So, I now have definitive proof that I'm spending too much time on the BF Commuting forum, or maybe too much time browsing craigslist, possibly both.

I'm in the process of building up a new road bike (standard N+1) and I've been browsing CL just to see if I might stumble across a great deal on wheels or something. Then this weekend I happened to see a Long Haul Trucker frame, fork and headset in my size for what seemed like a decent price ($320). Let me say that I had never seriously considered buying an LHT before, but I loved the color and it looked like it was in outstanding shape. Out of curiosity I looked up the geometry and plugged it into a spreadsheet I use to estimate stack and reach. It turned out the fit would be outstanding. I sent the seller an e-mail to confirm that it's built for 26" wheels and the next thing you know I've completely convinced myself that this frame is a sensible upgrade for my RockHopper frankenbike.

After a successful negotiation with my wife (I had to agree to get rid of the RockHopper one way or another), I arranged a time to meet the seller and by lunchtime yesterday I joined the ranks of the LHT owners.

I spent my lunch hour stripping useful parts off of the RockHopper and transferring them to the Trucker. I made such good progress that I kind of decided to challenge myself to get this thing on the road within a day using only parts that I had on hand. It was a trick to squeeze in assembly time without compromising family time, but a little late night work and a slightly delayed departure this morning made it happen.



This build is full of compromises. The gearing is way too low for my commute (44-32-22/12-28). The stem is too short. I chose the stem height based on the length of the cables (didn't want to cut new ones and have to re-wrap the bars). And of course, this bike deserves a little more aesthetic consideration than the RockHopper which donated most of the parts. But overall I think it came out great for just throwing it together with parts on hand.

I expect I'll have a few question for experienced LHT owners as I develop this project. For now, just this: How long do I have before a band of thugs stop me on the road and force me to install a Brooks saddle?

Update: Two month version pics in post 39

Congrats are due! Thats a great looking frame and your off to a great start. The most fun you'll ever have is just coming up for you. Upgrading this and that and making it your own. The Brooks is nice and vintage looking and I hear they are comfortable.

Looks good. in my best overly critical voice: Pedals are parallel with the ground, garage door is white, tire lables aligned with the valves...but you didn't hide the valves behind the frame/fork, so a few deductions there. This isn't the road bike forum, so no need to "flip it." The fenders are a bit far away from the tires, but if you run larger tires during some parts of the year that would explain it. Overall I give it a 9.0.

I am curious about two things I think I see: Are you using brifters for the brake levers but using bar end shifters to actually shift? If so is it due to different speed alignments? Are those v-brakes, and if so, how are you getting the pull adjusted to work with the road bike brake levers? I really like my LHT. If I got one now it would be the 26" disc version, but the 700c model I'm using is very comfortable and very versitile. I hope you enjoy the new bike!

[Edit]And yes, I do have a Brooks saddle on mine [/Edit]

The Brooks thugs have agreed that we'd prefer you to wait until you put a proper stem on that bike. You have 30 days from that time. If you delay beyond that point... expect a visit

Good stuff! It makes me feel like I'm on the 41 -- well except that you had some positive things to say.


Yes! The brake levers are Ultegra 6501 brifters. I picked them up at a swap meet a few years ago. They were only $10 because the shifting didn't work. I opened them up, gutted the shifting mechanism, rigged something to keep them from swiveling and dremmeled off the plastic bit where the shift cable exited. Now they're a nice pair of brake levers (though perhaps a bit ugly). And, yes, those are V-brakes -- Avid Arch Rivals, to be specific. Those are pretty ugly too. I'm using Travel Agents to get the cable pull right. It works surprisingly well, but I'm thinking about just getting some long pull brake levers to clean everything up a bit.

The other oddity that you might not be able to see in the picture above is that the Travel Agents have barrel adjusters but I also have an inline barrel adjuster (you can see it in this view). I did that when I had this stuff on the RockHopper because I accidentally cut the cable housing too short and the RockHopper was too much of a beater for me to bother fixing it. I'll clean that kind of thing up after I get the fit dialed in.

I like it! Well, I'm not in love with all of the parts, but I dig that you were able to build the whole thing up, tweaks and all, and get it on the road in a day.

How do you like riding it, apart from the short stem?

next cassette replacement, one starting with an 11t will bring the high up to 4:1.

straight block, 11 12 13 14 15 16 and so forth.. triple shifts the range.

granny triple, the % differences will be minute



Web Moral Hazard:
Touring Phred list; I match-made with the NC seller of my Koga WTR, a Rohloff hub 26" rig.

folding list, here, alerted me to the BTO BiFri at 1st posting on the 'Bay.. a 20" R'off.

Well, I've only ridden it 7 miles so far, and I'm of the opinion that most things you can say about the ride of a bike are attributable to either the fit or the tires. That said, I'm very happy with it. I can tell, even from riding with this ridiculous stubby stem, that I'm going to be able to make the fit work very well. I didn't experience any of the sluggishness that some people report (probably the tires). It did a great job of absorbing the little bumps from road debris (again, probably the tires).

The bike's tendency to want to hold a line was frankly a bit disconcerting. I guess I'm used to bikes that are more twitchy/responsive. When I did things like swerving around junk in the road, I was caught off guard by just how much the bike wanted to straighten itself out. Generally, I think that's probably a good thing. At the same time, cornering felt very natural and I didn't get any sense that the bike was fighting me there.

