mesasone

Ordered a LHT today, 56cm in blue. Hopefully it will fit right, my legs are a bit short relative to the rest of my body and so the stand over might be a bit tight. Should be right for my torso and legs, though. Also, I wanted to stick with 700c wheels as I have some extras for them already. Should be in and assembled by next weekend. Might have to take the weekend off, although if I do then I'm not sure how I will repair the whole in my wallet

I also learned that we are now paying 7% sales tax instead of 6...

jaxgtr

good deal and bummer on the taxes.

v1k1ng1001

Good choice!

cohophysh

Cool, there is alot you can do to get the bike to fit right, I am built like you, most of my height is my upper body, so I had to get a longer stem and set the seat back a little to get a good fit.

mesasone

Well, I (finally) picked it up today. It's been down in the shop for over a week, just haven't had the time to go get it. Man, this thing is LIGHT - at least compared to my Trek 7.2fx, which in it's defense was loaded down with rack, lock, lights, etc.

It's going to take some adjustment - I keep hitting the bar end shifters with my legs when I get out of the seat a stop lights, etc and the seat certainly isn't very comfortable - although I suspect that may partially be due to the fact I was wearing a heavy kacky cargo short, rather than something like the basketball shorts I typically ride in.

I'm also somewhat uncomfortable with braking in the hoods - it just seems like I can't get good leverage on the lever. Any suggestions? I haven't tried riding in the drops yet, but they seem less than ideal for commuting.

Bike porn will follow once I find my flash.

heckler

bar-ends the only reason i would hesitate with the surlys... stick some STIs on there PBK has ultegra cheap(ish)

Harry Stone

Congrats! Mine is a 54. I'm also mostly torso so I've had the same experience. I think the stock saddle is awful. I had it changed out for a Brooks before I even took it home.

If you don't use the drops much like me, adjust your bars by turning them in the stem so the hoods are a bit higher. You can get your hands on the brakes a bit easier that way.

I've had the same feeling that I needed to set the saddle back even though I had it back all the way. Tilting the nose of the saddle down just a hair seems to have fixed that for me but I can't explain it.

bdinger

Give the barends time, I was big time on the fence with mine - to the point where I had the shop getting me pricing on 105 and Ultegra brifters. Two months and over a thousand miles later, I'm absolutely smitten with them. I love the action, and love how great they are for control. My next build is (probably) going to be a Karate Monkey, and I plan to use barends with paul's thumbies on it.

With the hood braking, you can always have your LBS install some "cross" brake levers. They're great, and I'll probably throw on a set when I re-do my bar wrap later in the year. Cheap too, I think mine told me $20 installed for a set of cane creeks.

The stock saddle is yeah, not so great. In Surly's defense, most swap it out almost immediately. If it doesn't get better, well, you know what I'd suggest

Anyway congrats! Just be careful, they're addictive. I love riding mine, it gets better by the day.

mesasone

I guess great minds think alike, because I was thinking of doing all that! I definitely want a cross lever for the front brake up top, and I had thought about switching the bars to bullhorns, and installing Paul thumbies similar to this if I don't find a bullhorn I like that accepts bar ends. I think the bar ends are just fine, except for placement. I was planning on getting a Ritchey Prologue (which accepts bar ends) for my trek, but them seem to have gone out of production or something - quite difficult to find, even on ebay. I might just try to find a cheap pair of drops and do a chop'n'flop. I'll have to give the drops a chance before I do anything drastic though... I don't see myself using them, but you never know until you try...

Also, riding today I found that the area where my thumbs meet my palms gets quite sore from hiding in the hoods. I wounder if I'm gripping them wrong, or maybe they will become more comfortable over time? It was a short ride, just 4 miles maybe. Do they make replacement "comfort" hoods... I tried googling it, but all I could find where expensive plastic hoods in wacky colors... not what I'm looking for.

I'm terrible about customization... you could build a product with perfect ergonomics and controls, and if I can - I WILL change it. Even at the determent of usage.

bdinger

I'm not a fan of the hoods either, that "lump" on them makes me have to cramp my hands a bit. The LBS told me there are other brands of brakes, they menitoned something about the Cane Creeks being more comfortable. I may switch, but I can ride a century in enough comfort, I think it's at least liveable. I figure I'll probably switch around the re-taping time, I plan to put some of those Specialized BG Gel pads on the bars, new tape, cross levers, and hopefully new regular levers. Customization .

Also, what's funny is that the site you link is ran by a guy I know in Seattle. He got into biking about a year ago, and has really progressed since - and he's crazy about the bullhorns . Check out https://sweetbike.org, his latest blog post is all about that setup that he favors so much.

smsimpson83

Mine is sitting in the LBS's workshop ready to be built.... 60 cm olive green complete.... and apparently my wife may have added a little something extra on it for my birthday (august 2)... I'm hoping its a brooks..... man I love her

mesasone

Well, I took my first "real" ride beyond commuting today. Was an emotional roller coaster. Turns out the first three miles of my route had some major hillage, and a check reality check shows I'm not as good at climbing as I thought! I do some short stretches of climbing fairly steep hills on the way to work, however the rapid succession of ascend and descent really kicked my ass. Despite having looked at the elevation profile when making the route, I didn't realize what I was in for. After about three miles or so, I stopped and took a major rest, and pondered on whether I wanted to continue. Stubborn as always, I decided if I was going to face more hills, might as well be new ones, and pressed on. Turns out the worst was behind me, and the rest of the route was much more enjoyable.

All in all, it was about 14.5 miles in about an hour or so. Not breaking any speed records, but I'm pretty happy with the time given all the unexpected hills and the several rests I had to take after them. In the future, I would like to add 2-3 miles of more moderate terrian to the beginning of my ride to get my legs warmed up a bit before tackling those hills. And then from there, I am set on conquering those *******s!

I am feeling great after this, and have plenty of energy for more riding, so I'm going to try to find a way to length my route tonight as well, and start doing this every morning.

I also got to use the drops a bit and have mixed feelings about them. In descents they are nice because you get good leverage on the brake levers, but some parts of the descents were steep enough that I was not as comfortable with having my weight shifted forward like that. I also rode in them for a bit on the more moderate terrain and noticed a significant speed increase from that riding position, but my back quickly became sore. So perhaps I may need to do some more fitting work - I'm iffy on the drops, but no longer dead set on getting rid of them.

Also, the pain in my hands where the thumb and palm meet is not there on my right hand today, but my left is very sore. It feels very bruised and is getting a bit stiff as I write this. I'm trying to stretch it out and massage it a bit, but I'm not sure what else to do. Is this also maybe a fitting issue?

Here is the route I intended to take: https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2094706 and here is the route I actually took, accounting for a wrong turn early on and avoiding that large climb at the end: https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2096619

heckler

I ride in the drops to rest my hands. They really help me get comfortable, and the position makes you ride hard, and fast on the down hills.

As for that "spot" on your hands... i had the same issue. It gets better with time i actually have started to develop a callous (sp?) close to the base of my thumb due to riding on the hoods...and i always wear gloves.

With that in mind gloves are really helpful if you aren't wearing them...make sure there isn't a seam in that "between thumb and fingers" spot as that is torture.