mstateglfr 

[QUOTE=Squeezebox;19313873]Sont delete the brackets arount the word QUOTE at the end of the post. Keep that- its like the matching bookend to the first QUOTE.

I dont know why you mentioned hipsters a couple times.
Surly is for sure a corporate style business, but that doesnt really mean anything. My company is a large corporation with capitalist execs, but its a 180 from how the microsoft corporate campus in WA looks and feels.
You do realize those riding surly are more than just hipsters, right?

edthesped

I mentioned hipsters... and it's relaying what my kid in college says about Surly. Granted my kids are more in tune with what a hipster is as I'm firmly planted in the old coot, I don't give a sh!^ about any sort of style zone. I would have to say the Surly blog sure supports the hipster argument.

Sam9

I have not toured anywhere, ever, at all. So everything from me is theory...but I was considering a Surly, but instead found a new 2015 Kona Big Rove for $750. so far I've replaced the flat bars with Jones H-Bars, had to replace the rear derailleur cable, and have a Books seat on order. It's basically a steel frame rigid mountain bike geometry with enough fittings to setup either with racks and panniers or a bikepacking rig.


700X50 Big Apples on it, and they seem to roll pretty well on pavement and I would like to plan to ride as much dirt as possible, so those will probably stay.


I think the bike was a good choice, but we'll see!

mstateglfr 

Thanks for clarifying.

Surly, to me, markets itself as an alternative to the establishment in cycling. Steelnframes instead of other materials. Wider tires instead of focusing on weight. Their innovations are fatbikes and singlespeed products instead of shock absorbing drop bars and new bottom bracket styles for stiffness.
Trek, Spec, and Giant arent focusing on the singlespeed and simplicity market, sonSurly has carved out a niche for themselves.

I think the singlespeed side of Surly is what has gotten them the hipster rep, if there is one, since that style of riding is more urban and typically younger.
All their fatbike offerings and LHT though?...boy i dont think skinny jeans and irony when i see those products...i think market pioneering and smart marketing. The users are often middle aged and getting dirty on trails.

saddlesores

considering the surly website, thought to myself, what do hipsters
know about typewriters? would they even recognize one if not properly
labeled in a museum? well, i goggled it, and apparently mechanical
typewriters are now a fad with the hep cat crowd. assume the noise
gets them so much more attention.

Squeezebox

Way cool!! I've got 2 portable manual typewriters complete with cases, yes 1 works, I think. They look like just might be pre WWII. The original laptop from the '30s.
I didn't know that I'm a hipster.
Uh Oh!! Here comes the Salsa or Kona.

10 Wheels

5,000 miles

edthesped

Bicycle Rights!!!



I'd own a Big Dummy if I ever find a good deal on one.

Doug64

The sticker on the side of our son's "adventure" van:

"

Yes, he has a fixie in his fleet, and lived in Portland.

OP,

If you are interested in a LHT, go ahead and try one. It is not an irrevocable decision. If you find that you don't like it, sell it; they hold their value well, and it would not be a major loss.

In my experience you are not really going to know if a touring bike suits you by taking a few spins around the block at the LBS. Sure, test ride as many bikes as you can to narrow the field, but a short test ride will not usually tell you the "the rest of the story." The best way to tell if you are going to like the bike is taking it on some long rides and then do some short tours with it. If it seems like it will work for you, take it on an extended tour. Riding it day after day for an extended period will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the bike pretty fast. All touring bikes are compromises, and riding time on the bike is the only way you will know what compromises you are willing to accept.

veganbikes

[QUOTE=Squeezebox;19313873]Yeah I make a bad hipster I guess. I don't really fit into many of the hipster definitions and really never have and probably won't. However Surly might be capitalist (obviously) I don't think they are business execs because they certainly wouldn't pump out the stuff they pump out. They would be making cheap hybrids from aluminum and expensive road bikes made from crabon fibers. It was only recently they made a stock flat bar bike and even that isn't totally in line with the industry.

Surly is unique in the fact they aren't totally following industry trends and making the same thing as everyone else. They still make a FG/SS 26" frameset, it is so odd and nonsensical and wouldn't be something corporate execs would come up with. Up until recently their LHTs and DTs weren't rated for a kickstand something that a corporate boardroom would have made happen much faster.

Yes they certainly have an image they portray but I think at least some of that image is rather true. I am again not doubting they are in it for money but they are also serious bike lovers and people who like odd things and beer.

edthesped

I'll buy that, their bikes are certainly unique in the industry.

Squeezebox

There are people who are into it because they love cycling. Most framebuillders would be likely. And there are others that it's just another product to sell. Business execs, Might own an expensive Mercedes and no bicycle. There's no way to tell the difference unless you personally know the person in question. It's great that they produce the niche bicycles they do. But we're only guessing about why?

Rob_E

This thread took a weird turn.

We're now trying to second guess the motivations of people at Surly? I thought this was a thread about how riding a Long Haul Trucker felt.

FWIW, I met a guy from Surly when he came to the local bike shop. Showed off some bikes, went on a bike ride, drank some beer, rode some twisty trails in the dark on fat bikes. He was absolutely there to sell bikes, just like you'd expect from a guy whose livelihood depends on people buying bikes. He also seemed to be a good guy who liked riding bikes and drinking beer. Marketing image? I doubt it, but who cares? How do the bikes do? That's the question. We can debate motivation, moral compass, and what counts as a hipster, and maybe, somehow, in some situation that might help you guess about how good their bikes might be if anyone ever bought one. But that's not really necessary with Surly since they've been selling bikes for years, and there are lots of people willing to tell you how they like them or don't like them.

