Long Haul Trucker 150km review
I collected my LHT last week, one day shy of 1 month after ordering.
There exist photos. They are not anywhere internet viewable yet. In the meantime, here are my first impressions:
One of the most common reviews I've read of the LHT is "weight weenies need not apply". I wouldn't put it in such a pejorative way, but the sentiment definitely holds true. My bike with only the store applied mods (v brakes, interrupter levers, one bottle cage) and my shimano half clip half platform pedals weighs in at about 13kg. It's not a brick, but it's no lightweight. The bike as a whole feels completely bomb-proof. I'm definitely not worried about it falling apart under pressure.
So far it's not significantly faster than my old bike (which was no speed demon). I'm still adjusting to the new ride, in particular I'm toying with a different seat height which means I'm using slightly different muscles. I expect to get faster, but definitely not into serious road bike territory.
There is a moderate amount of toe overlap at the front when turning at low speed. This isn't a major problem, it's just one new thing to learn. Similarly, my full size bottle doesn't fit on the bottle holder under the bike, it hits the front wheel. Not a problem at the moment, as the bottle holder rubs on the gear cables far too much for my liking so I've left it off.
Thankfully there is no heel clip on my panniers at the back - I could even move them forward if I wished. I haven't measured, but either the bottom bracket is lower than what I'm used to, or the cranks longer. I need to be much more careful about crank position when leaning into a turn.
The stock rear cassette is very firmly in touring territory. The gap between gears is significantly larger than I'm used to (coming from a road cassette). It would be quite possible to live without a front derailleur with this cassette, I'm using them middle cog 90% of the time. At some point I will probably change cassettes.
The SKS mudguards are nice, and (relatively) easy to adjust. I suspect the LBS put one size too small on, there's not a lot of overlap on the sides. Perhaps this afternoon will give me a chance to test them out more thoroughly.
The Thorn accessory bar is very handy. I'd have no chance of fitting two lights on the handlebars. It's much lighter than I expected, but still very solid (I'd feel quite confident hanging the bike from it). There isn't a lot of clearance between the accessory bar and the handlebars, even with the acc. bar angled down and the stem angled up. There is enough room for my homebrew light above the acc. bar, but my CatEye needs to hang underneath.
The pannier (Ortlieb Bike Packer Classic) and rack (Tubus LOCC) combination is nice. The rack feels very solid, I definitely believe their 40kg rating (in fact, it may be pessimistic). My only complaint with the rack is that there aren't many places to hook occy straps. The adaptor for my V brakes was in the way of one of the mounting bars, but the rack is adaptable enough that I could get around this.
The mounting system of the panniers is very easy, it's literally a 2 second job to mount or remove them. The two things I'd like to see on the panniers are some D rings for a shoulder strap (they have a carry handle, but it's too small to go over the shoulder well) and an easy way of locking them to the rack (the QL2 mounting system on the 'Plus' version has this as an optional extra, but not the Classic).
My Brooks saddle is yet to arrive, but the stock saddle is fine so far.
Edit: Some more information for non-regular readers. This is a transport bike, I don't own any other mode. This 150km was a typical week's riding, including my commute and 2 shopping trips. I don't have any immediate plans to tour, but a touring bike covers all the bases of riding I do. There will be an X,000km review, but I got impatient.
There exist photos. They are not anywhere internet viewable yet. In the meantime, here are my first impressions:
One of the most common reviews I've read of the LHT is "weight weenies need not apply". I wouldn't put it in such a pejorative way, but the sentiment definitely holds true. My bike with only the store applied mods (v brakes, interrupter levers, one bottle cage) and my shimano half clip half platform pedals weighs in at about 13kg. It's not a brick, but it's no lightweight. The bike as a whole feels completely bomb-proof. I'm definitely not worried about it falling apart under pressure.
So far it's not significantly faster than my old bike (which was no speed demon). I'm still adjusting to the new ride, in particular I'm toying with a different seat height which means I'm using slightly different muscles. I expect to get faster, but definitely not into serious road bike territory.
There is a moderate amount of toe overlap at the front when turning at low speed. This isn't a major problem, it's just one new thing to learn. Similarly, my full size bottle doesn't fit on the bottle holder under the bike, it hits the front wheel. Not a problem at the moment, as the bottle holder rubs on the gear cables far too much for my liking so I've left it off.
Thankfully there is no heel clip on my panniers at the back - I could even move them forward if I wished. I haven't measured, but either the bottom bracket is lower than what I'm used to, or the cranks longer. I need to be much more careful about crank position when leaning into a turn.
The stock rear cassette is very firmly in touring territory. The gap between gears is significantly larger than I'm used to (coming from a road cassette). It would be quite possible to live without a front derailleur with this cassette, I'm using them middle cog 90% of the time. At some point I will probably change cassettes.
The SKS mudguards are nice, and (relatively) easy to adjust. I suspect the LBS put one size too small on, there's not a lot of overlap on the sides. Perhaps this afternoon will give me a chance to test them out more thoroughly.
The Thorn accessory bar is very handy. I'd have no chance of fitting two lights on the handlebars. It's much lighter than I expected, but still very solid (I'd feel quite confident hanging the bike from it). There isn't a lot of clearance between the accessory bar and the handlebars, even with the acc. bar angled down and the stem angled up. There is enough room for my homebrew light above the acc. bar, but my CatEye needs to hang underneath.
The pannier (Ortlieb Bike Packer Classic) and rack (Tubus LOCC) combination is nice. The rack feels very solid, I definitely believe their 40kg rating (in fact, it may be pessimistic). My only complaint with the rack is that there aren't many places to hook occy straps. The adaptor for my V brakes was in the way of one of the mounting bars, but the rack is adaptable enough that I could get around this.
The mounting system of the panniers is very easy, it's literally a 2 second job to mount or remove them. The two things I'd like to see on the panniers are some D rings for a shoulder strap (they have a carry handle, but it's too small to go over the shoulder well) and an easy way of locking them to the rack (the QL2 mounting system on the 'Plus' version has this as an optional extra, but not the Classic).
My Brooks saddle is yet to arrive, but the stock saddle is fine so far.
Edit: Some more information for non-regular readers. This is a transport bike, I don't own any other mode. This 150km was a typical week's riding, including my commute and 2 shopping trips. I don't have any immediate plans to tour, but a touring bike covers all the bases of riding I do. There will be an X,000km review, but I got impatient.