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What do you think it the best bike for the city
What do you think it the best bike for the city? More specifically,
London. I'm thinking in the region of £300 (online price, rather than high street) Apparently a "racing" bike is the fastest, but not very good on poorer road surfaces. If you have a road / racing bike (are they the same?), would love to know what you think of them. |
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#2
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What do you think it the best bike for the city
bornfree writtificated
What do you think it the best bike for the city? More specifically, London. I'm thinking in the region of £300 (online price, rather than high street) Apparently a "racing" bike is the fastest, but not very good on poorer road surfaces. If you have a road / racing bike (are they the same?), would love to know what you think of them. I *love* road bikes, but you have to have good lungs and strong thighs to get the most out of them. They're designed to be ridden fast and hard, and going slow on one isn't great - twitchy handling, hard saddle that doesn't get on with jeans, brake levers in the wrong place, tyres so hard you can feel each individual chip of tarmac (realy - each piece. Through yer bum). Trundling about the city on one isn't great. In fact, they're awful for the city! I've used one almost exclusively for the last four or five years, so I should know! The only thing worse than a road bike in the city is a knobbly tyred mountain bike with full suspension. No matter how fast you try to go, it's s-l-o-w. If putting together a great city bike it'd have: -Wide, *slick* high pressure tyres - at city speeds these will be more efficient than narrower racing tyres yet still wheely comfy. -Proper full length mudguards - because a wet crack and brown stains on yer trousers is never going to be fashionable. -Rear rack to take panniers, 'cos a sweaty back in summer ain't nice -An 'upright' riding position with handlebars higher than the seat. Better view over the cars in front, easier to check over your shoulder. -Hub gears, because adjusting the gears to get them sweet is just too tiresome -Dynamo lights, so I don't get caught out when the clocks change -The biggest D lock I can buy |
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What do you think it the best bike for the city
bornfree wrote:
What do you think it the best bike for the city? More specifically, London. I'm thinking in the region of £300 (online price, rather than high street) Apparently a "racing" bike is the fastest, but not very good on poorer road surfaces. If you have a road / racing bike (are they the same?), would love to know what you think of them. My Claud Butler Urban 300 was about £300, kept me happy commuting in Sheffield. The suspension fork was probably overkill along with the suspension seatpost, but it was a fairly smooth ride. Don't regret getting it, but that may just be because it got me back into cycling! Tracker. |
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What do you think it the best bike for the city
On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:57:30 +0000, Mark T wrote:
The only thing worse than a road bike in the city is a knobbly tyred mountain bike with full suspension. No matter how fast you try to go, it's s-l-o-w. Mine goes pretty fast in town (although no rear suspension). I'm looking forward to swapping over to my road tyres this weekend! peter |
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What do you think it the best bike for the city
On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:31:14 -0700 (PDT), bornfree
said in : What do you think it the best bike for the city? More specifically, London. I'm thinking in the region of £300 (online price, rather than high street) The Brompton. There is no finer machine on the mean streets :-) Guy -- May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting. http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk 85% of helmet statistics are made up, 69% of them at CHS, Puget Sound |
#6
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What do you think it the best bike for the city
On 22 Apr, 18:57, Mark T
pleasegivegenerously@warmail*turn_up_the_heat_to_ reply*.com.invalid wrote: bornfree writtificated What do you think it the best bike for the city? More specifically, London. I'm thinking in the region of £300 (online price, rather than high street) Apparently a "racing" bike is the fastest, but not very good on poorer road surfaces. If you have a road / racing bike (are they the same?), would love to know what you think of them. I *love* road bikes, but you have to have good lungs and strong thighs to get the most out of them. They're designed to be ridden fast and hard, and going slow on one isn't great - twitchy handling, hard saddle that doesn't get on with jeans, brake levers in the wrong place, tyres so hard you can feel each individual chip of tarmac (realy - each piece. Through yer bum). Trundling about the city on one isn't great. In fact, they're awful for the city! I've