Motolegs

$800 on beer, $200 on a classic bike.

arsprod 

Resale? If it's a commuter you'll likely ride the crap out of it and keep it years. Who sells a bike?!

the sci guy 

DVC45

fify.

Walter S

I comute daily with bar ends. Not difficult at all.

clrux

I purchased a 2013 Surly Cross-Check in black this afternoon after considerable research and thought. I think it's the best bike on paper, and so far (after three rides) it will make a great bike off paper. Thanks to all who contributed knowledge. Looking forward to riding it.

noglider 

Yay! Congratulations. We expect a whole lot of ride reviews and pictures.

the sci guy 

Congrats! Any particular reason you went for the black instead of the green?
Also, pics or gtfo!

rekmeyata

There's a lot of high fiving going on right now above me, so congrats, it's a great bike with a solid reputation.

acidfast7

It is a safe bet ... analogous to Ford Fusion in NA or an Audi A4 in Germany.

It would have been nice to see something new so that my database of commuter bike reviews could expand, but I can't blame the OP!

rekmeyata

You can add an odd bike to your commuter database...I ride on a all original 85 Schwinn Le Tour Luxe to work most of the time!

clrux

@the sci guy I'm not one to enjoy the spotlight. The green seemed a bit too attention-grabby to me. Black, neutrals... those are my thing. The only time I'll wear bright colors is when I'm in the mountains hiking/climbing and that's mainly due to safety.

Thanks guys.

Also, here are pics for those who requested. The left is my old Specialized Sirrus Sport. Good, solid bike, which I'll make my winter/nasty weather commuter. And my fiancee will now be able to ride with me on little piddly rides around the neighborhood. I swapped out the flat bar for a Grand Randondeur drop bar I got off eBay a while back. The brifters are Shimano Sora's, also from eBay. They work so-so with the derailers which are both Acera (MTB). I had to get TravelAgents for everything to work, but it's not perfect.

The right is obviously the Cross-Check. I had the LBS add fenders too, since they're necessary in New England for an enjoyable (and dry) commute.

acidfast7

To be fair, the "Post your bikes" thread does have some original stuff in it.

I just converted to SS for commuting and I felt much, much stronger when riding my MTB over Xmas (I only ride it when I'm holiday).

the sci guy 

Looks good. Let us know how you end up liking the bar-end shifters in a commuting setting.

aggiegrads

Nice! Great choice.

mstraus

+1

Black crosscheck looks great! Really curious to know how the bar end shifters work out. Have considered a crosscheck as a commuter but expected if I did would upgrade to shifter/brake levers, wondering how it goes without that for someone not used to it.

arsprod 

Congrats! Enjoy the new bike smell. I predict within 2 weeks you won't even realize the barends are there

noglider 

Black is the better choice anyway. I don't expect it to go out of fashion.

clrux

I'll keep you updated!

RubeRad

I'm late to the thread here, but I would have recommended the Cross-Check as well. I think you'll acclimatize to bar-ends before you know it, but meanwhile you can save up $129 for a pair of Retroshift CX2, then you could move your bar-ends up to the hoods and be super-cool and unique. Or, you might consider spending a couple more dollars on some V-brakes (or find a co-op and trade your cantis for V-brakes?) and getting CX2v.

Here's my review of Retroshifts (on my CrossCheck)

aggiegrads

I was going to chime in with the same recommendation. I just got some this season on my cross rig and I love them. And I "downgraded" from 105 Brifters.

rekmeyata

There are pros and cons to V and Canti brakes. Modern Canti brakes are extremely good and well made with none of the problems that the old school had if it's main cable broke which allowed the stirrup cable to catch the wheel and providing more riding excitement unless a fender or reflector bracket stopped it which is why most better vintage bikes used a long reflector bracket.

Canti brakes work better with cross bikes then V brakes because V brakes require a roll a ma jig so that the V brake would work with a road setup, but this roll thing a ma jig would clog up with mud and fail to work, and they were difficult to install and never worked right. Plus Canti brakes have a lot more mud clearance and better clearance for damaged wobbly wheels to clear the brakes then the V brakes.

V brakes are a pain to center, I have a set on my Kona and I want to pull my hair out when I have to attempt to center the damn things, not so with the Canti's I have on the Schwinn. Earlier I mentioned the supposed fact about V brakes being more powerful than Canti...hmm, I'm not completely sold on that, the brake lever on the V's do react much faster but all that does is lock up the wheels faster, the braking performance is the same at tire adhesion limits. When I first got the Schwinn the Canti's were stiff and took quite a bit of hand pressure to get them to react, but I was able to have a local LBS in town correct all of that with new cables, pads, proper adjustment and lube, and a slightly different stirrup cable, once all that was done I actually like the Canti's far better than the V's. I hate the V's though mostly due to the pain of centering the brakes, the faster almost instant grab of the V can be gotten use to.

The retroshift seems like a great idea, but bar ends work fantastic too, in fact most touring bikes use bar ends because it's easier to handle a loaded bike on the drops and thus with bar ends your hands can make the shift without having to move them off the drops. I haven't done extremely heavy touring so I don't have that problem, in fact I use downtube shifters on my main touring bike and never had an issue with the 45 or so pounds I carry to move my hand off the bar and make a shift, but if I started to carry 65 to 75 pounds that could be a problem? Also if touring and something breaks in the shifter you're pretty much screwed trying to fix STI, not sure about the retro shift idea though, on the road, whereas with bar end their real simple to fix in the field, but their so simple stuff rarely goes wrong with them anyways, and their way cheaper to fix then STI. And bar end can be changed to friction mode if something damaged the derailleur preventing indexing or STI from working. Also when touring you don't tend to shift as much as you would riding a road bike.

But what all of this comes down to is what the rider who is using the bike prefers, one could go on and on about the benefits of barends or STI but at the end of the day it's the rider who needs to be comfortable with what he uses, if he is bred on STI bar ends may be a bit odd. Even though most touring bikes use bar ends, more and more tourists are using STI, mostly because that's what their accustomed to in todays world. Me personally...I want something that can be fixed in the field easily and parts are cheap should in the unlikely event it fails; the ability to go from index to friction doesn't bother me because the bike I use for touring is friction anyways. I'm accustomed to all sorts of shifters, from down tube, to barends, to briftors, from friction to index to STI, and none of it bothers me...although index shifting is faster than STI!! in fact STI is closer to the speed of friction shifting.

RubeRad

Using Retroshifts, OP would simply move his existing barend shifters to the bosses on the brake levers. Unless for some reason he wanted to buy different shift levers; so reliability is identical. Maybe a hair more or less depending on which mount position is more likely to suffer catastrophic damage in a crash. Speaking of which, Retroshift offers $24 rebuild/replace, no questions asked about the crash. All in all, Retroshift are more reliable than STI, lighter than STI, cheaper than (new) STI, and (subjectively) cooler than STI, or at least more unique.

rekmeyata

How readily available is replacement parts if you're out in the boonies and something happens so you go to some hole in the wall bike shop to get it fixed? It would probably have to be overnighted in. I think the Retroshift idea is interesting and a great idea, and could obviously benefit someone, I personally would not consider it, Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you brought it up because like I said it's a great idea and something for someone to think about.

acidfast7

one of favourite moments of American diplomacy: