^Nice Surly bike.

Hi BSE,

Thanks for responding. I've been leaning toward the Salsa and your praise is good to hear. But without a test ride I'm hesitant to make that commitment. Also, I'd need a 50 or 52 frame, unfortunately, or I probably would take the risk on the Salsa at that price.

Thanks again. Cheers.

Thanks QStorm, but a 59 is way too big for me. I'm still hoping to find one to test ride, but may decide to take the risk on it anyway. Cheers.

I'm considering a Surly Cross Check. What is your impression and thoughts so far?

I really like it. I tried out a Bianchi Volpe that I liked better, but I tried the Cross Check and liked it to and pulled the trigger when I found out it was on sale ($960). My only complaint about the Cross Check, and my understanding is this is pretty common with cyclocross bikes, is the bar-end shifters, but I'm sure I'll get used to them the more I ride it. It's a serious improvement over the Trek 4300 I was riding.

The bike itself is wonderful excellent build quality, ability to fit huge tires, has threaded holes for racks/fenders/baskets, brakes are just decent, would have liked discs or the nexus with the rear coaster brake, it is heavy when compared to a road bike but as far as commuters go its probably somewhere in the middle but it does have some nice beefy components with all look like they can taking a beating, the paint is beautiful with lots of fine mica flake overall for 450$ I think its a good value and way better than the mtb I was using

the nexus hub though has really been trouble free I have only had to adjust it twice which took maybe 30 secs, Flat tires do take alittle longer and the 1st time you do it is really confusing, the 8 speeds are more than enough for me, I am impressed with the range of gears they were able to cram in there, the 8th gear is insanely tall and I have used it only a handful of times, the 1st gear is super low and I do find myself using it a lot. the ability to just hop on and go and not worry about it was it biggest draw as the more complicated it is for me to ride a bike the less I actually ride it

I found I got used to the bar end shifters on my cross check in about the first 3 weeks. I have actually found them to be quite nice and versatile.

In the winter, I have found it necessary to switch the rear shifter into friction mode because of poor operating conditions which is easy to do on the fly.

Also, I had a crash several weeks ago that sent me over the bars (I walked away unhurt because of heavy winter clothes and a helmet), and I mangled one of the brake levers. With brifters, this would be a pretty serious issue, but I was able to cobble it back together long enough to ride home and then replace it on the cheap.

Reynolds 520 is 4130 cromo.

Here's my new bike for commuting. It's a Schwinn Empire XL.

Cool thanks for the feedback. I had forgotten about the ability to put huge tires in there. I'd to get one of these, but I gotta thin out the herd before I would be able to do that and who knows when that will happen. It would make a great winter bike.

I just built this bike up. Twas my first bike build!



plans for the bike:

to put on 3M Orange reflective tape on the frame
install my old planet bike cascadia fenders
install my topeak rack
install theft resistant bolts (seatpost/seat/headset/stem/brifters/ect ect)

I've got my old lights, bell, and NYC Kryptonite lock for it too. This will be my commuter/errand/city bike.

Here is my fresh errand runner. Just picked it up yesterday. It is really comfortable. I just need either bar ends or an adjustable stem (or both) and it will be perfect.

This is really a nice one!

My Marin Novato 29er: Best commuter setup i could fathom in my mind
In all its glory, headlight is niterider 350, bunch of rear blinkies, rack is topeak explorer disk

Sorry about the last blank post. I tried deleting but for some reason it hasn't.

Anyway I've had this bike for almost a month now. I have no car so I commute to work instead of taking the bus. I love the bike and the only thing I've notices is that the shifters tend to skip every now and then. This is probably something I'll upgrade later on.

now with outfitted for commuting.

That Redline is so pimp.

Yeah, the fenders look great with the black rims.

^^^^^ Agreed!

i cringed when i read that before scrolling down, bc it looked so nice, almost perfect, in the first pic i was anticipating a hot mess. but you pulled it off.

thanks! after taking this pic there was a gust of wind and it promptly fell over and I bent the derailleur hanger.

I had to go to my LBS and have them align it for me... I may have built up the bike but still don't have derailleur hanger alignment, and headset tools yet.

Can't you just eyeball that sort of thing? I haven't had to do it before, so call me crazy...

Beautiful Redline^^
(One small cosmetic flaws, rack is not level..)

I didn't even notice it until you pointed that out. Good eye.

I guess since it flowed along the same line as the top tube, it just blended in and worked. Now you pointed it out, it still doesn't bug me. Weird.