Rivendell Quickbeam vs. Surly Cross Check vs. Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross

My typical road bike is a steel cyclocross bike. Fat tires, strong brakes, and provisions for some useful braze ones make these attractive all-rounders. Today's post covers only my longest serving 'crossy road bikes, I've also had a Soma DoubleCross, a Velo Orange Camargue, and others. But for today, let's focus on these three and see how they compare.

I'll start with subjective stuff

Looks
1. Quickbeam (64cm)

Ways to Build a Surly Cross Check

My Surly Cross Check is the longest serving bike in my fleet, coming in at almost five years old--that's ancient in my skewed world. I'd been looking at getting a CC for quite a while, and finally gave up on waiting for some miracle deal and paid full pop ($420) from Speedgoat.com (RIP). Through the years, I've been consistently impressed with the design that went into the CC. Some may complain that it's too heavy, or that the tubing is too stiff (or flexy), or something, but the smartly designed flexibility is something that I've really grown to appreciate as other pretenders to the Cross Check throne have come and gone from my garage.

My initial build is still one of my favorites:

The May Massacre

It's been an eventful month for my bike fleet. Early in the month, I sold the ERB to a fellow in Arizona. The spring concept was interesting, and maybe faster, but it finally wasn't significant enough that I was willing to compromise and go back to 26" wheels for it.

Goodbye ERB:

I sold the ERB as a complete bike, mostly to help clear out some space in my parts bin, but also to get these super swanky Bontrager scandium wheels out of the garage. As long as they were around, it was too tempting to pick up a 26er frame to go with them... only to realize I'm a 29er guy these days... but the wheels are soooo light.... Now, no more temptation.

The ERB was just the beginning.

Day 30: Success and Fame in Blogging

Thirty straight days of biking and blogging. They said it couldn't be done. I thought it couldn't be done. But as I write this post, ride done for the day, Wild Turkey close at hand, I'll have biked and blogged for every day in April. I rolled up a somewhat meager 120 miles for the month, which works out to an average of four miles per day.

That's the "success" bit.

Before I talk about the "fame" bit, let's go over tonight's ride. It was another of my famed head-to-head matchups, this time the venerable Cross Check up against the even more venerable Trek 620:

Four laps around Avery Park, two miles each, alternating bikes each lap.

New Bike (Not Mine) and Fleet Notes

I've been on a downsizing swing lately. Again. The Breezer is for sale, though I don't actually expect anyone to buy it. If it were a 29er, it would have been sold long ago, for more money. But an XL 26er? No market there.

Today, I sold my FSR frame and fork to buddy Charles. Charles had been riding another of my ex bikes, a Habanero Ti 26er. A nice frame, but his front Marzocchi fork was blown out, which caused the front end to bounce uncontrollably. He was more or less used to it, but when I tried it briefly at Alum Creek, I was left white faced and shaking. Charles came over today, and we spent a few happy hours this morning tearing down the Habanero and rebuilding the FSR with his parts (seems like half that time was spent adjusting the front derailer... another reason to like 1x drivetrains)

A "before and after" picture would be great right about here, wouldn't it? But in our excitement, we only took an "after" picture:

I led Charles on a shakedown tour of the Dublin singletrack scene. A few short sections of indifferent trail linked up by road miles, but it was still a nice day to be out, especially if you could tune out the sound of the rubbing front derailer.

Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross

Regular blog reader(s) may have noticed that I've mentioned the Black Mountain Cycles Monstercross frame several times in the past.  After selling my Jones (!) a month ago, my bike fund was flush enough that I finally paid down for one. In a way, the BMC is very similar to my Cross Check, a bike that I enjoyed over many years, but with a bit lighter weight tubing and what looks like better fitting geometry.

Here we go:

The color looked more classic red online, but it's really more of a brick red, slightly orangish. I like it:

Soma Double Cross vs. Surly Cross Check Comparison

This summer, I ended up with a Soma Double Cross and a Surly Cross Check at the same time. Many people shop these two against each other, so I thought I would put up some thoughts between them.

