djb

I absolutely agree on the from front or behind aspect.
I very much prefer my brighter panniers vs my dark ones, and very much feel that my additional bright yellow rack bag is noticed. I also have a large bright red piece of felt tied to the handle of this yellow rack pack, and the loosely attached felt moves around with the wind, and I figure the colour and movement helps attract the eye of an approaching car.

tcs

FWIW the old Hurt Report found that the cycle's color was immaterial with motorcycle accidents. It was out of this study that the US requirement for motorcycles to run lights in the daytime came about.

However, other later motorcycle-based safety studies have found a correlation between a lessened vehicle collision rate and white or bright solid color helmets.

djb

interesting, I'd never heard about that study and report. Seems to me that when I got into motorcycles in the late 70s, in Canada anyway, all bikes had the headlights on automatically at that point. My very first bike didn't, but it waa really old even then, probably a 70 or something, maybe even a late 60s,I don't recall. I just remember being able to turn the headlight off.

Tourist in MSN

This talk of motorcycles must be why I am suddenly getting ads for motorcycle insurance. My old Triumph 500s had trouble keeping the battery charged with the lights on while commuting, city driving I rarely was over 2500 or 3000 rpm and the alternator was not designed for enough output for that slow an engine with lights on.

djb

When I think of some of the peaky two strokes I had, even just toodling around you had to rev the snot out of the buggers. I remember the two stroke I raced, you took off or taped off anything that could smash and put debris on track. Removed speedo but obviously kept tach, but taped most of it up, just enough to see maybe 6 to 9 grand. It had about 2 grand of decent powerband, typical 2 banger, but why I'm very used to fast and exact shifting timing, even on bicycles, all these decades later.

Tourist in MSN

My old Triumph 500s had solid torque from about 3000 all the way up. No red line was published but the horse power rating was taken at 7850, so I considered that my red line. Fourth gear on the highway was about 4400 rpm. With that wide a power band, you only needed 4 gears. Did not need much torque when city driving, often drove around at 2200 to 2500 rpm. With only four gears I always knew what gear I was in.

But on a bicycle, I do not have that wide of a power band, so I like having a triple crank and with that many gears I can't keep track of what gear I am in. But I usually know which chainring I am on.

djb

Re torquey engines, it waa always fun the times I got to ride big 2 cylinder or big singles, just how neat it was with a low revving tons of torque engine.
I certainly was used to rowing a 6 spd gearbox, but clearly to me, having ridden motorcycles makes one very aware of gears and whatnot on bicycles because we're used to thinking and knowing what gear we are in always.

ps, I've always wanted to ride a Harley, but haven't had the chance. Have ridden big BMW 's a few times.

samkl 

I dunno, I think it's kind of insane. I guess Surly saw Trek charge $1700 for a Sora/Alivio 520 and thought they could do the same? But even the 520, while still way overpriced, includes front and rear racks. For $200 less a Kona Sutra has Deore components, rack, fenders, a Brooks saddle, and a better looking frame without ugly handlebars.

I'm sure it's a capable bike, but it should be $500 less.

Tourist in MSN

Never had an interest in one, and since I was used to the old British shifting pattern, nobody wanted to offer me a chance to ride their bike that had the shifter on the wrong (left) side and brake on the right.

djb

Im pretty certain we've touched on this before, but man o man, it would be a total brain mess-o-rama riding a bike with the old British system.
Remember all the times I've brought up how I change my bikes front brake to right lever? Engrained hand instincts from 40 years ago of right hand=front brake.

Tourist in MSN

Years ago, a friend of mine was in the UK and on a whim bought a new Trek bike. We live in Wisconsin, Trek is headquartered in Wisconsin, not sure why he decided to buy a Trek in the UK, but he did and brought it home. We used to work at the same company and shared an office together, we were out having a few beers catching up life when he told me about his new bike.

Front brake on right, rear on left, that is the opposite of the norm for USA new bikes. He was in a huge quandary about what to do, was thinking of taking it to a bike shop to buy new brake levers or something like that. I told him to just swap the cables. He could not believe it was that simple until he thought about it for a few seconds, then it was time for another beer to celebrate how simple the job would be.

