June 30th, 2008
Gallery: Alan’s Surly Long Haul Trucker
This is my new Surly Long Haul Trucker. The LHT is a popular bike for loaded touring and it also makes a capable city/commuter bike. Mine is mostly stock, but I’ve added a few accessories and modified the cockpit to suit my preferences. Additions include a Brooks B67 saddle, Nitto bars, cork grips, Real brake levers, MKS touring pedals, Nitto bottle cages, SKS fenders, Brooks mud flap, Tubus rack, and Japanese brass bell. —Alan
My LHT was purchased at Gold Country Cyclery in Shingle Springs, CA. Thanks Rick!
15 Responses to “Gallery: Alan’s Surly Long Haul Trucker”
beautiful!! solid looking bike. i like the seat and hand grips. btw, the smoke from big sur has made it to the willamette valley *cough cough*. it must be very bad there.
I love the way that bike looks! Very nice…
@Duane
Thanks Duane.
You know, it finally cleared up here in Sac - we could actually see blue sky yesterday. Sorry to hear you’re getting it now.. :-(
Regards,
Alan
nice! what size is it?
@Billy
Thanks! 56cm..
What a beaut. Alan are those the Nitto chromoly Northroad handlebars…follows with the steel theme :) I couldn’t spot the red heat treated Nitto label in the middle, and they have a slightly different luster then the alloys.
@Nanda
Thanks Nanda.
Yes, they’re the “North Road” in cro-mo.
Alan
I was thinking, ‘What the heck does he mean by “real” brake levers? What’s a fake brake lever look like?’ Then I wised up and looked at the pictures. Cool bike, sir.
@Croupier
“I was thinking, ‘What the heck does he mean by “real†brake levers? What’s a fake brake lever look like?’ Then I wised up and looked at the pictures. Cool bike, sir.”
LOL… I’d never heard of “Real” either. I guess they were a small shop making nice machined parts along the lines of what Paul Components is doing. These are NOS. The cool thing about them is that, unlike most MTB levers on the market today that are designed for linear pull brakes, these were designed specifically to pull cantilevers. They feel great. They were compliments of my buddy Rick Steele at Gold Country Cyclery whose knowledge of obscure bike parts always amazes me.
Alan
A few weekends ago I rode Bike The Drive here in Chicago, IL. One of these bikes with a pretty strong rider whooshed past me on his way to the northern terminus of the event. It is a very nice looking bike! At the time I assumed it was a Rivendell until I took a closer look. Would love to own one of these one day.
I love my Long Haul Trucker. It took me across France, it took me from Seattle to San Francisco, it took me up and down Wisconsin, and now it takes me my 9 miles to school along the Monterey Bay every day. Mine’s certainly lost that “new bike sheen” yours is exhibiting so remarkably, but it hasn’t failed me yet. Bike love!
@Katie
Thanks Katie! I’m looking forward to wearing off a little of that new bike sheen… :-)
Best,
Alan
Alan, I just popped in from the trucker forum to say hi. “HI!” I don’t know what’s nicer; the bike, or the pictures of it, very nice! They do the bike justice.
Toby
With all your coverage of cargo bikes, did you consider a Big Dummy? What made you choose the Long Haul Trucker? I’m curious because I think my next bike will be one of those two.
@Charles
We’re planning on purchasing a Big Dummy this Fall. The LHT is my main commuting bike now that the city has given me a bike locker at the train station (I’ll still take the Brompton on the days when I need transportation downtown). I would have used the Pashley but, believe it or not, it’s too big to fit in the bike locker.
My wife and I almost always ride together when we run errands, so we have a fair amount of carrying capacity between 4 Basil panniers, a basket, a seat bag, and a handlebar bag. But there’s still the odd time when we take the car for oversized cargo that could have been carried on a Big Dummy.
Alan
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