Riding the Rails, and some Long Haul Changes

I've recently rediscovered the old railway tracks. There is no train system in Newfoundland anymore, and over the past couple of decades the old railway bed has been transformed into a walking/biking trail that runs from downtown St. Johns clear across the city and most of the Avalon Peninsula. The railway runs right across the province, but it is not groomed or specifically bike/walk. Due to having a hybrid with skinny tires initially, I guess I never considered this as a viable travel method. I had forgotten about it and recently rediscovered it with my Surly Long Haul Trucker and it's 37mm tires.

For those of you who don't know, St. Johns is very hilly. So riding anywhere can be a challenge. I always say that if I lived in a flatter city I'd have a cargo bike. But there is hope. Due to the way the old trains were they could not go up very steep grades, so coming from downtown St. Johns to Paradise (where I live) is uphill but a very slow grade so I can make like 20km/hr the whole way! Not to mention no traffic, no stop lights, so angry drivers. It's awesome.

Speaking of my Surly Long Haul Trucker, I've been trying to make some changes. I had some concerns.
-My handlebars are a little to high compared to saddle height
-My braking power is not that great

So I tried flipping my stem to bring me lower, but it made me feel like I was stretched WAY too far. So I set out to Harolds bike shop to check out a new stem. I picked up a 100mm stem with a smaller rise angle. Turns out the stock stem is not a 110mm as the surly website says for 58cm frame, it's a 100mm stem! Well anyway, the new stem is black and I got some black spacers so it looks nicer, and due to the difference in rise it does bring me a little higher and closer than my flipped stock stem. I'll give it a try over the next couple of days and see how it goes.



I'll wait till my Nitto Randonneuring handlebar gets in to make a final decision on stem height/angle etc.

Oh right...I ordered a Nitto Randonneuring handlebar


I got a 45cm bar, and I'm interested to see how the flared out drops and rise angle on the flats feels. If it doesn't fit nice, I'll sell it. Meh.

So hopefully all that settles my handlebar issues.

Now to the braking.
I've done a lot reading from the Surly LHT and Cross Check Owners Group about brakes on the LHT. It seems to be a common thing to switch from the very squishy, not powerful Tektro cantilever brakes, to standard Shimano Deore V-Brakes. The only problem with this is standard road brake levers don't have the travel for V-Brakes, they only work for cantis. So you can get an adapter or get one of the few levers that go on drop bars and work for V-Brakes. So I did.

On the way all together is
-Nitto Randonneur Bars
-Shimano Deore V-Brakes
-Tektro RL520 Levers

This evening I got to spend some quality time with my LHT tonight. She was awful dirty so I striped her down and gave her a good cleaning. NAKED LHT!


Lots of dirt and grime to get rid of


All clean


So this entry was a little convoluted. It's just because I don't make enough blogs! So I jam a lot of stuff into one. A couple of things will hopefully change that. Hopefully the weather will continue to improve (although it's raining again for the next day or so) and I will get out more to interesting places to talk about. The other thing is that once I get my V-Brakes I am hoping to setup a second stem to carry a handlebar bag for my camera. Getting more pictures and nice weather should give me more things to talk about.

First Adventure on My Surly LHT

View Larger Map

I couldn't stand it any longer.

I've been in a rotten funk at work/school. I've spent the last two months on cell design and construction... It's very tedious, lots of waiting around, and it is a general pain in the ass. This coupled with my regular winter blues, and not being able to ride my brand new sweet sweet Surly Long Haul Trucker due to road salt.

It has been raining here for the past couple of days. After a frustrating morning at work I decided that not only would I go for a bike ride, but I'm taking out the LHT. It's still fairly cold but today it was 4 degrees with low wind and I went up to see my LBS, Harold to grab a seat post I've been waiting on for my "winter beater" (aka my sit-in-the-garage bike). I bought a cheap pair of Giant cold weather gloves and chatted to him about various things for 2 hours or so.

At 3pm I came home and immediately started getting ready. The bike had not been ridden,and I haven't rode in while so all my accessories were all over the place. It was a foggy day so I definitely wanted my horn and lights on. After swapping over the lights, horn, a water bottle cage, and getting all my clothes on I was off!


I around my old elementary school and up a new fancy housing development on top of Topsail Mountain. Even though my camera is junk I think I got a couple of neat shots! I didn't want to bother with taking my fenders off of my Giant FCR 2 due to how long it would take me to swap them. I also wasn't sure if they would fit the wider 37mm tires on the LHT. Anyway needless to say I and my steed got wet!

I tried to go further on the bluff, but it turned to a dirt road. I attempted it, very willing to get dirty, however that dirt road is a mud road right now due to all the run off. Needless to say I didn't get very far.

I turned back down the hill and got back to the main drag. Left to go home, right to go home THE LONG WAY. I choose the latter. Went out to Topsail Road and up Paradise Road back to the main drag and all the way downhill to home. Until my street of course which is a huge steep hill which I live at the top of.


After reaching home, took her out back and ran her under lots of water, rinsing off mud and any possible salt that might have been left on the roads. She is currently drying off in the basement.

Well, first impressions:
The guy from Palm Beach Bike Tours is right, the Surly Long Haul Trucker is a Peterbilt not a Ferrari . It's not a fast bike, but I don't think it is as slow as everyone says it is. If you want a fast bike go buy a $5000 carbon bike. This thing just took the road. I didn't have to work overly hard, it just kept on trucking (pun intended). I had to climb some serious hills and with the low gearing of the LHT they were a piece of cake. I was a little concerned how I would adapt to the drop bars and bar-end shifting (especially the friction shifting of the front derailleur). However the down tubes were okay, I might need to adjust them a little. The bar-end shifters worked like a charm I didn't have to fiddle with them at all!

