Thoughts on new Disc Trucker, and room for improvement
 

I brought home a 56cm Disc Trucker this week. I have a large Carradice saddle bag that I use for commuting duties, and I’ll soon be putting on a Tubus Cargo in the rear.

My first impression is that it’s performing as I expected, and it’s pleasant to ride overall. I test rode one before purchasing but never owned one before, although I did have a Straggler for a very short time. (I disliked the short head tube and the rear dropouts of that frame. My own mistake for not beta testing it before buying.)

I bought the DT because I wanted a do-all errand / shopping bike that I could ride in the winter as well. It was a very extravagant purchase for that, but I do hope to go on some tours in the spring, where I imagine it will really shine.

I’d recommend the DT, but I did come across a few annoyances, that while aren’t deal breakers, do lead me to question some of the reputation of Surly bikes being smartly specced:

— The crank is 175mm on my 56cm. The size smaller comes with a 170mm crank. I think 175mm is too long for this frame size. They should have gone with 170 or 172.5mm, in my opinion. I’ll take off the crank and sell it and get the 170mm size I need. I definitely feel the difference between 175 and 170.

— The stock saddle is 135mm wide. I wonder what percentage of people who ride 175mm cranks and 44cm bars, and set up their bars and saddle mostly level (as LHT or DT usually do) ride a narrow 135mm saddle? I’d wager that it’s a minority. I’ll give it away and use one of the saddles from another bike I own.

— The brake levers out of the box are set up way too far up the handlebar ramps. I always wondered why people with LHTs or DTs had “fanged” brake hoods, with a sharp “v” valley between the hoods and the bars. And now I know why. Again, I can’t imagine how this would be good for the wrists of people who usually set their bikes up with a level saddle. Not to mention that you have to contort yourself to reach the brakes from the drops. I’ll be undoing my bar tape and lowering my brakes about 2cm to get a nice, level transition from the ramps to the hoods, and less fussy look on the bars. More ergonomic, too. I think it’s a disservice to customers if bike shops let people ride out with their bars set up like that.

— Lastly, the cable routing down tube is slightly offset, and it isn’t totally flush with the frame where it crosses the bottom bracket. This is a total nitpick... I just think it could look a little tidier without much more effort.

I never had any issues with my crank and I don't know if crank length really matters a huge ton. Maybe it does but so far it hasn't horribly affected me, all my bikes are generally well positioned but have different crank lengths. Certainly go with what is comfortable to you but I never had issues.

Stock saddles aren't meant to be the best thing they are meant to be something that could be decent for some but likely are something you will replace. My replacement was another WTB saddle that a friend gave me and then my favorite a Brooks Cambium C17 Carved. Bikes with really fancy saddles that aren't made by the company that made the bike are usually not worth the time of day. Unless that happens to be your saddle that your butt likes.

The brake levers suck, functionally they are just fine but the feel is sucky. Similar to my old DA 7400 levers but not quite as nice. However there are some great options on the market if I was keeping bar end shifters I would go SRAM S500 all day every day. One my new touring bike which replaced my DT I had to get rid of those because my homemade Gevenalle style shifters using those levers didn't work, but the Gevenalle do work, quite well. The hand position is a little better but not as ergo as the SRAM S500S but I can live with that. They are a Tektro lever but not the pointed one something probably more like the Cane Creek levers.

I didn't have any issue with the positioning but the mechanic who built my DT was excellent and really did a top notch job in everything he did. The person who built yours might have liked a different position or didn't realize it or something. I don't think the bikes out of box come pretaped but I could be wrong. It has been so long since my DT. If it was a relatively easy fix I wouldn't worry about it as long as everything was functional.

I sadly cannot speak about the cable routing because I honestly cannot remember the routing of my cables ever being an issue. I did one catch a cable on a bottle cage install on a friends bike and couldn't for the life of me figure out why it was shifting so poorly.

All in all I liked my DT but I did upgrade some stuff over time which led me to the Co-Motion Cascadia which at the time was a great choice and I still love love love it but wish I had a different mindset at the beginning because now I am realizing there are things I want that I didn't think I would want at the time. Some of that stuff I am upgrading too but some of it I cannot really change easily or practically.

Did you ask your LBS to change crank length? Most will do that for no additional charge.

As for re-configuring the lever position your LBS should do that for you at time of purchase.

The stock saddle is usually a throw away, the LBS I worked at gave a 20% discount on saddles with new bike purchase.

Cable line on downtube, now you're getting picky. That configuration is very standard because it's cheap. I haven't seen a new production frame with anything else but the plastic solution. Plastic bolt-on guide replaced super-cool braze-on guides a few decades ago.

Your next frame would be fully custom, I assume.. chip. then you can tell the builder what you want item by item.
For now you can change the components and set up on what you have.. that is what we mechanics have done...
For decades..


