Today, May 25, 2008, I finally finished my Surly Long Haul Trucker build! I built the new LHT mostly myself with some parts taken from the original blue machine. This is an accomplishment for me and from what others have said about the new green machine I didn’t do that bad of a job.
Apart from some of the original components I added:
- Brooks Champion Flyer Special and perforated leather bar tape (honey)
- Schwalbe Marathon Racers (38c)
- Shimano SPD pedals
- Swapped the 26 tooth inner chainring to a 24
- Thompson Elite stem and Elite seatpost
- Chris King headset
- Tektro top cross levers
- Nitto Randonneur bar
- Stainless steel brake and gear cable housing
- Silver front brake hanger
- Bike Planet silver chromoplast fenders
- Tubus Logo & Tara racks
- Ortlieb rear Bike Packer Plus & front Rollers Plus panniers
- Ortlieb Ultimate 5 Plus handlebar bag w/map case
- Acorn Roll seat Bag (olive)
- And finally a Japanese aluminum bell to top it all off
Finally installed the clyclocross bars and stem I picked up a time ago and also finally used the leather Brooks tape I got even longer ago. All in all everything went fairly well, the only issue was where the shifter cables transition away from the bar ends. The tape is a little loose there but I don’t think (I hope) I’ll have too much trouble with it.
It really looks very nice and I’ll post pictures soon.
Until then, cheers!
tdp
I bought my Brooks honey brown Champion Flyer Special off of eBay almost new for around $50 USD but you can find them new for usually under $100. I absolutely love the classic look and and feel. Even before breaking in though I could tell it was going to be a very comfy saddle and I’ve have certain areas of my anatomy that go numb on not the right saddle so have to watch out.
Before riding on it though, I needed to break it in and so I had to do a bit of research. I ended up using a method described by Sheldon Brown where the saddle is turned “upside-down on a sheet of aluminum foil, then (the foil is formed) up around the saddle for a snug fit. ” When I conditioned my saddle I poured an 8 ounce can of Hubberd’s shoe oil into the foil and then let it soak for about 45 minutes. There is room for improvising here, in fact Sheldon says that, “RAAM pioneer Lon Haldeman uses SAE 30 motor oil, but his saddles tend to wear out after only 300,000 miles or so (according to Cyclist Magazine).” 300,000 or so miles… if I ever clock that within the remainder of my life, I want a freeking medal!
Here’s the foil wrapped Brooks saddle soaking in oil:
Here’s the aftermath:
And here it is on my bike!
Ain’t she pretty!
