I'm a big admirer of Surly bikes. I currently ride a LHT set up with 700 x 28 tires as a road bike, and love the ride of steel and the bar-end shifters. Because I travel a lot for my job - usually gone for two weeks at a stretch and only home every other weekend - I don't get as much riding in as I would like. However, because my job takes me a lot of places, I have opportunities to ride some really neat places.....if only I had a bike!

I am very much taken with the new Surly Travelers Check frame - a Crosscheck with S&S Couplers. I would like to buy one this summer set up much like my LHT, with a triple chainring.

Having to remove the handlebars to pack the bike are one of my concerns, and reducing the numbers of cables on the handlebars seems to be a good thing. Regarding shifters, I really like my bar-end shifters on the LHT, but wonder if another setup might be in order on a Travelers Check. I want to stay away from ratcheting shifters and brifters, because my experience is that they are fiddly and always need adjustment.

My idea for a Travelers Check would be to go with downtube shifters (the Travelers Check frame appears to have the braze-ons in the right place), but because I ride with a more upright stance - bars about even with the saddle - I am concerned about being able to reach that far down. What about going with stem-mounted shifters? As far as I can see, these are mechanically about the same as downtube or bar-end shifters, but are mounted in a more convenient location?

Does anyone still make or sell stem-mounts for shifters?