Surly updates the Cross-Check, Troll

We’re at Saddle Drive near Lake Tahoe this week checking out new bikes from Quality Bicycle Products (QBP), the parent company of Surly, All-City, Foundry, Heller and Salsa. Because of the proliferation of cycling events across the country, these companies aren’t launching all of their new stuff right away, but we did get a look at two updates from Surly: the flat-bar Cross-Check and the re-designed Troll.

Surly Troll

The Troll was once a mountain bike with a few extras for touring. It has evolved significantly into a dedicated workhorse and has gone through a complete frame re-design for 2017.

The fork is no longer suspension corrected, which lengthened the head tube a bit, providing more room for a frame bag even on smaller frames. The frame is now Boost compatible, but you can use any mountain bike hub that strikes your fancy. New chainstays allow the frame to accept up to a 26×3-inch tire. Still available are post mounts for old-school brakes, which Surly says remains popular with overseas tourers.

The dropouts still allow you to run disc brakes, fenders, a Rohloff hub and racks simultaneously. It also comes with more braze-ons, including four triple bottle mounts on the fork and two more triple bottle mounts on the down tube. The complete bike will come shipped with a Jones bar, thumb shifters and Surly’s improved 26×2.5 Extraterrestrial touring tires.

When compared to Surly’s other bikes, such as the Karate Monkey, the Troll stands out as the tool for someone living on their bike doing off-road touring rather than just a handful of bikepacking trips. The new Troll will retail for $1,650 and be available in November/December. Load it up and get out there!

Surly Cross-Check

The Cross-Check frame and fork remain unchanged, but for 2017 Surly will offer a lower-cost, flat-bar model stocked with a MSW Pork Chop rear rack. The SRAM X5 1×9 drivetrain gets the price down to $875. This new Cross-Check build will be available in December.