... Long Haul Truckin', that is. Chris finally scored his current idea of a Dream Bike, the Surly Long Haul Trucker. Likewise, I am also truckin' right along, with a non-stop bike-only commuting week looking all but inevitable.
It seems like everyone's getting on board with the Trucker, or at least The Clemonator is the second one I've seen this year who succumbed to its charms. The first was Doug.
With a motto of "Fatties Fit Fine" -- in reference to wide, fat tires as much as clydesdale riders, I'm assuming -- who can resist? The cantilever brakes can take some beefy 29er Mountain bike tires, and the stays and fork have adequate clearance for them as well. This came equipped with 700x37 Continental Contacts. The wide tires, high spoke count and all-steel frameset combine to form a really smooth ride, according to Chris.
All kinds of refinement has gone into the Surly LHT. For starters, there are THREE sets of fork braze-ons (fore and aft of the axle, and midway down the outside of the fork), two sets of seatstay braze-ons (one boss threaded all the way through providing two mounting holes, and plenty of other finesse items, including a bracket on the NDS Chainstay that holds a pair of extra spokes for those middle-of-nowhere roadside mishaps.
It was a quick ride in this morning with a total of four convoy riders. I don't think I've ever had 5 days in a row riding with more than one other person. This week has been awesome.
This is a crappy photo, but the motion blur really does emphasize the experience.
Hybridzilla did pretty well today, even with her gimpy shifter. The grip shift's ratcheting mechanism is all kinds of messed up. It's basically a friction shifter without any friction to hold it into a gear.
Here are some pics from last night. This is the original uncropped photo that I used in yesterday's evening post.
Bikes at the drug testing lab across the street from where I live. These bike racks are ALWAYS empty. This is a first.
Not bike related at all. I just like it. Dora is batting at the gerbils through their glass cage. She's really cute.
The guy at the trek store told me about "The Dime Trick" to remove spline and ISIS cranks. The bottom bracket is hollow on this bike, so my crank puller doesn't have anything to press against. The end result is that I had a mushroomed dime stuck in the hollow bottom bracket and my cranks were STILL stuck on the bike. I eventually devised a solution to remove them.
Random Tunage:
Milky - Be My World
Notorious B.I.G. Ft. Puff Daddy - Mo Money Mo Problems
Friday, May 16, 2008
KC Bike Week 2008 Day 5: Keep on Truckin'
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5 comments:
Looking ahead a little...is there any talk of a bike caravan (bikeavan?) from Johnson County up to the Blvd Brewery for the wrap-up party on Sunday? I'd be excited about that, but never having gone downtown on a bike, I'd be a little leery about doing it on my own. Howzabout it?
I can't. My birthday is coming up and my family is throwing me a nice, outdoor B-Day bash at a local park after my ride-to-church-day fun. You might want to post to the KC Bike Commuters mailing list. Maybe you can rally the troops for a Sunday Convoy.
You get some wicked angles with your cyclocam dude.
Well, what was the trick to remove the mushroomed dime and crankarms? Don't be a tease like that?
Simple. Stick a metal rod in through the other end and thwack it with a hammer a few times to pop the mushroomed dime out. Wonder if I still have that dime?
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