jryan

I'm trying to decide if it would be worth it to sell my Bianchi Volpe and order a Surly Long Haul Trucker. I'm 6'5", 215 lbs and ride a 62cm Volpe. It feels fine when it's not loaded, but as soon as I put loaded panniers on the back it seems to get "squirmy" (I don't know how else to describe it). The rear panniers often interfere with my shoes as I'm pedaling, but I can't move them back any farther.

Will the long haul trucker's longer wheelbase help with the "squirminess" or is this a normal feeling for riding with rear loaded panniers?

Also, I have trouble with the rear wheel going out of true all the time. I know it's because the wheel is a cheap machine built wheel, but are the Long Haul Trucker's stock wheels any better?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Comtour

I ride a Surly LHT and have never experienced wheels going out of true. When I tour I use both front and rear panniers, but use only 1 rear pannier when commuting. Again, I have experienced no squirminess even with a pannier on only 1 side. I too am not a lightweight rider.

Bacciagalupe

FWIW since you aren't getting heel strike, I don't think it makes a big difference.

With any bike, if you put a lot of weight exclusively on the back it'll feel twitchy. That won't change much with the LHT. The best option is to distribute the weight more evenly between front and back, also to put the heavier objects as low as possible.

Try getting a front rack and see if that helps. Even if you decide to switch bikes you can use that rack on any tour or bike.

The next best option is to carry less stuff and as low as you can get it. On my first credit-card tour I used a folding bike with 20" wheels and small panniers that were so low that they literally scraped the ground on occasion. Not quite the best plan but I didn't notice that it had panniers at all.

Machine built wheels are machine built wheels. If the Surly has a better made wheel, it'll be out of sheer luck. I'd say that if you decide to keep the Volpe, I'd have the rear wheel rebuilt.

TimeTravel_0

your wheel has poor and uneven tension. reduce the tension to "working tension" and rebuild to the proper, even tension (or have a bike shop do this for you). if you do so, there is no difference between handbuilt vs machine made.

LeeG

You don't say how much you load the panniers or whether you're riding with high bars which weights the rear wheel even more. Also if the loaded rear panniers have loose loads that can contribute to extra wiggling. All that said there's a huge difference between riding unloaded and loaded. If your pannier load is big I'd suggest going for front low riders and cutting the rear load in half. 32 spoke rear wheel for a heavily loaded rear end sounds like it's pushing the limits on your wheels. The stock LHT wheels are very durable. It would be cheaper to get some low cost low riders, cheap small front panniers and new 36spoke wheel than a new bike. That said the LHT is a good load carrying design but it sounds like you're simply overloading the rear end on the Volpe.

jryan

I typically only put a pair of shoes and a lunch box in one pannier, then my work cloths in the other, so they aren't very heavy. I have taken them grocery shopping and loaded them up pretty heavy, but 95% of the time they're just used for hauling my lunch and cloths for work. Ive had the wheel re-trued 3 times now, and whithin the next 6 or so rides it's back to it's wobbly self. Could it be that it's just a bad wheel?