new commuter bike?

[Alcova cyclist]

So as I wrap up 2015 and look into 2016, I am dreaming about getting a new bike. 2015 was certainly my highest mileage year since I was a teenager (>2600 miles in 2015, which is probably greater than my automobile mileage for the year), so I feel like I’ve “earned” a new / better bike. My current daily ride is a Giant Escape 2 which I bought 18 months ago. It’s ok, but really no better than the bike it replaced: a similar mid-90’s Trek 720.

Use case for a new bike: Realistically, I’ll use the new bike much like the old — 90% commuting and 10% road/trail recreational. I ride in all weather, but have no desire to off-road on anything more aggressive than the C&O canal. My commute is mostly suburban streets and MUPs, with a few city blocks thrown in. I am pretty lazy when it comes to maintenance, even in the worst of winter… I consider it a moral victory if I even wipe down my bike after riding it home in the rain. I’d rather be comfortable than fast. A couple of MPH bump on my 6.7 mile commute would save me only a few minutes.

The current bike that has my fancy is the Breezer Beltway 8+. It’s a belt drive, IGH purpose-built commuter, with rack, fenders, dynamo powered lights, etc. It lists at $1619, which is honestly a bit more than I want to spend (and quite a bit more than what my wife would want me to spend) — but not out of the question.

Anyone have opinions on Breezers in general or the Beltway in particular? Are belt drive bikes worth it? What other bikes and/or styles of bike should I be considering?

[LeprosyStudyGroup]

I’ve coveted that bike myself, and now wish I had bit the budget bullet and bought it from papillon instead of the cheaper scott I bought from HTO but hind sight is 20/20
If you do wind up getting it I’d be very interested in hearing your 6month/12month impressions of it. Sorry to not be helpful.

[Emm]

I’m a fan. I have a somewhat similar bike (2013 Raleigh Cadent i11 with added rack and fenders but no belt drive) and have found it to be a very trustworthy, low maintenance bike. Only annoyance is if you get a flat on the back wheel it can be a pain to fix thanks to the IGH and disc brakes. The fact I can just wheel my bike into the garage and walk away without cleaning it after a rainstorm made the cost and slightly slower speeds worth it. It’s a top notch commuter.

You can look up the current Cadent models, or Alyssas if you want a ladies bike (http://www.raleighusa.com/bikes-open-road), many have IGHs, belt drives and disc brakes. They lack the racks, fenders and dynamo lights though that the breezer has. But you may be able to find one on sale somewhere locally.

My coworker has a similar set up to mine, just with the belt drive. He says it’s totally worth it. I somewhat regret not getting the model of my bike that had one.

[dasgeh]

The venerable chris_s has a Breezer and I believe loves it (almost as much as his cargo bike).

[Alcova cyclist]

@LeprosyStudyGroup 130219 wrote:

I’ve coveted that bike myself, and now wish I had bit the budget bullet and bought it from papillon instead of the cheaper scott I bought from HTO but hind sight is 20/20
If you do wind up getting it I’d be very interested in hearing your 6month/12month impressions of it. Sorry to not be helpful.

This is my exact situation. I thought about it at Papillon (my closest LBS) but wasn’t riding regularly at the time. So I bought a much cheaper bike than I would have if I had known how much I’d be riding. Even if I hadn’t bought the Beltway, I would have been a lot better off spending more than I did up front. Now I have a mediocre bike that doesn’t thrill me, but since it’s only 18 months old, I have a hard time justifying kicking it to the curb.

So instead, I want to buy a new bike, then put studded tires on the escape and make it my snow bike!

[hozn]

I don’t have any experience with belt drives, but I will just say that a non-belt drive or non-IGH is not necessarily high-maintenance. The belts on belt drives do last twice as long as chains, but chains can be fixed trailside with a minitool as I was reminded a few weeks ago. And I don’t wash or otherwise clean my bike after riding it, regardless of weather. I just hang it in the shed and go inside. (Every other week or so I wipe it off with a rag, maybe a damp rag if I am feeling generous.) If I had to bring my bike inside the house, I would worry more. I will oil chain after it gets ridden in significant rain, but that takes about 30s. It is hard to imagine much lower maintenance honestly.

The belt drive would be nice if I were riding in civilian clothes (and worried about getting grease on pant legs).

[dplasters]

Beltdrive bikes can be nice. I have two as of now. It can be a bit tougher to work on the back wheels on them and can be compounded if you have an IGH involved. I’d suggest getting the time in with the LBS and really being comfortable with the rear triangle system. That is if you want to do anything yourself. This particularly gets freaky when you start reading into making sure that the belt is tensioned correctly because a poorly tensioned belt is bad news bears.

This is where the belt drive kinda falls flat. If you clean and maintain your own bike, you’re going to get dirty, chain or not. The road is a filthy thing. If you are ok with using the LBS you’re probably looking at a once a year service and then if you get a rear flat. The components are pretty bullet proof and you’re not looking at any type of replacement for a long time.

I’m honestly looking into getting a conventional chain driven road/endurance bike right now.

[chris_s]

@Alcova cyclist 130202 wrote:

So as I wrap up 2015 and look into 2016, I am dreaming about getting a new bike. 2015 was certainly my highest mileage year since I was a teenager (>2600 miles in 2015, which is probably greater than my automobile mileage for the year), so I feel like I’ve “earned” a new / better bike. My current daily ride is a Giant Escape 2 which I bought 18 months ago. It’s ok, but really no better than the bike it replaced: a similar mid-90’s Trek 720.

