Overview:

The Long Haul Trucker is a great steel frame bike built specifically for bicycle touring. With a lower bottom bracket and long chain stay, the bike is made to stay stable with the extra weight of touring and give you a little extra clearance between your heal and rear panniers. The LHT also has a ton of braze-ons for racks and fenders, extra spokes stashed on the frame in case you break some, and room for wider tires (“fatties fit fine”) for a cushier ride. It seems this bike is becoming more and more popular which is a great testament to its quality and durability.

Frame:

Surly uses cromoly steel as opposed to aluminum, carbon fiber, or titanium. Steal can be a bit heavier with more flex so you’re probably not going to win any races on the bike unless competitions turn your into The Hulk. On the upside, the more forgiving steel can make for a less jarring and more comfortable ride. If you can, test ride a LHT for sizing as the geometry between brands is different. Something that may be of interest as well is that if you get a 52 or 54cm frame, the bike comes with 26″ wheels. From what I’ve seen, most shops put 700c wheels on all sizes bigger than 54cm.

Components:

Components change with price fluctuation but Surly’s price point on this bike ensures you’ll get a decent grouping of components. Not the best and not the worst. Also worth mentioning is the bar-end shifters on the LHT. While you don’t do as much shifting while touring as you might in a race, the bar end shifters can take some getting used to. Most notably, the bar-end shifters can be awkward anytime you’re riding out of the saddle on a big hill or a sprint and need to shift. On the upside, the shifters are very low maintenance and easy to adjust.

Consensus:

This bike does what it was designed to do very well! With a thought out design, great durability, and a great ride, get down to your local shop to try one out. Geometry from bike to bike is different so be sure it feels good for you. This bike fits most body types great but I do have a couple friends that this bike doesn’t fit very well.