Of course, there are so many options when it comes to setting up a touring bike. Having ridden a succession of cobbled-together hybrids, it was going to be quite a step-up to riding one purpose-designed for touring. Having said this, my history of being (forced to) maintain somewhat unreliable machines stood me in surprisingly good stead.

First thing, I decided I wanted to build the thing up myself from a frame and components. Over time, either through curiosity or (more often) necessity I've been compelled to become familiar with the repair of most of the mechanisms in my bikes. In some areas, at a stretch I'd even become quite mechanically competent - my home-made wheels had never let me down, although using high-quality (and very strong) spokes and rims might have something to do with that. I spent a fair bit of time reading up on, and de-mystifying, the two most glaring holes in my knowledge: servicing bottom brackets and headsets, both of which I'd mercifully never had to look at before. If I could take of these, then fitting up a frame with components of my choice didn't seem like too much of a stretch.

I knew from so many journals the regard in which Surly Long Haul Truckers are held. I did my diligence, looking at alternatives - but it's always a funny thing with these decisions - it's often a case of justifying what you already know you want. So when I saw a Disc Trucker frame at a good price (and a good size) available from a London bike shop, I jumped in.

This helped me make my mind up on the remaining configuration decisions - what size did I need? 700C or 26" wheels? Disc or rim brakes? I spent some time agonising about the size. What I probably should've done was to travel down and actually try out a LHT in the requisite size. On the other hand, with the help of this spreadsheet, I found that for someone of my height and measurements it was pretty much a choice between the 58" and the 60". I'd always ridden 700C wheels from my earliest hybrids. I can appreciate the arguments in favour of 26" (ie. availability of spares and increased strength), but I like the smoothness of rolling on larger wheels - not to mention that the larger frames look a bit ... odd with smaller wheels. At any rate, it's unlikely I'll be going beyond Western Europe in the foreseeable future, where essentially 700C is as maintainable as 26". Disc brakes really were a novelty to me. Again, arguably a good rim brake is fine for on-road touring. But I'd spent a lot of time bombing my previous bikes around muddy, off-road tracks. An absolute killer with the clayey, Cambridgeshire mud is getting it gradually stuck between the rim and the brake, usually necessitating stopping and a session of digging it out with stick/finger. Add to that eliminating rim-wear and disc brakes started to look more and more desirable.

When I started making a component wish-list, the second thing struck me - that putting together new, standardised components in compatible ways was significantly easier than some of the bodging I'd previously been forced to do. Threadless headsets were initially a mystery to be (no, really - all my previous bikes had quill stems!) - but once I understood the basics, selecting the components is straightforward. On the purple haze, I'd had a devil of a job getting shifters that could provide enough force against the rather stubborn front derailer - I never changed that up because it wasn't clear to me standard derailers would work against the biopace chainwheels. When all the components and new and standardised, these problem go away.

Without a couple of great guides it would have been a really daunting task. I got a lot of inspiration from Tom Allen's guide on building an Expedition bike, and specific guidance from longhaultruckerbuild.com which essentially gave me step-by-step instructions. This wouldn't be an expedition bike - but Tom's philosophy on what to value in a touring bike matches mine ("comfort, strength, versatility, durability, compatibility and simplicity ... Note that newness, shininess, costliness, lightness, beauty, and so-called ‘performance’ do not feature in this list"). I love the conversion of bar-end shifters - which certainly fulfil those criteria, but which I don't get on with - to thumb shifters; while keeping the drive chain as simple and compatible as possible. And he favours the megarange cassette, which I would never leave behind.

So after buying a few more tools - including, most extravagantly, a headset press (though I did get it cheap) - I could start to assemble the Blue Shift. For those of you interesting in such things, here's the complete component list:

• 58" Surly Disc Trucker frame
• Chris King headset (second hand on ebay - I was a bit worried, but it came smooth as silk and in great condition)
• Wheels - built from Mavic A319 36-hole 700C rims, Shimano XT (M756) disc hubs, and DT swiss spokes (double butted "competition" front, plain gauge on rear drive side)
• Tyres - Marathon plus. They may be heavy, and I know some have trouble with them, but I've always been amazed by their puncture resistance
• Square taper BB, Shimano Acera triple cranks
• 8 speed "megarange" cassette, KMC 8 speed chain
• Derailers - Shimano Deore M590 front, M591 "9 Speed" Rear
• Brakes - Avid BB7, simple Shimano Deore levers
• Shifters - Shimano Ultegra bar ends, adapted with JTek thumb shifter adapters (much cheaper than thumbies)
• Bars - Easton EA50 flat bars with Ergon GP5 grips, on 100mm stem
• Racks - Tubus Cargo Evo and Tara. I was a bit concerned about fitting since these were quite pricey, but they were a doddle to attach
• Panniers - Ortleib front and back roller plus

That just leaves pedals (my favourite Wellgo LU 939) which were salvaged from the purple haze as they were relatively new (and given new toe clips), and my long running synthetic saddle, which despite being cheap and non-leather gives me precisely zero trouble so I decided not to change it!

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