Buying bikes...
I want to buy a new bike.
I've been commuting on my trusty Brompton which I love. But it's not really as comfortable or fast as it could be and I can't help feeling slightly embarrassed sometimes. Also whilst it's a real workhorse and has stood up to the 8 miles a day that I punish it with, it's also looking a bit shabby now.
A while back I got some top tips from MJ (who knows about bikes). And I've been doing some research of my own.
What I want is a light, fast, comfortable hybrid bike which I can really enjoy riding. I've got a thing about hub gears - the Brompton has them. No messy derraileurs to maintain and slick changeovers at lights. With a regular bike you have to be moving to change gear. But with a hub gear you can shift while stationary and therefore get off to a blistering start at the lights.
Here's my current top choices:
It has a nice looking frame and 8-speed hub gears. The one downside is the low clearance on the tyres - which means you can't change them for some more robust ones if you fancied taking the bike on a more off-road trek.
It has
* Tange double butted Infinity cro-mo frame with eccentric BB
* Charge Whisk Disc fork
* Shimano Alfine 8 speed hub gear
* Shimano Alfine Hollow Tech II crankset
* Shimano Hydraulic disc brakes
* Continental City Contact tyres
(Planet X Bikes) they do a Kaffenback build for £699
This is like a Pompino frame but it takes gears and you can spec with flat bars rather than drops.
This is really nice - I like these a lot and would consider this the perfect commuter/tourer. Steel frame for comfort, good tyre clearance, nice spec (105 groupset is fine for your needs) and they can put racks on for you. This is Mark's Top Tip!
Mum said:
Before you buy have you tried putting two normal sized bikes together into the bike shed? It might make your choices different! Don't want to dampen your obvious enthusiasm! x