After riding my Long Haul Trucker for close to six months, earlier this year I published a list of 5 things I wanted to see on the 2010 Long Haul Trucker.

On my list were:

• Better brakes
• The inclusion of a Brooks saddle
• Non-flamboyant frame colors
• Mudguards
• Schwable Marathon Plus tires


When photos of the 2010 Long Haul Trucker hit the net last week I contacted Surly to see if there was any changes to the lineup. I was keen to see if anything on my wishlist had been considered.

…Surly contacted me back yesterday and well, I guess one out of five is better then nothing.

Bicyclesmile were first to get photos of the 2010 Long Haul Trucker onto the internet (they also have photos of other 2010 Surly models too):

note: Bicyclesmile doesn’t let you directly link to blog posts and I have cropped the images somewhat to get as much of the bikes in the photo as possible.

As you can see the new frame colors are a nice blue and black. Note that the second photo is of the 2010 Steamroller but I included it as it gives you a good idea of what the black frame Long Haul Trucker will look like.

Whilst I’m glad they’ve chosen two very nice frame colors I was disappointed when a Surly rep told me at this point (subject to change) they weren’t changing any of the components. Most annoyingly it seems the insanely annoying t0 adjust Tektro Oryx cantilever brakes are here to stay for another year.

sidenote: anyone who buys a LHT do yourself a huge favour and change out the brake pads asap, it makes a huge difference to your stopping power and does make the Oryx’s somewhat bearable seeing as you don’t have to adjust them all that often.

The other major change is the availability of 26″ wheels on the larger frames which to be honest I think kind of looks silly. I have a 56″ frame and I can’t think of anything worse then ruining the look of my Trucker with small wheels.

Surely 700c tubes and tires can’t be that rare when you’re touring remotely to warrant the aesthetic assasination of 26″ wheels on a larger frame?

Sometime next year I am planning on going overseas so for me a possible component change was the difference between lugging my 2008 olive green Long Haul Trucker on a plane or just buying a new LHT overseas.

At this stage I”m not really sure what a Long Haul Trucker goes for in south east Asia but with just a different frame color to offer and me loving my olive green I’m probably just going to transport my 2008 model with me.

I guess one good thing about the same componentry is that the price should stay roughly the same (sorry guys no massive runout sales I imagine). Having said that I bought my 2008 model late 2008 just before the GFC massively inflated bicycle prices worldwide.

I got my Long Haul Trucker for $1500 and recently I’ve seen them ticketed at $2200! So glad I bought mine when I did.

Blue and black (issues keeping the black frame clean aside) are excellent frame color choices for the Long Haul Trucker and I’m glad Surly shied away from the insanity that was Truccachino. As for the other suggestions, well I guess there’s always next year.

If they’re selling enough Long Haul Truckers at $2200 maybe when the prices go back down they can look into adding things like a Brooks or mudguards and having the price sit somewhere between $1500 and $2200.

As most people who ride a LHT will attest these are usually things you add on anyway so it’d be nice to have them come as a package.

I was ecstatic when somebody else rocked up to work with a LHT a few weeks ago (albeit in Truccachino), so I’m definitely looking forward to running into some blue and black Long Haul Truckers over the next year.

1. Surly Long Haul Trucker Rust Report (3yrs, 14,000 kms)
2. 5 things I want to see on 2010 Long Haul Trucker
3. My Surly Long Haul Trucker Complete in 2011
4. Surly Long Haul Trucker Complete Review @ 15000kms
5. Fitting a bottle dynamo to a Surly Long Haul Trucker