My perfect commuter: your help please

jonny_trousers

Right boys and girls, I'm struggling. From reading older posts here I can see that I am only treading the classic, time-honoured path of the newbie who one day decides that enough is enough and that it is time to commute by bike - the newbie who buys a hybrid/commuter - the newbie who rediscovers a love of cycling - the newbie who wants more than the hybrid/commuter can offer - the newbie who decides to spend the mortgage money on a new bike - the newbie who finds that the feel of lycra against newly shaved flesh is not homosexual at all, but is highly practical (especially while wearing French knickers beneath, but ahem*).

Obviously we all have different needs and desires, but I thought I might be selfish enough to offer mine here in the hope that you boys and girls in the know will be kind enough to share a little of your expertise. So here goes...

Cost: I could probably stretch to a grand, but I would be much happier if I didn't have to go beyond seven hundred folding ones.

Potential for speed: I want it to be fast enough to beat anyone who does not have a competitive streak - yes, yes... a bad workman and all that, but I consider myself to be in fairly decent shape, all things considered, yet I am sick of flogging my guts out on the hybrid to keep up with the old fart casually riding along on his 1970s road bike.

It's all about riding in Landaaaan (my commute is Crystal Palace to the West End and back). A single speed surely? Maybe, but I do have a two mile gentle slope upwards at the end of my return leg (at 11:15 pm) followed by a 300 metre steep climb (I'm pretty certain I could learn to man-up with the girlesque inclines if a single speed was the answer). I should just say that, surprising to me, one of the things I love most about getting back in the saddle is riding in among London traffic: I absolutely adore the thrill of thinking ahead and picking your line (sensibly and safely, of course) through the jams.

Comfort: Drop bars for me please. Flats just give me too much upper back/neck tension.

Braking: I kind of like the mechanical disc brakes I have right now. You get that reassuring feeling that they will look after you rather than chuck you over the handle bars or lock up in an emergency the way my rim brakes did when I was a junior BMX bandit all those years ago. I've yet to ride in really sh*tty weather, yet already I'm loving the discs.

The looks: I know, I know it is stupid, but if I am spending my hard earned readies on a nice bit of kit then I want it to look the shizz (you kids are still saying that right?), but at the same time I don't want it to scream out "Nick me, nick me" in a Cannondale-Bad-Boy-in-London kind of a way (does anyone in London ever hang on to one of those things for more than six months? They should come with the tag-line, "You never own a Bad Boy: you merely look after it until it is half-inched and put on Gumtree)* What I really want is crap-looks-chic: I want a bike where fellow cyclists in the know will nod appreciatively with a "hell yeah" glint in their eye, yet the local pikey will think, "Bollox to that piece of crap, I'm having that shiny, shiny Carrera thing over there.

Gears: It's for London, I don't need many (maybe I don't need any?). My bike at the moment has 8 only (mech not hub) and that's kind of fine. I would love ten or eleven, but beyond that it would be pure, unadulterated greed on my part.

Strength: My route is pot-holetastic and I guess my bike will have to be able to deal with it. Right now all is good. I've had my chain come off a couple of times due to potholes, but the rims remain solid. Incidentally, how should one ride potholes? My BMX training told me to bunny-hop, wheelie-over, or pedal-through, but that is clearly not the way forwards on a bigger bike.

Ride: Surely it's got to be the steel frame/carbon fork combo right? Right..?

And there you have it! CX? Road? Slick-urban? Penny-farthing?

Seriously, any help would be hugely appreciated

Trousers

a bottle of red was involved in the creation of this post

UndercoverElephant

I'll not even attempt to answer everything, but here goes:

If you want something fast, please give up on discs. Whilst the expensive ones are only twice as heavy as cheap rim brakes (actually, you'll end up with heavier hubs too), rim brakes with decent pads stop road wheels plenty well enough. My brakes are more than capable of stopping my bike very quickly.