Don't know if the OP is still around, but just in case:
One thing I would think about is what you don't like about your current bike. Then you can look for bikes that address that.
When I bought my LHT, I was riding a hybrid with a suspension fork. I didn't think it handled great. It felt too cramped. I wanted to load it up, but it clearly wasn't made for that. Didn't have all the right attachment points, and I kicked the rear panniers with my heels too often. Suspension seemed unnecessary for pavement riding, which is what I was mostly doing. Didn't care for flat bars. I also don't care for drop bars, so really I decided that was at least going to be swapping some bars no matter what I chose.
Long Haul Trucker ticked most of my boxes for a bike that I could commute on daily, run errands, load it up at the store when needed, and, every once in a while, fill it up with camping gear for a longer trip. I bought it as frame, picked the parts I wanted, and rode it, very happily, for several years.
It was a solid, smooth ride. Long wheelbase combined, I think, with the shape of the front fork made it feel very stable.
It could carry whatever I wanted along the lines of a standard touring load, and it handled pretty much the same.
It stretched me out, but still let me stay upright enough to see what was around me.

But eventually I found that there were things I didn't love about it as well. It is sluggish. I think that comes along with the stability. Part of being stable means not letting the bike's path and velocity be easily changed, so it was slow to turn and slow to accelerate.
Lots of people find that it handles gravel roads just fine, but I was feeling that even running relatively fat tires, gravel was pretty rough and made everything less stable.
And if I hit any off-road sections, low bottom bracket and slow steering made that more challenging.

Eventually I ended up on a Troll. I like that a lot, so far. It's not as "solid" as the trucker in that steering is a little more nimble. Seems easier to pedal over rough stuff without pedal strikes, and the fatter tires soak up the bumps more.

There are other details that I like about the Troll, too, but it's not really a slight on the LHT, it's just how and where I want to ride. If I was going to ride morning to night on pavement, loaded for camping, I'd take an LHT. But since those days are rare for me, and since the Troll takes a camping load as well, and can also take it when I leave the pavement for a bit, I'm happy to have the Troll as my main bike.

edthesped

^^ agreed and sorry to the OP for helping derail the thread. FWIW, when I was looking for a full on tourer I wanted the LHT and purchased one from REI but after riding the Randonee and the LHT there was no contest. The Randonee and the Sutra were next but I ended up buying the Randonee because the shop selling the Sutra would only let me do a very urban parking lot test ride. I also purchased a Vaya, I still pull the Randonee out occasionally but the Vaya has become my go to bike. I don't full on tour as much as do long weekends round town rides and commute and the Vaya is just more fun to ride than the Randonee. At first I poo poo'ed them but I've come to really like disk brakes so that would something I would want again.

If I were starting over again, I'd get a light tourer to start then move into a heavier tourer if I actually had the time to go on rides that would require me to carry heavy loads.

The tourers that currently pique my interest are the Salsa Marrakesh and Advocate Cycles Sand Country which I'm sure is a fork of the Salsa.

Rob_E

+1 Especially after I wore through the rim of a wheel by riding in all kinds of weather with my v-brakes. Very tense ride home when I finally identified the ticking sound as coming from a wheel with a sidewall with holes worn through. I find disc brakes have their challenges, too, but I prefer them. If I were to replace my Trucker, it'd be a with a disk trucker.

gorob23

I had never ridden a touring bike up 2 years ago when I bought a LHT. I have rode a Kestrel 200sci for years. The geometry was so strange but wow it does make a difference more than I would have thought.

I rode it about 200 miles around town and then rode from the pacific coast to Dodge City Ks.

I rode up into Pueblo Co. and did days of 80+ back to back and was never sore. I only had panniers in the back. I stopped at a bike shop in Flagstaff the owner (an experienced touring cyclist) said he started with only back panniers as I did but switched to front and back and found the ride easier and finding his gear was easier.

I HATED the bar end shifters when I first tried the bike and the handlebars. i was going to change both but thought I would give it a shot. I had no issue with either and in fact it was easy to shift going up hill. I never really thought twice about either will keep them both.

Good Luck

Rob

Rob_E

I started with four, large panniers, front and back. Eventually I distilled my gear into two, backroller classics. I ran them on the front, and used the back rack to strap on various, awkwardly-sized extras if I had them. I think four, smaller panniers would have been better, but I had spent enough on the Ortleibs that I didn't want to spend the money on two more sets of panniers. But running the large panniers in the front worked fine for me. But if I were setting up from scratch, I think I'd look at a set-up with four, smaller panniers.

Now I have two, front-roller classics that I run on the back of my Troll, but I also stash gear in a handlebar roll, a frame bag, and some fork-mounted cages, so it's still a fairly balanced load, but on a Trucker, I think I'd go with four front-rollers with the heavier stuff up front. But two big bags work, too, and, if the load feels good on the back, you get away with one less rack. That's one think I like about my current set-up. I would commute daily on that Trucker and never get around to taking off that front rack, even though I used it almost exclusively when carrying a touring load. But with the Troll, when I come back from a trip, the handlebar roll comes off, and I'm back to commuting mode.