I built this bike up about a year ago, and it's the one I find myself using more than any other - for commuting, for weekend rides with my wife and friends, for saddlebag touring, it even goes on the occasional training run with the local Veterans cycling club. In fact, if I could keep only one bike, this would be it.

Surly 60cm LHT frame, equipped with mostly mid-level components except for the rear wheel, which is built around a respaced 40-hole Phil Wood tandem hub and a Mavic Module-3 rim, and the cranks, which are NOS Shimano Deore XT M730 from the early 1990s, which in my opinion are the best cranks that Shimano ever made. Mudguards are Berthoud, with a mudflap cut from a dishwashing detergent bottle. The cantilever brakes are also NOS Deore XT, and I have used cable splitters to allow me to easily drop the fat 700x37 Panaracer Pasela tyres out past the brake blocks without much trouble. The saddlebag is a Carradice camper longflap, in green rather than the usual black, which complements the colour of the frame quite nicely.

Nick in Canberra

nick.payne@internode.on.net