Here's how they were built when I took my comparo photos:

A History of My Road and 'Cross Bikes

Time for installment #3 of my bike history (full sus bikes here and 29er hardtails here)

Update: hardtail 26ers here.

My road riding started on my pop's hand me down Schwinn. Typical early 70s bike boom, with Ashtabula cranks, steel rims, etc. But I'll start this history with the first road bike I actually bought:

1. 1991 Bridgestone RB-T

 

(not my bike pictured). I was heavily influenced by reading Grant Petersen's Bridgestone catalogues throughout college, so when I went road bike shopping, a quick spin to the Bike Gallery and this RB-T was mine. Must've been the summer between my freshman and sophomore years at the University of Washington. The Suntour drivetrain never shifted very well, but otherwise this was a great bike: good clearances, a nice frame, good geo. They're actually still quite in demand today, and I wouldn't mind finding one now. Mine was a 59cm, probably too small for me, though.

Kiwanis Riverway Park by Surly Cross Check

About a week ago, I drove around with Henry to try to find the parking area for the #32 Dublin Kiwanis Riverway park. We finally gave up that day and ended up going to the Toy Barn to look at exotic cars (this was Henry's request, I was so proud again!) When I got home, I studied the map and realized we should have turned into the River Quarry development off Riverside Dr. Early Saturday morning, I headed out on my fixed gear Cross Check to check this park off. Even early in the morning, I don't want to bring the kids in a bike along Riverside Dr, so this was a solo trip.

Near the Dublin Rec, I noticed something new along the bike path:

 

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:

Day 5: Books, and 100 Posts!

After the kid's soccer games this afternoon, I took ye Olde Trek and headed to the library in Dublin. I'm enjoying the Trek much more as a flat barred, fixed gear bike than I did as a drop barred, geared bike. It felt good to be out on a stripped down bike, surging with the cranks over the small rises along the way. Does it plane? Maybe, and if I think it does, that's good enough.

I stopped for a quick picture:

Drop Bars on the Cross Check

So after flirting with Soma Oxford bars for a while (both upside down and right side up), yesterday I changed my Surly Cross Check back to a drop bar, geared machine:

Surly Cross Check to Campden Lakes, Hutchins Open Space, and Bryson Cove

Beautiful weather here for a busy weekend. On Saturday, I ran the Warrior Dash with a couple of buddies from work. I'm not a runner by any means, but it's fun to climb over stuff "Survivor" style:

 

(this picture was after I washed off)

 Saturday night, I fulfilled an earlier promised to the kids and we camped out in the backyard.

Dawn of the Quickbeam Era

I've wanted a Rivendell Quickbeam pretty much since I first saw one maybe 15 years ago. I've filled the interim with a succession of cheaper replacements: my Cross Check, various vintage Treks, and lately my Black Mountain Monstercross. But here in the winter of discontent, I finally decided to take action. I put up a "WTB" ad on the Riv and iBOB lists, not expecting much response, but Howard from Virginia quickly responded with a 64cm for sale. Just my size. A deal was quickly made, my bike fund was even more underwater, and I finally had a Quickbeam in my garage.

Surly Cross Check and Velo Orange Camargue

I gave a short update on my somewhat new VO Camargue a few posts back. For no good reason, I haven't been particularly warming up to it. So much so, in fact, that I recently changed my trusty CC from "lean and mean" to, er, family... "pudgey and friendly?"

Now I have the two bikes set up very similarly: racks, fenders, gears, flat pedals, fattish tires. I think I lean towards the CC just because I like the way it looks better: the dead horizontal top tube appeals to the traditionalist in me, even as I grunt to throw my leg over it every time I stop while riding around with the kids (which is pretty often). Thinking about the VO, I think the stupid reason I'm not warming up to it is the top tube: it's neither flat nor really sloping, just kind of dropped:

Technically, this addresses my concern about the standover on the CC, but it exists in the nether region between a traditional road bike and a mountain bike. It smacks of compromise.

Rainy Cross Check Ride

It's been a very wet spring in Central Ohio, making it tough to find trail time or dry playgrounds. We had a baby sitter for Saturday morning, so I figured I might as well use that time for a longish road ride. I had planned to take my Rawland Nordavinden, but it didn't have fenders--not a good thing with wet streets and drizzle still coming down. So the Cross Check it would be.

The CC is in kind of a weird state right now. I started setting it up to be my child puller, but only got about half way done before this ride. So it has the (heavy) Burley rack and the (heavy) dyno hub, but it's still set up as a fixed gear. Good enough.

My basic route was north to Bellepont, the west along Mills road to Ostrander road. Mill creek was running pretty high:

I was looking forward to a junk food snack at the store in Ostrander, but I got there 45 minutes before they opened. Disappointed, I turned south for home. Into a headwind. And road construction:

At least the drizzle kept me cool. But it was a long grind home.

I wasn't really feeling the love for my CC on this ride. The slight vibration from the dyno hub bothered me after a while. On my bars, there was a big step between the end of my grip and the bar end, which I didn't like either. And I swear I could feel the weight of the rack dragging me down every time I stood to climb a hill. I'd really like to find a magical bike that combines the best attributes of the CC and the Rawland:

- fat tire clearance, V brakes, and single speed-ability from the CC

- low trail, light tubing, and a low bottom bracket from the Rawland.

But I can't think of anything that fits this, short of a custom. Any ideas?

Spring is (Almost) Here (Cross Check, Bulls Eye Monster, Trek 620)

I'm going to make up a fact right here and say that February was the coldest month on record. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but it sure felt like it. Which made this weekends temps in the 40s feel positively spring like. I still had to wear most of my cold weather gear, but not quite all of it, and that was good enough.

Saturday I took the Cross Check on a quick library run on hopefully one of my last rides with snow in the background:

I'm still enjoying the Soma low trail fork. It would be nice to cut down some of the steerer tube, but after struggling at the limit of the stock fork's 300mm steerer for so long, this fork is getting nowhere near the miter box saw. Actually, it would be really nice if the CC came with a ~220mm head tube and a top tube with some slope, but I'm not a road bike purist that needs a level top tube.

As I rolled into the driveway coming home, the mailman was there with a box for me. New tires for the Bullseye Monster:

I was feeling good enough about the whole fat bike thing after my last ride that I wanted to invest in some better rubber for it. The stock Vee Missions might be good... somewhere... but not anywhere you need traction. Since the BEM is currently my only mountain bike, I wanted something with some more bite. I was happy to pick up these On One Floater NIB from an mtbr forum member, since On One recently changed their shipping policy--it now would have cost me $65 to get these shipped these days.

They mounted up quickly and easily, nothing special about changing fat bike tires:

(I tossed the stock inner tube liner that came with the wheels at the same time, saving a few precious grams on my ~35 pound bike). I quickly headed out to the Avery woodlot trail:

It's not overstating things to say that these tires transformed the bike. No self steer on the pavement, traction was much better through the corners (although still sketchy, it is snow after all), and when I did leave the packed part of the trail, I was able to keep churning forward.

Three cheers for the Floaters!

Today (Sunday), though the weather was predicted to be nice in the afternoon, the only time I had for riding was early in the morning. Full winter gear back on, I headed out on ye Olde Trek 650B in the sub freezing weather. I headed through the Metro Park, stopping to admire the frozen pond created by this beaver dam:

There were warning signs about ice on the trail--yesterday's snow melt now frozen across the bike path. I negotiated these slick spots carefully and successfully... until I didn't. A patch of ice on a (very slight) downhill corner caught me, throwing me to the pavement and slamming the back of my helmet into the ground. I feel fine, but the hit was hard enough that I tossed my old Bell helmet into the trash and picked up a new Specialized model at Bike Source this afternoon. I only looked briefly at the AWOL while there...

Soma Double Cross Family Truckster Review

Aside from what are probably Russian hacker sites, I see a "lot" of my traffic (which is a relative measure, maybe four visits to date) come from links I put in my posts on my bike forums. Never one to fear pandering to my audience, I thought I would put up something that might interest these visitors more than my kids:

Or perhaps instead a quick overview of my bike train:

 

This season so far, I have a Soma Double Cross 'cross bike, pulling a Burley Picolo, pulling a Burley D'Lite trailer. Taking it from the rear:

 

The Burley trailer is something I bought third hand from Larry H. at work several years ago. It's seen some miles: the seat is starting to fail (look closely at the center), and one of the snaps has snapped off. It's also far from waterproof anymore. I've thought about either ordering a repair kit or buying another used trailer for parts, but this will probably be the last summer that the twins can both fit in the trailer. After this year, it may get mostly used for camping loads and groceries, so I'm hoping it can hang in there another six months.

Next up is the Picolo:

This is new for me this year. Compare this to my previous trailer bike, a Giant Halfwheeler that attached to the seat post:

(setup from last summer) Many bike geeks greatly prefer the Picolo because it mounts to a special rack, rather than the seat post. This is supposed to greatly reduce the input loads from the trailer bike to the front bike. But the Picolo has been out of production for several years, and was thus sought after by those bike geek dads. When I saw this one float across my local Craigslist, I jumped on it, even though it was missing the special rack that I later had to special order. The verdict: it is in fact more stable than the seat post mount type, but the trailer bike rider can still put a decent amount of torque into the system if he wants to. Especially big, burly lads like Henry. I'm happy with my purchase, but I'm not sure it's worth the $350 cost of new version vs. a typical $150 trailer bike.

The Picolo, by the way, has six speeds to the Giant's one. So far, this has been no benefit: Henry only has the hand strength to move the twist shifter over the few smallest gears, and on the very smallest gear, the chain line is so bad it causes the chain to consistently derail off the front sprocket. I ended up setting the limit screws to block this. Also, the Picolo doesn't have a water bottle mount like the Giant, so I need to rig something up here.

And then there are my wheels:

A 60cm Soma Double Cross, built from the frame up (as virtually all my bikes are).

I run kind of unusual gearing: a 38/26 front with an 11/34 9 speed rear. That gives me a decent, wide range cruising gear, with a useful bailout gear for steep hills. When dragging these kids around, it doesn't take much for a hill to be "steep." Probably, a 22/32/42 would be even more useful, but I like the double rings. Flat pedals let me ride in sandals or whatever I have on.

 

A key item for pulling a trailer bike is wide handlebars (drop bars, in my experience, are always too narrow). These are On One Marys, flipped, with Sram twist shifters. I'm not sure why, but I really like this combination. Comfortable, looks good, easy shifting. Somehow, the flipped Mary works to make up for short top tube of the Soma.

 

If our adventures every go really late (or into the fall), I have a dyno light up front. It's just a cheap Sanyo hub I bought used with a $35 Avenir light, but it's a surprisingly effective setup. Certainly it's good enough for riding dark multi use paths. The fork is a Nashbar carbon model from my parts bin. A good steel fork would be better for attaching racks and panniers, but my steel fork is happily nested on my Surly Cross Check.

So here's my checklist of what makes a good family truckster:

- a reasonably stiff frame with moderate trail. The Rawland that's shown above wasn't good in either regard: it was downright sketchy with a rear load input. Fun to ride unloaded, though.

- wide bars for leverage, at least 24"/60cm. My Marys are about 650mm, and they're great.

- wide range gearing with easy shifting. I love single speeds more than most, but even in flat Dublin, I find myself shifting on grades that are imperceptible to anyone not towing 150 pounds. You're shifting a lot!

- fat tires, because you can't always dodge stuff

- fenders, because kids like to hit puddles. So of course you need lots of eyelets then to install your fenders (and racks more than likely)

- flat pedals, because, c'mon, you're not riding for your PR, and it's fun to feel the wind in your toes.

- good brakes, because you're stopping a big load. V brakes are fine, though (discs are also nice)

- good standover clearance, because you're straddling the bike flat footed while your stoker gets ready.

If you're thinking this sounds like any run of the mill hybrid... you're right. Hmm, maybe I'll have to think about one of those myself!

But, you say, you're really curious about how the Soma stacks up against the Surly? Stay tuned my comrades!

How many bikes do you need?

One of my favorite writers is Peter Egan from Cycle World, and one of my favorite articles of his is, "How many bikes do you really need?" In the article, he settled on five: a sportbike, a sport touring bike, a dirtbike, a great big hog, and an old crock. Similarly, I spend an irrational part of my waking hours trying to determine the correct size and composition of my bike fleet. I'm currently at an uncomfortable seven. They are (oldest to newest):

1. Surly Cross Check:

I've the CC about four and a half years, and it's done most everything: fixed gear, touring bike, cyclocross bike, town bike, etc. It's not perfect--I'd like to drop the bottom bracket, lengthen the head tube, and lighten the tubing up a hair, but it's so versatile and fun that it's earned its spot in my constantly churning fleet.


2. Soma Juice:

I've had the Soma only over a year, and it's mostly been a rigid/single speed mountain bike, with a brief foray into bike camping. Is it bad that my second oldest bike is barely a year old? Maybe I shoulda kept the Fargo...


3. Specialized FSR

As I mentioned earlier, I picked this up on a whim about a year ago, but I've really been enjoying it. Clearly, it's pretty much used only for riding single track. Quickly.


4. Soma Double Cross:

Currently set up as a child puller and around-town bike.


5. Rawland Nordavinden

My pure, geared road bike for those long, solo road rides I always think I'm going to do, but rarely actually do. Yes, it has toe clips--I ran out of clipless pedals. These things happen with seven bikes.


6. Specialized Globe Vienna

Another child puller, but a cheap one. And it's actually a dedicated hybrid, not a repurposed 'cross or mountain bike.


7. OS Blackbuck

Er, another rigid/single speed mountain bike.

(A quick aside to my wife: seven bicycles take up much less space and money than five motorcycles!)


I've long maintained to myself (and the few people who will stand around to listen), that I really only need three bikes: a mountain bike, a road bike, and an around town/utility bike. However, when I seriously think about my riding patterns, I could actually get by with just two: I'd drop the road bike in favor of the utility bike, since most of my road riding is actually just errands around town, short hops through the metro park, or pulling the kids around.  Forced to radically downsize like this, it would be the Surly as the town bike and either the FSR or the Soma as the mountain bike.      

Insightful readers will see the downfall of the two bike plan in that last sentence: I have to choose between the FSR and the 29er? But some days I want the pure simplicity of the single speed, while on others I want the speed and comfort and ease of the FSR. Selling one might just cause me to buy some variation of it back later, which isn't the smartest economics--I should know, as I've done this many, many times.            

So right now, I'm working on a plan to get down to just four:

1. Mountain bike: FSR--too much cheap fun. 26" full suspension bikes are at a sweet spot for buyers right now, with great technology at blowout prices.

2. Alternate mountain bike: Soma or Blackbuck. I say this like it's a tough decision, but the Soma will win. I'll give the Blackbuck a few more rides to somewhat justify getting it, then it's going on the block.

3. Road bike: Rawland--I need to do more road rides, and I want to try out the new brakes I just got for it. Also, it "planes" like a Chris-Craft. Whenever I get inspired by my issues of Bicycle Quarterly, I can jump on this bike in all its flexy glory (and none of its 650B silliness)

4. Town bike: Surly or Soma or Globe. Another easy choice: the Surly is the only definite keeper here. But then what do I do when I want a fixed gear ride?

Such are the the dilemmas I wrestle with.

Day 23: Deep Thoughts about City Bikes

Of my core three bikes--road, mountain, and city--the city bike is probably the one that gets the most turnover. Well, maybe it's tied with my mountain bike, but the city category certainly has a lot of churn. It's a bit odd, since I probably spend most of my time these last few years on my city bike, that I never have a dedicated bike or even a fixed bike style that I use for it. I mostly use cast offs from my other categories: old mountain bikes, converted 'cross bikes, etc.

Early on in my blog, I posted some key points for a city bike (see here). Fat tires, fenders, gears, flat pedals, decent standover, etc etc... those all still apply. Within those requirements, though, there's a lot of freedom.

Some oddballs from my past builds: