Why are Surlys so special?
 

I've noticed a lot of fans of the Surly bike frame for commuting. Seems like a sturdy, solid bet, however, there are a lot of bikes with better specs and less weight for a lot less money.

What's so great about the Surly, especially as a commuter bike?

Steel, tire clearance, and several models with horizontal drop outs.

Not to beat the BikesDirect dead horse, but here are two CrMo and steel bikes with similar/better specs and cost half as much as the Surly.

http://bikesdirect.com/products/windsor/tourist.htm

http://bikesdirect.com/products/mercier/galaxy.htm

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/...ier_corvus.htm

(I'm comparing to the Surly: http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/surly/longhaul.htm)

What are the reasons to still go with Surly? (A lot of folks here apparently do.)

surly is a cooler name than windsor.

Ditto! http://bestsmileys.com/happy/7.gif

Is the Mercer, and Windsor available as a frame set only?

Because I got doored on my Steamroller a few years ago and rolled away just fine

Because I got hit by a Chevy truck on my Cross-check this month and rolled away just fine

They're sturdy and tough and they fit just right. The frames have all of the crap I need on them and none of the stuff I don't.

And steel doesn't crack the way I've cracked aluminum, which is nice, too.

Gosh, I sound horribly destructive to frames, don't I.

I believe that all those links I posted above from BD are for FULL bikes. (Come with drivetrain - see specs.) They are also steel / Cromo.

Note - I'm NOT shilling for BikesDirect (Mr. BikesDirect posts directly himself for related marketing posts), and don't own any of their bikes, nor do I recommend/advise against them. They do offer some eye-opening value, though, it seems.

that's why I bought Surly. I don't like to build my own bike with good parts.

^ You do sound awfully destructive! ^

They are great bikes, expensive indeed, but a great bike. I want a LHT really bad!!!

I don't quite see the expense either. Sure they're nice bikes..but it seems like you can get more bike for the price.

edit: but if i was going to do like a cross country tour, the LHT would be my pick. but that's where i can see spending some serious coin.

Note to self: Never let Verbal borrow my bike.

First, because a Surly helped lead the Surlyeans out of Egyt, and across the Red Sea.

Second, because a Surly (might even have been the same Surly - sources can't confirm) went up and rode with a burning bush, eventually riding down to find out that the Surlyeans were worshipping bikesdirect.com idols - that Surly got surely - throwing down the rules set forth in bike commuting. The rest is history.

Finally, a Surly was cast out by the Surlyeans to the Schwinnian Drivus Carus who had said Surly put up as a mockery of all Surlys with the intent of making a bad example of it.


Or because Iro hasn't made a touring bike I like yet.

Again - why would you favor LHT for a serious x-country tour? I'm curious as to the advantages, however tiny, of this well-regarded bike brand.

I liked all the bikes, including the Surly. But to begin to answer your question, the third water bottle bolts on the Surly are a fantastic place to put a road morph pump, leaving your other two water bottles within reach, AND your top tube un-cluttered. (yes, you could zip tie mount your pump there anyway)

Futhermore, It looked like the LHT regular price is 9 bills, similar to the other bikes regular price. However, the LHT sold out, while the other brands are left over to be discounted?

Brifters versus the bar end shifters as well. Personal preference there.

Someone call the ABS brakes police ... :D

XT rear der, and other higher spec'd goodies and a quality frame, btw. If my smart ass answer earlier wasn't really helpful.

My LHT actually gets a bed its so cool, the wife has a spot by that grease stain in the garage. Ask her.

Surly bikes tend to be really well designed. All the stops are in the right places for cable routing, the fender eyelets don't get in the way of stuff, that sort of thing.

BikesDirect comes close, but Surly always seems to have thought about things a bit more. For example, the Surly road bikes (Cross Check, Pacer, LHT) come with DT shifter bosses instead of just cable stops-- a nice touch for versatility's sake. And they manage great tire clearance and clearance for big chainrings. And they bend the seat tube on their 29'er so that there's clearance for (very) fat tires and a top-pull front derailleur without monstrously long chainstays. And the LHT comes with 26" wheels on smaller sizes...

