Hi Guys,
So, I got back from a fun cycling holiday in Laos a week or so ago. We opted for the easy option with a support vehicle (carrying lugggage), borrowed bikes and travelling with a group. It was really amazing and I had a really great time. It has made me want to do more stuff like this.
I want to get myself a sweet ride that has the ability to do some light touring on. It will be trips for a few days (most likely not camping) mainly on roads.
I have a serious boner for the Surly Straggler and a slightly lesser degree the Crosscheck. I don’t know why but I love that thing. I would like to chuck in an Alfine 11speed or something like this. My only issue is that I don’t want to pay for it, I am a tight arse
I am thinking about buying parts and building something up with an old touring/road frame. My question: do you think it would end up being more expensive to build something up of similar standards on another frame or just buy a Straggler from a shop and get them to change bits around to how I want them? I could also buy a straggler frame/single speed and then convert the rest myself.
Thanks in advance, sorry if it’s a dumb question.
If you’re a tight arse Surly is a good brand. They’re cheap in comparison to a lot of the competition. But if you’re really tight you should just look to pic something up secondhand
I think the Straggler has nicer paint than the cross check but think that it has two things that are a big fail for me. The first of these, and the biggest issue, is that the dropout’s are bizzaro. Anyone who has had horisontal dropouts with disc can vouch for how much they suck when you need change a wheel. And two they have kept the CrossCheck geometry which has a super short headtube, and unlike the CC, there is absolutely no conceivable reason why you’d want to run the required derpy 1.5 - 2" of spacers under your stem.
And if you’re a tight arse thats another reason to look at cantis/mini Vs over discs. Cos they are way cheaper to buy and maintain.
I’d look for a secondhand crosscheck or Salsa Casseroll or Salsa Vaya or Masi Speciale CX.
If you have patience to snap up bargins and/or second hand gear as they come about building up something from scratch can work out cheaper. But can be frustrating and you need to know what fits and works together and it can take a few months depending on how tight you need to be.
Otherwise buy complete, and sniper the bits you need to convert it how you want.
No issues on the drakkar with discs/horizontal drop outs. An extra 30seconds to line up properly… With mudgaurds is a bigger PITA
Cable discs are cheaper than canti’s to maintain. pads are $10 more and last twice as long. First decent thats dicy with a big load you will be thankfull for discs. especially if it’s wet.
As for costing, draw up a spreadsheet and work out how much you can buy all the parts for, vs buying complete plus the upgrade parts minus the unwanted parts you wish to sell.
The last two Crosscheck builds I did worked out between $1.5 - 2K for far better parts than those spec’d.
Personally I’d just buy a frameset and build. Too much fucking about otherwise.
You sure its too small? You should check out the geometry sheet. Rawlands are pretty big on their sizing.
It has a 58cm Effectitive Top Tube which fitted with 100-110mm stem and dirt drops should be a pretty good fit for someone around the 5’11" mark, or so I’d have thought.
You should hit Shakes up and see if it fits. Super nice bike. Not many of them around either.
also I’d spend your time building something up from scratch, that way you can take your time and spread the cost a little bit and in the end you’ll have a bike that you’ll love spending time on.
I did a similar build last year (Soma Double Cross Disc), my original plan was to set up a bit of ghetto tourer on an existing road bike I had and by the time I finished I had a completely new touring/cx bike that I freakin love. You’re definitely better off spending a little more time/money in the long run and you’ll end up with something you’re really stoked on, esp. with a touring type bike that you’ll be spending long stints of time on. /my 2c
Well, that is interesting. I will look at it a little further. Thanks for the heads up. I am still poor after my holiday thoughso it will probably be long gone by the time I am ready.
The main reason I thought it would be small. When on my trip I was on a Trek Mountain bike. It was an XL. Assumed this would mean an Medium would be way to small. Do sizings vary between country or am I smoking crack?
Not smoking crack. Sizing varies heaps and to make matters worse a lot of frame manufacturers, especially American brands, list frame sizes based upon seat tube length. Why? its convention. But its a stupid one, measuring a seat tube is vague and arbitrary, especially with modern compact and MTB geometry. The Effective Top Tube* is a more indicative measurement as to how a frame is actually going to fit.
*Effective, as it is measured as a horisontal line between the centre of the headtube and seat tube/post (as if it were a classic road frame).
FWIW
I ride small Yeti, medium Santa Cruz, small Giant …scratch that, I don’t ride Giants :p.
I am 5’6" and I ride road and track bikes with 53cm ETT, touring bikes w 54-55.5cm ETT, and mountain bikes with 58.5cm TT. The difference is accounted for by the different stem and bar combinations, and how they effect reach.
I hope I haven’t confused you further with my clarification.
I don’t own a straggler, so I can’t comment on it, but I’ve had a CCheck for several years now. There’s one thing that hasn’t been said in this thread is that the CC will allow you to do many things with it: commuting, dirt, touring, even road racing. I’ve done all this with mine (except for the touring). Sure, you can find much better to do dirt and road races with, but the CC will let you have a good crack at all these things and later on, when you get a proper bike for that fit the purpose, you’ll have experienced a lot with your CCheck. And possibly you’ll want to keep it. You don’t see Surlys too often on Ebay etc, people who have them tend to keep them, because they make great do-it-all bikes. It’s definitely a Jack of all trades/master of none type of bike.
Sizing vary enormously from one brand to the next and is not comparable between the different types of cycling activities (road, MTB, etc). You need to try and see how you feel, and if you’re getting a road/cx type bike, pay attention to top tube length. CCs run ‘big’ mostly because their top tube is longer than other bikes in comparable size.
I took a 56 Crosscheck for a ride the other night and a 58 Straggler. The 58 felt like it fit me really really well. I really liked the way it rode and liked the brifters better than the bar ends. Saying that, I think they would be really easy to get used. The 56 was a tad small. I was so close to buying a crosscheck from clickbikes! I am still not sure. I like the crosscheck a lot but can’t make up my mind… That price though, do you think I could sell it on if it doesn’t work out?
David
