Unagidon

Here's another Surly Crosscheck:

All stock except the tranny...
105 STI Shifter
Ultegra fd & rd
105 12-27 cassette
Stock crankset 48/36 with added 26 chainring (yes, I'm wimpy)

I love my bike!

Andy_K 

My bike after Battlecreek Cross -- mostly sand and grass that day.

Big M

Thanks to everyone who was helping me with my inane questions the past few months. My update may be overdue, but here it is.

After a bit of drama with the front shifter and front derailleur's cable routing, this thing's finally road ready. The front shifter was jamming, so Bikesdirect sent me a new one, which I learned to install myself. Tuned it up, checked it over, and finally got it road ready. Pardon the extra cable on the brakes/derailleurs- I didn't want to cut it too short untill I knew it was right. I'm also using the platform pedals I swiped from my old mtb...atleast the color matches

Vaio_s

Do you ever use your drops? The brifters seem really tilted up.

Big M

I don't spend time in the drops unless I'm against a strong headwind. Other than that, it's mostly on the hoods. So considering that, I turned it up a bit to give me the most comfortable hood position.

That said, I'm still experimenting and dialing in my fitment. I tweak it a little every time I ride. I might get a new stem down the road.

marco_e

Surly Cross Check in action a few weeks ago at the Cross Crusade championships.

mtbikerjohn 

Here my Major Jake that I'm building up as a cross/commuter bike. I still need to find the right fenders for it... sucks not having braze-ons for racks and fenders, but I'll work around that.. plus I got a great deal on the frame so I couldn't pass it up... John

rexh

One month old, rides great!
Ritchey bar and stem
Chris King headset
Thomson post
Ultegra FD, RD, 50/34 cranks, hubs, brifters
Mavic CXP 33 rims
Michelin MUD 2 tires
San Marco Rolls Saddle
09 Shorty 6 canti's

ryker

That is a very interesting front cable hanger. I've never seen one like that.

kalare

Facelifted Motobecane Ti in 56cm. I think the only original part left on it is the FSA headset.

MIN 

Nice to see that it's come together for you, Kalare. How do you like that Token fork?

kalare

It's very nice. Super light...a little over 400g cut. I was worried it would change geometry too much at 410mm height, but I haven't noticed at all after adjusting by bars and lowering the stack height a bit. I was chosing between the token and the cross specific Redline disc fork. At around a 260g difference between the two, I took the risk of going with the 410mm fork and I'm glad I did.

BlastRadius

It came with an old Redline Team frameset I had but now you can order one separately.
https://sheldonbrown.com/harris/cable...are-brake.html

Part number CAH59.

slynkie

here's my new BD windsor cylco -


replaced stock seatpost + saddle, shifters + RD with Veloce. shifts nicely with the shimano cassette. wanted to replace the handlebars with newton shallows, but the inline levers don't fit because the newtons don't thin out quick enough.

won't get a chance to really run it through the paces until i bring it to AZ in a couple of weeks..debating whether or not to replace the tires before then.

carbonjockey

where in az?

Dustintendo

how do you like this bike? hows the weight/quality/value for money?

slynkie

sedona area (village of oak creek)

slynkie

hard to say 100%, as i haven't given it a good beating yet. but just based on the #'s, it was a great deal for me, especially if you consider the money i'll make back selling the take-off parts (105 shifters, ultegra RD...and someone out there will hopefully want the no-name seatpost and hatchet saddle!).

wheels are predictably heavy, frame seems well thought out and of reasonable quality. my only complaint with the whole BD experience was it showed up with 30mm tires instead of the advertised 32mm, however, it wasn't even worth going back to them with.

my guess is i'll be quite happy with it, and if i ever want to race it i'll get a set of tubies.

pacificaslim

I don't think I've posted this yet.



I went to the big bike swap meet at the SF Cow Palace a few weeks back, intending to buy more parts to build up a cyclocross bike. But I guess I'll have to sell all the stuff I've acquired so far instead because I ended up buying a complete new '07 Bianchi Axis from a shop's booth! When researching possibly buying a new bike I hadn't even considered this Bianchi because the MSRP of $1399 seemed high for what you get. But at $650 out the door (no tax) I couldn't really pass it up. I suppose they never sold it because of a tiny ding in the top tube, but it doesn't bother me much at all. Also seems the shop borrowed parts off this bike at some point and then built it back up. The rear cane creek brake has gone missing and replaced with a shorty-4 and the sugino compact has been swapped with a deore triple, but that doesn't bother me at all because I've got lots of 15-20% grade hills right behind my house here on the coast and the big two chainrings are 48/36 which I think'll be good for cross.

I changed the seat post to an old Ritchey I had sitting around, put on new shimano 520 pedals, and intend to rewrap the bars in black. I'm loving it. I'll probably put road tires on this alex wheelset and get ultegra/openpro set with crosstires for offroad and eventual racing.

I'm kind of a vintage guy and this is actually my first bike with brifters (still have downtubes on my road bike and of course thumbshifters on my mountain bike). The brifters are brilliant (even though they are just Tiagra: i can't imagine how great the higher end stuff is).



I plan to ride a bunch between now and next year's cross season and then join in the fun around the bay area.

Big M

So did mine. I don't mind because it's my do-it-all bike, so I'd prefer the thinnest tire I can get away with while off-road. And these have been more than adequate on my local mud trail. The error's in my favor if you ask me.

Sucks that they mis-advertised, though. I wonder if they're all coming with 30's?

pacificaslim, sweet deal on the Bianchi! I love the Axis, especially at a discount.

sfcrossrider

Fun?!?!

Cool bike. We start racing in August, and go until February.

lamap

Hi all,
Fort frame (Check Republic)
Shimano Weels
Tiagra derailleurs
specialyzed avatar sedlle
bar end shifters

Great fun to ride.

Have a great christmas,
Luis

Elad63

Found this bike as a bare frame at our local CO-OP up a couple days ago and built it up last night, can not find any info about it anywhere. Sorry crappy camera pics. It's a 48 frame, but fits me great. At first I thought it was crossbike, but it's marked as a tourer. Anyone have any info on it. I did the usual Google search, nothing. Anyways it will be my new tourer/commuter/crossbike. Also posted in Touring and Commuting.

MrPolak

It's interesting that the $1400 Specialized Tricross uses the same Alex rims. I do love the flat black paint job.

Will the decals come off?

slynkie

I didn't realize that about the rims...hopefully they'll take a beating, if nothing else. They sure aren't light.

Decals are under the clearcoat..