It is no secret that Surly builds versatile, durable bikes that are adaptable to a wide range of uses and conditions. They also deliver bang for the buck that is pretty darn hard to beat. When Micah started thinking about a new city bike, there were tons of options on the table. After much deliberation, the Straggler rose to the top of the pile.
It is sometimes difficult to swallow the expense of a frame-up build, especially when talking about a city bike that is going to see tough conditions; this bike is going to be ridden hard, locked up, knocked around and put away wet. The Straggler comes out of the box with a solid build that leaves plenty of room for add-ons but little need for upgrades.
Like most quality completes, Surly bikes don’t come with pedals. Chromag’s Contact platforms provide all-condition traction, customizable grip, rock-solid durability and foot-cradling comfort. Platforms are especially sensible for a city bike, allowing the rider to choose footwear based weather, comfort and style rather than being stuck in cycling shoes.
Proper, full-coverage fenders were a must. However, the stock 700×41 Knards were just a little too wide to fit cleanly with the SKS Longboards. Micah also wanted something a little faster rolling, with excellent tubeless performance. Schwalbe G-Ones in 700×38 snapped onto the Alex rims securely and really make this bike fly on dirt or pavement.
Front and rear dynamo lighting were also a priority. We’ve been really impressed with the Kasai dynamos and expect to build many more wheels around them. There are less expensive headlight options out there (the B+M Eyc is a favorite for city bikes) but the bright beam and good looks of the B+M Lumotec IQ-X won out, despite the higher price. The B+M Secula taillight is no more expensive than a battery taillight and the full-length brake housing along the top tube provided a clean path to route the wire.
Of course, what good is a dedicated city bike if you’re stuck carrying your cargo on your back? Surly’s 8-Pack Rack mounts up cleanly to nearly any Surly fork and provides a solid platform for a wide variety of bags. Micah’s Lone Peak Rack Pack Deluxe fits like a glove. While we’ve sometimes been frustrated by the lack of light mounting options on the Surly racks, the crown mount included with the IQ-X bolted straight into one of the M5 barrels and provides a solid perch. We prefer to mount headlights underneath or on the side of a front rack for better protection but the 8-Pack doesn’t make that easy. Micah likes his headlight to stand up “loud and proud” anyway, so who are we to argue?
Scroll through the gallery and check out the build! The “Blueberry Muffin Top” powdercoat really sparkles in the sun! How would you build your Straggler? Post your photos or ideas in the comments!
A bicycle with disc brakes can present some challenges when it comes to attaching fenders and, sometimes, racks. Especially tricky is the front wheel where the brake caliper is bolted onto the adapter on the back side of the left fork blade. In my experience the Gilles Berthoud stainless steel fenders are the perfect fender for the Surly Disc Trucker or the Long Haul Trucker for that matter. The single stay for both front and rear fenders is easier to deal with than the twin stay design of most composite fenders. The stays attach low on the backside of the front fender which not only looks elegant but cleanly routes the stay below the front brake caliper.
Having installed dozens of these fender sets, it occurred to me that some people might be interested in a short tutorial on how to go about it. So hopefully this will be useful.
Installation tools needed:
A person could get by with a Dremel cutoff tool or a hacksaw instead of the bolt cutters. Everything else is pretty essential. Only one hole needs to be drilled and that in the rear fender at the brake bridge.
– Drill with a sharp 5mm or 13/64″ bit.
– Cloth tape measure or a piece of string to find the center of the fender.
– 10mm and 7mm socket or box wrenches
– 3mm and 2.5mm hex wrenches
– Bolt cutters or Dremel tool with a cutoff blade. (A hacksaw will work in a pinch).
– Metal file
– Metal punch to start drill bit
– Permanent marker (Sharpie)
Parts Included:
4 p-clamps with bolts and washers. Daruma bolt. L-bracket. 4 bolts, washers and nuts to attach stays to fenders
Front Fender:
The Gilles Berthoud fenders are packaged with an eyebolt or “daruma” bolt for the front fender. Berthoud assumes the bike will have either sidepull or centerpull brakes and the eye of the daruma bolt slips over the brake bolt and dangles down out of the bottom of the fork steer tube. If your bike has cantilever or disc brakes you will need a 5mm or 6mm bolt long enough to go completely through the fork crown (Hopefully your bike has a hole drilled through) with enough thread left over to screw on a nut with a lock washer. A 35mm bolt usually is long enough for this.