All in all, I'm SUPER stoked for the summer to put some serious miles on this bike. I'm glad I got to work out my frustrations and finally get to test my trucker all in one day....ahhhhhhhh that feels better.

Starting to look like a touring bike... + An Anouncment

It is a good thing I am living with my parents again. My cost of living has gone down significantly. I still buy my own groceries and chip in $X a month to help out with household expenses but it is between 1/3 and 1/4 of what I was paying in my apartment.

It's a good thing because I'm spending a lot of money on my bike.

Today I received my Surly Front Nice Rack and my Pletscher 2-Legged Kickstand, which I purchased from Niagara Cycle Works through Amazon.com. When installing the Nice Rack I ran into some issues though. The lock nuts were very, VERY easy to get stripped out! I ended up snapping off 4 bolts trying to install the rack. It's lucky it comes with lots of bolts and nuts, however I am now 1-nut short of a complete installation. At least it is on there. I will email surly and ask them for some spares.

She is finally starting to look like a touring bike.



Before installing the 2-Legged Pletscher Kickstand I rembered hearing some issues about the installation before so did a quick google search of the LHT and the Pletscher. Turns out the top plate is not very well designed (seen in the pick below). I wraped some old inner tubing around my chainstays and held it there with zip-ties (not easy to do on the chain ring side...) to prevent slipping/scratching, and then mounted the stand, being careful of the derailleur cable running to the rear along the chainstay. The problem is if you do not tighten it enough it will come loose all the time, if you tighten it too much you can pinch/crush your chain stays! So if any of you get this stand BE VERY CAREFUL!


I found two solutions for this issue. One is to make a custom top braket, like this fellow from a google group discussion about warning people of the perils of this kickstand. (Photo below taken from the gentleman's flickr page linked in his message).


The second and easier solution is to order the Pletshcer Deluxe Top Plate conveniently pictured on a Surly LHT below (source).


The deluxe top plate comes with the two rubber grommets pictured as well as the metal plate and bolt. There are two groves in the plate that line up with tabs in the grommets that supposedly stop the plate from slipping about. I have orded this (along with rubber feet for the stand) from Thor USA. I will let you know how it goes.

Here is another pic of the stand installed on my bike.

Another pic of my rear rack installed (and adjusted since last time).



Hopefully soon, we'll have fenders, water bottles and cages, lights, and my new Arkel GT-54 rear panniers! She is starting to look like a touring bike!


Speaking of touring, the anouncement. Well... this entry turned out to be pretty long and I don't want to bore you all so you'll just have to come back tomorrow for the announcement. :)

Pre-Midterm Updates

So instead of studying for my upcoming midterms in Soft Mater Physics 6013 and Condensed Matter Physics 6000, this week I did a couple of things.

I spent over $300 at MEC to try to get ready for winter cycling.
Whoosh Cycling Jacket
Mirror
Cycling Winter Gloves
A Balaclava
A midweight Fleece
And TireSparx!

I also installed my new AirZound 3 Air Horn and tested it out on some inattentive drivers. Hehehe boy that thing is loud. Also tested out my rain covers and MEC Shark 1 watt front light. Both work like a charm.

I got my Shimano M-520 clipless pedals in the mail. They are still sitting in the box as I have no clipless shoes!

I bought clipless shoes off ebay! Shimano MTB shoes with laces (no straps unfortunately).
Not sure what model.

Today I went up to my LBS guy, Harold. I had forgotten my crappy splash pants and cheap thermals up there the other day, due to me buying a proper set of Sub Zero Tights from Sugoi (which are amazing by the way, pretty much haven't taken them off since Thursday). I also purchased a long sleeve wicking layer for winter riding. While I was there I got him to measure my inseam and look at a sizing chart to see what size Long Haul Trucker I should get (eventually). Turns out I should get a 58cm frame set. The sizing spreadsheat from the Google Group "Surly Long Haul Trucker and Cross Check Owners Group" agrees (I'm ~6').

Then I came home and ordered a Long Haul Trucker.

Then.... wait what?

That's right ladies. It is done. After Harold finally getting in contact with the distributor their MSRP is around $1550, which seemed a little high. I found a place in Nova Scotia that was selling them at a close out price of $1299 before shipping and taxes but everywhere else I looked in Canada people were asking $1500 for them this year. So I turned to our friends south of the border and called most of the Surly dealers listed in the north-eastern states. A place in Maine (Bath, Bike & Ski) was asking onlu $975 +$90 for shipping in USD, but didn't have any in stock and wouldn't until mid December. They were also a little vague about color and sizing choices etc. Being the impatient being I am I continued my search until coming across Bike Works in NYC. Spoke to Dave on the phone and got a price of $1200 USD including shipping. Now all I have to do is wait two weeks or so for my 58cm Olive Green Surly Long Haul Trucker to arrive and hope I don't get dinged too much with border and customs fees.

EEEP excited. Hopefully I will get a couple of dry days to try it out before out real Newfoundland winter kicks in.

PS: The winter beater is sand blasted. Needs to be primed, painted (gloss orange), and coated with reflective clear coat paint, then reassembled. Will paint next weekend and post pics.

PPS: Talk the talk is delayed until classes and TA's are over and I have a semi-life again.

-Hughie