My LHT is ordered!

After what seems like forever, I finally quit waffling, and ordered my new bike. I've wanted to replace my current touring bike with something new. Ever since I saw the Surly Long Haul Trucker on a touring website a couple years ago, I knew that I had to have one.

I've decided to purchase it at one of our LBS's, To Wheels, in London Ontario. Over the years Kate and I have spread our bicycle bucks around at the various shops in town, but I'd never made any big purchases from To Wheels before. They're half a block away from the office though, and have come through in a pinch for me more than once when I've bent rims or flatted on the way in to work. They always find a way to get me rolling by the end of the day.

I hummed and hawed about upgrades, thinking that it would be cheaper to swap out components now, rather than purchase new parts after the bike is built. I had read a blog by Tim and Cindie Travis, about their travels around the world by bike, and looked to their advice about what to look for in the ultimate touring bike, because in the end, that's what I had my heart set on building.

When I priced out high end Mavic rims on Phil Wood hubs, I had added over a thousand dollars to the cost of the bike in a matter of minutes. I also looked at replacing the front hub with a Schmidt dynamo hub so that I would have permanent lighting, but again, the cost was prohibitive.

I also had a talk with one of my favourite bike mentors, Katie Misener at Bloomfield Bicycle Company last year, and she impressed on me the value of external bottom bracket bearings in making the crank stiffer, and allowing for larger bearings.

In the end, I decided to just upgrade the bottom bracket to use external bearings, and use the existing wheels/hubs for now. I figured that I could always replace the rear wheel in a year or two, if or when money is available, and the front wheel with the Schmidt SON hub will have to wait until I get a chance to visit Peter White Cycles down in New Hamshire. And save up my money.

The other issue I had a hard time deciding on was wheel size. Sheri at To Wheels sized me up using their fit kit, and put me on a 56cm LHT, which is the smallest frame size that comes with 700c wheels. After posting on a Surly mailing list and asking about toe overlap with that particular size LHT, and seeing some great pics of LHT's with 26" wheels, my decision was made. I still had a hard time getting it through my head that it would be OK for a touring bike to have 26" wheels, even if you're not on a 3 year global circumnavigational tour where you'll have replace your wheels with something off of a local donkey cart at some point. I mean, 26" wheels are for mountain bikes, right? If you're riding on the road, you have to run 700c wheels, don't you?