The front fender receives the dangling daruma bolt through the pre-drilled hole and is spaced away from the fork crown with the included metal fender washer and rubber washer. Berthoud also assumes the bike will have a 1″ steer tube so for a 1 1/8″ steer tube I use a larger fender washer than the one supplied.
Dangling daruma.Here the front fender is attached with the large metal fender washer and rubber washer. The daruma bolt hangs inside the steer tube from the bolt through the fork crown. A 10mm nut on the bottom side of the fender threads onto the daruma and holds everything in place.Here is the attachment of the fender stay to the front fender. I like to put the pan head bolt on the inside and the nuts on the outside to mitigate debris collection between the tire and the fender.
I usually bolt on the front stays before I make the fork crown attachment and I loosely screw the fender stay p-clamps to the holes in the fork dropout. Once the fender is in place at the fork crown I put the tire back on the bike and hold the back end of the fender in place while I line up the ends of the stays with the p-clamps and mark them with a sharpie where they will need to be cut. I snip off the ends with a pair of bolt cutters (the Dremel tool or a hack saw could be used here) and file the sharp edges before slipping them into the p-clamps for final tightening.
This is obviously the rear wheel but I mark the stays for the front in the same way. The black p-clamp is lightly bolted onto the bike and with the fender held in place the stay (blurry in this picture, I know) is marked where it will end up flush with the end of the clamp.With the installation finished, the stay sweeps neatly under the front disc brake caliper.
Rear Fender:
A bicycle with a well thought out design for the rear wheel disc brake adapter places the caliper inside the triangle created by the seatstay and chainstay, where it is out of the way of the fender stay attachments. As such, the rear fender is usually less of a challenge; at least relative to the disc brake. But the installation usually involves removing and replacing the wheel several times in order to make adjustments to the fender line.
Dry fit of the rear fender.
I start by holding the rear fender in place to see how much clearance there is at the front, between the chainstays and between the fender and the bridge between the chainstays. Usually, a spacer, which can be anything from a sawed off wine cork to a piece of aluminum tubing to 3 or 4 of those little washers that screw onto tube valve stems, is required between the bridge and the fender.
Here is the first attachment. I used a piece of aluminum tubing from the hardware store for a spacer. Sawed off wine bottle corks work too. Oh, you might need a longer bolt here.
This is the first solid attachment I make. Again, the stays are bolted onto the fender before I start, so once I make the first attachment I can put the wheel back on and hold the rear end of the fender in place to mark where I want to cut the stays. Once those are cut to length and the sharp edges filed off they can be clamped into the p-clamps. There is one final, crucial step to installing the rear fenders. After the fender line has been established, and everything is held in place on the bike with the connections I have already made, it is time to drill a hole in the fender where it will be bolted onto the brake bridge. Here is the third assumption that Berthoud makes; that the bike in question has a threaded hole on the bottom of the brake bridge into which a bolt holding the fender can be screwed. If the bike does have the threaded hole then it is relatively simple to mark the spot on the fender and drill the hole. To find the spot to drill the hole for an L-bracket, bolt the bracket onto the brake bridge and, holding the fender at the desired clearance from the tire, mark the hole locations with the Sharpie.
It’s easier to make this mark if the L-bracket is bolted onto the brake bridge.
Mark the hole and find the center of the fender crown using the cloth tape measure or the string. The metal punch is sort of critical because stainless steel is hard and the drill bit will wander around before starting to cut if there is not some sort of indentation for a guide. A one-hand-held spring punch is ideal for this.
I just read through this instructional and it seems sort of complicated for the average person who doesn’t do this sort of thing everyday. I can say that installing fenders takes way more time than I can reasonably charge for. However, if one has some patience and a modicum of skill, or desire to learn, along with a few tools, it can be sort of rewarding. Then there is the opinion (mine) that a touring bike only looks complete after fenders have been installed. Hope this helps somebody. Please comment if I have left anything out or left you more confused than when you started reading.
