Mr SRD's EBC hybrid needs nearly £200 worth of work to get it into rideable shape, so I;ve encouraged him to replace it. Question is,what should he be looking at? He's not keen on drops, but in an ideal world would like to do some long rides and maybe evensome training before PfS next year. He learned to ride w/out gears, and still doesn't feelcomfortable with a derailleur, but would quite like a 'speedy' bike. Advice? Bikes for sale? (he's about 6'2'')
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New bike for Mr SRD?
(24 posts)- Started 12 years ago by SRD
- Latest reply from gembo
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Posted 12 years ago #
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I saw this yesterday for the first time and rather fell in love, but it may not be the answer to your question...
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/charge-mixer-8-special-edition-2013/The reason I suggested it is that it is likely to be speedy and that it's got an Alfine hub. Dunno how good it would be for riding miles on, though.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I learned the hard way on St Abbs that flat bars, singlespeed and long distance don't mix. Bar-ends look awful* but they do at least allow a neutral grip and varied hand position, and you can always take them off unless it's a long ride that day. (actually...can you?)
*Opinion Expressed as Fact Alert
An 8-speed derailleur is perhaps a reasonable compromise; there's only one lever, and no fuss about having front and rear rings in the wrong mix. On a touring/MTB style cassette you get a pretty good spread of gears, although for silly hills and hauling heavier trailer loads, I've been glad of the MTB's huge spread.
That said, there's not many bikes that come as an 8-speed that aren't more about being stylish pootly devices.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Another £200 hybrid from EBC or similar? Their Trailfinder is reasonable spec for 249 quids. There are similar Dawes models available for roughly the same price but with 700c wheels, which may feel a bit faster.
From your description Mr SRD sounds like a potential candidate for a traditional 3-speed hub geared roadster. Alas they tend to be a bit more like half a grand or more...
If you want 2nd hand Eastside or Soul may have something decent for not a lot?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Road frame or light tourer fitted with horns? I find my horns very comfortable in the hand, even after a long time on a rough surface. Bar-end shifters easy to reach without detaching the hand. Wide-range eight-speed rear means I only rarely bother using anything but the middle front ring. Brake levers took a bit of searching-for but were cheap. He can have a shot if he's at P.O.P.O.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I can really recommend butterfly bars (aka touring bars). All the hand positions of drops with none of the scariness. I used to get numb hands with my flat bar hybrid but have done up to 40 miles on my touring bars without a problem.
The main problem is it makes the bike a bit awkward to squeeze in alongside other bikes without getting them irrevocably tied up in knots
Posted 12 years ago # -
All the hand positions of drops
Well, apart from "on the drops" ;) but yes they are a very good suggestion for a multi-purpose bike that will be good at nipping to shops and also for longer rides where wrist and arm strain can become a real problem with flats (even with those odd "ergo" bar ends). I think one of the huge advantages of drops is that they allow you to rest your arm bones on the bar, while still maintaining steering, brake and gear control. That takes a huge amount of weight off your arm muscles and tendons onto the solid parts of your body and can be a huge relief on long rides. I'm not sure there are many "off the shelf" bikes with them in the UK market though. I could be completely wrong though.
You might also encourage Mr SRD to acquaint himself with derailleurs, despite his suspicions over the black magic contained within. No offence to the hub geared fraternity, but my experience of derailleur gears is that they are cheaper and certainly at the lower end are far more reliable and offer smoother shifting and a quieter ride (when reasonably well maintained). I've got countless thousands (over 10) out of a low end of the market 9 year old Sora rear derailleur, only replacing the worn plastic jockey wheels once and occasionally taking the side-panel off to de-gunk it. More frequent maintenance is simple and involves 3 screws (only 2 of which you really ever need to touch, even then only rarely as cables stretch or chain wears) and keeping them reasonably clean of crud build-up and occasionally oil pivot points. For not much money you can buy yourself a triple with a whole lot of gear range, which makes the bike suitable for a variety of purposes.
The bigger 700c wheel is a boon for longer, speedier rides, at expense of it potentially being slower to spin up. Something like a 28mm tyre might be a nice compromise between comfort and speed. I managed winter and touring quite adequately on 700c Gatorskins, even though I was constantly terrified they'd slide out from under me in the icy former or fail under the strains of all the weight from the latter.
An aluminium frame will be certainly much lighter than a steel equivalent at the lower end of the price range.
But really the magic question is how much you want to spend - if it's the £2-300 mark the answer would be very different from if it's the £350-500 mark.
Assume you have rack, guards etc. from the old bike that can be shifted across to avoid the usual £100 of spending required to turn an off-the-peg bike into something practical for commuting and shopping.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'd echo what Kaputnik said, alson don't rule out replacing the bits that are worn or you don't like yourselves and evolving the bike into Mr SRD's ideal.
I'm a picky blighter and I don't generally find *exactly* the bike I want off the shelf so most of mine have evolved to the point where they are like Trigger's broom/Ceaser's sword. My MTB for example has the stem it started with, everything else has been changed over the years!Posted 12 years ago # -
Oh yes, always consider getting a second quote on the restoration costs...
Posted 12 years ago # -
What on earth needs doing to the bike that's going to cost £200? It would be interesting to know in case there are obvious efficiencies.
EBC courier range will be a bit faster than the hybrids and are not as complicated as a "full on" geared bike if you just buy a single ring version?
Posted 12 years ago # -
"What on earth needs doing to the bike that's going to cost £200?"
Indeed - though obviously that includes labour.
Perhaps chainset, block/cassette and chain - may have been comprehensively worn out.
If it needs wheel(s)/tyre(s) the cost will add up.
Don't know about Mr. SRD's DIY willingness/capabilities - but a lot of people in a similar position would benefit from a trip to the Bike Station - they may find some suitable secondhand bits and could hire a workstand and tools and fit parts themselves.
"not as complicated as a "full on" geared bike if you just buy a single ring version?"
Or even at this 'fix the old one stage' - a single front ring (suitable size) plus a Megarange block will give a range of gears that will be more than adequate for a lot of people.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"a single front ring (suitable size) plus a Megarange block will give a range of gears that will be more than adequate for a lot of people"
Without the lower extremity (and big jump to the lowest gear) of a Megarange I found an SRAM PG850 12-28 in an EBC sale last year, which is fine for anything between climbing-Ramsay-Gardens and steaming-down-the-hill. It tops out at about 32mph on a 42t front chainring and is bunched up slightly towards the lower end (there's a noticeable gap between 15-18mph at comfortable-pedalling-cadence) but would be useful even without the little-used option of two other chainrings.
Posted 12 years ago # -
thanks guys. i think the DIY suggestions may be a bit beyond our skills/time at the moment. the charge bike greenroofer spotted does seem to respond to most of our specs though....
Posted 12 years ago # -
If you're buying new, its definitely best to try a few first.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I can see Mr SRD in full team sky kit on a pinerollo dogma at the school drop off...........no?...............
Posted 12 years ago # -
If he can get over this thing about drops (perhaps by just ignoring the dropped bit?) you do have the excellent Genesis Day One alfine too.
SWMBO has the Genesis Croix de Fer and it's really excellent. I have ridden a Day One for a few miles (there are two parked at the office) and it's also a great ride.
Posted 12 years ago # -
My Croix will be available for
showing offtesting purposes as of Wednesday. Ought to be in Mr. SRD's size, too, despite me being four inches shorter.Is it oldschool drops or the modern hood-riding kind he's not a fan of? My black bike's 80's drops aren't great, but new bars are comfy and controlly as all get out.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I'd like to offer the opposite opinion on the butterfly bars. To each their own, get a ride on them first at least. I really disliked the large radius at the corners, it stopped you from hooking your thumbs over without having a strange angle on your hands. If they were setup with the main hand position on the rear they rode like a flat bar with bar ends but without the most useful position. If they were set up with the main hand position on the front they felt like moustache bars with an extra bar to catch your knees if you tried to stand up. I did a 2,000 mile tour on them and vowed never to go back.
If you're looking for a non-drop I really like these.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Croix is now just round the corner if Mr SRD wants to see how STI drops feel. The pedals still have the flat/reflector bits on them, so there's no need of SPD shoes until I prise them off over the weekend.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Maybe worth considering a drop-barred bike with decent frog-leg brake levers - a cross bike or reasonably specc'd tourer?
(This setup helped me make a painless transition from flat bars and bar ends a couple of years ago; my hands spend most of their time on the hoods when riding the "new" bike {Ridgeback Voyage, FWIW - wot I am very keen on}).
Regardless of shape, I wouldn't fancy a PfS-length ride on unadorned flat bars, offering only one hand position.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Those Voyages are handsome devices, indeed. If my splurge budget had been tighter, one of them would have been in the Maybe pile fer sure.
Posted 12 years ago # -
At 6'2" he'd be welcome to come to Fife try my collection with it's mix of frames, bars and geometries. I'm 6'3" so they should fit with minor tweaks.
There's sit-up Dutch with curved flat bars, road framed Pompino with straight flat bars, Croix de Fer cross bike with shallow drops, relaxed framed tourer with wide deeper drops, twitchy compact single speed with narrow drops and (not assembled yet), 1980s steel 'racer' with bullhorn bars.
There's a variety of tyres and gearings too. Some hub gears, some derailleurs, STI shifters, twist-shift grips and one with down-tube shifters and no shifters at all.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Well, after months of prevarication and trying bikes at various shops, we've pretty much decided to invest in a charge mixer as per greenroofer's suggestion above. Problem is, bike coop appears to ave stopped selling them (e xcept for a phenomenal sale n the '11 in small), and Evans won't have a large n for a trial for a week. Wiggle has the special edition 8 (as above) on rathe a good sale, but you can't return ridden sale bikes. So, does anyone know of a large charge mixer in the environs that might be available for a trial ride? And does anyone know how long the wiggle sale is likely to run for?
Posted 11 years ago # -
one of the reviews of the Charge on the wiggle site that greenroofer has given the link for claims he / she is 170cm tall but went for XS as S would have been too big in the frame.??
wiggle always have a sale but sometimes the item you are tracking is no longer in the sale?
Posted 11 years ago #
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