rim hole and vice versa) the front wheel to fit XT brakes, as otherwise the spokes clipped the caliper on hard cornering. Also came with crap finishing kit.

Otherwise, love it. You still have to ride it like a rigid bike - pick your lines and needs a lot of skill through rock gardens/jumps/drop offs - it's so much more rewarding than FS, but so much more comfortable than any other rigid I've ridden.

My pal's is an ops too......I like the green though!
I'm experimenting at the minute with another bike that I'm just waiting for a Krampus fork for, to get the front end at the correct height, then if that doesn't work, I'll be getting a frame and fork and have a rear built to match the front (that I will get for my Transition TransAm two9). It sounds convoluted, and it is!

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Fleeting back and forth between a monkey or a Krampus.

TBH can only really afford a KM and fancy the new mint colour, but the big wheeler is hard to resist if I can find the extra money.

The swamp green is great in the flesh but I suppose the dropouts on the ops would be less hassle.

If I understood correctly, the mint green is going to cost the same as the current KM ops when they eventually make it over here (frameset, not full build...)

My Cross Check with a mates LHT at the peace arch border crossing between Canada and the US yesterday. I met him earlier in the trip and he rode with me to the border from Vancouver!

i've been offered a lht full bike for 600ish, just waiting on pics. very tempted, esp after reading this thread. my main question is, since the lht is designed to be under load, is it nice to ride unloaded? is there anywhere in london i can test ride? maybe brixton cycles? also, i want a KM real bad, but they seem to be rare as, but if anyone knows of one, or a frameset, let me know.

I found my LHT to ride pretty well when unloaded ( which it was most of the time ). It's reasonably stiff, as you'd expect of a frame designed to carry a load, but certainly not enough to make it uncomfortable.

@ObiWomKenobi owns it now and I don't think he's had any complaints?

I have a disc trucker with 700c wheels. Before I could save up for racks and things I used to ride a fair bit unloaded as it was my only bike at the time. I find it rides great. No explosive power transfer or razor sharp agility compared to a racing frame but that is partly due to the 37mm tyres.

I've recently got the 41mm knard tyres and plan to remove the racks and take it out for a spin on the local forestry tracks

@BareNecessities nice. stiff is good, i did have a big old 26" dawes which i racked up and had big handlebars on and that was stiff too but in a nice tank-like, pothole destroying kinda way, if the surly is like that it would be perfect.

@motoko wide tyres would deffo be the order of the day, dont need explosiveness, have other bikes for that. when you put the knards on could you take a few pics, its very rare you get to see a pannierless LHT!

this is the unladen look i'm thinking of.

@Brameses Will do!

I've still got the drops as I use the bike predominantly for mixed terrain touring.