Surly 2013 Long Haul Trucker 26" Touring Bike

Bicycle touring has been growing in popularity quite a bit in the last decade, and our Long Haul Trucker has been around for most of that time. Over the years it's developed a devoted following. People understand and appreciate the LHT's dependability and everyday riding comfort, whether they're cruising to the store or lost in the middle of nowhere.

Why the Trucker? Simple. A touring bike's job is to go the distance and then some while carrying you and your gear, all in relative comfort. The Long Haul Trucker was designed in all aspects to do exactly that. Its low bottom bracket and long chainstays provide comfort and stability. We gave it ample tire clearance for larger tires (larger tires soak up a lot of road static) with room for fenders too. The frame's tubing is thicker-walled and larger-diameter than standard road and sport-touring frames, and this pre-tunes it for the weight of cargo. And it's got all the braze-ons, from rack mounts to water bottle cage bosses to spare spoke holders. Like all our frames, it's made of CroMoly steel. We like steel for a lot of reasons, foremost among them the ride quality a well-designed steel frame delivers. It doesn't hurt that steel is relatively inexpensive, or that it is more easily repaired than aluminum, carbon fiber or titanium. You'll probably never need to have the frame repaired, but if you do you're more likely to find someone who can weld steel than someone who can weld ti or aluminum. Repair carbon fiber? Good luck with that.

Designed to be used with cantilever or linear-pull brakes, the standard Long Haul Trucker is available as a frameset and as a complete bike, with 26" wheels in 42–62cm frame sizes, and with 700c wheels in 56–64cm. Yep, we now offer a 64cm.  A well designed bike for tall folks at a production frame price ought to make a lot of folks pretty happy. We're updating the fork too, with custom crown and dropouts. This fork has two sets of eyelets on the dropouts as well as at proper mid-blade height, and 5 x 0.8mm bosses built into the side of the crown. All this makes the fork compatible with most types of racks, and provides options how you can mount racks and carry your stuff.

The component group was chosen for its technical ability, durability, and value.  This is stuff that works well on a fully loaded tourer, will last you a while, and won't shoot holes in your wallet.  You'll add whatever you need to go where you want, like racks and fenders.  Once you have that sorted, get out there and ride.  And then when you get there, keep going.