Jessica Barnthouse
Posted by Rachel
A native of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Jessica is a 24-year-old community access television superstar (and by that she means “Membership/Outreach Coordinator/Youth Instructor” at the award-winning Somerville Community Access Television station). When she’s not animating cut-out pieces of paper or shaping Somerville’s youth into our future world leaders, Jessica enjoys cooking anything (vegetarian), educating Americans about the unfair plight of Australia’s Aboriginals, sewing, tuning up her bike so the chain feels like butter when she’s riding, and having as many amazing/life-altering experiences as possible.
Jessica’s Baby, her Surly Long Haul Trucker:
Jessica had pretty much decided on purchasing a trusty Trek 520, knowing full-well that she would need to upgrade the rack, tires, fenders, and the saddle based on reviews she’d read online, until she emailed the folks at Newton’s legendary Harris Cyclery asking for some professional advice about finding a touring bike for a short female. One of their sales guys emailed her back within hours and informed Jessica that they had just put a custom-built 42-cm Surly Long Haul Trucker on the floor for $1,172. It didn’t take much Googling to learn that Surly, while comparatively much younger than Trek, is really starting to make a name for itself in long-distance touring. She also liked that, unlike the Trek 520, the Surly LHT could come with 26″ tires instead of 700c, which is important if you’re traveling in third-world countries and your tires blow out, since a simple mountain bike tire can be used in an emergency.
So off she went to Harris Cyclery, ready to try out her new steed. The upgrades included Schwalbe Marathon touring tires, an upgraded cassette, a new headset, cyclocross brake levers, pedals, and a Brooks B17 Special (women’s!) touring saddle. Seeing as the suggested price on Surly’s website without pedals and with the downgrades is $1,095, and a Brooks saddle alone costs well-over $100, Jessica couldn’t let this deal get away.
For a more extensive review of Jessica’s bike, check out her post here.
