That’s cool, I just saw an ad for silca strip yesterday.
Waxing chains is a maybe, and a fringe use case for my plans. I really just wanna be able to dunk a cassette and chainrings and bearings into a thing while I work on the rest of the bike and come back to clean parts.
I’m starting my own lil service course and scrubbing drivetrain parts in a bucket in the alley got really old before I even finished the first one.
I use the CRC benchtop thing with the little fishies that eat the grease. Or did until I got sick of paying for the fishies and now I just use it with simple green. Gets the job done. They do cart style ones too.
So I am pre-dithering on what sort of bike or frameset I’d replace my rusty old LHT with when it finally creaks/croaks and I was looking over the Disc Trucker specs and found this nugget:
Uses rear flat mount standard for front brake
What the hell does this mean? I don’t really know anything about flat mount brakes but I’m not finding anything about a “rear standard” in a quick search. Are there even front/rear flat mount calipers?
My Kona Sutra LTD came with a 40mm stem and those stupid wide ritchey XL bars (over 50cmmat the hoods?). I went to a 50mm stem and 46cm bars. ATMO, it feels weird. Not the most comfortable. But does very well on technical stuff like easy singletrack. Bikepacking.com did a review of this bike that may give you insight into the trend. In the end they said it feels slow but is a blast to descend on.
Rear flat mount has the two mounting holes on the frame 34mm apart from each other. Front flat mount has the two mounting holes on the fork 70mm apart from each others.
But there are also forks that have the mounting holes 34mm apart, just like the rear. I presume that is what Surly is talking about.
What SRAM calls “thru bolt fork” flat mount is the same as the rear flat mount.
Note that the other distance to think about(later) is how far the mounting holes are from the axle -there are standards for that. If the mounting holes are nice and close, you can use any size rotor from 140mm and on up (with an adapter spacer under the caliper). Some frames have their caliper mount holes located such that 140 or 160 rotors are impossible to use.
More reading:
SRAM (PDF with helpful chart telling you which adapters/calipers/rotors to use once you’ve determined your fork and frame specs).
Shimano 2019 via PVD
2023 SRAM:
Make note that the new Disc Trucker doesn’t use normal thru-axle dropouts like everyone else because Surly gonna Surly. The disc side on both wheels is slotted, supposedly for easier removal when loaded according to them, but there’s a small number of folx reporting issues with the disc side of the front wheel slipping in the dropout under braking even when the axle is torqued to their spec. Their frameset pic shows what them derpouts really are.
That’s the main reason I opted out of buying one earlier this year and consumed a Mod Zero instead.
Thank you Jimmy! That makes more sense now. I think. So you need 2 rear calipers on a Disc Trucker. Thanks Surly.
That is sort of the calculus going on in my head. I was aware of the slotted dropout but kinda thought maybe it wasn’t a big deal, but avoiding slippage is sort of the whole reason to get a thru axle? I sort of thought a Disc Trucker would make things simple but as often happens it seems that buying a Surly frameset is more trouble than it is worth
Yeah it doesn’t really make sense to me why they did it that way. It really compromises the main function of the dropout in keeping the fucking wheel in place in the frame for the few times the wheel might have to be removed, atmo. And at least as far as I can tell, there’s no lawyer lip or equivalent thing to capture the head of the thru-axle to prevent this in case it does come loose.
I don’t understand how Surlys hold their value the way they do, given all the compromise shenanigans.
The ICT is the only one I’ve owned, and even that was because they kept all that to a minimum.
The steamroller and crosscheck are perfect bikes atmo.
and thats why surly stopped making them.
were
I feel like Surly went from making parts-bin-friendly bikes to you’re-gonna-need-a-spreadsheet around the time of peak fat bike hype.
So my problems are a skill issue
Could be a pedal issue. I used them on chunky bmx pedals.
All flat mount calipers are rear calipers EXCEPT the funky front specific UR series from Shimano and some Campagnolo ones.
Just different adapters.
Also you can run any post mount caliper on any flat mount frame or fork with the correct adapter.
Is it still true that the other direction is difficult? Flat mount brake to post mount frame?
Also, what about flat mount brake to I.S. frame?
That ass adapter works great, I had one on my coffee grinder
