What kind of bike do I want: commuting all the time edition

[FFX_Hinterlands]

This is the part of my day where I find someone discussing cross and touring bikes and throw in a pitch for the Handsome Devil. I have one, like it. The purchasing process was fantastic as well as they ship to a local LBS and have them fit/assemble it for you.

[mstone]

@Dirt 74100 wrote:

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/road/awol/awol-comp-

Interesting. I guess they decided salsa was selling too many fargos?

[ebubar]

I love these threads, having started one myself a ways back. I couldn’t decide and most of my bike money was diverted to kitten surgery.

My expensive options:

Bianchi Volpe – if I had the money I’d get this one.
Kona Jake – nice riding bike and a good value. Some on here own it and have nothing but good things to say.

The budget option that I’ve been looking at with the decreased moneys:

The Windsor Tourist – steel touring bike. Lots of Internet reviews here if you’re skeptical. It seems to be popular with budget trans America touring cyclists. At $600 the components are good for the price IMHO. Its allegedly the equivalent to a Fuji Touring frame if you want to try to test ride something similar. Geometry looks to be built for comfort. They’re supposed to be restocking this January.

[Phatboing]

@dasgeh 74116 wrote:

I came over to say that if I could really have my way, I’d get a sloping downtube (making it easier to ride in a skirt or just to get my leg over when I’m lazy).

I’m now fighting my natural human response to ramble on about my Salsa Fargo, with its slopey slopetacular top tube.

But in the interest of brevity, I’m going to summarise the reasons to get one thus:
1. It exists.

(Admittedly, I have not ridden it in a skirt)

[Dirt]

@mstone 74126 wrote:

Interesting. I guess they decided salsa was selling too many fargos?

Its very different from the Fargo….. completely different from the Fargo. If there was a Salsa close to it, it would be something like the Vaya.

[DismalScientist]

@ebubar 74127 wrote:

The Windsor Tourist – steel touring bike. Lots of Internet reviews here if you’re skeptical. It seems to be popular with budget trans America touring cyclists. At $600 the components are good for the price IMHO. Its allegedly the equivalent to a Fuji Touring frame if you want to try to test ride something similar. Geometry looks to be built for comfort. They’re supposed to be restocking this January.

I just checked the geometry of the Nashbar Steel Touring bike, which is now on sale for $550. It appears to have the same geometry as the Fuji touring bike and, by transitivity, the Windsor Tourist. (The Motobecane Gran Turismo also has the same geometry for $700)The Nashbar has 105 components compared to the Tourist’s Tiagra/Deore mix. Nashbar is only selling a 43 cm size, which suggests that it is being discontinued. If anyone is interested in test riding a 58cm version of this urban assault vehicle, which might give an idea as to how a Tourist (and all the other clones) ride, give me a ring.

[Riley Casey]

The City tires are 700×40 and they were quite good riding thru the snow fall last week when there was an inch on the pavement. I ride the unpaved section of the CCT occasionally but generally paved paths and streets.

@dasgeh 74115 wrote:

Thanks! How wide are your tires?

[americancyclo]

@dasgeh 74038 wrote:

how much time they would add to my commute home.

I don’t think this is going to be a very large number to start with, particularly since you’re riding 7 miles.

Over 12 miles, I see a 5 minute difference between a 25c and a 38c tire. It’s about +10% of my travel time.

Using those same numbers, your commute might increase from 39 min to 43 min

[jopamora]

@americancyclo 74424 wrote:

I don’t think this is going to be a very large number to start with, particularly since you’re riding 7 miles.

Over 12 miles, I see a 5 minute difference between a 25c and a 38c tire. It’s about +10% of my travel time.

Using those same numbers, your commute might increase from 39 min to 43 min

Are the tyres being used on the same bike? If so, Tim says “pedal faster”, if not, Tim says “pedal faster”

[peterw_diy]

@dasgeh 74061 wrote:

I generally ride on the hoods, mostly because I’m cautious and always want my hands on the brakes. … I definitely need to try bar ends as well, and funky touring bikes that put brake levers so they’re accessible in different hand positions.

Any drop-bar rig can use interrupter levers so you can ride on the bar tops and brake easily. I added those to my Cross Check and really like them for urban riding. It’s certainly nice having another brake-ready hand position besides the hoods (I very seldom commute in the drops).

