I’ve had my Long Haul Trucker for just over 3 years now and just recently ticked over 15,000 kms on the odometer. By some standards this might not be monumental mileage but I believe it’s more than enough to gauge the componentry of the Long Haul Trucker Complete.

Ride wise my Long Haul Trucker has been as dreamy as when I first got it. Three years later with 15,000kms on the clock and I still wouldn’t replace it for any other bike in the world.

Surly offer the Long Haul Trucker either as a frame or as a complete bike, aptly named the ‘Long Haul Trucker Complete’. Not wanting to fuss around deciding each and every component for my bike, I put my trust in Surly and let them decide on the componentry.

For the most part these components have held up well and by and large I’m still using the original components that came with the bike. Some however have not fared well and have had to be replaced.

Rather than give you a ride quality review (which I can only really describe as excellent anyway), I figured it’d probably be of more use to review the components Surly chose to build the Long Haul Trucker with.

The Bike

My Long Haul Trucker is a 2008 model in the ‘olive green’. Not the 2012 dark green Surly are using, but a few shades lighter.

First and foremost my bike is treated for what it is, a workhorse utility bike. Once of the deciding factors in purchasing my Long Haul Trucker was that I didn’t want a fragile carbon bike with sissy (but expensive) components I had to baby.

Basically if I had to worry about taking bike through the equivalent of a car wash everytime someone sneezed on it… it wasn’t a bike I was interested in.

That said my Long Haul Trucker has only ever been kept outside (under cover) for about 3-4 months of its life and otherwise has always been kept indoors. I do ride my Trucker in the rain but never wipe it down after a ride, it’s always left to air dry.

Finally the bike is taken to a bike shop roughly every six months or so and I get them to strip and clean the drive train. I know how to do this but I’m lazy and it’s just easier to pay someone $10-$15 to do it and not have to worry about it.

Other than that, what you see is what you get with my Long Haul Trucker.

For the purposes of this review, the drive train is due its annual clean sometime in January or so and the bike itself has never been washed or wiped down (other than being ridden in the rain).

The Frame

Surly Long Haul Trucker, 100% Surly 4130 CroMoly steel. Main triangle double butted. TIG-welded.

Can’t say I’ve had any complaints with my Long Haul Trucker frame. Despite not cleaning it once since I bought the bike, there’s no muck build up (thankyou fenders!), no paint bubbling and no visible signs of rust.

All in all, apart from some minor scratches the paint job and frame look as good as the day I bought it and has stood up to any load I’ve thrown at it.

I think the heaviest load to date was when I used the bike to do some runs when I last moved house. Even with a top-heavy load the frame rides like a sturdy rock.

I did notice the rear chain stay on the drivetrain end was getting a bit scratched from the chain slapping the metal, but after whacking on a chain stay protector and since have had no problems.

Fork

Surly Long Haul Trucker, 100% CroMoly, lugged and brazed. 1-1/8″ threadless steer tube uncut.

I’ll admit I don’t know what most of the above description of my Long Haul Trucker fork means… but use wise like the rest of the frame my fork has been perfect.

Looks as good as new and there’s only slight hints of rust.

As you can see not much and as far as I can tell nothing to worry about (I’m aware that rust can form on the inside of tubes but I don’t believe this is happening based on inspection).

Crankset

Surly aren’t using them anymore but I believe my 2008 Trucker is fitted with a Sugino XD 600 (48-36-26t) crankset.

Again, absolutely no complaints here. The gear range of the crankset hasn’t let me down and wear wise I think they’ve got another few years in them yet.

I primarily ride around in the middle chainring so I imagine when the time comes that’ll be all I’ll have to replace once it’s worn down and start slipping.

Bottom Bracket

No photo of the Shimano UN-53 (Surly now use UN-54) Square taper interface. 68 x 118mm as it’s something I’ve never had to pull out.

This Shimano bottom bracket runs as smooth as the day I got my Trucker and I’ve had no problems with it.

Front Derailleur

My 2008 Trucker is equipped with a Shimano Tiagra triple front derailleur but Surly have since downgraded this on the Long Haul Trucker Complete to a ‘Shimano Sora , FD-3403. Silver’.

I can’t comment on the Sora but the Tiagra my Trucker came with hasn’t caused me any dramas. Adjustment wise due to the fact that the front derailleur is on friction selection rather than indexed, I’ve only had to adjust the cable tension once in the three years I’ve been riding the bike.

Rear Derailleur

Again, Surly are currently using a ” whereas my bike is equipped with a ‘Shimano Deore XT RD-M761′ rear derailleur.

