Best current London commuter bike?

Nik86

Hi all,

Sorry to do another advice topic but I could really do with your help...

I'm looking to buy a new bike for use on the North London roads. I've been looking into the flat handlebar roadbikes (like the Specialized Sirrus http://www.evanscycles.com/products/spe ... e-ec020017) but can't really make heand nor tail of what's worth buying.

Is it better to go new or look at 2nd hand (how durable are these things and would a 2 year old, used one be worth it)? I keep seeing vintage bikes around so a 2/3 year old one should have a lot of life left in it right?

Which brands/models should I be looking at? Does the price basically tell you the quality or are there some companies to avoid?

What do people think of Carrera, Cannondale, Specialized, Trek, Giant and Ridgeback? Are there any that I've missed that I should consider?

Ideally I want something light (theres a big hill on my commute) and speedy but that won't break down or pick up punctures too easily. Any ideas/suggestions?

Thank you all so much in advance, I really do appreciate it.

Aidy

Bikes aren't cars.

I've never really understood this concept that bikes have a limited lifespan, alnd that they just stop working when they hit a certain age.

Whilst it's true that some componentry does wear out, notably tyres, brakes, and drivetrain, it's just not the case that they stop working. Nor does it ever really get to the stage where they become uneconomical to repair.

To answer your question, price does, broadly, tend to reflect quality. Better componentry often tends to last longer.
I tend to reckon it's worth looking through second hand bikes, but then, I tend to accept that some bits might be a little the worse for wear, and I don't mind replacing them.

WesternWay

You will now start a whole thread of people saying "don't get a hybrid" :-)

FWIW I have a hybrid RIdgeback (a flight T1) and it has been very good. I too cycle through north London (Barnet to the City). Cycled right through the winter on it with no problems.

If I started again I /probably/ would get a road bike, but I like my hybrid too... I think that there is value to be had second hand. My feeling is that aluminium frames probably do have more of a limited life than steel ones.

If I were you I would immediately put some "commuter" type tyres on whatever you get... The puncture fairy can be VERY tiresome.

The Rookie

I have at my house a 1970's Raleigh 'shopper' (16" balloon tyres, hub dynamo and integrated wiring and lights) it will still fix up easily...

Used bikes, as long as the frame is 'good' can be very easy to repair and update, don't be put off, sure a nice shiny new bike is nice, but it will cost you twice as much.

Ally frames do have a finite life, its the nature of the material, but unless there is a design or manufacture defect they will usually last at least ten years of 'normal' usage.

Simon

Headhuunter

Even steel frames have a limited life but all frames will last for decades if you look after them, even aluminiium and carbon. As far as I'm aware they don't have an inbuilt age limit from which point they are always considered dangerous.

In terms of what bike to go for, at that price range they're all going to be similar in terms of materials - mostly 7005 aluminium, possibly 6061 if you're lucky. You may be lucky enough to squeeze some carbon forks into the equation. The differences will be in frame geometry and componentry, so best thing to do is take a few test rides, find out what is most comfortable and work out what the best groupset you can get for the money is. You also need to consider the hyrid vs road bike conundrum. To be honest it's mainly a personal taste thing.

You seem to know all the major brands. If you're looking at road bikes, also consider Ribble, they do some decent bikes at about the £5-600 mark (see their website).

amnezia

Best Current London Commuter Bike is a road bike with drop bars, anything else is a compromise.

itsbruce

Another way to save as much as two hundred pounds (sometimes even more) on the normal price of a bike is to look for the previous years model. Some of the retailers have quite a few of their 2009 models on sale. You can normally pick up a bike that's every bit as good as its 2010 counterpart, either saving yourself some cash or getting something that would have otherwise been out of your price range.

If you go that route, just do a little research on the model you think you want, in case it had some problems in the 2009 model which are the reason why they still have it in stock.

As for the brands you mentioned, I've owned a couple of Trek bikes in the past and they are always very reliable, well built bikes. Trek have a good range of bikes and occasionally they do something imaginitive like the Soho.

Cannondale make high quality, good looking bikes with a specific segment of the market in mind (the name of their "Bad Boy" range may offer a clue). You do pay an extra hundred or so for the brand.

Ridgeback have a range that's strong at the budget end. I'm not dissing their higher end bikes, just saying they have a reputation for bikes that are affordable and reliable (and usually fast).

The Rookie

Headhuunter wrote:

Even steel frames have a limited life but all frames will last for decades if you look after them, even aluminiium and carbon. As far as I'm aware they don't have an inbuilt age limit from which point they are always considered dangerous.

Not a metallurgist/engineer are you....Unless it corrodes or has stresses taking it beyond its elastic limit (very unlikley) steel will last forever (and I do mean literally forever), aluminium alloys on the other hand wont, you could tap it with your finger nail and eventually (after a lot of taps and over a long timeI I admit) it will fail. Most failures on ally frames (apart from early life due to manufacturing) are caused by this and will usually be at close to welds due to the materail changes brought about by the heat from the welding process.

Carbon I don't work with so won't comment.

Simon

Headhuunter

The Beginner wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

Even steel frames have a limited life but all frames will last for decades if you look after them, even aluminiium and carbon. As far as I'm aware they don't have an inbuilt age limit from which point they are always considered dangerous.

Not a metallurgist/engineer are you....Unless it corrodes or has stresses taking it beyond its elastic limit (very unlikley) steel will last forever (and I do mean literally forever), aluminium alloys on the other hand wont, you could tap it with your finger nail and eventually (after a lot of taps and over a long timeI I admit) it will fail. Most failures on ally frames (apart from early life due to manufacturing) are caused by this and will usually be at close to welds due to the materail changes brought about by the heat from the welding process.

Carbon I don't work with so won't comment.

Simon

No, I'm not an engineer.... OK, I've heard that aluminium is less durable than steel however eve aluminium lifetime is longer than a few years, unless you give it a good hard ding, surely? I've had aluminium framed bikes that have been 10 years old and still going strong...

g00se

Hearsay I know, either from this forum or cyclechat, but someone posted evidence that the estimated life of a Alu frame was 20-30k km.

craker

Headhuunter wrote:

No, I'm not an engineer.... OK, I've heard that aluminium is less durable than steel however eve aluminium lifetime is longer than a few years, unless you give it a good hard ding, surely? I've had aluminium framed bikes that have been 10 years old and still going strong...

Aluminium has no bottom limit to its fatigue resistance. Even if you load it very lightly, after so many cycles of loading / unloading it will fail through fatigue.

Steel doesn't have a problem with this - it will fatigue if you load it highly but below a certain load this will not happen.

Quite how highly stressed relative to yield stress modern bikes are I've no idea.

I commute on a road bike and one bug bear I've had over this winter is deterioration in dual caliper brakes - my rear one in particular gunked up and I've replaced it. Side pull brakes like on a cross bike or disks may be a better bet.

itsbruce

Of all the options for frames, Carbon has the worst behaviour on failure; it shatters.

Wisdom on frames from one of the (late, lamented) greats: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-materials.html

Headhuunter

itsbruce wrote:

Of all the options for frames, Carbon has the worst behaviour on failure; it shatters.

Wisdom on frames from one of the (late, lamented) greats: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-materials.html

So essentially that article is saying that if the tube diameter and wall thickness are sufficient, aluminium, steel and titanium differ very little....

roger_merriman

Headhuunter wrote:

itsbruce wrote:

Of all the options for frames, Carbon has the worst behaviour on failure; it shatters.

Wisdom on frames from one of the (late, lamented) greats: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-materials.html

So essentially that article is saying that if the tube diameter and wall thickness are sufficient, aluminium, steel and titanium differ very little....

or to put it another way, it's how it's made not what it's made from.

el_presidente

The Beginner wrote:

...aluminium alloys on the other hand wont, you could tap it with your finger nail and eventually (after a lot of taps and over a long timeI I admit) it will fail. Most failures on ally frames (apart from early life due to manufacturing) are caused by this .....

I for one have never encountered one alu frame that has failed from repeated fingernail tapping.

itsbruce

Headhuunter wrote:

itsbruce wrote:

Of all the options for frames, Carbon has the worst behaviour on failure; it shatters.

Wisdom on frames from one of the (late, lamented) greats: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/frame-materials.html

So essentially that article is saying that if the tube diameter and wall thickness are sufficient, aluminium, steel and titanium differ very little....

No, he's saying they differ quite a bit in their characteristics but that you can create a serviceable frame for most reasonable requirements out of any of them. It's an important distinction to remember; your requirements may rule a material out. And there are practical limits to how you can compensate for a material's disadvantages with the frame design; you have to be able to fit your thighs round it, after all

He's also saying that people overstate the contribution of the frame material to a bike's characteristics and that's always going to useful to remember as an antidote to excessive bike geekery.

AASHTA.

Salsamander

I commute on a Sirrus, I really like it, it's quite the workhorse, got a rack, mudguards, etc. I'd recommend it, I choose it over a few other trek bikes i tried, nothing to do with components or anything like that I just rode them around brixton and felt best on the Sirrus.

