Surly Long Haul Trucker - Hauling Groceries

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Surly Long Haul Trucker

 Everyone needs a bike they can run errands on. Monday was a beautiful day to ride a bike and I needed to go to the grocery store to buy a few items. A Surly Long Haul Trucker, with it's heavy duty design, is perfect for this chore.

Having front and rear racks adds to the hauling ability of the Surly. These bikes are designed to haul more weight in the rear than in the front. Hanging the front panniers as low as possible helps with the handing when hauling a cargo. Before venturing far away and adding a lot of weight to your bike it would be a good idea to experiment with some different amounts of weight close to home. 

Handling and stopping are the two biggest problems that arise when riding a heavily loaded bicycle. The Surly Long Haul Trucker has plenty low enough gears! So going isn't a problem. Granted your speed may be slower than normal. But, stopping can be a problem. It's a scary thing to put on the brakes only to realize they aren't slowing you down very much. This bike handles weight well  when it is placed in the rear as long as you stay in the saddle. If you stand up the bike tends to wag it's tail end around. Too much weight on the front will exaggerate the steering and this is a bigger problem than too much weight in the rear.

Two items that this Surly has that makes grocery hauling easier is a nice Brooks B17 Special saddle and Shimano Campus Pedals. The Brooks saddle is so comfortable that riding in regular cloths, non cycling specific cloths, is not a problem at all. This is one comfortable bicycle saddle! The Shimano Campus Pedals are nice to have as well. One side of the pedals is a regular platform pedal and the other side will allow the rider to clip in. Today I just rode in running shoes. Having regular shoes on makes walking around inside the store while shopping a lot easier. 

Riding a bike to the store makes shopping a lot more fun. 

Food and bicycles just go together. The more you ride, the more you can eat and the more you need to eat to fuel your ride.  Harley-Davidson Motorcycle rides have a saying that goes "Live to ride, and ride to live". I think bicycle riders can say - Eat to ride and ride to eat. 

Platform side of a Shimano Campus Pedal.

Clip in side of a Shimano Campus Pedal.

Click here to visit the Surly web site.