New in the shop…

In my effort to “remake” Black Mountain Cycles, I am carrying less mountain bikes (even though I love mountain bikes) and will carry more cyclocross, touring, and, well, bikes that have fat tires, steel frames (with an occasional aluminum cross framed rig), and drop bars. Bikes that are perfect candidates for mixed-terrain rides.

What I have in the shop right now, besides the Raleigh Sojourn that I previously posted, are bikes from Surly and Salsa. The Surly Long Haul Trucker is a really nice bike. It just looks right. A nice balance of frame shape, tubing diameter, bar position relative to seat height…and the Surly Nice Rack fits, well, nicely on it as well. The price is very nice as well at $1215 with the rack.

From Bikes for sale

From Salsa, I got in the La Cruz and the Casseroll. The La Cruz is made from a True Temper Platinum OX tubeset and the orange color is sweet. It is very nicely spec’d with the right parts where you expect to see budget parts. The hubs are Shimano Deore XT 6-bolt disc and the headset is a Cane Creek S3 model. Shimano 105 10-speed STI shifters and rear derailleur round out the basic spec. Another nice touch are the plated and masked fork dropouts – no worries about paint chipping! All that for a cool $1875.

From Bikes for sale

From Bikes for sale

Nice clearance with the 35c tires.

From Bikes for sale

From Bikes for sale

Like the La Cruz, the Casseroll is a steel frame made with Salsa custom spec Classico tubeset. The Casseroll is a bike that caught my eye several years ago at Interbike. With the horizontal dropouts, it’s easy to run this bike with gears or as a single-speed/fixed gear. This bike begs customization with the rider’s choice of bars – drop, moustache, albatross… This bike can easily be set up as a road bike, light touring, randonneur, commuter, or urban run-about. Again, the spec of the Casseroll is dialed – Shimano 105 10-speed shifters, triple crankset, and rear derailleur, nice Tiagra hubs, Cane Creek S3 headset, and top-notch SKS mud guards. I left the steerer tube a little long because it’s easy to trim it to the rider’s needs, but more difficult to increase the length after it’s been cut. For $1760, you too could hit the roads or paths on a complete Casseroll triple.

From Bikes for sale

From Bikes for sale

Another nice touch – Sheldon Nuts.

From Bikes for sale

Rockin’ it old school with horizontal dropouts with adjusters.

From Bikes for sale

The only item that has been changed on the spec of the La Cruz and Casseroll from the specs noted on the website is the stem. No longer is a painted to match Salsa CroMoto included, not sure why, but it’s okay, the aluminum Salsa stem included is still nice.

(What’s playing: KWMR‘s Happy Hour with Liberacha and Blossom Dearie)