Use case for a new bike: Realistically, I’ll use the new bike much like the old — 90% commuting and 10% road/trail recreational. I ride in all weather, but have no desire to off-road on anything more aggressive than the C&O canal. My commute is mostly suburban streets and MUPs, with a few city blocks thrown in. I am pretty lazy when it comes to maintenance, even in the worst of winter… I consider it a moral victory if I even wipe down my bike after riding it home in the rain. I’d rather be comfortable than fast. A couple of MPH bump on my 6.7 mile commute would save me only a few minutes.

The current bike that has my fancy is the Breezer Beltway 8+. It’s a belt drive, IGH purpose-built commuter, with rack, fenders, dynamo powered lights, etc. It lists at $1619, which is honestly a bit more than I want to spend (and quite a bit more than what my wife would want me to spend) — but not out of the question.

Anyone have opinions on Breezers in general or the Beltway in particular? Are belt drive bikes worth it? What other bikes and/or styles of bike should I be considering?

I own one of the predecessors of that bike – a Beltway Infinity. I got it for similar reasons – I was trying to remove any excuse I might have for not riding, including “my bike needs maintenance”, “I forgot to charge my headlight”, “I’ll get too wet”, etc. It has basically done everything I wanted it to do. If I want to ride, I go out and ride; I don’t have to stick anything on it or take anything off of it. I don’t have to wipe it down or wash it off or worry about chain grease on my pants or mud spray up my back. I have owned it about 18 months now. I have put air in the tires and took it in for repairs and a tune-up once (I snapped the shifter cable). No flats (knock on wood), no chain lubing, no brake adjustment or fussing with derailleurs, no washing, wiping or anything despite riding through a fair amount of snow and salt last winter. I have not had any buyers remorse; no other bike has caught my eye and made me wish I had bought it instead. I’m not particularly interested in fussing with it and so far taking it in once a year seems to handle its needs. We’ll see if that continues. FYI I did upgrade the lights on mine to better quality ones. The stock light was not great.

[vvill]

I haven’t gotten a lot of miles on it yet, but I have a belt-drive bike (without IGH – it’s just a single speed). It’s nice not to worry about grease on your right leg, and lubing it. And it’s definitely quiet, and does not stretch. It’s certainly lighter but not enough that that’s really a significant factor. An IGH will be heavier anyway.

The disadvantages I’ve noted are in rough order of annoyingness-to-me
– belt is relatively fragile and expensive, so you end up being more careful about leaning the drive side of the bike against things, loading the bike on a car, etc.
– belt tension setting. takes some time to get it right, although if you set it once and never change it until you need a new belt this would hardly be an issue.
– impossible to fix a broken belt (you could carry a spare belt, but they’re relatively bulky and fragile even if they’re light)
– non standard tool for replacing/swapping cogs (chain whip will not work)
– expensive to replace parts when something does break (hasn’t happened to me yet)
– adjusting gearing is difficult because of limited chainring/sprocket sizes (goes from 50t to 55t, to 60t, etc.)
– removing/replacing the belt requires you to open the rear triangle up

I have also heard the belt tension can cause your rear hub and BB to wear faster, but I don’t have enough miles on mine to really judge. I’ve also read it’s a bit less efficient power transfer than a chain below about 200W (which would be the majority of a commuters’ power distribution I would guess).

If you get a flat or if you just want to swap the tire, and you have track/horiz dropouts it could be pretty annoying to get the belt retensioned. I imagine an EBB is easier on that, although the initial set up is tougher.

So compared to a regular single speed with a chain it’s a little bit of a pain, for a little bit of a gain. I actually switched my to a chain for a bit, and then back to belt. I hope to ride it more, esp during freezing saddles.

[vvill]

Forgot one thing, which goes along with the belt being expensive, non-repairable and adjusting gearing being difficult: you may need a new belt depending on your gearing change, since you cannot shorten/lengthen it as with a chain.

All that said, once you have it set up it’s really quite nice. I’d say it’s amongst my favourite bikes to ride.

[Sunyata]

I have a Raleigh Misceo 4, belt drive 11 speed IGH. I LOVE it. I have had it almost two years and with the exception of the stupid PF30 bottom bracket dying (HUGE thanks to Dirt for fixing me up with a much better, blingier one), I have had zero issues with it. I have about 5,000 miles on the bike now and never do any maintenance on it.

This is the exact opposite of my road bike which has a traditional drive train and is ridden in less… hazardous(?) conditions. I have replaced the drive train once and now need another new rear cassette. That bike has less than 4,500 miles on it (but is 4.5 years old) and I do maintain the drive train on a regular basis.

I say that if you want a daily commuter that will handle abuse and requires minimal maintenance, go with the belt drive. I have not found the belt to be any more fragile than a chain, but I do tend to not lean the bike drive side down. And I fully expect the belt to last 20,000 miles before it needs to be replaced.

[hozn]

Everyone rides differently, but I think most would agree you should get 4-6k on a cassette, maybe longer if you change chains along the way. And at least twice that for the ring(s). Going through two cassettes (never mind rings) within 5k miles would suggest a problem to me.

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