The temperature is going to be well below freezing this New Year’s Eve day and several inches of snow have fallen in the last 48 hours. A combination of de-icer, sand spread by the highway district and traffic has left the busiest roads mostly bare and dry. But driveways and side streets are covered with (one after another, or all at the same time) patches of snow, ice, slush and gravel. I’m not riding the bike today.
Would even studded tires help here?
This morning I looked in a supplier’s catalog at tires with 400 or so carbide steel studs in the tread. I’m tempted to buy a pair but I’m not sure if even that would keep me upright on the ice. And the use for such tires is limited…I don’t really want to be taking them off and putting them back on every time it snows. If I had a bike with disc brakes I could try the old zip-tie snow chain trick.
Earlier this month, before the snow was sticking, we went on a day trip from Three Horse Winery north of Eagle, ID to Montour, ID where we ate lunch before riding back. Scott and Aileen scouted this route prior and they were going to show us the fabled passage between Eagle and Montour which we had been unable to discover on our overnight trip last year. This turned into sort of an epic slog through mud and water and emphasized the importance of the right bike for the job… those of us with fenders spent quite a bit of time digging packed mud from between the tires and fenders. We even ended up taking Sky King’s front fender off when her front wheel completely bound up and stopped turning. For those on bikes without fenders and using disc brakes the going was relatively easier.
Here is a map of the route for those who might want to repeat it.
Even with the mud everybody had a great time and there was more smiling taking place than cursing although there was some of both. That is partly a testament to the cohesiveness and the great attitude of our fledgling bike touring group wherein everybody is quick to help others and nobody complains. Plus, every rider is competent and able to take care of themselves on and off the bike.
A touring bike continues to open my eyes to the scenic and solitary places within an hour or two of where we live. Places I never visited in the previous two decades of living here and probably would not have experienced in another 20 years, but which are suddenly accessible on my country bike. Not to mention a new group of friends….a group of thinking, entertaining and interesting people who make this hermit happy to be a part of it.
(Update 10/2/2014: SKS have updated their fender line and the Chromoplastic fenders and Longboard fenders have been combined and are now called SKS Chromoplastic Longboards)
The SKS Longboard fenders are in at the Bike Touring News Store. I have been anxious to see how long these really are. So I did a side by side comparison with the Honjo alloy fenders and the Planet Bike Cascadia fenders.
rear Fenders- the SKS Longboard on the bottom, then the Planet Bike Cascadia and the Honjo
The rear fenders are about equal in length, but with an aftermarket mudflap the Honjo fender would provide the most coverage, maybe not as important as front fender coverage- except maybe for whoever is behind you!
Arguably, the coverage provided by the front fenders is the most important because the farther the fender comes down on the trailing side the less spray onto the rider’s feet. And as we can see, there is quite a bit of difference in the coverage of these three front fenders.
front fenders- SKS Longboard on bottom, Honjo, then Planet Bike Cascadia
In the above photo of front fenders the fenders are positioned according to the point where they would attach to the bicycle fork, and you can see that the Longboard fenders are the longest providing more coverage in the front as well as in the rear than the other two. To be fair, with an aftermarket mud flap the Honjo fender would provide equal coverage.
Aftermarket mudflap provides more coverage on the front fender.
I came across this article on Raymond Parker’s VeloWeb. The web address is http://veloweb.ca (he’s Canadian eh.) Very detailed and well photographed instructions there. While he is installing Honjo fenders, the guide will work as well for other metal fenders such as Gilles Berthoud and Tanaka.
Also, lo and behold, there is a Honjo Fenders group on flickr.com. Lots of good photos and ideas for mounting fenders there.
Arguably, fenders are one of the essential accessories for the touring bicycle. Even in Death Valley, one of the driest places in the world, it does rain. And I say arguably, because, as you can see on this Adventure Cycling forum, people argue. When riding offroad in wet conditions, mud packing between the tires and fenders can bring the bike to a standstill pretty quickly. Aside from that, when it does rain or there is water on the road, without fenders you will be soaked in short order with spray from the front wheel on your feet and spray from the rear wheel on the back of the legs. Besides being uncomfortable, on a cool day it could add to the possibility of becoming hypothermic.
