What Bike?

anderoo

Hello,

I am going to start riding to work soon, but would like a new bike. My communte is around 18km each way about a third of which is through a forest road/ track, and the rest on roads. I live in switzerland on the edge of the Jura's so hills tend to be quite steep around here. I would also like to do some day tours on my new bike.

I was thinking of an audax bike, but am not sure if it would cope well with the forest section. I have also been considering a cyclocross, but not sure about comfort or the knobbly tires on the road.

Does anyone have any useful suggestions? (not too sure if i want to spend more than £1000 though)

Thanks

Surf-Matt

Specialised Tricross.

Job done.

Jay dubbleU

CX - welcome to the dark side 8)

Cafewanda

You can get your cape from KeiranB once you've purchased the bike

jonginge

anderoo wrote:

Hello,

I am going to start riding to work soon, but would like a new bike. My communte is around 18km each way about a third of which is through a forest road/ track, and the rest on roads. I live in switzerland on the edge of the Jura's so hills tend to be quite steep around here. I would also like to do some day tours on my new bike.

I was thinking of an audax bike, but am not sure if it would cope well with the forest section. I have also been considering a cyclocross, but not sure about comfort or the knobbly tires on the road.

Does anyone have any useful suggestions? (not too sure if i want to spend more than £1000 though)

Thanks

Nothing further to add except to say nice location. I remember watching the Tour de France ride up the Col de la Faucille: lovely bit of the world. I rode up it the next day but not quite at the same pace

Mountainboy2465

I commute on a Kona Dew Drop - hybrid type frame with discs & drop bars. Sounds like it would suit your needs but then so would lots of bikes. Any CX type with potential for rack mounts, something like the Genesis Croix de Fer or the Kinesis Decade Tripster maybe.

Dew Drop is well below your budget but the kit is pretty low end and would stand a few upgrades to 105 level when things start to wear out.

HTH.

lardboy

Definitely CX. Change the tires to something a bit less nobbly than the standard, but keep a relatively fat width, and you'll be flying.

On a side note, I'm possibly moving to Berne and was wondering about commuting by bike. Looks like I wouldn't be the only one. I'll have to get gears though!

biondino

Surf-Matt wrote:

Specialised Tricross.

Job done.

What if he doesn't want a bike that weighs more than the mountains he'll be riding it on?

il_principe

anderoo wrote:

Hello,

I am going to start riding to work soon, but would like a new bike. My communte is around 18km each way about a third of which is through a forest road/ track, and the rest on roads. I live in switzerland on the edge of the Jura's so hills tend to be quite steep around here. I would also like to do some day tours on my new bike.

You lucky lucky f*cker.

Difficult really. I mean if I lived where you did I'd want a serious road bike to enjoy all the lovely cycling that Switzerland has to offer... but given trail element - yeah a CX, but as Blondie points out, the Tricross weighs a ton. My boss has the SS version and even that's heavy. How about something like the Ridley Crossbow

http://www.awcycles.co.uk/brands/Ridley/Crossbow,_Cyclocross_Bike,_2010/9652/index.aspx

Clok

I think I would go with that ridley. Check shop4cross site.

Bikequin

The Condor Fratello is the ultimate commuting machine -

http://www.condorcycles.com/fratello.html

EDIT: I didn't quite read the bit about needing to go over a trail for a third of the ride. So probably not the best suggestion. Still a great bike though.

Kieran_Burns

I don't know where people get the Tricross being so heavy from. I don't think mine is, and it's a perfect choice for the commute being envisaged.

What size Cape do you need? I have a special on lined waterproof ones at the moment.....

Aidy

I'm seriously tempted by one of those Dew Drops.

Not hugely sure about the geometry, though - need to find one to try.

cjcp

I'm not convinced that the cantilever brakes on the crossers would be ideal if you're going down some of the steep/fast descents. Disc brakes would be a better option, but I've not checked whether there are any within your budget. If you're riding up these hills, are you able to push the budget up a little to afford a lighter bike?

Stevo_666

With that mix of route in your journey and the gradients involved, look at a hardtail MTB with some light nobblies on like Conti Race Kings or Racing Ralphs. The lower gearing and supension will offset any weight penalty - you should be able to get something around 25lbs/11.5kg for that price. You'll also get disc brakes chucked in and a nice comfortable ride

lardboy

How about a Genesis Croix De Fer? Around a grand, disc brakes and eyelets for a rack. You'd have to use Crud Catchers rather than full mudguards. Still about 10Kg, and only a double, which could be an issue on the hills.

http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/cro ... fications/

UndercoverElephant

Again CX, probably. I'd go for the Scott CX Comp - it's a bit racier than the others mentioned so it might actually be a bit more fun on the roads.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Scott-CX-Comp-2 ... _28804.htm

roger_merriman

cjcp wrote:

I'm not convinced that the cantilever brakes on the crossers would be ideal if you're going down some of the steep/fast descents. Disc brakes would be a better option, but I've not checked whether there are any within your budget. If you're riding up these hills, are you able to push the budget up a little to afford a lighter bike?

the odd thing is that cants can be very powerful brakes, My old MTB with slicks and pre V's was more than capable of out braking road bikes. once wet very much so.

and MTB's with V brakes stop, very well.

why cycle cross bikes seem to suffer so.

il_principe

Have you seen the new Colnago CX (on BR this am) ok, it's massively over budget, but droooooooool.



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roger_merriman

Il Principe wrote:

Have you seen the new Colnago CX (on BR this am) ok, it's massively over budget, but droooooooool.



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thats very nice indeed! some one buy it for me?

mudcovered

roger merriman wrote:

the odd thing is that cants can be very powerful brakes, My old MTB with slicks and pre V's was more than capable of out braking road bikes. once wet very much so.

and MTB's with V brakes stop, very well.

why cycle cross bikes seem to suffer so.

Its a set up thing. The design of the canti brake allows for variable mechanical advantage (depending on how you set up the straddle wire). This makes it much more fiddly to set them up for maximum power compared with V, Side pull and disk brakes where the mechanical advantage is fixed.

Get them set up right and there is more than enough stopping power in them. It just takes ages to get them to that state. I think with the current fashion for CX bikes people have forgotten that this setup needs to be done to get the maximum performance out of this type of brake.

The judder that some canti brake/carbon fork combinations induce doesn't help either.

Mike

anderoo

Thanks folks, It looks like the CX is the way to go. I guess the audax bike don't have the muscle for a light trail. I'm going to check ou some of the bikes mentioned, although the specialized bikes can't be delivered here from UK, and they are a few hundred pounds more in CH.
Riding to work is ok its a relatively low gradient uphill for half the journey, then theres some big downhill runs. Coming home is easy for the most part because i ride along the lake (neuchatel) which is flat, Then i have a mile long steep uphill and 140 steps to my apartment!!

Lardboy: don't worry too much about gears in Berne, i think its relatively flat compared with the rest of switzerland!