Originally Posted by
ColonelSanders
I'm tossing up between a Surly Troll and a 26" LHT and having a great deal of trouble deciding, especially as I am not going to be able to test either bike and will just be buying a new frame and building up from there.
When you say the Troll is more nimble, in what way does that manifest itself?
When I see the gusseting on the Troll at the headtube and toptube joining and the little bridge from the seat tube to the top tube, it strikes me with that reinforcing, the Troll should be a "stronger" bike than the LHT, yet I have read comments from someone saying they felt a LHT carried their luggage better than a Troll, as they had slight shimmy at speed on the Troll when loaded up.
I'm guessing this may be due to the LHT having a larger diameter downtube than the Troll?
Any insights one can share here, would be greatly appreciated.
By "nimble" I mean you can ride singletrack with the Troll, but not with the LHT. The LHT is strictly a road or developed trail bike. The Troll is a very capable off road performer, not just because of the frame geometry, but also because you can use much wider tires than on the LHT.
As for shimmy, I've not had that. Could be because I'm set up with bikepacking gear, not racks and panniers, so the weight is inline with the bike, not hanging off the sides. Could also be that the comments are about a bike that was built up poorly.
The Troll will very capably do everything the LHT will do. The converse is not true. If you go with the Troll, and will be building up from the frame, I've built two now and would be happy to share things I've learned.