Back in September 2011, my all-weather commuter bike (an old steel mountain bike with retrofitted drop bars) was destroyed in a collision with a car. Once my body was on the mend, I started turning my thoughts to what my next commuter bike would look like. Due to problems I had had with rims and sprockets getting gunked up with ice and snow during winter riding (thereby reducing braking and shifting abilities) I wanted a bike based around disc brakes and an internally geared hub. I'm also partial to drop bars. Such bikes do exist off the shelf (Civia Bryant for one), but they're expensive and hard to find around here. So, I thought I would try a custom build using an Alfine 8 speed hub and Avid BB7 brakes. When I discovered that Surly was introducing their Disc Trucker this year, I knew I had my frame.

The remaining parts were spec'd in collaboration with a very helpful guy at an LBS. The emphasis was on durability, not weight savings (note the big heavy mountain bike rims!)

Here's the Trucker:



It's still a work in progress - it's not neary Fredly enough yet to be a commuter bike. I still need to get fenders, install lights, and I may install a rack (though I don't mind using a backpack).

The only problem is the shifter. I know there's probably plenty of people on this forum who can say "I coulda told you that!" but IGH and friction shifters don't work well together. I was assured at the bike shop that people do that all the time, but it's not working for me. Not only do I have trouble locking it in a specific gear, the shifter also doesn't pull enough cable to get through all 8 gears - I can only access gears 1-6. I have this JTek 8-speed indexed shifter on order now; hopefully I'll get it next week, and then I can wrap my bars too.