My biggest beefs with the CC relate to foot clearance. When I use my Nashbar Townie baskets in the back for grocery runs, I often hit ’em with my heels, especially on winter runs when I’m wearing boots. And it took a bunch of effort to set up my toe clips to avoid overlap with the front wheel. For heel strikes, a longer chainstay would be good, though how important that is depends largely on your shoe size, since manufacturers generally use the same chainstay length on all frame sizes. Since you want a more relaxed geometry, I think you should be looking at touring rigs like the LHT & Disc Trucker, which still have plenty of room for 35c studded tires and fenders. For toe clip overlap, the easiest fix is avoid 700c wheels unless you’re tall (e.g., ride frames 60cm or taller). Somewhere I have a spreadsheet with formulas to calculate “toe room” based on the geometry specs most manufacturers provide. It shows slight improvements with bigger frames (longer front centers) and more relaxed designs, but it also makes it really clear that 26″ wheels are far better for avoiding overlap than 700c wheels. I hate toe clip overlap — over the years I’ve hit front fenders too many times in slow-speed urban maneuvers. I could live with some TCO on a road bike that’s used mainly on MUPs and country roads, but not on a commuting bike.

[hozn]

If I was building a commuter, my checklist for frame features would be:
– titanium, brushed. Low-maintenance as it gets.
– disc brake mounts on the chain stay (for fender clearance)
– rack and fender mounts
– 44mm head tube so I could use inset headsets for tapered forks (becoming more standard, the only current option for full-carbon cx disc forks).
– internal shifter cable routing holes (solves di2 compat too with seatpost battery).
– zip tie “stops” for the brakes so I can run solid housing
– BSA bottom bracket. Maybe PF30, but in general not wowed by these competing standards.
– clearance for up to at least 40mm tires.

I don’t know that this exists, so I would probably have that built custom by Habanero, XACD, or Titan Products. So $1000-$1500 range, but it would be perfect. And obviously geometry could be specified too.

[Subby]

@peterw_diy 74465 wrote:

Any drop-bar rig can use interrupter levers so you can ride on the bar tops and brake easily. I added those to my Cross Check and really like them for urban riding. It’s certainly nice having another brake-ready hand position besides the hoods (I very seldom commute in the drops).

Seconded on the interrupter levers. I thought I would hate them but I depend on them all the time. I still stay in the drops a lot, but I lean on the top bar brakes pretty heavily in DC.

[KelOnWheels]

@peterw_diy 74465 wrote:

Any drop-bar rig can use interrupter levers so you can ride on the bar tops and brake easily. I added those to my Cross Check and really like them for urban riding. It’s certainly nice having another brake-ready hand position besides the hoods (I very seldom commute in the drops).

Thirded. I had ’em added on the Space Horse and they’re pretty handy in traffic. Or you could just get a Volpe and they’re already there!

For toe clip overlap, the easiest fix is avoid 700c wheels unless you’re tall (e.g., ride frames 60cm or taller). Somewhere I have a spreadsheet with formulas to calculate “toe room” based on the geometry specs most manufacturers provide. It shows slight improvements with bigger frames (longer front centers) and more relaxed designs, but it also makes it really clear that 26″ wheels are far better for avoiding overlap than 700c wheels. I hate toe clip overlap — over the years I’ve hit front fenders too many times in slow-speed urban maneuvers. I could live with some TCO on a road bike that’s used mainly on MUPs and country roads, but not on a commuting bike.

Oh, that’s smart. I’ve had some “learning moments” with my front fender There’s no room on a 49cm frame with 700c tires

[jrenaut]

Careful with your interrupters – I took them off my Volpe because the bar got too cluttered with a bell and a light up there. If I pulled the right side interrupter, it would get caught on the light mount and the brake wouldn’t release, which is not useful. I could have rearranged stuff and gotten them to work, but I generally don’t have my hands there in traffic anyway.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@jrenaut 74585 wrote:

Careful with your interrupters – I took them off my Volpe because the bar got too cluttered with a bell and a light up there. If I pulled the right side interrupter, it would get caught on the light mount and the brake wouldn’t release, which is not useful. I could have rearranged stuff and gotten them to work, but I generally don’t have my hands there in traffic anyway.

Concur. I really liked having interrupters, but day-to-day, they really crowded the bars…so when I replaced my brakes and re-cabled everything, I took them off. Can’t say that I really miss them now…

[Author]

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