Weird and wonderful Surly Cross-Check (RIP) builds

The other day I read the Surly Cross-Check is no more.  Bicycle Pubes made a nice eulogy:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx8Inybszcp/

I bought mine back in 2010.  Initially it was my very vanilla CX/Road/touring bike.  Then it became my commuter and I realise our relationship became somewhat abusive where I would just bolt random bits onto it and it would just carry on as if nothing was wrong.  Once I started carting the kids around in a trailer I decided I wanted an ebike so I found one of these supermarket shopping bikes that had been crashed and took the motor and battery off that.  I needed a new drivetrain and discovered that bike-discount had a Nuvinci 330 hub with 93% off.  Apart from that, any parts I bought were very much ‘sort by discount first’ purchases.

Looking back, I think this is the point where we hit rock bottom:

Highlights include 3d printed adapters so that I could mount the ebike controller and the nuvinci shifter to the drop bars.

Now that I don’t have to use the trailer as much I’ve found I’m not using the Surly for commuting much anymore.  My plan is to rebuild more or less as it originally was.  A nice simple 10 speed CX bike.  I might even ditch the full mud guards.

Anyway, show us your weird and wonderful Surly Cross Check builds.

Long cranks?

Long cranks?

Funnily enough, they’re the ones that came with the bike.  But yeah, pedaling through corners can be an experience when your nylon pedal digs into the tarmac 🙂

I think it’s accentuated by the pedals. By George, they follow you round the room don’t they?

I had a bastardised Specialized Tricross singlespeed that had a similar hub geared, child trailer-towing, child-seat-using, mudguard-equipped life, followed by a brief burst of glory under my porky frame at the SSCX uh worlds I think it was in Brighton one year.

Anyway: nice bike. I sort of see what you mean about that pic being a low point, but it’s still pretty cool.

I love mine. Having had a few Surlys over the years, a Cross-Check had escaped me. I was wanting to build a CX bike for this year and I heard on the grapevine that they might be quietly killed off, so I bought one. So far it’s been a full commuter build, and is currently stripped down as my SSCX race bike.

There’s so much I love about that bikes, starting with the tyres and including the cantis

I was quite happy with the original Tektro Oryx canti brakes that came with mine but at some point the front brake started screaming like a banshee.  Eventually I found some cheap v-brake drop bar levers and so I swapped out the cantis for some Vs I had in my parts box.

When I rebuild it I might invest in some decent cantis because they just look right.