It was horizontally stiff, but vertically compliant.

Ask me again in six months and I might have something useful and non-delusional to say.

The real problem is that most of my commute is so flat that even the middle ring is too low to be useful. I think I could ride this thing up the side of a building in the low gear.

I'm not worried about top end (gravity's doing all the work any time I spin out my top gear). I just don't want to have to shift onto the big chainring as soon as I start moving.

Besides, I'm using an old 8-speed XTR cassette. It'll probably never wear out.

I think a LHT is an ideal build up project. I would love to grab a frame like that and build it up to a daily commuter. Plus, you have a terrific option when it comes to planning your RTW tour. Have fun!

Nice job, and welcome to the club (assuming I'm part of the club - Disc Trucker owner here). My trucker was also a replacement for a drop-bar MTB frankenbike. Still no Brooks on mine either, but for a 10-mile commute, I don't see the point.

That is a sharp looking LHT you have there, nice color! I love my trucker, its the most versatile bike I've ever owned.

I'm impressed.

That's cool! I haven't gotten to ride an LHT, but I would imagine that the high trail and long wheelbase (and heavier frame) will tend to feel sluggish to people used to sportier bikes. Actually, I bet it's much like the drop-bar-converted mountain bikes that we discuss a lot in C&V. Stable and heavy, but not that bad.

There are things about the LHT that I like in theory, so I'll be interested in your future thoughts. I may end up with one someday.

Well, you are a Ghead for that fast conversion, congrats. to you. You are welcome in my garage. Now, you've got to do something about that stem, brifter-barcon doubletake, and those high tide fenders! - like rolling your jeans up to your knees dude! I'm sure you'll get it sorted out in the regulated 30 days period. And, isn't that an Easton Vice seatpost? - they work well, but they never look quite right on any bike. I vote Thomson, setback, and maybe a Thomson 15 degree stem, flipped down. Some sleekness, please.

Honestly, the fenders are the biggest puzzle for me. Most of the other problems I can fix by replacing black parts with silver parts, but there don't seem to be a lot of choices in fenders for skinny 26" tires, and with the 26x1.25 tires the frame mounting points are quite a distance from the tire.

One of the other fun things about this build was that I had to use every spacer in my parts drawer to cover that expansive steerer -- 11 of them on there. Of course, it seems like cutting the steerer on an LHT is sacrilege and I'm liking the high bar position.

I didn't think you could do that
Looks nice, even if it does need a B17, maybe you can find one of those on CL in your browsing.

I see what you did there.

I guess another way of looking at it is that if I didn't spend so much time on BF I wouldn't have known that I needed a Long Haul Trucker and if I didn't spend so much time on CL I wouldn't have one.

I know what you mean about the fenders. I have a 26 inch Trucker and the Cascadia fenders on mine. They have great coverage and work very well, but there is a big gap using the 1.5 inch tires I am currently running. I'm okay with it though, since I know I can run bigger tires if I want, and, since I use the Thule 917XT – 2 rack which tightens down on the tire, works without removing the fender. The arm slides nicely between the fender and the tire. I started using a rack kicking and screaming since I usually just ride from home, but once ,y wife started riding, we have been taking our bikes different places. The ugly gap has worked well with the rack.

Ugly fenders, but they work. They kept me, and my drivetrain clean on the C&O while riding into Hurricane Irene.

Only way to commute and never wear out a cassette is to not ride the bike..

Check out the Gilles Berthoud stainless fenders. They come in a 26" x 40mm size (although the 26" x 50mm size would also look pretty good with a little extra coverage) that would sit pretty sleekly over the tires. Since they don't mount with a tab at the fork crown, you can more easily drop them down closer to the tire. The installation page gives a little better view of how they mount. They would fit in with that Brooks saddle that you'll be buying any day now, too.

Nice work man; I'm doing something similar. My N+1 was a new crosscheck frame/fork (I think about $450 from eBay -- $320 for good shape used LHT frame, fork, and headset seems like a fair deal), and I built it up by stealing everything from a Trek 1000 roadie. Just to get it running, I had to get canti brakes (tektro cr720 were cheap and work great) and a skinnier FD braze-on clamp; I think I was able to use everything else. Oh, front brake cable hanger. The plan is to gradually buy parts for the CrossCheck, and rebuild the Trek until it is sellable, or by then my (now)12-year-old will probably be able to ride it!

My big plan is to swap out the brifters for Retroshift CX2(9sp); That will actually be my next purchase, but at $189 I have to wait a bit and pretend to save up. I'll be all-friction at first, but then I'll look for a 9sp cassette and can use the rear indexing. Next maybe wheels. I already have a Shimano 600 crankset ready, but it's a double and I'm a wimp. I'll have to replace the stem/bars at some point, haven't given much thought to it, but I think I might want to get some kind of funky touring bars -- those plus the retroshift will make for a really head-turning cockpit!

I did, and have not once regretted it, especially since they actually seem to ride faster with the better ride and not to mention, the trucker just looks nice with 2" tires.

Yeah, bigger tires ride nice and look great on the Trucker.