Are uncut steerer tubes on a complete 54cm/26" LHT about 300mm?

https://surlybikes.com/parts/forks/lo...l_trucker_fork

Steerer: 26˝ (42–54cm frames) = 300mm
26˝ (56–62cm frames) = 400mm
700c (56–64cm frames) = 350mm

Good deal, mine measures 300mm. Went and picked it up last night at the bike shop. They did work with me to adjust the seat properly (which i feel is a little high), put a shorter and higher Dimension stem (It is black but all they had, I may upgrade that part..possibly adjustable stem Ritchie?) and maxed out the spacers. It has 4-10mm spacers and the spacer/brake cable holder under the stem. That gets it up even with the seat, made a tad higher.

I can't say the drop bars are comfortable yet. I need to develop some muscles, etc. and get used to them. I am coming from bikes with straight bars. If after a few months I am not happy I will look at other bars...so many out there. Jones bars are one I like the looks of, but looks don't count with this.

I installed the Tubus Duo effortlessly...it would not have been as simple without the kit Wayne at The Touring Store provided. The Tubus Cargo Evo took a bit more work. I mounted the rack at the upper eyelets above the dropout. I left the lower eyelets for fenders. When I swung the rack up to level it out, the vertical support on the rack hit the area around the lower end of the seat stays. I took a file and filed off a corner on each side of the rack at the bottom. Just enough that it would not touch the stays and rub them. Little bit of Rustoleum and a done deal. I shortened the two aluminum rods at the top with a hacksaw. After cleaning the threads of the bolts and on the bike, I applied a small amount of threadlocker.

Some of the bolts were pretty hard to get in, you need to make sure you don't crossthread.

I am going to do a simple 50 mile round trip overnighter to test things out. I will have pictures and post them here.

Framesaver?

Dimension stems are a very good value. They are available in 26.0 and 31.8 and both silver and black, at various angles and lengths. Make your LBS order you a silver and trade in the black. Ritchey is not really a step up quality-wise. Thomson is very nice, I have several stems/seatposts, but they are not offered in the steep angle used by tourists.

https://www.aebike.com/bicycle-stems_...trafield5=26.0

Odd about the Cargo EVO - I think I recommended it before, over the Cargo Classic I own, because it's modified lower mount should make it easier to install (without interference). The Cargo Classic fits SDT dropouts without interference. I can see how the LHT's Breezer-style dropout would interfere with a lot of rear racks. My old LHT was a 2006 model with traditional dropout, prior to the change to current Breezer style. Maxway/QBP/Surly did this partly to get around rack/fenders eyelets breaking occasionally on the old style dropout (current dropout bosses much stronger), but the real motive behind the move to Breezer was to reduce manufacturing cost. It's possible to build all 14 frame size LHTs with only one type of Breezer dropout, whereas before this required 3-5 types of dropouts to accommodate the various rear triangle SS-CS angle.





This is a little prettier:

https://www.aebike.com/Wheels-Manufac...h_p_14568.html

Give those drop bars a fair chance - they really are about as comfortable as they come. There's a lot you can do to improve fit/comfort WRT drop/reach dimension, width and even bar taping.

Did you use any spacers on the Evo?

No spacers on the Cargo Evo...just the problem with the seat stays when bringing the rack up to level it. Ijust asked my wife to take a picture of the problem area I had to modify. Stand by.

I didn't realize that Surly changed the dropouts. My LHT is a 2006. I installed an Evo on it just before we left for the tour we are presently on. However, I decided to take a different bike, but I think I did use spacers for the installation.

Your fix looks good, and more importantly it works.

I could have used spacers but I had to bend the two sides of the rack out just a little bit to go over the holes anyway. I had read about this problem somewhere else and one of the suggestions was "crimping" the end of the tube on the rack...not for me.

I don't think I mentioned it, but the Duo is rock solid. i was pretty amazed, since it is mounted with 2 spacers on each side & 1 mount on each side on the inside of the fork without spacers. It's beyond rock solid.

The interference is between rack and dropout, not the seatstay itself. It could be avoided if one uses lower, more rearward hole to mount rack, but then it would be hard to mount a fender on top of the EVO.

The Cargo Classic rack is a better fit for LHTs, especially post-2006 LHTs. The flat plate mount of the Classic allows one to mount fender in same hole, outside of rack using longer fastener.

There is a Tubus adapter made for fit problems with dropouts like the Breezer:

https://www.thetouringstore.com/TUBUS...-Adapter-2.jpg

The Classic rack appears to have 3-5mm more clearance than the EVO for this particular fit issue:

https://www.tubus.com/documents/14049...szeichnung.pdf

https://www.tubus.com/documents/13365...Classic_BM.pdf

A Classic may even fit the top hole of a post-2006 LHT without interference.

I think I prefer my modification over using an adapter, spacer, etc. It was easy enough. I love the racks, they both look great. They will really look great with some bags hanging on them going down the road.

I really do like the way they did the clamps for the two aluminum rods, simple and works well.