Strengths: Ability to be single speed or geared. Steel! Handle bars, versitility, strength. Great bike for the price.
Weaknesses: Stock tires. Brakes are weak. Not real fond of the forks - they seem to flex a lot when offroad.
Bottom Line:
Love this bike. It's my first CX and hoping to meet multiple uses and it does that wonderfully. I put on a lot of road miles and an occational century but then I get out on single track where I used to ride my ss 29er. Handles great considering it isn't a mountain bike.
Similar Products Used: Motobacane Cliff 29:1 SS 29er. Novara Randonee
Bike Setup: Brook B17, SPD pedals, recently converted to single speed with 34x18 gearing for trails, and bullhorn bars.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
BikeShopBob
a Recreational Rider
from
Date Reviewed: October 3, 2011
Strengths: One word: Steel.
This bike is made of it, and it’s made to last. You can do stupid crazy stuff with it, and it just begs for more. I love that when I'm out for a road ride, or when I'm commuting to work, and I happen to see a MTB trail, or an off beaten path through the woods, I can kick my crosscheck into low gear and go play in the mud. A steel frame also feels the best. It doesn’t transfer all the harsh feel of the road to the rider like an aluminum or carbon bike does. Also, if you tear the bike apart when you first get it and hose the inside down with frame saver, your bike will most like last longer than you do.
Now, if you're looking for a second word: Versatility.
This bike can do it all.
-Cyclocross? Yup, see Wendy Simms (http://wendysimms.blogspot.com/).
-Lighter/Medium MTB? Yerp.
-Touring? With all those mounting points...You betcha.
-Fixie? If you're into that thing, most definitely (See Tim: http://bikegeekbrown.blogspot.com/2008/07/surly-cross-check.html).
-Recreational Road? Easy.
-Road Race? Yes, believe it or not (See Wendy Simms for that one too.)
-Commuter? This bike loves it.
Weaknesses: The original crank. Throw away that junk and put in a tiagra level crank arm to match everything else. You'll be happy you did.
Also, if you plan to go out and hit some serious trails, get yourself a granny gear, it will make things so much easier.
Bottom Line:
I've been a bike shop employee for about a year and a half now, and I've been riding bikes (somewhat seriously) for about 4 years now. I had always ridden on yard sale deals, or bikes that were given to me as a gift. Those in included a 2003 Giant Iguana, a 1973 Schwinn Continental, and a 1984 Trek 420. All of those bikes were way big for me, but I just went with it because I didn’t know any better. Once I got a job at my LBS, I decided to start shopping around and trying out some new stuff since I now had an employee discount. I was more into the true road bike scene and I was about to get a Raleigh Revinio, when one of my co-workers told me to simply try out the crosscheck, just for kicks. I did, and I instantly fell in love with it. Within a week, I ordered my own in, and it’s my favorite bike to date. I ended up buying a road bike later on, but to this day, my crosscheck is my favorite bike as well as the one I ride the most.
Similar Products Used: Raleigh RX-1
Bianchi Zurigo
Bike Setup: Saddle: Brooks B17 Special
Bar Tape: (1st layer) - Cinelli Cork Bar Tape (2nd layer) - Brooks Leather Bar Tape
Crank: Tiagra Triple
Pedals: Shimano Mountain SPD
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
TexSurlyrider
a Recreational Rider
from
Date Reviewed: August 31, 2011
Strengths: The bike is extremely versatile. It has a tough steel frame, the ability to take tires up to 45 in width and is able to support fenders and both front and rear racks if desired. That said, it can be an excellent cyclocross racer or trainer
Weaknesses: The top tube on the Cross Check is a little longer than typically seen. If you are debating sizes, i would suggest going with the smaller size frame. Sturdy, workmanlike components. They are good and will last, but are not the cutting edge by any stretch.
Bottom Line:
To set the stage, I am a recreational rider, over 50 and I ride 5 days a week for a total of 60 miles at an average speed of 17-18 mph. I ride with 700x35's and find the ride to be very smooth. I've owned the bike for three months or so and have put on about 600 miles. It has been an extremely comfortable and rock steady ride. I really couldn't ask for more in a bike. With addons of cyclometer, seat bag with repair kit, tools and stuff, rear rack, two water bottle cages, bell and light my total on the road ride is about 29.5 lbs. Believe me, not an issue. if you are worried about weight, it's easier to drop a few pounds than worry about your ride. I am not concerned with the weight, as in reality, the weight of a bike within reason only matters to professional racers. Where it is even noticed is at a start from a stop where it is slightly slower to get up to speed. I was led to this choice by friends who are avid riders, many of whom have multiple rides, but all of whom, once they got the CrossCheck, made it their primary ride. As it turned out, even the mechanic and sales rep at my LBS (didn't know this until I showed up to order the bike) both have ridden a CrossCheck as their primary ride for years and love it.
