Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Cross Dressing...

I have to say it, I am not a roadie, not a guy who indulges in the complexity of gears and I refuse to shave my legs; I am but a man. So, with that in mind I set out to disassemble my Surly Cross Check from a geared cyclocross machine and covert her into a blinglespeed commuter. Amen.
First I removed the damn drop bar p.o.s., I don't know how anyone holds onto those weird shaped things anyway...see ya. Then off with the whole Dura Ace group; front and rear derailleurs, crank set and sti shifters/levers...gone. Finally I removed the little girly fork.
To replace the aforementioned garbage (not really garbage, but I don't need it, you're welcome Jesse), I slapped on a pimp old schooly set of Race Face Turbine cranks with a 34 tooth Surly Ring and yes, a bash guard. For the cockpit I chose a sweet Jones Titanium H-Bar with some classic Real canti-levers and an On One 29er fork. I used a spacer kit and went with a Surly 16t cog on the existing Chris King hub. Kept the trusty Thomson stem and post, Paul canti brakes, Salsa clamp and Chris King headset. Finished her up with a new and flashy Sella San Marco Saddle and new cables & housing - shabam! Ready to rock (& roll)
I'll be using the new and improved Superman Surly as my commuter and general urban assault tank, probably hitting a bit of single track along the way. Ahhh, I feel much better now.

1 comment:

F.W. Adams said...

Nice conversion--hope you have a loooooong commute so you can enjoy it that much more!