Thursday 27 December 2012

First impressions

A frustrating couple of weeks unable to ride because of weather or work or some other commitments. Finally I've managed to put the bike through its paces. I know it's early days, but I really can't think of anything I would change about the build. First of all, it is so comfortable. I have ridden on the same roads that I regularly ride on my road bike - the effort and concentration required to avoid all the imperfections in the road surface is hard work. The Surly simply floats over previously vision - blurring sections of roadwork scars.
Other LHT reviews that I've read invariably make some mention of the bike being slow. My first impression is that this is not the case. It certainly does not have that feeling of instant response that my road bike does - I wouldn't expect it to. However I found that I could easily wind it up to some fairly respectable speeds and maintain the momentum without too much effort. When I get my Cateye speedometer fitted I'll be able to make a more accurate assessment of this aspect of the bike.

I fiddled about fitting my SKS mudguards prior to the ride. Pretty straightforward - just a bit of re-shaping of the stays to achieve a nice fit around the front disc caliper. I got home with a clean and dry bike. Now that's a novelty!

The Avid BB5's instead of BB7's were a cost saving compromise and I was concerned that I might have made a mistake here. However, after a few miles of bedding the pads in, they are working with no issues and are not too far off the performance of the hydraulic tektros on my mountain bike.

I found that I was on the big ring at the front and a high gear at the back for much of the time - but this is a touring bike - and, as I mentioned, I could get up to a pretty reasonable lick (mid to late 30's at a guess) without spinning out. At the other end of the scale, climbing hills was effortless. There were a few reasonably steep climbs today and I never resorted to the lowest gear - loaded up should be no problem on steep ascents.

During brief moments of taking my hands off the handlebars, the bike felt absolutely rock solid and planted to the road. This feeling of confidence continued on fast descents. Looking through the bends, the bike followed the line perfectly and never felt like it was on the limit of its handling.

So my first "taster" of the Trucker has definitely left me looking forward to some big rides. I really should have had one of these years ago!

The On One Midge handlebars are an absolute joy to use. The brake levers are easy to reach from the bar tops or the drop position. 

The road bike's now at the back and could be there for some time after today's ride!

2 comments:

  1. Very nice looking bike you've built there Mike, thanks for your comment on my blog, its always nice to see what other folk make of the LHT - looks like you have got a similar setup to myself. Like you I haven't been able to give mine a 'proper' test yet - its been more MTB weather recently. It does ride great though and I gave it a test with full panniers just to see what happened, I was really pleased with the result, in some ways it handled better with a bit of weight on - very stable, very comfy. Good choice all round I think! Hope your enjoying your Surly and the weather lets you get out to play soon.

    Dickie
    http://dickiehall.blogspot.co.uk/

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  2. Lovely bike, I wish you would give readers an update on how the bike has held up thus far. I'd be interested in finding out what kind of trips you've made with this bike. I'm also putting a Disc Trucker together, with different components. You can check it out at my blog: thechainskip.blogspot.com I'd love to get any advice or feedback about the bike. Happy riding!

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