Advice: Pacer or Cross Check?
 

First post here so a quick Hi all. Now on to what we all want to hear about, bikes. I am about to plunk down a few bucks to replace my old MTB which, while cheap, got me around on street and trail for many years. Through reading the forums and talking to shop techs I have narrowed down my selection to the Surly Pacer or Cross Check. The question is which one and how to build it? This is my first foray into the more serious side of cycling and I would really like to hear advice and antedotes from those who have already been here. A few details about where I am and what I plan on doing with this bike:

- I live in the Great Northwest (read rainy)
- No car, no plans on having one. I walk, bike, or bus everywhere (And I don't really like the bus)
- While 80% of this bike's use would be commuting, with a good bike I would feel like some light touring would be in order
- It'll be a workhorse, but wouldn't it be nice to have a quick, agile workhorse?
- My build is tall and thin, if that makes an impact on frame choice (I mean aside from sizing)

One shop I've been to suggests a Pacer with a Shimano 105 groupo, another the Cross Check (actually the Soma Double Cross, but I dig the cross check more) with a mostly 105 groupo but taking the hubs from one of Shimano's mountain lines. Do I need trail gear on the cross check if thats what I go with? Thanks in advance, especially since I know that the "What bike?" horse gets beat often around here.

- rainy

I'd go with the cross-check or the doublecross over the pacer/smoothie. It just gives you a lot more options.

You can buy a CrossCheck already built.
After 2 months of looking at zillions of roadies and being able to afford
any bike I wanted I ended up with the humble CrossCheck. Not sure about
the other ones so I only offer this opinion for informational purposes !

I bought a Crosscheck and have never regretted it. I'd like to have a Pacer as well. But if you can only have one bike I'd go with a cross frame. You're Pacer will forever have road wheels and gearing. I have run my Crosscheck with an internally geared hub, a single speed hub, presently with a single speed rear hub and double chainrings up front. I am considering a single ring up front with two rear wheels to swap out, depending on my mood - a single and a seven speed cassette with quick release derailleur. The Crosscheck's rear hub spacing and semi-horizontal dropouts give it more versatility than anything else. Something to consider if you fancy yourself a tinkerer.

DanO

I dont know about the crosscheck but I have a pacer and for urban assault, I highly recommend this fantastic beast. I bought only the frame so I have atypical parts, but with bullhorned bars and sti shifters, 700-28's with planet bike fenders, I think its the best set up in city traffic. Good luck!

Cross-Check all the way, baby.

1) Pacer only has a single eyelet in the back, so if you want to run rear fenders *and* a rear rack (you said you'd be doing light touring, and you live in a rainy climate), you're better off with the eyelets for both. Yes, there are alternative ways to achieve this with only one set of eyelets, but the Cross-Check's double eyelets gives you the easiest installation options.

2) Cross-Check has clearance for tire sizes up to 700x45 WITH fenders. Pacer only goes up to 700x28 with fenders. You might want wider tires for touring.

3) As others mentioned, Cross-Check is SUPER flexible as far as what kind of drive-train you can run, thanks to the semi-horizontal dropouts and 132.5 mm rear spacing. Everything from fixed gear to mountain or road triple front chainrings. Pacer has vertical dropouts, so you're never going to be able to go into the fixed or singlespeed mode without either dropping some serious coin on an eccentric rear hub or fiddling around to find the magic combination of front and rear rings that gives you a good chainline.

The one place that the Pacer has the Cross-Check beat for sure is weight, but according to Surly's website, the weight difference between the two framsets is pretty small: cross-check with uncut fork is 0.22 kg (about 0.5 lbs) heavier than pacer with uncut fork. Depending on your own weight, that may or not make a difference to you.

I bought the "Cross-Check Complete" pre-built bike, and if I knew then what I know now, I might have gone with the frameset option and gotten better control over my setup. But for someone who wants a super-flexible bike with decent components, I think the complete bike works just fine. I added SKS fenders and a Jandd rear rack and it's a fabulous commuter/all-around bike. If I was going to tour with it, I'd have to do some reconfiguration of the drivetrain, because the gearing does not go low enough. But all that's easy enough to figure out later.

Have fun!

Thanks for everyones input. I decided to go with the crosscheck, partly because of the overwhelming response of people on these forums and those who I talked to on the street. Also, I appreciate the diversity of set-ups the cross check will allow. Even though I may not take advantage of them right away I know later down the road every extra will come in handy. The big one was the extra set of eyelets and the added room for fenders with larger size tires. I do hope to build up a pacer one day soon, maybe as my enthusiasm grows as a dedicated fast super-commuter. So many bikes, so little time.

-rainy