Commuting to work on my Surly Long Haul Trucker, finally a day without rain!

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My Surly Long Haul Trucker loaded and ready for the commute to work.

We have had an amazing amount of rain during the spring and summer in North Carolina.  It has been very frustrating to plan recreational rides and even worse for folks like myself that enjoy commuting to work. 

Saturday was a beautiful day with almost no chance of rain during the hours I would be riding to and from work. 

I went for a fast twenty mile jaunt through the country just as soon as the sun came up. When I got back from my morning ride I loaded up my Surly Long Haul Trucker and headed on into work.

It always makes me feel wide awake when I arrive at work on my bike. I also enjoy the savings of leaving my car in the garage. Hopefully I will be able to do more commuting to work in the next few days. 

All this rain reminds me of a Creedence Clearwater Revival song - Who'll Stop The Rain. Below is a video of that song.

Surly Long Haul Trucker - Riding to the grocery store - Gasoline

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Surly Long Haul Trucker - at the grocery store.

Beautiful days like today are just made for going for a bicycle ride. The temperature was a little above sixty degrees when I got home. I wanted to go for a ride and I also wanted to pick up a couple of things at the grocery store. Only problem was, not enough time for both. 

Riding to the grocery store was the obvious solution. I was hoping they had some of the Minneola Tangelos, like I had bought a few days ago, still in stock. As soon as I walked in the door, I saw a nice big display of them. I quickly grabbed a bag and started to put a few in it.

 The price of the tangelos was seventy one cents apiece. So, I only bought six of them. They are so delicious! I am already planning on buying more right away. 

Utility riding wasn't exactly the type of ride I wanted to do. But, it worked out to be a nice ride, and I had a yummy Minneola Tangelo at the end of the ride. I also saved some wear and tear on my car, along with conserving some Gasoline. Gasoline isn't free!

Minneola Tangelos

Sheryl Crow performs her song "Gasoline" in the video below.

Surly Long Haul Trucker - Commuting to work - Been a long time!

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Surly Long Haul Trucker
Ready for my morning commute to work.

Saturday was the first chance I have had in a long time to commute to work on my Surly Long Haul Trucker. We have had a long cold and wet winter. Cold doesn't stop me. Wet and cold does keep me from riding to work. 

Having places to go in a hurry after work, is what has kept me from riding to work more than anything else. 

The Long Haul Trucker is a true touring bike, but also works great as a commuter bike. Mine is set up with a dynamo front hub. The hub generates power for the front and rear lights. I run the lights even in bright daylight, to improve my visibility to motorists. Having the ability to attach full pannier bags to the rear rack makes bike commuting much easier. I can carry a rain jacket, change of shoes and cloths, and my lunch with room to spare.

I enjoyed finally getting a chance to commute to work. "It's been a long time!" Hopefully I will get to ride into work more in the next few months.

This section of Peace Haven Road had little traffic on Saturday morning, when compared to the amount of traffic it has on a week day.

In the video below, Led Zepplin perform their song "Rock and Roll" in 1973.  In the song they sing "It's been a long time since I rocked and rolled."

Surly Long Haul Trucker - Rough Stuff

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Surly Long Haul Trucker

I have enjoyed using my Surly Long Haul Trucker for utilitarian purposes such as commuting to work and trips to the grocery store. It is built a little on the stout side to handle heavy loads and and to have stable handling. These same attributes enable the Long Haul Trucker to work well for off road rides also. This bike was really designed as a touring bike. I haven't had the chance to  take it on any long distance tours, but hopefully that will be something I can do in the future. 

Twice this week I have gone for off road rides on the Surly Long Haul Trucker. I consider cycling to be an adventure. Riding this bike off road is always fun. There isn't much pressure to go fast, because it just isn't going to happen on this bike. It is a heavy bike and that's OK.  Both times it was early in the morning and both times turned out to be fun adventures. One morning five deer jumped up out of the tall grass right beside me and ran in all different directions. That startled the heck out of me. Try a short off road ride when you can't get in a long ride. Different types of riding keep cycling interesting. 

 A Continetal Town and Country Tire on the Surly Long Haul Trucker 26x2 inch size.

