Surly Steamroller owners...

Yeah makes sense, sizing down would have the right tt length, but would also look to small because of the tiny headtube and would need many spacers, sizing up would need an inline and 90mm stem for a nice reach, which i seen on a few builds and it actually looks better i think.

I still had lots of spacers on the CC which kind of indicates perhaps I should have a 58, however my reach is greater than my inside leg proportionally ,so it works for me. Once the re-build is complete will post some new pictures.

No matter what your anatomical proportions, it's impossible to build a rideable Cross Check or Straggler without spacers.

I always thought of the CC as something more for long road rides, lazy commuting and touring, the fact it can handle off road is useful but that's not what i would buy it for.

I think i could slam a 0 degree stem on the 54cm and the position will be about right, just guessing from my roller though.

Came across this quite nice CC...

That's lovely ^^^

Cross Check are awesome bike, it's the kind of bike you can do whatever you want on it.

You can run it as a CX bike (bit hefty but work fine), a fixed wheeler, a tourer, a roadie, even a town bike.

My advice on sizing - forget all the "go size up/down" advice, check the stack and reach and compare it to your current Steamroller, then choose the one that look like it's a good fit (could be same reach with more stack, or shorter reach with same stack etc.).

e.g.

53cm Steamroller;

Stack - 531
Reach - 394

54cm Cross Check;

Stack - 538
Reach - 394

The 53cm Steamroller and 54cm CC is almost identical in sizing, meaning you can get the 52cm one and have a zero degrees longer stem, or the 56cm* which is exactly the same size as the 54cm but with a longer headtube.

*CC 56cm;

Stack - 556
Reach - 394

Thanks Ed - that is why I went for the 56cm CC as well, works very well for me.

@Aches I don't use it primarily for going off road, it just that I want to use it that way a bit more next year. The main reason for the rebuild is to go SS for winter since it will be my commuter bike instead of the Roller. Lugging the laptop and clothes on my back is a pain.

Confused me a bit, on the geo charts the 54cm CC has about 1cm longer tt than the steamroller, so how can they have the same reach? What am i not getting.

I have also been thinking about the Pacer, which doesn't seem to be as popular here? as road frames go it seems pretty tough and versatile, it then frees up more options for something else for off road, instead of compromising between the 2.

Lots of stuff, seat tube angle, head tube length, bottom bracket Drop, all affect the reach.

Enter your text here.. I use my cc for touring. I like riding sustrans trials at weekends. I thought about buying a pacer and using it as a tourer. Certainly the road geometry would give it a bit more zip than the cc.
However, I'd then lose the versatility of the cc particularly off road!
It all gets a bit confusing. Perhaps I should just run a 'roller, cc and pacer so all eventualities are covered.

I did contemplate a roller, cc and pacer trio myself. But since I am moving into a smaller flat few bikes is the way to go. The CC is staying for the reason it ticks more boxes.

Yeah i need less bikes, but more organized bikes also.

I keep swaying between the Pacer and CC, but i think i would actually use the Pacer more, just like my Gazelle, i know exactly how i want to build it and will likely have no need to change anything on it until they wear out.

been having quite a lot of fun with mine at the moment. but still not getting on with it that well, just find it far too long. with a heavy heart i think i might have to part ways...

Bear in mind Pacer have limited tyres clearance whether CC have huge clearance that you can run whatever you like on it.

42mm knobbies for off road? bring it on.

42mm Knobbies

Hell I can do that on my Cross Check with mud clearance running tidy little Mini Motos. With Cantis or Proper Vs you can get into some of the narrower 29er tires!

Pacer hardly has limited clearance for a road frame though, comparing tyre clearance seems kind of irrelevant.

pacer uses long drop brakes so 32c should be fine, more than enough for touring gravel etc

Also can anyone explain why surly put those god awful eyelets on the new steamroller rear dropouts and then didn't put any on the fork? #missingthepoint

Rack.

They don't specify what their intended use it, but given the lack of rack mounts near the top of the seat stays I'd always assumed they were meant for a fender.

As for why they are none on the fork; no idea. Also don't get why they put the solitary bottle mount on the ST instead of the DT...

I'd always assumed they were meant for a fender.

A fair amount of road bike come like that as well, mainly to be clamped on brake mount or p-clip.

Someone buy mine ... http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/274600

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Finally taken off the mudguards and put on some 41mm tyres on my Disc Trucker for some single track riding.

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Has anyone tried 650B an a steamroller ?