Also pot-holes, my take is to ride round them when possible or bunny hop when not.

I wouldn't go CX, but then I like longer top-tubes. A single-speed roadie (Condor Tempo? Pearson Touché?) with mudguard clearance might suit you down to the ground. That said, there are times we all like gears.

lost_in_thought

Great post. I think more posts should be wine-fuelled...

In good news, 700 squid should buy you an absolutely stonking single speed.

In bad news, none of those single speeds will come with disc brakes. Seriously man, are you clinically insane? The average FG rider will only have one brake, because they prefer not to have skin on their noses if at all possible, and maintain that they can brake with their legs.

So, basically a pretty-but-not-too-pretty SS....



How's that? Too pretty? :P

Ooooh bar end brakes - hipstertastic...



Here's a selection for you:

http://www.pearsoncycles.co.uk/category ... _AND_FIXED

I'd just find one you like the look of and buy it :P

Oh but sizing. Sizing's important. You need the right size, OK? Remember that...

Seriously, I'd recommend going around to lots of bike shops and riding whatever they'll let you take. Question them about the geometry of whatever you're riding, and you'll get to know what suits you. It'll be things like top tube length and head tube length that are important, they basically affect the angles of the bike, I for example need a short top tube and long head tube, because I'm leggy with a short torso. For those who are the opposite, the opposite is true. Who'd have thought?

jonny_trousers

Extremely useful advice already guys; thanks! So the discs are out; I'll save them for my mountain bike when I realise I need one to negotiate those difficult leafy stretches in the autumn (any excuse eh?).

That Bianchi is so sexy LIT, but perhaps almost too pretty: I think you would end up pulling out a duster and polishing it at every junction and it would be just awful to spoil its good looks with silly things like brakes (don't think I am man enough to ride a fixie).

You are quite right: I need to ride as many bikes as I can get my mitts on to see what feels right.

Maybe I should get a single speed with bright orange rims and teeny-tiny bars so I can look like all those other Hoxton-trendies you see out and about these days. Or perhaps not.

Keep the thoughts coming please!

snellgrove

lost_in_thought wrote:

Hmm, there I was thinking I want a Charge Plug Racer but that's made me think I need to at least look at the alternatives :shock:

ClimbingBen

My next commuter (when the cycle to work fairy visits again) will be one of these...



Looks great.
Steel.
Only £500.
Budget £100 for a set of road tyres (knobblies back on for winter), mudguards, maybe a smaller freewheel and other bits and you've got loads left to feed your wine drinking habit!

nich

II wouldn't get too hung up on the weight issue of discs. My mates new Boardman hybrid (with discs) is far lighter than my 08 spesh Allez, which I consider light after years of owning a mtb

What about this:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CBOOPORA/pompino-race



Tis disc brake ready too

supersonic

A TT bike

jonny_trousers

supersonic wrote:

A TT bike

Well it would certainly be quick.

So it looks like most of you have decided I need a single speed, which I am completely comfortable with and there are some nice suggestions above, thanks!

I think the one thing I have decided is that I need to try a few different bikes before commiting. I had a great ride into work today, yet here I am, once more, sitting with really tense shoulders. My commuter, with its flat bar, has me hunching my shoulders upwards as I ride, which seems to create a lot of tension in my neck. The good news is I work close by to Condor, I live nearish to Brixton (Their Surlys look nice, but seem a touch overpriced) and Pearson are not so very far away. Don't Evans have a place to try bikes out somewhere too? I guess if I am looking to spend a few quid then it would be stupid not to try a few first.

supersonic

Well personally I prefer gears, but is up to you. I like to keep up a steady cadence on all slopes, and know I can gun it if I want to without having silly fast spinning legs [unless I have a high ratio, in which case turtles beat me away from the lights]

I guess Sheffield is somewhat more hilly than london though lol.

Trying is certainly key.

