u/letterkenny-leave

I have been looking for a Midnight Special fork for months. They have been out of stock online and at my local bike shops for at least the least 4 months. If anyone happens to have a white Midnight Special fork with a 40mm offset, or knows of one at a local bike shop, please let me know. Or if someone upgraded to a carbon fork and no longer needs the stock steel fork, that could work too. The 40mm offset fork comes on size 56 and larger bikes.

The person who owned my bike before me cut the fork so there is only room for 20mm offset spacers. I need roughly 50 or 60mm.

My bike is a 2018 Surly Midnight Special with a SRAM Rival 22 drivetrain. I often have to mash in the lowest ratio on hills with the current 50-34 crankset and 11 speed 11-32 cassette. I rarely need the highest ratio, and if I do, I can just coast.

What subcompact crankset options would work for this bike?

Would it work if I buy a Shimano GRX FC-RX600 46-30 crankset and replace my current GXP bottom bracket with a Hollowtech II bottom bracket? Or would I also have to replace the front derailleur (and brake lever?) to make it work?

How many mm of spacers are under the stem on a stock 58cm Midnight Special? I bought my bike second hand and the bars have been uncomfortably low. There are 20mm of spacers under my stem and I now have an unsightly 35degree stem to make up some of the stack.

I am considering either buying a replacement stock fork (once the black 40mm offset one is available on the Surly website), buying a carbon fork, or buying redshift bars. My bike is white so the black stock fork or a black carbon fork would look similar. If I buy a carbon fork, I need to determine how many spacers are safe on it.

The main issues I have with the Midnight Special is the low stack height and the gearing. Mine is set up with 2x11 with 50-34 chainrings and I run out of gears going up hills all the time. I want to buy a similar bike that is 700c wheels, higher stack, similar reach, better gears for hills (either subcompact 2x or a 1x setup), steel frame, and disc brakes (mechanical or hydro is fine with me). I would use the bike for commuting, winter, rain, and hilly routes. Any suggestions? I rode a Wilde Rambler SL XL and the geometry felt much more comfortable. Those bikes are expensive so it wouldn’t be a great winter bike or for commuting since it would be locked up. The State All Road 4130 seems like another good option, the only thing I am unsure about with those are the cable actuated hydro brakes.