Bike Setup: I modified the stock version to a road triple setup (48-36-24), including converting to a triple derailleur front and rear to allow shifting for 3 chainrings and to eliminate chain slack. Upgraded to Vittoria Randonneur Pro 700x35 tires for puncture protection.
Weaknesses: Arrogant Hipster customer service. Average to poor quality components on their complete bikes
Bottom Line:
I wanted to post this review to help people like me. After a 20 year absense, I recently got back into riding last year. I am hooked. I bought the cheapest Trek Mountain bike I could find. This served me well for about a year. The shifting was never great, but it never broke down on me. I am a muscular 230 pound man with alot of lower body strength. Therefore I put alot of stress on a bike. I ride about 80 miles a week, 60 on crushed stone rail/trail rounds 20 on paved roads. I was looking for a $1000 cyclocross bike that was durable. While I wanted it to perform much better than my Mountain Bike, I was much more interested in durability. I thought I found what I was looking for in Surly Cross Check. It received rave reviews online and was billed as 'bomb proof'. I wanted to love this bike, and be a Surly geek. I wanted to sing Surly's praises to whomever would listen; however, I am a bit disappointed with the bike. I am not outraged, just disappointed. My first disappointment was with the Customer Service. For those of you who don't know, Surly is owned by Quality Bike parts (QBP). It is not a small quirky company they portray themselves to be, but rather a part of a large corporation. You can not order a Surly yourself, you must go to a bike shop which has an account with QBP. My bike shop was very, very, helpful, but had no experience with Surly's. I realized this was taking a chance, but the online reviews convinced me to take a chance. They originally claimed the bike would take a week to come in. After a week, it was not there. When my bike shop called, the QBP people were not all apologetic. They seemed to have a 'too cool for school' attitude. This is not the end of world, and it was disappointing because like I said I wanted to love Surly. I have since spoken with another bike shop owner and he told me that QBP is known for being late and having poor customer service. I hate to stereotype, but from what I have read, they seem to be a company filled with former 1990's hipster slackers.
But unto the bike. In summary, the frame appears to be great, but the components are poor to average. When I bought the bike, I knew very little about which components were crap and which were great. I found out the hard way that you must educate yourself. This takes time and is a slow process, but if you are an avid bike rider, it is neccessary because you will be taken advantage of. What I have learned the hard way is that you get what you pay for. The Surly website states that "stuff that works well and doesn’t dent your piggy bank too bad." What they should say is that, "our goal was to keep the MSRP to $1000 because if we picked quality parts, the bike would be $2000 and no one would buy it." The Derailleurs are Shimano Tiagra. While these are not junk, they are average quality deraileurs and certainly not know for being especially durable. But what is crap is the Cross check wheels. The Hubs are high quality Shimano Deore, but the rims are low quality Alex DA16. I should know because my wheels had problems after only 50 miles. When I showed my wheels to a knowledgable bike repair man, he perplexed as to why they would put a high quality hub with pieces of crap rims. I have since found out that low priced Alex rims have a well earned reputation for being low quality. The brakes are adequate, but not great. The shifters are Shimano Bar-end type. These are the types which are used on touring bikes. Since they have fewer moving parts, they are more durable. They do shift well, but are not convenient. You have to move your hands to the end of the handle bars to shift. This is a part which does live up to being tough yet cheap. I might over time learn to love this bike. Until proven otherwise, I will continue to believe the frame is great. My personal opinion is that Surly's are great framesets, but mediocre complete bikes. In order to get a true bombproof cyclocross bike, you will have to spend another $1000 on quality components.
Strengths: Strong, long lasting steel frame. Ability to customize into just about any kind of bike. Couple of different wheel sets and this bike can quickly convert into a variety of rides. Clearance for fenders and wide tires. Brazeons for for front/rear racks.
Weaknesses: 26 pounds before I added on the accessories. However, I think low weight is overrated as a bike spec!!
Bottom Line:
Built up my Surly Cross Check 2010 from just the frame and I love it. With a triple crank, deore rear derailleur, and some panniers/fenders it becomes a great bike for touring/rec riding/commuting. Sure, it's heavy, but all the studies I've read on the effect of weight on riding shows that it's one of the most overrated bicycle specs. If you're not racing, don't worry about weight!! I used to have a Fuji Cross Comp and a petite carbon Fuji Team and I've sold em both after building my Surly CC--this bike can perform either role well!
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