Tweaking the Surly LHT

I've had this new Surly Long Haul Trucker sitting in my basement for over a month now. I don't plan on riding it until the sloppy roads go away. Even though it's mine, it hasn't felt like mine. I haven't ridden it yet. And it wasn't even set-up like a bike I would call my own. That all changed this weekend. Since I was under the weather Saturday I took the extra time I had around the house to make this bike mine. Above is the "before" picture the day I brought it home from Hiawatha Cyclery. Below is the "after" picture. It may not seem like much has changed, the changes were subtle. But it feels like a different bike to me.
It was 5.5 years ago that I sold my truck and started bicycling for transportation full time. I knew how to do a few things when it came to working on bikes. For the most part I was scared to death to try new things I'd never done before. It always ended the same way. I was always breaking things, stripping things, or just plain screwing it up. In the past five years I've slowly been learning to do more and more things. I continue to buy bike specific tools as I need them. However the biggest difference was getting a bike stand when we bought our first house in 2003.
This weekend I checked off one more new procedure. I cut down my steerer tube. I had never done this before, but my goal is to be able to do most repairs myself without the help of a bike shop. So I talked myself into attempting this.
I have to say it went extremely good. I don't think I screwed anything up. I ended up cutting off 1.5 inches of the steerer tube. The bars are still higher than any bike I've ever had. I'm going to try them at this height for awhile. If I need to go lower I'll get a different stem. I've learned over the years that a low handlebar is very uncomfortable for me because I've always been very inflexible in my hamstrings. I have tight hamstrings no matter how much stretching I do. I needed to give up the low racing handlebar set-up if I wanted to be comfortable on a bike. However, I wasn't willing to go to a handlebar that was higher than the seat.
I added my new Tubus Cargo Rack from The Touring Store. I was originally going to get a Surly Nice Rack. But they were out of stock at the time. Now I'm glad, because I really like this rack. It mounted up very nice and is one of the best racks out there for touring. I also got the Busch and Muller 4D Toplight that bolts directly to the rack. For the front I bought a Tubus Tara Rack. That will get mounted later when I decide to actually pack up and go somewhere overnight.
Other things that got changed or tweaked was the brake levers were moved down the curve of the drop bar an inch or so. The black handlebar tape was replace with tan. I removed the factory handlebar and seatpost reflectors. The plastic spokeguard on the rear wheel was removed. I added a cycle computer. And I tweaked the fenderline of the fenders. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the fenders do follow the curve of the wheel more consistently than before.
I added a wine bottle cork spacer between the fender and the chainstay bridge. That made a huge difference in the overall line of the fenders.
To protect the finish in a few vulnerable places I added a Lizard Skins Clear Chainstay Protector. On the head tube I applied several Lizard Skins Clear Frame Protectors where the cable housings rub against the frame.

This bike is essentially the complete bike that Surly offers with a few things swapped out, including the frame. Hiawatha Cyclery was nice enough to swap a Utility Blue complete bike for a Dark Cherry Pearl frameset. They took most of the parts from the complete bike to build up this bike. The package comes with WTB Slickasaruas tires. I don't have any experience with these tires. To add a bit of insurance to the flat resistant properties of these tires I added Mr Tuffy tire liners. I used to use these back when I was buying cheaper tires. I went from 6 or 7 flats a year to zero with the tire liners.

That's about it. It's beginning to feel like my bike now. Can't wait to start putting some miles on it!!!