After over two decades, Surly moved the Cross-Check frameset from their standard lineup of bikes to the ‘Legacy Lineup’ of their website. Surly confirmed that the bike is no longer in production and is unlikely to come back.
If you haven’t owned this gravel/cyclocross/touring/whatever bike yourself, you likely know someone who has. The Surly Cross-Check was the egalitarian choice in cycling, simultaneously someone’s utilitarian dream bike that was attainable and sold at a fair price.
The end of the Cross-Check marks the bike’s reign as the most bike that ever biked, the go-to way to make a pile of parts you hoarded in the corner of your garage into a functioning bicycle, and the defacto option that a bike nerd could happily ride and recommend to their non-bikey friends all the same.
@tk@cycling@mastobikes@mhoye Aw, dang. I rejoined the cycling world 12 or 13 years ago on a black Cross Check. I loved it unreservedly, and kept it in my garage for years after I rode it regularly— it got displaced by lighter, shinier bikes — mostly out of sentimental reasons.
I finally sold it last year to a math grad student who rides it nearly every day.
@chrishuck@tk@cycling@mastobikes
As a Swiss elite cycling racer told me once: cx is one hour of freezing, suffering and going way over your limits. So a perfect winter work out.
Mostly did road racing before the pandemic paused the season so I tried solo TT racing then tried CX which felt like it had the best of all worlds going for it.
First ever CX race was on a custom built 90s Hardrock MTB with drop bars. Fell over 3 times, had fun, and am in my third season of it.
@WilliamNB@nick@cycling@schizanon@famousringo@ssamulczyk I have never had a front derailleur fail either, but then I run friction & replace the cables reasonably often. When servicing other folks bikes, particularly older & lower end bikes, I get a lot of trouble adjusting worn & poorly engineered indexed front derailleurs.
Just run friction, especially on front derailleurs. Few set up issues & so easy to trim.
Kind of annoyed with White Industries at the moment. The original press-fit bearings in my Stanyan’s MI5 rear hub needed replacement a long while ago, so I had my local bike shop order them (which took forever to be shipped by Enduro) and swap them out. Unfortunately, the same amount of play persisted after the bearing swap despite said shop following White Industries’s directions to the T multiple times. My shop has called White Industries multiple times only to not be given any recourse.
I’ve been out that Stanyan for several weeks now and I don’t know if I should just get a different hub put in the wheel or something at this point. :blobfoxannoyed:
“This is no Dutch bike lane with a safe, modern design and well-funded construction. This is an American bike lane—a blood-pumping obstacle course of neglected asphalt and ideas from the 1970s.”
@boardmad Ugh, that’s to hard on my legs. I mostly ride in my flat region, but on occasions I go the the mountains to do some climbing. Now with the growing family I can only afforded take one of my bikes. So it is gravel, because it’s more universal, therefore the gearing…🥰@nickzoic@cycling@rower