Trainer / commuter

spanspoon

Looking for ideas and inspiration for a new commuter.

My commute to work is 14 miles, it has a couple of good climbs one of which is 11% (dunno what that is in old money!)

I have a nice new carbon road bike which I don't want to take out in the wet! She's too pretty!

I was thinking of getting a cheapish fixie. Basically i want something simple, reliable, with minimal maintenance and something to build my strength for sportives on my roadie.

Im not sure I could handle the hills on a fixie but I have come across a compromise

http://magicbikemike.co.uk/collections/ ... k-back-hub

I'd appreciate any thoughts regarding a two speed kick back hub, would I be better off on a fixie, should I build my own or do you know of any other by builders/suppliers out there?

corshamjim

Pashley's Clubman Urban has the Sturmey-Archer two-speed hub. The drum brake on the front means it should be extremely low maintenance too.

Tern bicycles are also producing a folder with a two-speed hub (if I recall it uses the SRAM Automatix). I can't remember if it's available here yet, but if it is you'll find it at Evans Cycles.

Personally if I had that sort of a commute I'd probably go for something like the Genesis Day One Alfine 8 which has an 8-speed hub gear. I know from experience that my knees won't take that sort of punishment otherwise. ymmv

craker

I think there's a short stretch of 10% or so on my commute - I changed the gearing not so long ago from 39 x 15 to 39 x 14 (72" or so now) and it suits the whole journey better. If you want a ss / fixie then make sure you get the right gearing for the commute. Getting some sort of two geared hub seems like a poor compromise - if you want gears, get gears.

spanspoon

Cheers for the replies! Do you get any knee problems on the ss / fixie?

jonomc4

I saw an interesting fixie in London once - the only difference was it had a twin cog chainset - seemed sensible on the knees to me.

craker

spanspoon wrote:

Cheers for the replies! Do you get any knee problems on the ss / fixie?

I haven't had it too long and I don't tend to ride it every day (I always get to work with a bigger smile on my face than when I take the geared commuter). As for the knee problems I want to answer No but I'm currently suffering from Runners Knee (and I have been doing a load of running and walking of late). Perhaps Google can tell me whether this is due to an over-geared bike...