News on my LHT

I heard from my fitter last night on the customization of my beloved steel steed. The first news was that I can't have XT shifters :( I knew that the front derailleur would likely need changing, which isn't very expensive (I have a nice budget for this). The issue is my crank - mountain bike shifters do not communicate well with road bike cranks - apparently the spacing is different.

So my fitter called Surly and discussed it with them. Thankfully I am not the first person to do this, so they were able to recommend Shimano components that will work. Apparently Shimano does make trigger shifters that are meant for this exact purpose - so while I still need to change the FD, there will be no issues with my crank :) I am told that the quality is similar to LS/XT shifters - though that doesn't tell me much. Surly strongly recommends this particular set-up so that is good.

Two weeks from now I will have pictures of my newly re-born LHT (a part is on back-order).