Monday 11 June 2012

Surly Long Haul Trucker - Construction Begins

I am now in the early stages of building a touring bike based around a Surly Disk Trucker frame with a Shimano Alfine 11 geared hub. With the start of my bike build I have also decided to revisit my blog and record progress for all to see. Why? Well I have taken a lot of advice from other bloggers and so I would like to give something back - also I want to show off what I hope will be my snazzy new wheels. When I am finished it should look something like this (colour may vary);


 
There has been an awful lot of agonizing on my part about what I am building, it might seem a simple project but deciding on what I want out of the bike had a massive impact on what I was to build (obviously!). What frame - MTB or road? Wheels - 700c or 26''? Long tours or fast & light. The list of choices and questions was seemingly endless. I'll try to make my blogs fairly snappy and as interesting as possible but on occasion I can see already that I am going to have to get long winded and technical, but hopefully this will also prove to be informative to anyone else on the long road to building a touring bike. 


That's all for now but soon I'll blog some pictures of the build, lists of parts used, and why I have made the choices I have. I'll also tell you where I got everything and how much I paid.

3 comments:

  1. Unknown23 June 2012 at 09:08

    Richard, I am undertaking the same project as you, building a Long Haul Trucker and writing a blog about it. It will be interesting to compare notes. Here is a link to my initial post:
    http://www.wellsimages.com/blog/2012/6/new-bike-surly-you-jest
    Have a look if you get a chance.
    Bob Wells

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard Hall9 July 2012 at 14:16

    Hello Bob, Thanks for your comment, great to see another fool on the rocky road to constructing the perfect cycling machine. I'll stick a link to your site on my blog, really interested to see what your take on building a LHT is going to be. I have all my components now - well pretty much, so construction is gradually beginning.
    Feel completely free to send any questions my way - I found it hardest to get answers to the apparently simple questions.
    All the best, Richard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. rlwellsjr19 July 2012 at 14:48

      Richard,
      For better or worse my LHT is now complete. Picture at my blog (link above). Also, I have listed my component selections and some challenges I ran into. Stop by and have a look.

      Best,
      Bob Wells

      Delete

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