Paul's Surly Cross-Check

I love this bike!

I REALLY love this bike!!

I own 2.5 bikes currently, this one, my daily - cycle to work and don’t mind locking it up anywhere - bike and a long term project based around a 1985 Saracen Kili Flyer ATB.

The Cross-Check is my best bike or, as my little boy calls it, my posh bike. I finished building it up in September last year and from the very first shake down ride it has proven to be the best bike I’ve ever owned and, eclipsed my original ideas about what it would give me in terms of how I wanted to experience and enjoy my cycling.

After years of riding racing bikes I wanted a bike that I could do dedicated ‘road riding’ on, but one I could also ride down the canal on, or comfortably tackle bridleways, tracks and trails on. I wanted full mudguards, a dynamo light and the ability to carry everything I needed on any given ride, be it a Sunday breakfast run or an overnighter. I also wanted a more traditional riding position - a fistful of seat post and bars up nice and high (no more 12cm of drop!)

In a perfect world we’d all be up to our necks in ‘dream bikes’ and if I could have any bike I’d disappear down that Rabbit Hole and probably never make it back! Thankfully, one of the ideas I had for this bike was practicality and function over anything else. I still wanted a lovely looking bike, but I wanted to get away from the whole blingy modern nonsense. And it was definitely to be a bike that gets ridden, not an OCD - money no object - project. I wanted the opposite to the bikes I’d been riding and something a bit more traditional.

I’ve liked the look of Surly’s for a long time and have countless friends who own them, so I was already well aware of their reputation for being versatile, well built, well thought out and - most importantly for me - reasonably priced!

The build

Frame & forks

62cm Surly Cross-Check with matching Surly fork, the colour is ‘Tangerine Dream’

Wheels

Rims are H-Plus SON TB14 32h front and 36h rear. Front hub is a SON 28 dynamo, the rear is a Velo Orange Grand Cru.

The rims are well made, strong and a nod to classic tubular rims of the past - at 23mm wide they provide a good platform for wider tyres - they also look lovely in this polished version. The SON dynamo hub is a well established benchmark and I have wanted one for a long time - such a beautiful design - I had to have one! The rear hub ticked all the boxes in terms of value for money, quality and robustness. It also fitted perfectly with the look I was after. Something with classic styling, mimicking hubs of old with high flanges and lovely decorative drilling on the non drive side.

Tyres

Compass Barlow Pass 700x38mm.