First ride on the Long Haul Trucker
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008Aside from some test rides at the bike shop (including one in which an inner tube blew out — I chose not to view that as a bad omen) and a ride around some residential neighborhoods Sunday night, I didn’t get to ride my new bike until last night. It was hot and humid, but obviously that was not going to deter me from riding. I set out to do the Shilo route, as that route has a few good hills, and Shilo is one of the roughest and most fun and challenging roads around.
I rode out to Bethel Lane, which is a nicely-flowing, curvy road. When I reached the big hill, I really let loose. The Trucker feels incredibly solid at speed, and the wider tires grip very well and inspire confidence. There’s a bit of sand at the bottom of the hill that can be a little sketchy on the road bike, but the Trucker loved it.
I rode along the valley for a few minutes and stopped by a creek for a couple of photos.
My Brooks saddle and Keven’s Bag look better on the Utility Blue LHT than on my red road bike
Next was a big climb that was an absolute snap. The gearing on the Trucker is really excessive for unloaded riding. I made the climb (which I normally ride in the lowest gear on my road bike) in the middle ring. I am confident that I could make the same climb while hauling a lot of gear with no trouble. I stopped at the top of the hill to snap a few more photos. It was so hot and humid that it was a bit hazy, and I shot into the sun for some interesting effects.
Long Haul Trucker, leaning up against a fence
I reached Shilo Road, and this was a great chance to run the bike through its paces. The handling was solid through all the twists and turns. The fatter tires gave me more confidence and allowed me to lean into the turns a lot more, even when there was sand or gravel on the road. So far I’m not loving the bar-end shifters, though, they are a little inconvenient. I’ll give them more of a chance and see if they grow on me. I also made a few saddle adjustments, and it’ll probably take me a while to get that set up how I like it.
Shilo Road was a lot of fun, and the bike handled great. I sometimes feel on my road bike like there’s some flex when going over a rough road or standing to climb. I don’t notice any such flex with the Trucker’s frame. I do notice some chain slop; I guess that’s the price you pay for having such a wide range of gears. They have repaved one lane of Shilo, and it had a lot of loose bits of asphault. I wonder if they’ll be repaving the whole road.
Long Haul Trucker along Shilo Road
I rode Anderson Lane over Old 37 to ride back. This bike makes the hills so easy with is low gearing. I did stop and make some more saddle adjustments — I forgot how long it took to dial in the saddle position on my road bike. What a pain. Here are a few more shots from my ride.
Action shot. It’s great riding in sandals (I had platforms installed on the Trucker)
Things I like about the Long Haul Trucker:
- Smooth ride
- Solid feel inspires confidence
- Wide tires
- It’s STEEL. I love it.
- Beautiful bike. It looks even better in person.
- Wide gear range
- Higher handlebars
- Three water bottle cages
- Can haul a lot of stuff (untested as yet, but I have no doubt it’ll be great for this)
- Handles surprisingly well unloaded
- Should handle gravel well (not tested yet)
- Frame has every braze-on known to man (and then some)
- Incredibly versatile — I plan on trying various combinations of fat/skinny tires with and without racks and fenders, etc.
Things I dislike:
- The bar-end shifters are inconvient to reach
- Chain slop
- The handlebars feel a bit narrow
- The brake hoods don’t have a place to hold on above the levers; the Tiagra ones on my road bike do. I miss having that hand position.
- Third water bottle cage doesn’t have much clearance, at least on my 56cm frame. I had to use a small water bottle as it looked like a normal one would rub the tire.
- Stock saddle sucks (but I replaced it with my leather saddle immediately, so no worries)
- It’s heavy (but so am I)
I think this bike is going to be fantastic. I’ll make a lot of customizations, but the LHT Complete build is a good starting point. Someday maybe I’ll build a bike from scratch, but I can’t see doing that right now.