Fast, practical, cheap SS for winter commuting?

jonny_trousers

What would you go for?

I've got three months London commuting (flat) coming up from December and the only bike I own is far too nice for that. This is what I require...

Reasonably priced - as it's going to have to be locked to railings.
Fast and fun - I want something that'll bring a smile to my face.
Single speed - simplicity, value and handles bad weather well.
Practical - will take 28mm tyres and guards (neither are vital).
Comfortable - I don't really want hardcore track bike geometry.

I don't want much, do I?

It would be nice to have disc brakes, but I guess they'll add cost and front end weight

What I have in mind now is a second hand Condor Tempo, a Genesis Flyer or Kina Paddy Waggon. Anything else you'd recommend?

timothyw

This arrived yesterday:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-isolation-cx12-singlespeed-2015/

Ask me later and I'll tell you how I get on with it today.

So far as I can tell that's the cheapest way to get a disk braked SS bike right now. Someone mentioned the Charge Plug 2 in the bargain thread, that seems pretty reasonable also.

I used to have a Day One Disc 2015, that was great until a car decided to reshape the downtube.

smokey_bacon

+1 for a day one disc. Excellent bike that you can do anything with.

tetm

If you ride a 54/56cm frame then I've got a Paddy Wagon that ticks every box in your list of requests that is not getting ridden enough and you're welcome to for a nice price.

dyrlac

+1 for the Charge. I love mine with unreasonable fervour. Mounting points for guards, takes huge tyres. Cheap (especially the charge 2 from the other thread), indestructible (have crashed mine too many times with no ill effects), and pleasingly old school tube profiles. Not terribly aggressive geometry unless you fit low riser bullhorns. For flat London commuting though, 42x16 (stock gearing on the Charge and many/most other SS in this price bracket) is way too short unless you are a real spinnista. Flopping to fixed is also mandatory.

dhope

+1 for tetm's Paddy Wagon. Bullet proof, and keeps it in the family 8)

timothyw

So having ridden my Verenti CX Isolation into work this morning a couple of thoughts:

- 42x15 is a pretty big gear, particularly with the 700x32 tyres. I might just be a big wuss, although it is fair to point out that my commute isn't flat. If your commute actually is flat it'd probably be perfect.
- Fairly weighty front end. It does roll along nicely despite the obviously crap knobbly tyres that I left on it for it's first ride, but the fork looks a bit like it has been made of scaffold pole when compared to the rest of the frame. If I see a decently priced carbon disk fork I'd be tempted. Somewhat frustratingly I actually have one spare from a currently unused frameset but it is a tapered design so no good for this frame.
- BB5s stop very nicely, although I'm not looking forward to the regular fettling - will probably swap on my spare spyres when that eventuality occurs.
- The frame design doesn't feature sliding rear brake mounts, so I don't know yet to what extent it is possible or rather necessary to adjust brake caliper positioning so as to accomodate moving the wheel back/forward with chain wear etc. With that said however, I never had to shift the caliper position on the day one disc, although then I'd only got to ride the thing for 500 miles or so.
- Chainstay clearance isn't as good as on the Day One - it looks like 700x35 is probably the limit. I doubt I'd get my voyager hyper 700x40s on, despite their slick design. Annoying as seatstay and fork clearance ample.
- Chainline looks from casual glance like it might be a little bit off, but I need to have a proper look really.
- No quicklink on the stock chain which will arguably make rear punctures a bit more of a headache to repair (my approach was to bring a quicklink tool in my commuter bag so that I could undo the chain and come straight back out with the rear wheel, rather than unwinding the chain tugs then using the slack to move the chain off the chainring, so allowing the wheel to come off that way - in practice on the day one I never actually had a rear puncture so this methodology wasn't properly tested at the roadside!)

jonny_trousers

Thanks guys!

That's my worry about a steel fork, Timothy. I want the bike to feel nippy and I don't really need a solid work horse. I was thinking about the Day One disk and swapping out the fork for something carbon, but then I'm getting into the realms of an expensive bike that I don't want to chain to railings. I've also had a bad experience of cheaper disc brakes on my very first commuter that I don't really want to repeat.

I'd ride a 54 on a fairly relaxed geometry frame, tetm. If your Paddy Wagon is the right price in the right condition and the right size I could well be interested.

Salsa

I love my Paddy Wagon, it's my favorite bike out of all I've ever owned tbh, lovely geometry and decent clearances for tyres and muds. Only thing I couldn't add to make it perfect is a rack as my heels would hit the bags when I tried.
Built mine from the frame up though so it's got better than stock components. CK headset, carbon FSA crank, Ritchey classic finishing kit, handbuilt wheels, White Ind freewheel, R650 brakes with gutted SRAM Rival levers. I had to change from the steel fork to a carbon one though, not because the fork was bad but because it was totaled from a car reversing into me at full speed. Forks bent and wheel destroyed but the frame just shrugged it off.

meanredspider

I adore my Paddy Wagon - such a great bike and so much fun - especially with bullhorns. Mine is entirely stock except that I run 27c Open Paves and guards. I'd thoroughly recommend it. I'm wondering if my new commute might be flat enough to keep it else my 56 will be up for sale too.

itboffin

You could always do the recycle route I.E. eBay frameset old skool steel new budget wheels and 2nd hand crankset I've been down this route quite a few times and am very grateful I did.