I have an older frame built with those over the BB cable guides , and another with them running under,

same FD, the over the BB has a 52-42-26 ,

if it had the 50-40-24, the lower tip of the front mech would snag on the shift cable on the over the BB frame..








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crank: LBS will exchange to fit your leg length
saddle: LBS will exchange to fit your butt width
levers: LBS will adjust to suit you

bb cable routing? paint doesn't rub off of plastic, plastic doesn't rust.
plastic doesn't crush when hitting a rock/curb. cheap and easy to replace.
there are various styles to choose from if you don't like the one provided.
i suppose the LBS could have changed that as well.

I do not know if you will be able to get the handlebar tape off and be able to re-use it or not. If you need to buy new tape, you might want to ride the bike for a few weeks without tape so that you can get the brake levers exactly where you want them before you put on the new tape. When I have done that, I used some filament tape to hold my cables in place before I got my handlebar tape on, the filament tape is quite strong so I could just tape the cables in a few spots.

Exact brake lever hood positioning on bars is a personal preference thing. I put my brake levers on my bars very similar to the way Surly does, but I use a bar with a different shape to the drops.

Bobby, you gotta git yerself a good LBS. Here's that same frame all dressed up with powder-coat. 24 on the inside triple with plenty of room for the cable. You've been kidnapped by consumerism and a bad LBS mechanic....

Every thing in your picture is different, from mine* and I am employed part time at my LBS every summer although my active shop tenure is from the 80s and 90's

*Crank <c> race triple , FD <c> Triomphe/Victory Leisure , their wide back plate triple FD .. <c> friction bar end shifters

The over the BB [light touring] Frame was hand built by Me in 1975..





I ride my Brompton more often now..





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Why they thought 116 was a good BCD even though other standards already existed I don't know? The only 116 BCD chainrings are the Victory/Triomphe and some kids one from Miche. If they had done their 135 BCD you could more easily get chainrings and they would probably have saved money not having to make new chainring sizes.

Congrats on the new Disc Trucker. I bought the 56 cm frame & built w/own spec components but for ~same price one can buy the complete bike & change a couple things. The more I ride the DT the more I like it esp the ride comfort. So heavy though, carbon version would be sweet.

A carbon version would kill the ride comfort ...

:bang:

a scheme where you must return to buy spare consumable parts in the drive train is a profit center..

Campag's 50-34 chainrings are 4 x 110, & 1 @ 114 bolt circle diameter ,

another plan to send you back to them for spares..

It is a business choice..








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Of course but it is just silly to do a different BCD then you already make. You can make more profit using what you already have rather than going to something new that you abandon. Granted the new cranks from Shimano and Campy and others have odd BCDs that aren't standard but I can see why they do it now but a 5 bolt crank should stick with a BCD that already exists.

I also use Campy cranks on several bikes. All use 135mm and 74mm (all are triples). The 135mm rings I have bought were Campy, Stronglight and TA Specialties. I agree it is not very convenient to find 135mm chainrings.

***

Sorry if this is far off topic from disc trucker discussion.

Although i do care about the parts on the bikes i buy, i usually don't bother about the set up. I WILL change some things anyway, sometimes many things even up to 90% of the parts.

But you can get different rings from different manufacturers that are of decent quality. The 116bcd wasn't made by anyone but Campy and Miche but for kids and maybe one other if I am not mistaken.

I haven't ridden a carbon bike so I can't say for sure. Seems like most of CF touring-capable bikes have less fork rake than the Trucker so the supposed dampening of carbon fork might be negated somewhat. With more money I'd try the Diamondback Haanjo EXP Carbon which is roughly similar geometry. BTW I'm now using a ShockStop stem that works well to minimize front bumps. If flexes a bit during hard out-of-the-saddle climbing but is OK for my relaxed pace.

frame material has nothing to do with ride quality

Are you sure about that? That is not my opinion.

Yep. This is among the biggest myths in the cycling community. Take some air out of your tires.

It does actually. But design has a bigger effect than material. There are frames that cannot be helped much with lower air pressures, at least if one wants to have some efficiency going forward. My old cx was like that. Now that I have a LHT I can ride the same routes with the tires with the same pressures and not have my arms all itchy from the vibration.

You have your opinion, I have mine, they are not the same. But I think neither of us is going to change our minds.

That's like saying I can ride my AL mountain bike to work and ride my steel race bike and the ride takes much less time on the steel bike. Steel must be faster than AL. My AL mountain bike is also a Much cushier ride, so steel must be harsher too... You can design a bike to have whatever qualities you want out of AL, steel, or carbon.

My touring bike is AL, and I've put thousands of miles on it. It's definitely not harsh and doesn't fatigue my hands or arms in the least. I actually did about a thousand miles on it with no bar tape because I broke a brake lever and didn't bother putting on new bar tape until I got home from the tour.

What touring bike do you have?