Spyros’ Surly Crosscheck with Gevenalle

Spyros’ Surly Crosscheck was a really long project for us. Spyros is a marine worker with a life devoted to the sea and coming to the shop he asked for a bicycle to commute, explore and carry him around with comfort and speed on the long period of time that he stays inland. “I want a steel bike, I hate alloy boats too!” he said.

This build around the Surly Crosscheck represents for us the kind of bike and parts that we would recommend for light touring use and features some parts that we import from abroad and that you can only find at our shop.

Starting with the riding position, the idea here was to have a somewhat upward position without compromising the roadbar option. While touring you dont really utilise aero dynamics so the vertical position of the rider is crucial fro extra comfort and also for stability while loaded. We managed this with a Veloorange +17 degrees stem and six (!) 10mm spacers including the canti cable guide.

For gearing Spyros chose Shimano combo of 105 and Tiagra excluding shifting where we recommended to go with a new product that we introduce to Greek market the Gevenalle shifteres. The Gevenalle are superior shifters to Shimano/SRAM/Campy when it comes to bikes like these and a quality product made in USA.

Wheelset wise we laced our best selling Ambrosio Zenith hubs to Mavic Open Sport and dressed them up with our favorite rubber Panaracer Pasela 28s. Other details to watch is the Velo Orange Micorfiber touring saddle, the Tubus rack, Crane bell and Nitto Touring handle bars.

This is our suggestion for an adventure light touring bike that doubles as a commuter.