This has obviously needed more adjustment than the front derailleur but that’s to be expected. Use wise I haven’t had any problems and imagine I’ll get at least another few years good use out of this derailleur at which point I’d be happy fitting the same model (or equivalent) back on.

Cog Cassette

Running a Shimano Deore XT CS-M770 9-speed (Surly now use the Shimano HG-50) as you can see I spend most of my time in the midrange cogs (who doesn’t).

Performance wise when I changed my chain last a few months ago, I did notice some initial slipping climbing hills on the 26T cog. This is the cog I use to kick off from a standing start and to climb mountains/hills with in the granny gear at the front so wear is expected here.

The slipping seems to have gone now as the chain has worn into the cassette but I’m thinking the next chain change I might have to get this cog swapped out.

I tried hunting around for one online but didn’t turn up much, hopefully it’s easily sourced locally as it seems a bit of a waste to change the entire cassette out if it’s just the one cog that’s worn.

Chain

Surly are using a Shimano chain now but my bike came equipped with a SRAM PC971 chain. I got about 4000km or so out of it from memory before it needed a change.

Not too bad but I replaced it with a Wipperman 908 9 speed chain and am getting a few thousand km more mileage out of the chain. I’ve changed the chain again since replacing the SRAM and stuck with Wipperman, I plan on sticking with them as I’ve been happy with the performance of these chains.

I could probably get even more mileage out of it if I wasn’t getting the chain cleaned only every 6 months or so, but them’s the breaks… I’m lazy when it comes to chain cleaning so I’m not going to pretend that’s going to change anytime soon!

Headset

Surly are currently using a ‘Cane Creek 40 , 1-1/8″ threadless’ headset in the black, but my Long Haul Trucker is equipped with a ”Ritchey Logic Comp1-1/8″ threadless’ one.

Not much to say about the Ritchey other than it hasn’t caused me any problems and does the job well.

Brakes

My bike is fitted with Tektro Oryx cantilevers whereas Surly are now using ‘Tektro CR720′ brakes.

Dunno much about the difference between these two but the Oryx are a pain in the arse. Thankfully the tradeoff is I only seem to have to need to adjust them every 6 months or so but they tend to go off-centre long before that and whilst there’s no rim rubbing, it means one pad wears out faster than the other.

The components used on the Tektro brakes appears to be pretty crappy quality too, as you can see below it’s the only part of my Long Haul Trucker where rust has visibly taken over.

When these brakes eventually fail I’m going to definitely replace them with something else that’s a little easier to adjust. If I’ve learnt anything from my Tektro Oryx experience it’s how much I miss my 5 second adjust with a screwdriver ritual of my Shimano Tiagra caliper brakes I had on my Gitane Mach 1600 bike before the Trucker.

…those were the days. Can somebody please invent caliper brakes that fit wider tires… PLEEEEEAAAAAASE.

Brake Levers

Unlike the crappy brakes themselves, the Tektro R200A levers have been pretty decent (note Shimano are currently using Tektro RL340 levers).

If I had one complaint about the design it’s that I have larger hands and I do find the brake hoods rather small to grip at times. Coming from my large Tiagra hoods on my Gitane, these Tektro hoods were comparatively tiny.

That said I spend most of my time cruising on the flat of the handlebar so it hasn’t been much of an issue. If the levers ever buggered up though I’d definitely be replacing them with something more ergonomically comfortable though.

Note the cut above on the hood was my own fault (lifting another bike over my LHT when the chainring caught on my handlebar), and whilst I initially thought the hood would need replacing, it’d help up pretty well. They might be cheap but at least the Tektro levers are sturdy.

Shifters

Shimano bar-end , SL-BS77 2/3 x 9-speed.

I was worried about using bar shifters initially but can honestly say now that after three years of using them it’s like driving a manual car, something that’s comes completely naturally to me.

Performance wise can’t say I’ve had any dramas with the SL-BS77 levers. They do the job of shifting well and it’s nice to know that if the rear indexing ever buggered up, I can always just flick it over to friction mode and be on my way.

If either of these levers broke I’d have no problems replacing them with the same (or Shimano Dura-Ace 7700 equivalent) and have no desire to go back to brifters (integrated brakes with gear levers).

Stem

Kalloy AS-009 , 26.0mm bar clamp. Aluminum. 4-bolt face. Silver.

No problems with the Kalloy stem, it looks good as new and shows no signs of fatigue or rust. I haven’t cleaned it once and it’s still shiny!

Handlebars

PMT , Silver

Other than what Surly says above I have no idea about the handlebars I’m running. Comfort wise they’re thick enough for my hands to grip comfortably and I especially like the long flats towards the bar ends. These come in quite handy when climbing long hills under load.