Miele Man

Does that work with STI or Ergo brake/shifter levers?

Cheers

djb

si senor. I did this with my sti bike, brake cables under bar tape, you just gotta figure the best route for housings not to have binding, but not that hard to do.

Miele Man

Bueno. Danke. Gracias.

Cheers

djb

I remember thinking it might be tricky with the routing, but then realized that all the UK bikes are set up that way, so just a matter of using common sense of which way to have the housings not bind with turning bars.

Aushiker

Tourist in MSN

As djb noted, yes, but only for brake cables. The shifter mechanisms in the levers are different so your shifter hands can't be swapped.

When I put cables under bar tape, I usually use filament tape which is quite strong and non-stretchy to hold the cable housing to the bars so the housing stays where I want it. Only need the filament tape in three or four spots, not fully wrapped like bar tape.

In my friends case, it was a mountain bike so no bar tape involved, would only be a 10 minute job at most on his bike.

djb

My bike has 9 spd tiagra sti's on it and I only got around to doing it a few years ago when I did a big overhaul of the whole bike, including new housings. Took some photos before to recall the general housing layout, and don't recall any real head scratching to get it set up right. I can ride the bike no hands for ages so the housing and headset overhaul must have been good.
still have one bike to switch but it was overhauled with the original idea to go to someone else so left it as is.

I would only recommend doing this if you have the strong instinct of front brake = right hand

mbusky

I looked at the LHT for a few years and the TREK 520 also, but when it came time to buy I went with REI's CO-OP ADV1.1 at ONLY $1189.00 with racks,
Steel Frame Double-butted chromoly steel, Fork Chromoly steel with 15mm thru-axle, Crankset Shimano, 48/36/26, Bottom Bracket Shimano Octalink, Shifters Microshift bar end shifters, Front Derailleur Shimano Deore LX, Rear Derailleur Shimano Deore LX, Rear Cogs Shimano HG500 11-34, 10-speed, Number of Gears 30, Brake Type Hydraulic Disc Brake Brakes TRP HY/RD hydraulic disc, Rims WTB STP i23 Front Hub Shimano Deore LX Rear Hub Shimano Deore LX Wheel Size 700c Tires Schwalbe Marathon with puncture protection, 700 x 38mm and it was I say again ONLY $ 1189.00 with racks. Oh, the spoke count is 32 front 36 rear with 2 chainstay mounted spare spokes.

Tourist in MSN

I do not know what that bike specs are, but I can assure you the front is not 34 spokes. It would be a multiple of four.

mbusky

Duh! My bad. I now wear the virtual cone of shame for the rest of the day.

DropBarFan

Looks like a nice deal, esp with the cable-hydro brakes & racks. Sometimes it can be a hassle to get an after-market front rack fitted correctly.

Slasharoo

Just ordered the new Disc Trucker. LBS says it should be here by the end of July. Excited to see if the yellow panniers are complimentary or clashing to the Pea Lime Green...

djb

if you like the taste of this, you'll be fine.
If not, you're out of luck buddy.

Pop N Wood

I like every change they made. I even like the color. Bought a Rayleigh Tamland a couple of years back and it came with through axles, wider tires and the mechanical Spyre brakes. About time Surly went to the stronger axle standard. Also like the shorter chain stays, should be more like a Soma Saga.

9 speed chains are less expensive than 10 or 11. 8 speed stuff is cheaper yet but getting harder to find cassettes and shifters for 8 speeds.

All those front fork eyelets do look odd, but better too many than not enough.

Hard to believe these changes aren't going to cause some of the hardcore truckers to have a coronary. Touring blogs argue bar end shifters and even cantilevered brakes like this site argues carbon vs. steel. Kind of a the more you suffer, the more it shows you really care thing. I really prefer the brifters. So much nicer to ride.

Wish I could go look at one. Tempted now. The through axles make the wheels compatible with my Tamland.