used one almost exclusively for the last four or five years, so I should know! The only thing worse than a road bike in the city is a knobbly tyred mountain bike with full suspension. No matter how fast you try to go, it's s-l-o-w. If putting together a great city bike it'd have: -Wide, *slick* high pressure tyres - at city speeds these will be more efficient than narrower racing tyres yet still wheely comfy. -Proper full length mudguards - because a wet crack and brown stains on yer trousers is never going to be fashionable. -Rear rack to take panniers, 'cos a sweaty back in summer ain't nice -An 'upright' riding position with handlebars higher than the seat. Better view over the cars in front, easier to check over your shoulder. -Hub gears, because adjusting the gears to get them sweet is just too tiresome -Dynamo lights, so I don't get caught out when the clocks change -The biggest D lock I can buy Hmm. I like your points very much! I must say what you describe sounds an awful lot like my current bike. It's a Raleigh Boardwalk lite. (Folding bike with Dahon technology, apparently) Here's a picture of it. http://i25.tinypic.com/2uf4zk4.jpg I really fell in love with this bike when I got it. Comfy, light, fast, fairly priced, lots of features. The only thing is I don't much like being overtaken by Roadies whizzing by at twice my speed. I was thinking about getting a road bike but I am not a hardcore cyclist and by the sounds of it, it's not for me. I am happy travelling any distance within 4 miles.. I think for longer distances I might get a low power motorbike. |
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What do you think it the best bike for the city
I commute on a Trek 4400, the front suspension protests against the
thousand shocks flesh is heir to. I know people who commute on their tourers but I daren't risk my Dawes being nicked so I save that for Norfolk jaunts. I see more and more people on fixies and although I'm not prejudiced most fixie riders are mental. |
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What do you think it the best bike for the city
bornfree wrote:
What do you think it the best bike for the city? More specifically, London. I'm thinking in the region of £300 (online price, rather than high street) Apparently a "racing" bike is the fastest, but not very good on poorer road surfaces. If you have a road / racing bike (are they the same?), would love to know what you think of them. What exactly do you want to do with the bike? Racers are great for covering ground as fast as possible while carrying a rider and pretty much nothing else, but lots of people want to carry other stuff, or aren't in such a hurry because they prefer comfort (a racer beating a trundler by 10 minutes but needing a shower on arrival doesn't actually save much/any time). For city use, like Guy, I think a Brompton folder is hard to beat, but you'll need to up your budget. Having said that, you'll have to up your budget if you want a racer worthy of the name. The option that will get you a lot of bike for your money at £300 is a hybrid. Don't forget to add in mudguards (unless you like being covered in dirty water every time the road is wet), lights and a lock. And you can do worthwhile things pumping up the budget for a hybrid too, which will get you better components, built hub dynamo lighting etc. A hybrid will carry things other than you better than a racer, in more comfort. Pete. -- Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/ |
#9
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What do you think it the best bike for the city
On 22 Apr, 23:41, bornfree wrote:
Here's a picture of it.http://i25.tinypic.com/2uf4zk4.jpg I really fell in love with this bike when I got it. Comfy, light, fast, fairly priced, lots of features. The only thing is I don't much like being overtaken by Roadies whizzing by at twice my speed. I was thinking about getting a road bike but I am not a hardcore cyclist and by the sounds of it, it's not for me. I am happy travelling any distance within 4 miles.. I think for longer distances I might get a low power motorbike. You're always going to get people faster than you. Spending money on a new bike will just make it more annoying when they zoom past. It's the same with cars, being stuck in traffic in a fast car is much more frustrating than being stuck in traffic in an old banger. For 300 quid you can get a perfectly good city bike, but you aren't going to get a superbike to help you win races. You might find something with bigger wheels rolls a bit easier, especially on rough roads, but I haven't got any experience with small wheeled bikes. Having said that, a new bike is a great boost to enthusiasm and will make you pedal harder and enjoy it more, at least for a bit. So why not accept that your current bike is ideal for practical city use and get something lightweight, stripped-down, probably second-hand and most likely less reliable that you don't use very often but fetch out on sunny days when you want to take on the roadies in the "commuter challenge" and have fun? |
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