In fact I turned one of those projects back into a fully restored old/new comfort 10 speed geared cruiser

llebend

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19714457#p19714457]TimothyW[/url] wrote:

This arrived yesterday:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-isolation-cx12-singlespeed-2015/

Ask me later and I'll tell you how I get on with it today.

So far as I can tell that's the cheapest way to get a disk braked SS bike right now. Someone mentioned the Charge Plug 2 in the bargain thread, that seems pretty reasonable also.

I used to have a Day One Disc 2015, that was great until a car decided to reshape the downtube.

This ^^ Verenti or the Plug

Or I would pick one up, secondhand, for peanuts from LFGSS...

jonny_trousers

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19719571#p19719571]llebend[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19714457#p19714457]TimothyW[/url] wrote:

This arrived yesterday:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-isolation-cx12-singlespeed-2015/

Ask me later and I'll tell you how I get on with it today.

So far as I can tell that's the cheapest way to get a disk braked SS bike right now. Someone mentioned the Charge Plug 2 in the bargain thread, that seems pretty reasonable also.

I used to have a Day One Disc 2015, that was great until a car decided to reshape the downtube.

This ^^ Verenti or the Plug

Or I would pick one up, secondhand, for peanuts from LFGSS...

Cheers. Both of those sound heavy. I've been keeping a close eye on LFGSS, but nothing much has appeared in my size.

I still have a good few weeks before I need something and there's always the option of a new Flyer. I'll lock the shit out of it.

dhope

There's a Cannondale Capo Track frame knocking about that doesn't look like it's sold
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/270068

It's not the cheapest, or the most sensible re: guards and tyres

But it'll be fun and you'll not lose any money on it if/when you sell it

jonny_trousers

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19722678#p19722678]dhope[/url] wrote:

There's a Cannondale Capo Track frame knocking about that doesn't look like it's sold
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/270068

It's not the cheapest, or the most sensible re: guards and tyres

But it'll be fun and you'll not lose any money on it if/when you sell it

Thanks. I saw that bike, and it is pretty cool, but I really need a 54cm frame. Otherwise I would have snapped up tetm's PW.

dhope

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19724645#p19724645]Jonny_Trousers[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19722678#p19722678]dhope[/url] wrote:

There's a Cannondale Capo Track frame knocking about that doesn't look like it's sold
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/270068

It's not the cheapest, or the most sensible re: guards and tyres

But it'll be fun and you'll not lose any money on it if/when you sell it

Thanks. I saw that bike, and it is pretty cool, but I really need a 54cm frame. Otherwise I would have snapped up tetm's PW.

Even less sensible... Trek T1
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/275894/

iPete

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19725674#p19725674]dhope[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19724645#p19724645]Jonny_Trousers[/url] wrote:

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19722678#p19722678]dhope[/url] wrote:

There's a Cannondale Capo Track frame knocking about that doesn't look like it's sold
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/270068

It's not the cheapest, or the most sensible re: guards and tyres

But it'll be fun and you'll not lose any money on it if/when you sell it

Thanks. I saw that bike, and it is pretty cool, but I really need a 54cm frame. Otherwise I would have snapped up tetm's PW.

Even less sensible... Trek T1
https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/275894/

Don't do it!

mtb-idle

After 8 years of commuting on geared bikes I've just (like last week) gone singlespeed.

This was prompted by the fact that i've got four road bikes in my garage and I got to a point where none of them were in working order. Having examined what was wrong with them the quickest and cheapest way to get back into commuting after missing two weeks when the fourth bike broke was to go singlespeed.

I based it on a 3x9 105 equipped Trek 1200 that I bought off a cycling workmate a few years back for £120. I used this for a couple of winter's commuting but after a hard winter 2013 it had lain dirty, unused and dusty in a corner of my garage and various bits had been cannibalised.

All it took to singlespeed it was:

- 1 1/8 singlespeed chain, circa £8 from wiggle
- 17T Andel S*rly singlespeed cog. £16 from http://www.velosolo.com. cheaper alternatives are available but this looked nice
- patriot spacer kit £15 also from http://www.velosolo.com and again cheaper alternatives are available
- Surly singulator which i had inherited along the line and was in my spares box (required cos I haven't got sliding dropouts) - free
- oh and shorter crank bolts which I forgot to order until I removed the two surplus chainrings from the triple crankset. Sick squid from Charlie the Bikemonger

Looks ok and rides well. I'm just getting used to singlespeeding now though. It's quite a different style.

chain too loose



chain length sorted

jedster

I always think I'd end up buying an on-one pompino for this job description if I finally give up on my old SS conversion steel stumpjumper. It ticks every box - plenty of clearance for guards and 28mm, pretty indestructible, even has rack mounts (which I like, know lots of people aren't bothered). £499 is pretty reasonable.
Thing is I feel quite sentimental about the stumpjumper and it actually does the London station bike duties pretty perfectly.