Surly Love

[bikerHen]

Speaking as one who has spent WAY more than $300. to upgrade just about everything on my LHT, I would say do it! Just don't mess with those bar end shifters. They are perfect just the way they are. bikerHen

If you plan to do loaded touring, don't get too fancy with the hand built wheels. You need a high spoke count to carry the extra weight. You also want to stick with common, easy to replace spokes in case you find yourself doing a roadside spoke replacement.

[Catrin]

Speaking as one who has spent WAY more than $300. to upgrade just about everything on my LHT, I would say do it! Just don't mess with those bar end shifters. They are perfect just the way they are. bikerHen

The bar end shifters are staying, though they have me a little nervous Most of the gear components will be XT outside of the rear cassette, which will be SRAM. He said that for a touring bike, SRAM will be more dependable and last longer than an XT cassette. I don't remember any of the other details, am waiting for the list.

I suspect a lot more COULD be upgraded, but he knows my budget I do like the idea of the hand-built wheels though - gotta run back to work now... I just saw the time

[bikerHen]

You'll love the bar end shifters once you get a feel for them. I just had my whole drivetrain replaced. Sram 11-34 rear cassette, Salsa rings up front. Had the rear derailluer replaced two years ago. It's Shimano XTR. I think at this point the only thing I haven't replaced is the front derailluer. Are you planning to top off your LHT with a nice leather Brooks Saddle? They look really good together. bikerHen

[Catrin]

You'll love the bar end shifters once you get a feel for them. I just had my whole drivetrain replaced. Sram 11-34 rear cassette, Salsa rings up front. Had the rear derailluer replaced two years ago. It's Shimano XTR. I think at this point the only thing I haven't replaced is the front derailluer. Are you planning to top off your LHT with a nice leather Brooks Saddle? They look really good together. bikerHen

I think that the rear cassette he is including in the quote is the same Sram 11-34 rear cassette, won't know what the rings/so forth are until I see the full list. I know that he is including a good number of XT parts.

I have already thought about topping it off with a nice Brooks saddle For some reason I keep wanting to refer to it as "him" and it isn't even built yet!

[Catrin]

For some reason the idea of the bar end shifters do have me nervous (my trainer wants me to stick with trigger-shifters if possible). I am assuming that I can, basically, just move my hand down the bar until I get to the shifter? I hope that made sense

I have to learn how to take my hand off the bars anyway, that is still a problem for me. However, I will have at least 5-6 weeks to practice with my Trek before the LHT will arrive - and it may be longer if any of the parts are on back-order.

All of this is pretty exciting I am STILL amazed that he can upgrade as much as he is - including hand-built wheels - and stay within $300 of the original price! I haven't seen his final list/quote yet, so time will tell.

We have decided that the 46cm will be a better choice for me over the 42 - there will just be fractionally less standover room (still about 1.5 inches anyway).

The frame in this size is only available in brown - though hopefully they will have the olive color frame in stock by then. I will have to decide on accents - brown isn't my favorite color... However this is too sweet a bike to let slide over something like that. I love blue and green, surely I can come up with something to mitigate that brown if that is to be my fate...

[OakLeaf]

That's so exciting!

[KnottedYet]

The frame in this size is only available in brown - though hopefully they will have the olive color frame in stock by then. I will have to decide on accents - brown isn't my favorite color... However this is too sweet a bike to let slide over something like that. I love blue and green, surely I can come up with something to mitigate that brown if that is to be my fate...

Now I'm really confused. I thought you were getting the LHT? That comes in a dark cream or a blue frame. http://surlybikes.com/frames/long_haul_trucker_frame/

Not olive nor brown.

The Cross Check comes in brown, and yeah that's not my favorite color. http://surlybikes.com/frames/cross_check_frame/ Though I've seen a few brown CC in town, and they look fine.

Which bike are you having built?

[OakLeaf]

"Beef gravy brown"??? Ewwwwwww. The color would be better if they'd called it something different!

[Catrin]

Now I'm really confused. I thought you were getting the LHT? That comes in a dark cream or a blue frame. http://surlybikes.com/frames/long_haul_trucker_frame/

Not olive nor brown.

The Cross Check comes in brown, and yeah that's not my favorite color. http://surlybikes.com/frames/cross_check_frame/ Though I've seen a few brown CC in town, and they look fine.

Which bike are you having built?

The complete, standard Surly LHT package comes in either blue or a tan (looks brownish to me). Just to order a frame for building up, however, my is is currently only available in an olive green or the same tan/cream you mentioned. That may change by March 18 when I place my order.

I was surprised about the olive as well, and I like the color - it is a very earthy dark green that looks great. I might like that better than the blue for this particular bike. Time will tell what is available in my size when we place the order.

I've attached an image of the "olivine" LHT frame - I can't seem to post an actual image properly.

I followed your link, and the LHT tan is better than the CC brown

[Cataboo]

For some reason the idea of the bar end shifters do have me nervous (my trainer wants me to stick with trigger-shifters if possible). I am assuming that I can, basically, just move my hand down the bar until I get to the shifter? I hope that made sense
.

You can always powder coat a frame if you don't like the color. You can also dress up brown with some bright accessories - flashy tires, handlebar tape, whatever.

Trigger shifters are going to be hard on a long haul trucker because there's only a few handlebars that you really can use them on... flat bars, flat bars with risers, soma sparrows, and trekking/butterfly bars. All of which have somewhat limited hand positions and you're probably not going to want in the long run for a long tour. You can put the bar end shifters on pauls thumbies like surly pacer showed if you want to have a more trigger shifter like setup.

[Catrin]

You can always powder coat a frame if you don't like the color. You can also dress up brown with some bright accessories - flashy tires, handlebar tape, whatever.

Trigger shifters are going to be hard on a long haul trucker because there's only a few handlebars that you really can use them on... flat bars, flat bars with risers, soma sparrows, and trekking/butterfly bars. All of which have somewhat limited hand positions and you're probably not going to want in the long run for a long tour. You can put the bar end shifters on pauls thumbies like surly pacer showed if you want to have a more trigger shifter like setup.

Cool, thanks for all of the information I knew that there was some reason not to head that route but it is nice to see it spelled out. I did ask the guy who is putting my kit together if trigger shifters are an option - but I told him to leave the bar-end shifters in my kit.

Now that I saw the CC brown frame, all of a sudden the tan/cream LHT looks much better

[Catrin]

Speaking as one who has spent WAY more than $300. to upgrade just about everything on my LHT, I would say do it! Just don't mess with those bar end shifters. They are perfect just the way they are. bikerHen

If you plan to do loaded touring, don't get too fancy with the hand built wheels. You need a high spoke count to carry the extra weight. You also want to stick with common, easy to replace spokes in case you find yourself doing a roadside spoke replacement.

The wheels he has in mind are very strong and designed for the kind of riding I will be doing. There will be a high spoke count and he showed me what to do should a spoke break when I am on the road. Hopefully that won't happen I won't be doing much in the way of full loaded touring, more of a "go anywhere and everywhere" kind of thing with probable light touring.

[twin]

Congratulations I love mine and I also have spent way more than 300 dollars...lol btw it was by choice I did not need to.