After an initial “comedy of errors” tour in 2005, I had gotten hard into bike touring. But my janky 90’s Giant Rincon MTB was not cutting it. In 2006 after getting a very small inheritance from an uncle (we’re talking less than two grand here, folks), I purchased a used 80s Centurion Accordo. After kitting it out, I rode the Pacific Coast that fall, and did a number of small tours after that. But the light road bike tubing could not handle that stress, and in February of 2008 (ironically while riding to NAHBS in Portland), the frame broke.
I knew I needed a bike designed for touring, but what? I wasn’t that big of a bike nerd back then, but I did know one thing: Everybody was saying that the Surly Long Haul Trucker was the touring bike of the moment. So I had North Portland Bikeworks order a frame and they transferred the parts from the Accordo, and voila! My first good adult bike.
I rode the heck out of that bike for over five years. It got me through a lot of tours, including the big Cross Country Tour in 2011. It was also my daily driver, my commuter, my adventure bike. I changed it up a bit over the years.
But in 2013 I had fallen out of love with it. After experimenting with some other bikes, plus getting heavily into three speeds, the LHT just seemed to be too much bike for my needs. A pending move and the need for quick cash caused me to sell the bike at a loss in December of 2013. I miss the bike from time to time, even though my custom Bantam is much better.
Read about my experiences with the Long Haul Trucker here.
See photos via my dynamic flickr album below, or click here.
Urban Adventure League 