Cross Check Again

My bike fleet has had a lot of churn this spring and summer. I sold the Jones, the Mercier fixed gear, bought and sold a full suspension bike, and bought the Marin frame. All of those transactions left me with a pretty flush bike fund, so when I found many online stores were out 62cm Surly Cross Checks in the new mustard yellow color, I knew it was a sign that I should order the last one I found.

This is almost a repeat for me. I had a Cross Check from around 2007 for about six years. That old black bike carried me through many miles of rides and many different builds. I had a spare rim brake 700c wheelset hanging around, waiting for another frame--which turned out to be another CC. I knew the wheels would fit, as they were the same ones from my old CC!

I received the frame on Tuesday and quickly got to work:

The build went pretty smoothly, until I found I was missing a star fangled nut for the steerer tube. Sam and I took the tandem down to roll: to pick up a new nut. It's nice to have an LBS I can ride to.

One other issue came up in the build: the powdercoat was so thick in the dropouts that I couldn't slam the wheel all the way back. I ended taking a file to the left hand dropout to make enough room for the wheel axle.

By Tuesday evening, I was on the road:

The crank is the same Ritchey Logic from my old CC, but this time with 42/36 rings. Even with a fixed gear, I'm running flats these days:

I started my build with a Surly Open bar, but I found I like the Jones Loop better. Purple grips aren't the best color match, but it's what I had on hand, and I like the way they feel.

It's unfortunate that rim brakes are being displaced by discs. These brakes are powerful, cheap, simple to work on, and feel great in use. And they're quiet.

One driving factor for this build was me purchasing a rare Surly Dingle cog from the iBOB email list. This $35 cog ended up costing me $500 for a new frame to go with it!

With the new dingle cog, I changed my gearing a bit this time around. I have a 42/36 combo up front, with 17/20 fixed and 16/19 freewheel on the rear. Mathematically, about half of those gear combinations are usable, but in practice, I just leave it in the 42/17 all the time. I like the *idea* of all those gear options, even if I never use them. It's like AWD in a car.

I'm running fat Soma Supple Vittesse 48mm tires. These are indeed supple, giving an incredibly smooth ride. I could probably fit a fender in the front, but not in the rear with these. I'm not going to worry about that for a while.

I have today (Friday) off, thinking I could go mountain biking. But with yesterday's rains, every local trail was too muddy. A good excuse to head out on my new CC. I made some tea in a travel mug and headed out early, going north in a roundabout way to the Blues Creek nature preserve, where I stopped to drink my tea and admire my new bike:

All told, about 27 miles, and nearly two hours of riding. I was impressed how comfortable I was with the Jones bar. No constant shifting to find a comfortable hand position, no hand tingles, no back pain. 

It makes me pretty happy I wasn't able to go mountain biking today.