Wow, Jim, thanks for this information. I had never really thought about this since I always ride Surly's largest sizes. I checked out the Surly site and noted that for the LHT, all sizes of the 700c bikes have a 320 mm steer tube. I'm glad I didn't get a 64cm LHT thinking I would get additional bar height over a 62! And I'm equally glad I didn't advise anyone to go for larger sizes just to get the bars higher because your point about the problem of getting too large of a frame when buying a Surly using the Riv sizing guidelines seems right on. However, negative perceptions about stacks o spacers on uncut tubes do complicate putting someone on the best frame size as you suggest. It took me a year to sell my wife on a steer tube extension for her road bike because she didn't like the way it looked. Neck pain and hand numbness eventually helped to make the case.
I did note that the 26" LHT's do have different sized steerers for different ranges. Size 54 and below have a 300mm steer tube and 56 and above have a 380mm steer tube. It seems clear also that a 62cm CC would have a lower max bar height than a 62cm LHT given that CC's have a 300mm steer tube and LHT's have a 320mm tube. So . . . someone looking to get those bars up there for a given frame size would be better served by getting the LHT. Dave On Wednesday, July 31, 2013 5:17:53 AM UTC-7, Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery wrote: > > All Cross-checks in all sizes come out of the box with 300 mm steerers. > With a 62 cm frame, there is nothing to cut off because the head tube is > long enough to allow a stem and maybe an inch or two of spacers. The old > Surly warranty stipulated that stem plus spacers shouldn't exceed 100 mm, > but last year they changed that, and now they say there is no limit on > steerer length. But this is important: with threaded steerers, the size of > the frame determines how high you can get the bars. If you want high bars, > get a big frame. This is the Rivendell way. This advice is completely > worthless with threadless steerers like Surly uses, because all sizes can > have the same handlebar height if you don't cut the steerer. So a 52 cm > frame can theoretically fit exactly the same as a 58 cm frame if the stem > length is long enough to make up the difference. Buying a Surly using the > Riv sizing guideline apples-to-apples is quite likely to result in a bike > that's on the too-big side. > > I will tell you that uncut steerers with a lot of spacers tend to get a > lot of negative commentary. Our Surly floor bikes usually sport this > feature, and everyday somebody asks me to justify it or comments that they > don't like the look. Yet of the bikes that sell, only a small fraction come > back to have the steerer shortened. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