The bar tape Surly use, which they describe only as ‘pretty sweet & comfy cork tape’ is starting to noticeably wear on the left hand side of the bars.

Looks to me like it’s just stretched out a bit and needs a re-wrap. I’ve never done this before and haven’t really looked into it. If I can be arsed I’ll google some Youtube videos on how it’s done or just the shop to do it next time I’m in.

The right side tape is fine so whatever bar tape Surly are using it appears to be pretty durable.

Saddle

WTB SST Comp , Steel rails. Black vinyl.

I can’t really comment on the WTB SST. I swapped mine out pretty soon after getting my Trucker and bought myself a Brooks B-17 saddle.

I’m still using the B-17 saddle and will probably do a writeup at 20,000kms on how it’s going. I can’t really see myself using any other saddle and would gladly replace it with another B-17 should it fail.

Seatpost

Kalloy SP-248D, 27.2mm. 300mm. Silver.

Can’t say I’m too happy with the Kalloy seatpost. It’s a one bolt design which is its weakness and for the longest time I was riding it around having to adjust it every 4-5 months or so.

I initially thought this was due to my Brooks saddle gradually wearing in more but turns out the post bolt itself was wearing out and slipping back each time I adjusted it.

After 2.5 years of service and roughly 10,000 or so km’s one day the bolt sheered right through and the clamp and post itself was ruined.

Wanting a two-bolt design, I replaced the broken Kalloy with a Velo Orange Grand Cru seatpost and love it. It’s been on there for a good six months now or so and hasn’t caused me any dramas.

Seatpost clamp

Shortly before my Kalloy seatpost failed, so did my Surly stainless steel  seatpost clamp. Surly were kind enough to send a replacement and thus far it’s worked as good as my old clamp did before it failed.

In the back of my mind is the worry that this one will also eventually fail and should that happen I’m going to replace it with a Surly Constrictor and see how that goes.

Rims (700c) and spokes

Alex Adventurer, 36h. Double wall. Eyeletted. Black.

I’d never heard of the Alex Adventurer brand till I bought my Long Haul Trucker but I can only say good things about them.

To date I’ve never had to true my rims once. Despite some nasty knocks and potholes hit  under load the rims have remained relatively true over the past three years.

They aren’t perfectly straight but pretty damn close to. I like to keep adjust my brake pads real close to the rims and I never have issues with rim rubbing.

The 14g DT Swiss spokes Surly use haven’t caused me and troubles either. Rust free and they get the job done. I haven’t lost one yet.

Hubs

My Trucker is fitted with Shimano Deore XT 770 hubs on the front (HB-M770) and rear (FH-770, which looks to be superceded by the LX T660).

Surly are currently using LX T660 hubs on the front and rear so I can’t comment on them, but my hubs have performed flawlessly.

I’d definitely be happy about fitting them again (or the current equivalent) should something go wrong.

Tires

Continental Contact , 700c x 37mm. Wire bead. Blackwall.

I originally swapped out the Continental Contact tires to use my old 700×28 Gatorskins which I then again swapped out and went back to the Contacts after around 6000km’s.

I’m currently about 600km short of hitting 10,000km’s on my Contact tires at which point I’ll do a separate review and link to it here.

The general feelings I have towards the Continental Contact tires is positive though. Punctures have been far and few between (2 or 3 in total from memory) and wear wise I think I’ll get another 2000km at least out of the rear.

Not too shabby at all considering these tires are almost exclusively ridden with some kind of load on the rear, even if it’s just a single half full pannier bag carrying some random crap.

Conclusion

All in all weighing up Surly’s choice of components over the headache of building a Long Haul Trucker up myself and having to pick out every little part, I’d say Surly have done a pretty good job. The brakes and seatpost are obviously the weak points in the component choice but overall I’m happy with how the parts have held up.

Even now retrospectively I’d still buy a Long Haul Trucker complete knowing which parts are likely to fail over building one up myself (and let’s face it, I’d be using Surly’s component choice as a guide anyway).

Looking forward I have no plans to get rid of my Long Haul Trucker so I’ll do another review like this after the next 15,000 kms rolls around. It’ll be interesting to see which parts are still original and which have been swapped out. And also if any of the swapped out parts have failed too.

Either way, unless you find tediously selecting each and every component for your bicycle exciting, I can highly recommend Surly’s choice of components in their Long Haul Trucker Complete build as a great starting point. And value for money wise, even building one up yourself you’re not going to do much better than the complete model anyway.

Swap out the saddle, maybe change the brakes, whack on some fenders and off you go!