hi Jim -

Here's a photo of my Surly in race mode from this (2006) season. It doubles as a commuter bike, but the only differences are the seatpost, seat (Brooks), trail-a-bike hitch and bottle cages. It's back in commuter mode now, and this is the only clear-ish photo i had of it in race mode, so i doctored up this photo a bit to tone down the distracting background.

The bike was new this spring, has about 1300 mostly commuting miles on it now. It was the first new bike i've built up from scratch, including wheels. I'm happy to say that it's survived two months of nearly weekly racing this fall with no problems. It's a great all-rounder, but does a fine job as a race bike (one 3rd place finish for me). I still need to drop the front shifter and derailleur and put on a chain keeper, and I plan on trying at least one race next year with this as a singlespeed.

the specs:
2006 Surly Crosscheck, 62cm, black
FSA Orbit headset American Classic
seatpost WTB saddle (new, can't remember the model)
LX 36 front, XT 36 rear hub, Velocity Dyad rims, Wheelsmith 14-15-14 spokes
Ritchey Speedmax tires Sugino XD double crank with 42t FSA single chainring (outside position)
11-30 XT cassette
Crank Bros Candy pedals
Shimano LX cantilevers, circa 1993
Shimano LX rear derailleur, circa '93
Suntour ARX front derailleur, circa '8?
Rivendell 1/2 lugged stem
Nitto Noodle bars, 46cm
Ultegra 8-speed bar-end shifters
Cane Creek brake levers
White cloth bar tape - over inner tube on top, with black/white diamond weave on drops

-- Bill Connell

St. Paul, MN

http://wjc.fidean.net/log/

bconnell@gmail.com