[Cajonezzz]

I need some help specing out a Surly Cross check. I'll be using it primarily to put in some long training miles, commuting, and some light touring and baby trailer pulling (inn about 5 months.)

I really don't know were to start with the wheels, drivetrain, and all... I know that I'd like to have as wide gearing as is possible to allow for some "stump pulling" but I'd also like to keep up with my roadie friends on an occasional training ride or century. ( My secret desire is to do the Furnace Creek 508 some day, and finish)

The only thing I know I'd like for sure is STI levers/shifters. I'm not really into the bar end shifters. I'd also plan on going with some WTB style 'dirt drops'.

thanks for any advice!

craig

 

[recidivist]

Depends on a lot of things, including how much you're looking to spend. One option might be to start with the Surly 'crosscheck complete' and just upgrade it to STI. It isn't the blingingest package, but the price is pretty good and the parts are reliable.

And of course when parts wear out you can upgrade as you see fit.

Another option might be something like a mostly complete 105 or Tiagra group. If you've got the $$ I'd upgrade as far as 105, but I wouldn't spend money to go past that to Ultegra (at least not to start).


About triple vs. double. In general any 'double' road crank won't have gears low enough for you. You'll want a small ring that's smaller than 39 (Shimano) or 40 (Campy). Two ways to achieve this. One is with a triple crank (Shimano's triples are 52/40/30, I think. The other way would be to use a 'compact' crank which have a 110mm bolt crank diameter (BCD) - these used to be the MTB standard but recently they've been coming back in vogue for road. Skip all the high-end 'Tyler rode these' carbon cranks and looks for some old Sugino cranks. They'll let you use a small ring down 32 but double combinations like 48/36 or 48/34 are popular.

Kind of depends on how low you want to go.

What else?

 

[fatpandas]

i agree with the 105 being the best for the money option. if you want wide gearing, i'd say you also want to grab an LX or an old XT (the new s#itmano is rapid-rise)rear der rather than a road one, so you can throw something bigger than 27T in the back. open pro rims are always a nice piece to throw in to the mix.

if you weren't so set on STIs i'd say drop a G on a Rohloff hub and a standard road double up front, that would give you somewhere near a 700% gear range, compared to just over 500% on the standard XTR mountain 27speed. that and you can't break the things, they last forever. i won't go on about everything that rocks about the rohloff, you can read about that on any number of sites. but i would say if you want something that is rock solid enough to tour the perimeter of the western world, they've got you covered.

sorry i got off on such a tangent.