Weekend Dork Project: Green Bike (Re)Build Log Edition

I've had a Surly Cross Check frameset since 2002, maybe the second year they made them. Until today, it was built up as a fat-tired, fendered, one-speed-at-a-time machine with a motley collection of parts from the Island of Misfit Bikes (the basement). There were two cogs in back on an 8/9 speed-capable wheel, and I could stop and manually shift between them by fiddling with the wheel. I almost never did this.

A bike with one gear is something like a number 2 pencil without an eraser. You can't shift when it gets steep, either up or down. The one gear always seems like the wrong gear, therefore, you must plan ahead and use your legs or you'll walk. Simple tools stripped to the essentials. Experts only. Lately I've been feeling like less of an expert and perhaps more tolerant of a bit of complexity. I'm looking for something more like the UNIX command line; utility, power, and the right balance of simplicity. So, I returned to the basement and put gears on the Surly today.

Bicycle gearing is now as complex as other recent vehicular technology. Shifters are now available at great expense that do the work of gear changing using electronics, servos, and batteries. The gears themselves are now more numerous than ever; it's common now to have 10 or 11 cogs in the back, or an internally geared hub as complicated as a modern automotive transmission. Soon you'll be able to shift 33 gears using biofeedback. That's cool. But I had some stuff on the shelf from about 2002 that was pretty good. Plus, it was on the shelf.

The shelf had a long cage mountain rear derailleur, 11-34 cassette, and chain all from the 9 speed era of the early Aughts. Basing the project on these, I still needed to get a few things. It turns out you can still buy Dura Ace 9 speed bar end shifters. This let me use the orphaned, non-matching brake levers already on the Surly, eschewing other, more expensive, integrated brake/shifter options. I also needed "compact" chain rings or a compact crank because the real point of the project was "sensible" gearing for day long gravel road climbs. A 48-34 tooth "compact" crank on sale was just the thing. Having gathered all of this stuff, I was ready for surgery.

With one false start (this crank needs a 110 mm bottom bracket spindle; the "shelf" had a 112 and a 117 and neither gave me a chainline that would let me shift the front derailleur properly) it all went together very well. As I re-wrapped the bars though, I wondered: What would it be like to trade the simplicity of one gear to ride this odd collection of stuff? Would it shift well? Would it shift at all? I took the non-conservative approach to testing it out by going on a 2.5 hour long group ride today.

Happily, this build proves to me that 9 speed stuff from 2000 was really a high point in bikeland tech. It shifts quickly and positively in a pleasingly manual way (even with indexed shifting in the back, it's still pretty manual). This setup provides a very wide range of gears with a 1-1 low gear and a reasonably high gear of 117 gear inches. This gear range is so much more useful in practice than the 42-16 single gear I'm used to on it; it makes me appreciate the versatility of the Surly again, and almost look forward to ridiculous amounts of dirt climbing.