There are plenty of good bike shops in North London, I'd recommend popping in and trying them all. you can never test ride too many bikes 8)

will3

The Beginner wrote:

Not a metallurgist/engineer are you....Unless it corrodes or has stresses taking it beyond its elastic limit (very unlikley) steel will last forever (and I do mean literally forever), aluminium alloys on the other hand wont, you could tap it with your finger nail and eventually (after a lot of taps and over a long timeI I admit) it will fail.

Simon

I've had a steel frame fail from fatigue .

el_presidente

My legs have failed from fatigue

itsbruce

amnezia wrote:

Best Current London Commuter Bike is a road bike with drop bars, anything else is a compromise.

Always interesting to hear the views of the Roadie Taliban.

Aidy

How far are you going?
Are you intending to be using it for not-commuting?
Do you have some form of secure storage?

[Edit]Oh, and hi Bruce[/Edit]

biondino

WesternWay wrote:

You will now start a whole thread of people saying "don't get a hybrid" :-)

FWIW I have a hybrid RIdgeback (a flight T1) and it has been very good. I too cycle through north London (Barnet to the City). Cycled right through the winter on it with no problems.

If I started again I /probably/ would get a road bike, but I like my hybrid too... I think that there is value to be had second hand. My feeling is that aluminium frames probably do have more of a limited life than steel ones.

If I were you I would immediately put some "commuter" type tyres on whatever you get... The puncture fairy can be VERY tiresome.

Or some proper racing tyres - my Ultremos, combined, have had two punctures in approx 7,000 miles and they both occurred on a pair that ended up being recalled because of a manufacturing fault.

Aidy

biondino wrote:

Or some proper racing tyres - my Ultremos, combined, have had two punctures in approx 7,000 miles and they both occurred on a pair that ended up being recalled because of a manufacturing fault.

Strange. My Ultremos were done for after about 1000 miles, maybe 1500 tops.
I wasn't really that impressed.

biondino

Um, I didn't say they *lasted* 7,000 miles*! Just that during their lifetime, they didn't puncture at all.

(more like 2,500 rear wheel and 3,000 front, something like that?)

Aidy

biondino wrote:

Um, I didn't say they *lasted* 7,000 miles*! Just that during their lifetime, they didn't puncture at all.

(more like 2,500 rear wheel and 3,000 front, something like that?)

Didya see how that might've been a bit confusing?

biondino

Aidy wrote:

biondino wrote:

Um, I didn't say they *lasted* 7,000 miles*! Just that during their lifetime, they didn't puncture at all.

(more like 2,500 rear wheel and 3,000 front, something like that?)

Didya see how that might've been a bit confusing?

Ye-e-es, but proper racing tyres of fun and joy vs Marathon Plus smelling like sick and actually incapable of revolving? It's a no-brainer

Aidy

biondino wrote:

Ye-e-es, but proper racing tyres of fun and joy vs Marathon Plus smelling like sick and actually incapable of revolving? It's a no-brainer

No, I completely agree
I do reckon Stelvios last a lot longer, and aren't noticeably slower than Ultremos, though.

Rushie

If all you're ever going to want to do on it is commute, then get yourself a Specialized Langster. It's a singlespeed so not particularly versatile, but as a tool for a specific job it's probably the best bike I own. I've had mine three years now, commuted on it 13 miles each way almost every day including depths of winter, and it just keeps on going. The pros of singlespeed are reduction in maintenance (BIG pro for me) and lower weight; the cons are you've only got one gear so if your route is hilly maybe look at something else. If you want to do a bit of riding at the weekends - maybe some canal paths or whatever - then maybe the hybrid is a good option. You don't need to spend a huge amount - your £5-600 should be plenty.

Nik86

Thank you all so much, your views have actually been really helpful and above all interesting. I finally understand (better) about different frame materials and why/how it matters.

For what it's worth, I think I've decided to go for the Sirrus. I tried it (and a few others) in the shop and it really flies. It's basically a roadbike that provides a little more comfort and flat handlebars. I think that'll be perfect for me - plus it's light so should help with the hills. To answer Aidy's question: I will mostly be using it for commuting, maybe the occasional weekend ride but nothing too extreme either way.

Anyways, thanks again and if anyone has any more advice, I'm always happy to hear it.

Happy cycling guys :-D

mroli

Boardman road comp sc. £500, get it on the cycle 2 work and it can work out as little as £250. That is a great deal. Especially when you pay it off over a year.