I love my Surly LHT. My carbon road bike has seen very little usage since I bought the LHT about a month ago. I bought it for a combination of commuting and loaded touring. It is a heavier bike, and I felt the additional weight riding it to work the first few day, but I don't really go any slower. And I'm much more confident that I won't have near as many flats as with my road bike, as I have some Schwalbe Marathon tires (again, heavy) on my LHT. And the panniers are much nicer than the backpack and messenger bags I had used when commuting on my road bike.
Originally Posted by
InTheRain
One reason I didn't go for this bike is that the frame sized 54cm and smaller had 26" wheels. I have a nice road bike and it has 700c wheels. I wanted to be able to swap wheels between the two bikes. Also, I preferred the brifters to the bar-end shifters. I went with a Rocky Mountain Sherpa 30.
At first, I was concerned over the 26" tires. I was close to fitting a 56 cm frame on the LHT which would have meant 700c tires, but I would have had to shorten the stem more than I wanted. I really am enjoying the 26" tires; they're a little fatter, still just as fast, can be purchased in any Xmart store in the US or even overseas, etc. I can't swap tires with my 700c road bike, but the bigger tires won't fit on the road bike frame anyways, and who would want 23cm tires on a Surly LHT?
I did have to get accustomed to the bar end shifters. I have STIs on my road bike, and XT shifters on my mountain bike. With the bar ends, I have to move my hands a bit to shift, so I probably don't shift as often as I do with my road bike. But that's still not a problem, and I've had enough problems with my STI shifters to know that they sometimes break, get finicky, and eventually wear out. I'm enjoying the bar ends, but they are different, so I can understand how some would choose other types.
I especially like the gearing that comes on the LHT complete. Others I looked at came with road bike cranksets, so the gear-inches were somewhat higher in the lowest gear. I have a really steep climb on the way home from work. I bring my laptop and accessories home on Friday in one of the rear panniers, which adds about 13 lbs to the normal commuting weight. The lower gears are nice to have on a hot afternoon ride home, and I'm sure the same will be true once I am able to start doing some loaded touring up in the mountains (my favorite destination).
Good luck with your decision, but the Surly LHT is a fine choice. I looked at this one, the Trek 520, the Fuji Touring, the Windsor Tourist, as well as several frame-only options. I'm very happy that I chose the Surly LHT.
I admit that if I had thought I would never do any loaded touring, I might have looked for a lighter bike; maybe the Surly Crosscheck or Salsa Casseroll or Soma Smoothie. I would have bought the CC as a complete bike, but probably would have built up the Salsa or Soma.