Jay dubbleU

Genesis Croix de Fer - ticks all the boxes - need i say more ?

jonny_trousers

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Genesis Croix de Fer - ticks all the boxes - need i say more ?

Hmm, you might just be onto something.

tomb353

I have one of these in black, kinesis tripster basically a alu frame and fork with disk mounts for £500 which you then get a bike shop to build up. The rationale was wanting disks (avid bb7 road) due to riding 12 months of the year and a few scares over the years in the wet (and probably with oil / diesel all over my rims). Because its designed for cyclo cross tyres it will take studded winter ice tyres as well which are a nice option to have (never missed a day through this winter, and never came off the bike). The other similar options are the genesis cross de fir or the cotic road rat which are all steel, or you could in theory use the kinesis carbon fork and the steel road rat frame to build the bike you describe in your first post above. I don't know what the clearance is on the cotic or the genesis and whether they could take my ice tyres + big mud guards winter setup. Disks do carry a weight penalty, so be sure you really want them before deciding on a bike.



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Stevo_666

Hmm - I know the hills in Crystal Palace and unless you're a sucker for punishment or have thighs of steel, I wouldn't go for a single speed.

If you want drops and disc brakes then the choice I know of are the Genesis Croix de Fer and one of the Focus Mares disc. I reckon both tick the boxes you want ticked and in general the best Pikey deterrant is drop bars They should take reasonably big tyres (ditch the knobbly CX tyres for pure road use) and have decently strong rims as they're both CX bikes.

HTH.

rf6

That Bianchi is making me dribble! I want one. Badly.

jonny_trousers

Stevo 666 wrote:

Hmm - I know the hills in Crystal Palace and unless you're a sucker for punishment or have thighs of steel, I wouldn't go for a single speed.

Well, if I am honest, the worst I have to suffer is the easier first half of Dulwich Wood Park, which isn't so horrendous, The gentle rise of South Croxted Road is about as tough as it gets for me. Apart from anything, one of the main reasons I decided to get into cycling again was so that I could find an alternative to those mind-numbing cardio sessions in the gym. I kind of like that heart-pounding, muscle-burning sensation at the very end of a ride where you know you have pushed yourself to your limit and perhaps a single speed would give me that, alongside the fun of the 'urban attack' (or whatever nonsense the advertisers like to call it). To be totally honest, in my naiveté, I assumed that the biggest pain involved in having a single speed would be running on too high a cadence when things were going well.

My latest temptation is the Condor Tempo (as recommended in the first reply) because it get's great reviews and that the shop is just up the road from me so I can bother them to my heart's content when it comes to getting things just right (buying from an LBS has to be worth a lot right?).

The Genesis Croix de Fer really does look great and ticks all of my boxes, but perhaps I should go with the simplicity of a single speed for the commute and see what I fancy when the autumn sales kick in?

g00se

Sorry about the format but saw this on facebook recently:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3502/4558472205_ea316b0937_o.jpg

Stevo_666

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

Well, if I am honest, the worst I have to suffer is the easier first half of Dulwich Wood Park, which isn't so horrendous, The gentle rise of South Croxted Road is about as tough as it gets for me.

OK, you're at the flatter end of CP....doable if your s/s is geared is right. I'm sure people like Condor can advise on that.

Jonny_Trousers wrote:

The Genesis Croix de Fer really does look great and ticks all of my boxes, but perhaps I should go with the simplicity of a single speed for the commute and see what I fancy when the autumn sales kick in?

Why not get the Genesis now: if you want s/s - just don't change gear et voila - single speed for no extra cost

pastryboy

ClimbingBen wrote:

My next commuter (when the cycle to work fairy visits again) will be one of these...



Looks great.
Steel.
Only £500.
Budget £100 for a set of road tyres (knobblies back on for winter), mudguards, maybe a smaller freewheel and other bits and you've got loads left to feed your wine drinking habit!

That's where my C2W voucher is going too. Looks like the perfect low maintenance bike for year round commuting.