Thursday, February 02, 2017

Surly Cross Check

I finally followed through on my purchase of a Surly Cross Check.  I have always ridden road bikes, and for a brief stint a mountain bikes, but with the multitude of gravel paths opening up I finally feel like a cyclocross, commuter, bikepacking? bike.

To this end, I ordered a Surly Cross Check in early December 2016.  Surly put together a build that includes a 1x9 SRAM drive train, wide tires, flat bars and even a rear rack.  I put a few upgrades on the build including a Brooks saddle, Chris King headset and Avid Shorty Ultimate cantilever brakes.  The brakes set up a chain reaction of different levers and brackets for center pull brakes.  I also up-cycled a few components including my old Dura Ace cranks and Cinelli Stem.

The bike arrived the day after I got laid off, but my wife convince me to not forgo my deposit and go through with the build.  It turned out great.









The final fit took close to 90 minutes.  Ben adjusted my cleats, saddle height, saddle fore-aft position and stem.  The stock stem was 100mm and fortunately I brought an old 110mm stem I had laying around and saved that $30.  I wanted a Thompson seat post, but the ordered one had a zero offset, while the stock seat post has a 20mm offset.  I will give it a ride for a couple of months and may have to go to a 30mm offset.

My first ride was a short 30 minute jaunt around the trail system.  It was only 27 degrees outside and I am a fair weather rider.  As expected the saddle was pretty stiff.  I heard that they can take 1000 miles to break in.  I hope it doesn't take that long.  Overall the ride was really smooth, the bike was nimble, but comfortable.  The rack lets out a weird vibration that I did not care for, but will either get used to or remove.  The SRAM 1x9 shifted like a dream and had a good range for climbing and bombing down hills.

The steel frame and go anywhere wheels are on the heavy side.  The final build came in at 27.12 pounds.  Ben did a final set of measurements confirming saddle height (77.5cm), Reach (54.5cm) and Drop (7.5cm).  Boulder Cycle Sport offers a 1 month tune and adjust with a new build so all of this can be tweaked along with tightening cables, etc.

I look forward to some of the warmer weather this weekend.  For this ride, I will have to remember to have a flat change kit along for the ride as I overlooked that on the first ride.


1 comment:

tjo said...

Dont know if you will read this comment as the post is a bit old but I have a question:
Which bottom bracket did you use for the Dura Ace Cranks? Specifically, what was the width of the spindle?
Would be super happy to hear from you.
Best
Timo