Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Surly Long Haul Trucker

140 web years ago (born 1997) I used FrontPage/Vermeer to maintain a web page on commuting/touring bikes. The page was last revised in 2008; I've never found an adequate replacement for FrontPage. FP was bad and good in almost equal parts.

Today, as I parked my Cannondale, I saw a bike that made me think again of porting that page. It was the ...
Surly Long Haul Trucker
... A touring bike’s job is to go the distance and then some, in relative comfort, while carrying you and your gear...
... Its low bottom bracket and long chainstays provide comfort and stability, and those long stays increase heel clearance when carrying packed panniers....
... We gave it ample tire clearance for larger tires (larger tires soak up a lot of road static) with room for fenders too. The frame’s tubing is thicker-walled and larger-diameter than standard road and sport-touring frames, and this pre-tunes it for the weight of cargo. And it’s got braze-ons for everything you’re likely to need, from racks to water bottle cages to spare spokes...
The owner/retailer had kitted it out with everything. Surly racks front and rear; wide enough to clear the big cantilever brakes. Front rack dual lights. Three or four water bottles. Giant fenders with rubber flaps. Naturally it had a kickstand, the sign of a don't-give-a-damn serious distance rider.

I am in awe. I bow before you, oh master of the long road.

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