Surly Long Haul Trucker (LHT)

At last I have my long distance bike. It's a Surly Long Haul Trucker which is generally called a Surly LHT. Please see the pic below. The steel frame should go on and on ...... I don't really intend to buy another bike. I took a long time to decide on the LHT and then quite a while to get it 'sized'. Like a lot of things the Surly is designed in the USA but the components come from everywhere. The excellent frame comes from Taiwan. British components being the legendary Brooks B17 saddle and the Carradice Audax saddlebag. Brooks saddles need time to break in so early days yet.

Britain has a thriving frame building and bike building industry but hand built bikes are outside of my budget.

In the end I bought it from Brixton Cycles as they had a good number to try out and have been very helpful with sizing and working out the options. Brixton Cycles is a workers co-operative and has quite a buzz to the place. I changed the saddle to a Brooks B17 added SKS mudguards and a Tubus rack all fitted by Brixton Cycles. I have the Bath to Bournemouth (link to Just Giving here) in May and  the Dartmoor Ghost ride in July both of which are quite hilly. I have a Brompton M6R which has done nearly 4000 km in just over a year including some Audax rides but personally it's best suited to railway commutes and fun rides round London. In addition its not ideally suited to 'bikepacking'  a bike touring format which is my plan for my pre and post retirement years. I have touring plans for the future so will most probably go with the Ortlieb Classic Roll Top Panniers though I may go Carradice as they are really good too. My setup will end up being a pretty typical Euro-touring affair geared towards tarmac and gravel surfaces.

Routes in my mind include:

London - Paris

La Manche - Le Med

North of Scotland and the Isles

Anglesey to Cardiff

The Rhine

The Elbe

Round trip of the Baltic

Being 60+ means that speed is tricky but distance is ok - just about .....

Brixton Cycles guy!

Happy Cycling!