First ride out on the Surly

Took the first extended ride out on the new bike today, albeit doing about an average of 5-10 miles an hour whilst I was constantly looking down here and there to see what was creaking, how the leg clearance was, how the saddle was for height, how the stem was for height, etc etc...

But generally I'm very pleased with the way the bike handles.

Initial Impressions

Key words I think I'd use to describe it from my experience so far are:

• Upright
  The 'virtual' top tube length seems to be a lot shorter than the old Marin bike, let alone my current 'main' racing/cyclocross bike.  Which isn't a bad thing in and of itself - it means you have more control over the bike and can turn on a smaller circle for one thing... but it does also mean the following:
• Cramped
  The bike does feel slightly cramped at the moment because of the apparently smaller top tube distance.  I think I might try and look into some kind of riser bar solution or even some kind of touring bike handlebar solution (butterfly bars are they called?) to some how extend 'forwards' the reach.  OR even just play around with the existing riser bar and turn it around so that it extends as far 'forwards' as possible, that might give me an extra inch or two.
• Stable
  The bike does feel very stable when you're riding it, and I imagine that that feeling will only increase once it's loaded with a rack and full panniers.  Which is obviously a very good thing for touring which is the purpose of the frame after all (and in my case for doing the shopping with!!!).
• Sturdy
  Same as above really, the bike feels very sturdy out and about and you don't feel like you'll come off easily.
• Climbable
  For want of a better word, by 'climbable' I mean the gearing on the bike is very low.  The combination of 22/32/44 on the front and 11-34 at the back is very much an MTB setup and I made a concious decision to go with that to make it easier when hauling bigger loads.  So that's OK... I think it's just a bit of a surprise how low the gearing is after not having ridden a 26" MTB for a few months!

Issues I've had today on the ride then:

Saddle / Seatpost

Had a bit of an issue with the saddle slipping back in the seat post clamp, literally as soon as I sat down on the saddle!  The USE XCR Alien Shokpost clamp is really terrible - or rather the two long bolts that bolt the clamp into place are terrible - they're about 3mm wide, with the smallest possible hex head, and the hex head is only about what seems like 3mm deep... so it's an absolute nightmare getting it tightened without stripping the hex head... grrr.  Might have to try and find a couple of new bolts to fit it I think.

Also the seatpost clamp is also causing problems - the seatpost keeps slipping either side to side, or down into the seatpost tube, which is something I've never had an issue with before.  I think it's a combination of the fact I have to use a shim with the Alien XCR Shokpost/seatpost, and the fact that I used anti-seize grease on the shim and the seatpost, AND the fact that I don't want to crank on the Hope seatpost clamp too much for fear that it will shear the bolt - it's one of those annoying Swiss cheese type bolts that I can tell will snap if I look at it the wrong way, let alone crank the torque up on it!

I'll probably remove all the grease from the seatpost itself (it is aluminium AND there's an aluminium shim as well anyway so they probably won't stick to the steel frame / seatpost tube anyway).  Also I'll probably crank the torque up a bit on the seatpost clamp as well - at the moment I@m up to about 14Nm, which is reasonably tight but not overly tight, I think on the old Marin I would have had it at at least 25-30Nm, but that was a solid steel bolt with a sturdy steel clamp so there was no worry with shearing the thing.

Gear Thrubbing(!)

Not sure what to make of this but there was a constant 'thrubbing' noise from the rear derailleur when I put any pressure on it in the middle chainring at the front.  Mysteriously the noise disappears when you're not on the middle chainring (it doesn't seem to be a rubbing on the front derailleur either which that fact would suggest).

It almost seems like an issue with the rear derailleur 'line' from the rear mech dropout down through the guide wheel to the bottom jockey wheel / pulley wheel.  But then again it could even just be these new Hope jockey wheels and the noise they make being 'odd' - they're aluminium, so make a different noise to the normal solid plastic wheels, almost like a ringing sound (?!) when they're put under pressure.

The other thing I wonder is if the new wheels have the right number of teeth, they have 11 teeth so have to check that's right, I know you can get wheels with different numbers of teeth...

Could try switching back to the old jockey wheels just to see if the noise goes maybe.  And to count the teeth. ;)

Top Tube Distance

The top tube seems very short as I said above, thinking about adjusting the handlebar / riser so it 'extends' forward a little bit to give a bit of extra 'reach'.  That or change the riser bar for a butterfly bar or a riser with more reach somehow.  Not sure yet.  Not the end of the world though, it's fine really and would probably get used to it to be honest.