Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Building A Surly Cross Check

I have been riding my Diamond Back mountain bike for the past 3 months and it has been fine, especially after getting rid of the front suspension forks and switching to 26x1.5 road tires. I have lost 40 lbs. and built up to 10 to 15 miles a day, longest ride was Monday. I went for 40 on my 40th birthday and made it, actually did 62 miles. The time has come for a better road bike.

(I feel pretty good after the long ride except my butt. I may be on the Disabled List for a few days. I think I might invest in some padded shorts before my next adventure. Brooks B-17 has been real nice, but I think 62 miles was just too much without extra padding)

I ordered the black Surly Cross Check and will be equipping it with a full arsenal of Shimano Dura Ace components. I'm planning on using either Shimano or Campy brifters, not sure yet. I'm also going for a Ritchie Adjustable Stem to allow me a little more freedom with handlebar position. It should make for a pretty sweet ride.

What brakes would you guys recomend? Rivendell now has some nice long reach calipers, but that would leave the lugs open and useless on the Surly front fork. I was kinda looking at getting some really nice V brakes.

Suggestions?

Brooks should be road un-padded. Wow your going high end with Dura ace off of the bat. For the dollars Cane Creek makes nice stuff for brakes. It would also leave the lugs open on the back if you did road bike brakes

Look at AVID for brakes. I have the BBDB (Ball Bearing Disk Brake) from about 4-5 years ago. I am 234, with a loaded commuter bike, the all up weight is around 280 and the Avid brakes flipped me once when some brain donor walked into the road without looking. If AVID's other brakes (non-disk) are of as good a quality as their bottom of the line disks, you will be in for a treat.

She sounds like a sweet ride and losing 40 pounds is a nice accomplishment, way to go!

Lets see pics when she is all done.

http://www.sram.com/en/avid/

AVID rim brakes
http://www.sram.com/en/avid/rimbrakes/index.php

I'm saving up to build a Cross Check, too! My plan is to go with Avid canti's for all the good things that I've heard about them.
What kind of wheels are you going with? I'm going singlespeed with my build, and I'm gonna put Velocity Deep V rims (can't decide... 36h 3x, or 40h 4x), probably laced to a Phil hubset.

I recently built up a dark green Cross Check and I love it. I use Dura-Ace barcons though, with an XT rapid-rise rear derailleur and a Sugino XD600 crank (I like low gearing for climbing--46/36/26 on the front and 11-32 on the back). The shifting is super smooth even under load. Honestly I find I prefer the shifting on this bike over the 10sp Campy gruppo on my road bike.

I haven't found the "perfect" brakes yet. Right now I'm using Paul Motolite V-brakes which are very highly rated (and big $$$) but I get some squeal and chatter on the front, even with some toe-in (might be the Kool-Stop pads though). In my opinion center-pull cantilevers aren't ideal on the Cross-Check simply because there is no provision for good cable routing on the frame, but they do have better modulation and feel than V-brakes IMHO. The Tektro/Rivendell long-reach calipers look interesting but are they actually available? I haven't seen them in stock anywhere, or even listed at all on the Rivendell site.

For wheels, I have 36h XT hubs laced 3x to Velocity Dyad rims. These have been awesome so far after about 1000mi. I weigh 240. The ride on 32mm Panaracer Pasela TG's is smooth and feels fast enough, though I pump them higher than the max rating of 95psi.

If you going to use brifters cantilver brakes are more compatible than V brakes. V brakes require some extra hardware. I have used both, but prefer my Avid Shortys. Cantis also stop better for me.

Be very careful with the Dura Ace. The Crosscheck has very wide chainstays to accomodate fat tires. A Dura Ace, Ultegra or 105 crank uses an Octalink bottom bracket that only comes with a 109.5 or 118.5 spindle. The former will have your cranks dangerously close to your frame. The latter will give you some weird chainlines to the point that you may as well use a triple.

Most people with Crosschecks use older mtb style cranks with a 110 bolt circle or actually run a complet mtb drivetrain. Remember, the bike is designed to go offroad and up very, very steep hills.

On my Crosscheck I have some old Suntour Signature cranks with 48/36 rings and a 9 speed SRAM 12-26 cassette with an Ultegra rear derraileur.. I use the Dura Ace bar-end shifters and really, really love them. The most precise, crisp shifting I've ever had.

Here's a link to my Crosscheck.

http://velospace.org/node/788

BTW, the Brooks B-17 was more comfortable straight out of the box than any other saddle I've ridden.