I could go on all day. The bikesdirect frame are an incrementally better value, and will probably last for years, but the Surlys just seem to be more versatile.

Because The Fred said let it be so. And it was so.

Best answer so far. Sounds reasonable.

I too have been having a hard time seeing past the hipness. I have looked closely at the LHT, Crosscheck, Karate Monkey, Big Dummy and Pacer. I must admit I like what I see, but I have been unable to pull the trigger. I think part of it is I have too many bikes already. However, if I had only one or two, I think I would probably go Surly.

FWIW, I put my '85 rockhopper next to a 54cm LHT, and they seemed almost identical frame-wise. However, I certainly like the 700C wheels in the larger frame sizes.

Oh god. its the middle of winter, and this thread has made me look at 4 new bikes, and about another half dozen on the bikes direct website too. I am fantasizing about renting or buying condos in warm weather locations just so that I can buy those bikes and have a place to put them. All this becuase winter has me not riding the bikes I already own. Somebody help me........

Can't help you, unfortunately. I live in sunny SoCal - it was 56F today, and sunny. Went for a nearly 3hr bike ride up a beautiful canyon road. It's really ridiculous how nice it is down here, although the strange downside is that you start beating yourself up mentally every day that you don't ride long!

The worst part of it all is that virtually nobody bike commutes in LA. Traffic's a bear, and it's far from bike-friendly, and drivers are impatient as all heck around rush hour. Total waste of gorgeous weather.

I think that a lot of it is the cross check. The cross check might be the #1 most versatile bike you can buy, and it doesn't cost very much money to buy (relatively speaking).

Versatility, no-non-sense steel, minimum bling, and the ability to be trashed and abused while riding.

Personally, I wouldn't buy them, mostly because they are sized long and they don't have what I'm looking for. There are plenty of other good choices to be had.

Oh, and they have the same cult following as Cervelo, you'll notice when you see someone with more than 1 Surlys in their stable. Standard 4130 Cro-moly is pretty hard to screw up, and yet people rave about Surly.

Then again, you can make do with what these ladies used in 1944 to ride from Buffalo to New Orleans and back:

http://mjgradziel.com/thelmajones/bi.../p2006_042.jpg

I don't know why you would need more that the girls used. And they camped along the way, too!

Omigosh! I was just skimming through the article; They slept in a graveyard one night.

There's nothing that special about Surly. Their bikes/frames are on the heavy side, a bit stodgy even, definitely not made for high performance, and in the case of the Cross-Check and LHT, if you want a complete bike, you have to be willing to part with $1000, and that's before you get a new saddle or pedals. However, I LOVE their bikes, for the simple reason that they're made of steel, are really comfortable to ride (at least in the case of the LHT), have really nice components for the money, their frames are powder coated, not just painted, and they can take a beating without complaint. They are a bit pricey, compared to some other bikes, but for the money they're still really great bikes. To put things into perspective, I think the LHT is almost as good as the Rivendell Atlantis, but it's less than 1/3 the cost.

If Surlys were cars, they'd be Volvos built before Ford bought them out.

OK, I'm shopping for a wicker basket, right now!

I beg to differ. I've broken 4 frames... 2 steel and 2 aluminum...one of the aluminum ones creaked for quite a while before I discovered the crack. The other aluminum one cracked at the seat tube because I was using a post with a huge setback. Both gave me warning (which I ignored) that they were failing. The two steel bikes went 'ping' and broke. No cracks, no creaks, no warning. Aluminum rims (do you really ride steel rims Nightshade?) under go a similar failure mode as do aluminum parts like cranks, bars, etc.

Steel spindles on pedals and in axles, on the other hand fail about like the steel frames do. Ping! and they're done. And let's not forget spokes. I have lots of experience with their failure:rolleyes: