The finished item - fully pimped out Surly Long Haul Trucker in red and black :)

Finally, here is the finished product!:

Couple of shots there then... click the images for high def versions of the pictures.

A month in the building and still a few things to iron out, but otherwise all complete, see the other posts for full gory details. :)

Fitting the Middleburn crankset + adjusting derailleurs

Got a couple more items in the post today, all courtesy of Wiggle:

Hope Jockey Wheels

Bling...

bling bling...

bl-bling bling... bling. :p

 Middleburn Chainring bolts:

Minor bling... although not too much.

Cos I know you want to know
how tight to tighten then right?!

All a bit blingy but hey, sue me. :)

I hesitate to say these are the last 'bits' to go on the bike, but the bike is now pretty much complete for the time being and I actually rode the thing for the first time today!!!  Woop!

Middleburn Crankset

Finally I got to actually 'build up' the crankset properly, putting on the old Middleburn rings that I'd salvaged off the Marin and fixing the crank onto the bike properly:

Added a good few dabs of the old 'cake mix' (anti-seize grease!) first to the rings, the last lot ended up being welded on so don't really want that to happen again (not sure it will make a lot of difference here because the bolts are aluminium rather than steel like the last lot... still, won't harm):

Anti-seize in top left, yum!

Non-bling for the granny ring...

The final product!

So, pretty pleased with that.  The old chainrings look a bit scuffed so the proof will be in the riding now.  After a quick ride out today they seemed to be ok and shifting fine (after adjusting the derailleurs, see below), although there was a bit of rubbing somewhere so will have to look at that later.

The other thing is I didn't actually apply any Loctite / thread lock as the instructions suggested - mainly because I don't have any, but also because I may well end up putting new rings on within a few months anyway so bit pointless locking them down tight just yet.

With all that, here's a picture of them on the bike proper:

Finally!  On the bike...

Adjusting the middle chainring derrailleur chain line

So, all good. :)

Refit handlebars / New Ergon handebar grips + bar ends / strip down Hope XC Rear hub

Wasn't going to do a lot today on the bike, still waiting for a few bits to arrive tomorrow so I can rebuild the crankset / put the old Middleburn chainrings back on the new Middleburn crank.  I ordered some blingy anodized red Middleburn chainring bolts to replace the rusting bolts that had been holding the rings onto the old Shimano Deore crank yesterday, so just waiting for that to arrive really.

Handlebars / Riser

In the end I decided to sort out the handlebars / riser bar - I'd mistakenly put the bar on the wrong way 'up'... in all the time I'd used the old Marin Nail Trail bike, I don't think I'd ever had the need to take the handlebar riser off the bike... anyway I decided to give the riser and stem a good wash before putting it back on the new bike, and in the process I'd put the riser back on upside down... oops!

Spot the difference:

Riser / handlebar upside down

And the right way up!

Looks a lot better actually in the second picture, must admit I didn't think about it at all until I noticed some 'patches' on the riser where the bar used to be sited in between the stem clamps which were the wrong way around.

Anyway, easily fixed, took off the gear shifters / brake levers, plus took off the old Specialized ergonomic grips that I'd had on and the bar ends, flipped the riser around, refixed it, then put back the gear/brake shifters/levers.

Ergon GC3 Ergonomic Grips

Also at the same time I added on the new Ergon GC3 bar grips which arrived yesterday:

Wonderful packaging...

... really ...

... and sooo recycleable! ...

... OK that's better ;)

The grips are ... well they're grips!  Not a lot to say about them really other than they're very comfortable and you'd especially notice how comfortable if you're moving from plain grips.  It's like putting on a comfy pair of gloves, they just feel 'right' somehow and you soon start to wonder why you ever put up with the old grips you had on.

They take a bit of adjusting to get it just right, but not that much really, maybe one ride out just to test them and see how they are.  Adjust them when you get back and you're done pretty much.

So, yes... they're grips, they do the job, what else is there to say!  Hah well if you're like me and fascinated as much by the engineering and thought that goes into something fairly 'obvious'... read on...

Ok so handlebar grips aren't exactly the most complicated of components to add to a bike, but I like all the little things that this German company Ergon have done to make life as simple as possible.  As with lots of things, German engineering* makes what is an ordinarily 'ok' product just that little bit better and more usable/functional/recyclable.

Very clever little 'assembly tool'...

For example they include a very simple little 'assembly tool' (see middle picture above) - really, it's just a piece of card(!)... but it actually made it more obvious to me that I hadn't slipped the grip on all the way as I should have done (I'd actually put the grips on BEFORE I realized they'd even included this little 'assembly tool'!!).







The engineering of the grips themselves is also very good and has a reliable sturdy feel to it.  The rubber material itself seems OK, although I must admit I'm not so sure about the 'end bars' that come with it.  I was torn between going with these slightly shorter endbars and the longer version that they do (the GP5 grips).  Anyway, not to worry, they should be OK and at a stretch there is always the option to just take off the 'integrated' endbars and replace them with a longer separate version at a later date (they pop off quite easily).

Also the packaging is interesting in it's own way - it's made from completely recyclable material, a really basic / seemingly obvious (you would think), but sturdy paper pulp like material that's been recycled from discarded newspaper or similar.  The box is actually quite solid and you could probably jump on it and (nearly!) not damage it, yet if you left it out in the rain it would probably disintegrate within a few hours, it's that kind of pulpy material. ;)  Bleh anyway going on... I just find the German 'aesthete' quite interesting / inspiring.

Hope XC rear hub servicing

Anyway... back to the bike... after refitting the handlebars I decided to strip down the Hope XC rear hub and the old Shimano 9 speed M770(?) cassette (XT I think it was?).  Not a straightforward job at all to be true but it needed doing so I just got on with it.

The internals were reassuringly black and gunky - I always use a purply/red Silkolene grease on the bottom bracket, and this grease was nothing like purply/red, more like jet black... so yes, definitely needed servicing!  I think I'd been hoodwinked into thinking it was fine by the fact I'd recently cleaned the cassette, wheel and outside of the hub to within an inch of their lives... but this was not the case and it definitely needed a good clean internally.

So, I got the Hope 'block' / freehub body stripped down - I seemed to have more trouble than usual taking the drive side spacer off... it's usually annoyingly fiddly and prone to damaging the lovely anodized red finish, but this time it was even worse... lack of light (bloody winter) didn't help!

Took all the springs/pawls out (well practiced now in making sure the springs don't fly out all over the shop!) and gave them all a good degrease/wash down.  I think it's fair to say the pawls and springs are probably on their way out, and the bearings and freehub body itself aren't that far off needing replacement as well.

I had a quick look at prices and it looks like £42 for a new freehub body on CRC, which isn't too bad at all really given that it will last a good 5-10,000 miles (based on the current one anyway - which is a lot more than can be said for those crappy American Classic freehub bodies which seem to be made of cheese and only last a couple of thousand miles if you're very lucky AND service it every few months... don't get me started on that, bloody money sink those are... meh).

Have to say though - after bigging up German engineering - Hope Tech do some really incredibly beautiful engineering right here in the UK**.  Their design for their Hope hub products is so incredibly simple and purely functional, no 'frills' in terms of badly engineered/built componentry... yet at the same time they manage to make the hubs looks so pretty.


So, anyway, yes more money to be spent there by the looks of it, though I'll probably just re-assemble the current bits and carry on using it for another 3-6 months or so.

Cassettes - service or replace...?

Always a debate every time you change a component in the drive train: whether to replace the whole lot - chain+cassette+chainrings(+jockey wheels if you're very unlucky), or just try and replace an individual part and hope it runs in smoothly with the old parts.  Invariably if you go for the latter option, you just end up having to buy each of the parts one by one anyway as you find that, no, in fact the new chain you bought doesn't work with the old chainrings... and, actually, no, that cassette will need changing as well now because the chain doesn't run right on it!

To try and avoid that, I had hoped to re-use the full drive train from the old Marin bike on this new Surly bike.  However, unfortunately for one reason or another that can't happen (main issue was that the chain length of the old chain was too short for the longer chainstays on the Surly frame so I had to get a new chain... but now I've got the problem above where the cassette and chainrings also need changing!).

So... it looks like I'll be putting on the new SRAM PG990 cassette that arrived yesterday.  Which is a real shame because the old drivetrain was quite serviceable / only had a few thousand miles on it (plus the Middleburn rings were very expensive so I'd hoped - still do hope - to re-use those on this new bike).

This new cassette looks damned pimpy though with the red anodized carrier... I don't know whether to put it on the bike or leave it on the desk next to me here just to stare at for hours on end... :p  In my defence, it was VERY cheap - £40 reduced from £90 or something like that... not sure why exactly, perhaps they're stopping selling them now or have a few left to get rid of before ending the line on CRC? .... Ok who am I kidding, the only reason I got it was because the red fit in with the rest of the red/black/white colour scheme hehe...:

SRAM PG990 9spd 11-34t cassette, pimpy red. :p
Ok, it's upside down.  But it looks far cooler that way... :p
Also an optical illusion?! Looks like it's bulging out in the middle bizarrely?!

The design of this SRAM cassette is quite good though I think: the bottom 6 sprockets are all pinned onto a single solid aluminium(?) carrier / billet (the red bit you can see above in the image), which should mean there's less chance that the sprockets will eat into the freehub block/body.

This is a major flaw / issue / annoyance with most cassettes where you have each sprocket attached to the freehub body individually: with that type of cassette, all the weight of the rider's downstroke transfers into pressure on a single sprocket (ie the gear they're currently in), which in turn means there's more chance the sprocket will 'dig' into the freehub body causing it to get scuffed up and fail quicker / make it harder to remove the cassette later for servicing because of all the nicks on the freehub body.

Compare that to this kind of cassette where a number of sprockets (6 in this case) are pinned to a single block / carrier - the pressure is distributed more evenly across a number of sprockets / across the width of the freehub body.  As a result, in theory the freehub body should last longer and not become deformed as easily.

Well... that's what I think anyway...  but enough of that techy stuff already!

---

* - other notable German bike items I can think of where great engineering design make things better are Abus (locks), Ortlieb (panniers) and SKS (mudguards).

** - and whilst I'm on the subject of good UK engineering, USE do great seatposts and Middleburn do great cranks!

Finally ordered Middleburn Chainset / Finally fitted Hope bottom bracket

I'd been debating for AGES about what chainset to get for the new Surly bike.  Pretty much right from the start I'd had in mind the idea of getting a Middleburn crankset just on the basis of having used their chainrings on the old Marin bike for about 1-2 years and being very impressed at the quality of them.  Plus the chainrings (I got a set of them about 2yrs ago) were still relatively in good nick, so I wanted to just re-use those on the new Surly really if possible.

The stumbling block was partly the price - £200+ just for the crank arms + axle (on a bike where the frame was only just over £300! - but also just the fact that your common-or-garden Shimano XT 'level' of crankset is now actually extremely good quality in terms of bang for buck as it were.  So I was torn for quite a while over what to go for.  In the end I took the plunge though and went for the Middleburn option.

Middleburn RS8 XType Crankset

Ordering the thing in itself was a nightmare actually, hardly anywhere 'well known' seems to stock a decent range of Middleburn components any more (by 'well known' I mean Wiggle/CRC/Evans etc).  There was one place I came across based in Buxton Derbyshire who seemed to do really good prices on them, but some of the reviews of the place sounded horrific so I left that alone.

In the end I purchased the crankset from Freeborn Bikes.  I've never used them before (or even heard about them if I'm honest!), but I emailed them beforehand to ask about stock availability and the guy that answered seemed pretty good.  I was actually more impressed by his honesty in saying that they didn't actually stock them but could still get them out within a few days, and that most of their customers just preferred the more mainstream crankset brands (Shimano etc) because they were now probably just as good quality and as reliable etc.

Anyway, went on their site and ordered the silver 175mm MiddleBurn RS8 XType with a red spider.  Happily the item arrived very quickly, I think it took just 3-4 days to arrive which was great, I'd expected to have to wait at least a week so very happy with that and Clee's service there.

The crankset itself arrived in a heavily padded plastic envelope.  After unpacking it, there was a vacuum wrapped plastic packet inside with the crankset in and some instructions:

The engineering on them is beautiful, very much like Hope's, just really minimal in terms of materials and fussiness (or lack of!), but just oozing with quality:

In the photo above, actually you can see a few little scuff marks on the drive side crank (under the 'M' on the bevelled bit).  I didn't actually see this until the following day, but they don't look like anything more than superficial scratches so I couldn't be bothered complaining about that.  They do have a lifetime warranty on the materials so if it does turn out to be something more than just superficial then hopefully I should be able to send it back and get it replaced.

The preload adjuster is below:

Never seen a preload adjuster before on a crank, was quite intrigued by it... actually when I finally came to fit it, the adjuster was very obvious, it's really just a way to ensure that the crank is correctly located within the bottom bracket shell - you tighten the adjuster to take up any play / gap between the non-drive side crank and the BB shell.

Here's the thing slotted together pre install:

Will be fitting that tomorrow I think.

Fitted Hope Stainless Steel Bottom Bracket

Well, after having had this sat around for about a month doing nothing but looking pretty as hell, I finally got to install it now the crankset is here!!!

I did have a very minor issue fitting it into the BB shell - the reaming on the BB shell threads was slightly burred around the lug holes where the various tubes are welded to the BB shell.  It was actually fine though, just meant putting a bit more pressure on to get it 'past' those tube lugholes.

Otherwise it fitted like a dream, buttery smooth to tighten up as you'd expect with a brand new frame / bottom bracket.

The instructions for the BB indicated to put two spacers on the drive side and just one on the non-drive side (I think that's right, going from memory here)... so I did that and it seems fine.

One quibble - as with most Hope components - was that there was no indication in the fitting instructions as to how tight to tighten the BB cups.  In the end I went for about 30-40Nm, which is reasonably tight but not overtight (I think Shimano say 35-50Nm).  I'll check on it after a few months to see if it needs nipping up a bit.

Serviced USE Shokpost / Fitted new Charge Scoop saddle

Notes from logbook:
Serviced Shokpost & fitted new Charge Scoop Saddle (£35).

Fitted new springs & elastomers + changed bushes / keys / o-ring on Shokpost.

Yellow spring kit.

USE Shokpost Servicing

Spent most of the time today on the bike servicing the USE Shokpost.  Took it apart, shook out the old springs / elastomers, gave the post tube and 'piston' a good degrease/wash/dry, then added back the new spring + elastomer.

Here's a close up of the 'Shokpost Combo Kit' (consisting of one spring and one elastomer - basically a series of very hard plastic 'blobs' welded together, the yellow thing in the picture!) and the service kit (consisting of two white plastic keys, two green bushes, an o-ring and a white plastic seal):

Servicing the 'piston' (ie the bit that rides on 'top' of the spring / inside the main seatpost 'tube' bit of the shokpost / attaches to the saddle) is a bit of a faff because of the two plastic 'keys' that you have to fit into very narrow grooves, one down each side of the post.  In theory this is a simple and very obvious task to complete, but in reality it's a massive pain in the backside!

The reason for the problem is that the keys are a very very tight fit - too tight a fit you would probably say to be done by hand.  Perhaps if it was done in perfect factory conditions then the keys would be 'just right', but in reality when you're trying to fit the keys by hand, it's all but impossible without either resorting to hammering them in (the instructions do actually say to use a hammer!), or to sanding away the top of the keys slightly so it fits in the grooves easier.

I went for the latter option.  The plastic material the keys are made from actually sands down very easily - it's more like a very dense wax than a plastic, not quite sure what they use to make it but it's very easily sanded down (too easily in fact, if you try it be careful!).  I just used a bit of 2 in 1 emery type paper, very smooth grained sanding paper.

Anyway, after that, the keys fit fine and it was just a matter of fitting the new bushes, inserting the piston section into the tube and re-fitting the bottom cap.  ONLY snag with that / gotcha to be aware of (which if memory serves I hit upon exactly the same way last time!) is that the keys have to be put into the grooves AFTER you've put the top cap on the piston.

Not sure why I'm explaining this because without any photos it's impossible to know wtf I'm on about, you'd only know if you had the thing in your hands and were trying to figure out how to do it!

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the actual servicing of the post or the post dismantled which is a shame.

Charge Scoop Saddle

I'd been deliberating about what saddle to go for for quite some time.  Not quite as long as for the crankset, but still quite a few weeks!

I had considered going with a Brooks B17 or Imperial saddle on the back of various excellent reviews.  I do still slightly wish I'd gone for that option actually because it would have fit in nicely with having sourced as many high quality / nicely engineered / crafted UK parts as possible for the bike.

But in the end I must admit my decision was more of a whim than anything else.  I received a newsletter email from Bike Magic where they had a link to a review of the new Charge Scoop saddle.  On reading the review I was very impressed, and actually looking into it more Charge are actually a UK based company anyway so I still get to have a little slice of UK quality on the bike anyway. ;)

The saddle itself is very streamlined and minimal in it's build, comprising only 3 parts - the rail, the undercarriage and the top (gah can't think how to describe the bit you sit on lol).

The saddle itself has a groove down the centre to ease pressure on your backside (yes, I even did some research into that kind of pressure!), and the overall design of it I would say is halfway between a racing saddle and a 'comfort' saddle - fairly wide but long and sleek towards the nose.

Here's some pictures of it fitted to the bike:

 

Not too much really to say about it, I did have trouble later with the seatpost clamp slipping which is detailed in later posts.  Generally though after 200 miles of riding so far I'm very happy with the saddle and would recommend it for anyone looking for a hybrid performance / comfort saddle.

FINALLY I found this image of the bike taken on the same day.  It's probably the first photo of the bike 'completed' I think - or at least ready to ride at a push:

I did fit the Middleburn crank after taking that ^ shot, but generally I think the bike looks very sleek like that^. :)

More new parts: Shokpost service kit + springs / Hope seatpost clamp / Avid Brake Noodles

More parts again today:

• Hope Seat post clamp (£13.89 from Ebay (Wooly Hat Shop))
• Avid V-Brake Noodle and Overcoat (135 degree / Front) (£3.51 from Wiggle)
• Avid V-Brake Noodle and Overcoat (90 degree / Rear) (£3.49 from CRC)
• USE Combo Spring Kit (medium) (£13.19 from Wiggle)
• USE Shokpost Seat Post Service Kit (£8.36 from Wiggle)

Not too much to say about most of these bits really.  The service kit for the Shokpost is a bit pricey really for what it is but I suppose that's how they make their money and they do last a good 2-3yrs, same with the springs.

The Avid noodles... again not much to say really, except that I'd been using two 90° 'noodles' on my old Marin for years not realizing they weren't quite 'right' - the front noodle needs to be a 'tighter' 135° angle to be properly fitting with the cable run for the front brakes, but hell I didn't notice for years or was aware of it but knew it didn't matter too much.  Anyway, it was time to get new ones anyway so I got one 90° and one 135°.

Hope Seatpost Clamp

I went for this because I'd recently purchased the same item in a different colour for my XC bike and had been impressed at the quality of it.  Then again, well it's a clamp, there's not a lot to it really!  Does look nice in anodized red though. ;)

New parts: USE Shokpost Gator / KMC X9 73 9 speed chain

Got through a couple more bits today:

• KMC x9 73 9 speed chain (£13.99 from CRC)
• USE Shokpost Rubber Gator (£4.03 from CRC)

KMC X9 73 9 speed chain

I've never come across KMC before so these were a bit of a gamble.  The reason I went for them was primarily because they were one of the few manufacturers to do a chain in 116 links.

I needed 116 links because the chainstay on the Surly LHT is longer than most frames to accommodate panniers with plenty of spare foot room.  However the default number of links seems to be 112 links nowadays - SRAM seem to exclusively do 112 links, as do Shimano, although I didn't spend too long looking to be honest.  In the end one of the few companies to do 116 links was KMC, so I just went with it:

The chain itself seems to be pretty heavy duty relatively speaking, with solid pins and fairly thick chain plates (I'm comparing to something like the SRAM PC series which are very lightweight and come with hollow pins at the top end of the series).

I wasn't too bothered about this given that it was a fairly heavy duty bike / tanky bike anyway and would be carrying a lot of load most of the time anyway so a few extra grammes wasn't going to hurt, I thought.

Anyway, turns out I still had to remove 2 links from this new chain anyway so that it would fit properly.  I did the 'usual' measuring up routine of putting the chain around the largest sprockets at the front and back WITHOUT putting it through the rear derailleur and then adjusting it / shortening it so that there was one link 'spare' or 'loose'.

Here's a shot of the chain on the largest sprockets at the maximum possible extension, including the rear derailleur:

So that looks exactly right really, I'd never put the chain/gears in that kind of configuration under normal riding conditions obviously but it's good to know that if it ever did happen by mistake that it can take it.

Here's a shot of it on the smallest sprockets front/rear:

Again, not normally a configuration that will happen in real riding conditions but still it's nice to know the chain isn't falling off on that setting just in case.

All in all, happy enough with that chain setup.

USE Alien XCR Shokpost Gator

Nowt to say about this really, it's a bit of rubber fer gawds sake!:

I decided to refurbish / service the existing USE Shokpost I have and carry on using it.  I actually won the thing in a competition / prize draw from Bike Magic some 8-10 years ago now for submitting a review for Ortlieb panniers.

Wowser, just managed to find details of that review here back in November 2003 - so 10 years ago!:

USE member review winners

Here's a quote from that page:

The October ones first, then. Top prize of a USE Shokpost, baseball hat and Ring-O-Star headset preloading gizmo goes to Tim B (Cotic Soul). Runners-up prizes of hats and Ring-O-Stars go to Andy Allsopp (Kryptonite Kryptoflex cable), Paul Cooper (MET Parachute helmet) and Matthew Smith (Egg Beater pedals).

There are old links to the reviews in the article but unfortunately it seems they're no longer visible / the URLs are out of date. :(

ANYWAY, yes I decided to carry on using that Shokpost since it was around £80 at the time I won it, so a very decent seatpost, and it is highly serviceable (USE do brilliant after sales service / spares)... so I figured I'd give it a good refurbish / service, change the springs / elastomer and get a new gator for it (the old one was split / had perished).

Fitted gear cable / initial gear adjustment

Notes from logbook:
Fitted gear cable front and rear.  Used remaining red gear cable outer (inner cable was included with the gear shifters).

Provisionally adjusted gears, seems to be OK, although the chain might be too short now (because the chain stays on the new frame are longer perhaps?).

Front gear mech cable clamp seemed slightly odd, but think this is just down to the newer design.

For the first time the bike actually 'looks' like a proper bike!