 Surly Long Haul Truckers framesets are designed to work with different wheel sizes. Most size frames are available with a choice of a geometry that works with 26 inch tires or a frameset for 700c tires. The smaller sizes are only available in the 26 inch tire design. Mine is a smaller frame and has 26 inch tires on it. The smaller wheels look right on this bike but would look a little funny on larger frames. All Long Haul Truckers are designed to fit much wider tires than most bikes will accommodate. This bike is equipped with Continental Town and Country tires in size 26x2 inch. These wider tires are heavy but work well for commuting since you can bounce through most pot holes on the road with out doing any damage to the tires or rims. The wider tires also make the bike more stable and provide better traction off road. The inverted tread works well on most surfaces except for wet mud. 

Surly Long Haul Truckers are available equipped with either traditional cantilever brakes or a disc brake model is also available. Mine has the traditional cantilever brakes on it. Cantilever brakes have worked fine for me. I have wished for a little more braking power when the bike has hauled a heavy load of groceries. 

Surly Long Haul Trucker on a trail

The stock built Surly Long Haul Trucker provides a wide range of gearing. The stock crankset has three chainrings in sizes 26 - 36- 48 teeth. The stock rear cassette has 9 cogs in sizes 11-13-15-17-20-23-26-30-34 teeth. With a low gear of 26 tooth chainring in the front and a 34 tooth cog in the rear it is easy to haul a heavy load up most any hill on the road and easy to get up most steep inclines that are encountered while riding off road. While pedaling in this low gear the bike will not be traveling very fast, but you should be able to get up about any hill. Off road climbing is mostly limited by the traction of the tires. I had no problem riding up the hills I have come upon while riding off road on the Surly. 

This bike is not near as fast as a mountain bike off road. The off road ride of the Surly reminds me more of a Jeep than it does an off road motorcycle. 

The trails in these pictures are all within a few minutes ride of my house. 

Click here to visit the Surly web site and learn more about the Long Haul Trucker and all the Surly Bicycles.

The Surly Long Haul Trucker in the shadows beside a trail.

In the video below Linda Ronstadt performs the song "Willin'" which was written by Lowell George of the music group Little Feat. This was in November 1976. The song has some references to Long Haul Truck Driving. A few of the lines are:

Driven every kind of Rig 
that's ever been made.
Driven the backroads
so I wouldn't get weighed.

I've never been a Long Haul Trucker, but I have driven a few trucks on occasion in years past. It always turned out to be a big adventure. Most of the time I would end up driving the backroads to avoid the scales on the main highway so I wouldn't get weighed.  That's just the way it is for a Long Haul Trucker.

Surly Long Haul Trucker - Commuting To Work - Southern Culture On The Skids

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Poor ole' Joe is glad to see me at the end of my commute!

Today was a perfect day to commute to work by bicycle. This morning the temperature was around 50 degrees and then it warmed up to around 70 degrees for may evening ride.

The Surly Long Haul Trucker has hauled me back and forth to work many times without fail. It's been a work horse of a bike. I'm sure it's time to do a little maintenance on it. That's one of the things I'll do tomorrow.

I have always assumed it was just normal southern culture to wave or speak to folks that you meet. Or is that just a small town thing. I do it anyway and still consider it to be southern culture.   I always wave and speak to other cyclists I meet while riding to and from work. It always irritates me when the other cyclists completely ignore me as if I don't even exist. I wave and say hello just the same. Maybe I'm old fashion or it's just that I've lived in too many small towns over the years. On the way home I saw my friend Skip riding the other direction. As we met Skip and I greeted each other with a wave and a hello. That's the way it should be.  I just consider the ignoring cyclists to  be a sign of Southern Culture On The Skids!

There's a band from Chapel Hill, NC named Southern Culture On The Skids. In the video below they perform a song titled "Voodoo Cadillac" in their home town back in 2004.

Haulin' on the Surly Long Haul Trucker

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Went to the grocery store on my Surly commuter bike today. It's best to load the majority of the weight on the rear of this bicycle. (that's twelve cans of dog food on top of the front rack) Always a fun adventure on this bicycle.