Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Raleigh Rush Hour

I am new to the whole singlespeed and fixed arena. I was thinking of building Surly, but than I saw the Rush Hour. I was wondering if other that had the bike liked it. And also what they hated. Seems like a good deal the LBS Said $550. Any tips would be great Thanks

i love mine. get a different chainring, though. the stock gearing is too high (in my opinion). get a chainring with 40-42 ish teeth.

I think they look great for the money. The only thing I have against them is that buying one would spoil the fun of building my own bike.

For similar price to the Bianchi Pista, they come with brakes. Wheelset looks pretty decent. does anyone here know what Hubs they use? It looks the same as the Soma hubs. high flange with teardrop cutouts.

I heard the hubs are formula's and man are they smooth. I think it's cool that all the decals can come off, and that there are no braze-ons. The only thing that may be funky for you shimano people using brakes is that they are modelled after the campy stuff so they are a lot fatter, but they ride real nice. I don't own one but we have a couple at the shop I work at.

my thread with all the info i could dig up at the time http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=136915

man 550 I've been seeing them in New York for 950, what the hell

wow, and your sure we're talking about the same bike? i thought i heard some people saying they got it for $500, my lbs said $600 (and went down to $550). $950 is rediculous.

man 550 I've been seeing them in New York for 950, what the hell
Come to FLorida leave with a bike.

or buy a few and make a lot of money

i like mine well enough, but i definitely took the lazy man's way out, in retrospect i wish i had built an iro or something so when people asked what the hell it is i wouldn't be able to tell them to go to the lbs and buy one

It is odd I think some people have the talent to build bikes while others don't. I would love to find a older bike to redo, but buying all the tools. Would probably cost the same as buying a Rush Hour. I think also by buying one already finished gives you a better idea of what you want. So when you build that Surly or Iro you have a better idea of the better components.

Rolling your own is not cheaper, so don't do it to save money. It can be fun, and satisfying. You'll probably wind up buying better components i you have to select them individually. $5 here, and $20 there. It can add up fast, but when it's done the end product means so much more than something you just bought in a store. No one will think it's as cool as you do, but in the end it doesn't matter what anyone thinks about your bike but you.

On the other hand, many people are more interested in riding than wrenching, and there are plenty of good bikes that will get you on the road with a minimum of fuss, and there's no shame in that. I think the Rush Hour is a neat, but I'm a nerd, and nobody cares what I think anyway. ;) If ya like it buy it ride the hell out of it. Want to personalize it? take all the stickers off, change some parts. Viola, now it is your own.

It just seems in some of the boards there is an elitist attitude. If you buy your bike instead of building you are getting less of an experience. I like the rush hour, but still have doubts. Of course I tend to over analyze things. I have been thinking about a cross bike and wonder how much I would really use it. I love the idea of building another bike some day, but I am looking for one all around bike. I also like the Bianchi San Jose. The local lbs is getting one of those in a month. Than we shall see.

"Rolling your own is not cheaper, so don't do it to save money."

i'm with ya mattface!! it's like my buds who brew their own beer--it gets their sixpack price down to 15 dollars.

just roll wif a IRO.

Converting a geared ride can be cheaper. Building up from scratch? Nah, not unless you go with inferior components or get a few lucky scores (for example, landing on a free frame can really help you out).

True dat. Check this thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=140316&highlight=conversion+cost) for some breakdowns.

What kind of tire clearance does the Rush Hour have? I see it comes with 23c, which would be kinda scary in rain and snow. Room for up to 28c would be nice, IMO.

Just bought one for my wife.....will pick up tomorrow (Thurs.) from LBS...Just got under the radar before the christmas a few weeks ago paid a surprising 499.00 out the door.... Hope she enjoys it :eek:

Mack :D

I am new to the whole singlespeed and fixed arena. I was thinking of building Surly, but than I saw the Rush Hour. I was wondering if other that had the bike liked it. And also what they hated. Seems like a good deal the LBS Said $550. Any tips would be great Thanks

coming from a graphic designer, i think the rush hour is the best looking off the peg entry level out there in color and decal design/placement. ooooooooh avant garde!

I build most of my bikes from scratch, not because it makes for any cooler of a bike (well, in labor love it does), but it's easier for me to spend 20 bucks here and there towards the total cost of the bike rather than having the sticker shock of buying a pre-built rig all at once.Plus, shopping for parts is always fun.
My current beater fixie I'm building is probably going to cost, in total, just as much as any entry level trackbike when all is said and done, but then again, I'll be able to pick it out from a jumble of bikes rather easily.
I dig the rushour mostly because it has some seriously aggressive geometry and that fork is absolutely gorgeous.
Don't worry about attitude, it takes the fun out of riding bikes in the first place. From the price and the spec I think you would be hard pressed to find a better buy than the rushour unless you went super cheap with a bikesdirect.com fixie.

The bike has good clearance up front, a 28c would fit easily. In the back you could probably run a 28 provided you were towards the back of the track ends. It is a fun, twitchy bike. Buy this bike, a 17t cog, and some different pedals and you are ready to ride.

My complaints:
-The ridiculous front fork is too stiff, heavy, and is tall enough (385mm axle-crown race) that it is incompatible with some short reach brakes and makes replacement difficult without dropping the front end a cm or two.
-frame and fork are kinda heavy.
-threadless setup makes it easier for tweakers to steal your front end.
-The pedals. The raleigh rep warned me not to ride the plastic pedals.

Neutral things:
-The cranks are fine, but are kinda long at 175. My spin sucks and I just can't get the rpm up high enough with long cranks.
-Stock gearing (48-15) is fine for the track, but if you are building a bike for the track why spec 175mm cranks and brakes?
-130bcd cranks limit your options for 1/8" chainrings. If you must, I think TA makes them for $60
-The headset is kinda low stack(~24mm). If you feel the need to cut the steer tube short, remember you need to leave an extra cm or so if you want to switch to a King headset (32mm) down the line. But given proper maintenence the stock headset should be fine.


Good things:
-Aside from the pedals, nothing is of **** quality
-Decent wheels, normal spoke count. ok hubs (The mechanic at American said he would worry about the soft aluminum of the cheap rear hub stripping if I were going brakeless. I had no problems)
-Decent welds, no obvious fall through, rear end was in alignment within a couple mm (this was sometimes not the case with KHS or Surly frames)
-After a few days the stock seat was fine.
-Decent cog (not super cheap stamped like on many $500 bikes)
-Decent BB (cheap truvativ, If you can find a set of 600 road cranks this bb will give you decent chainline)
-The tektro brake levers, very ergonomic, wide hoods. I will use them on another bike.
-Quick handling, easy to throw around
-High enough BB that my mks pedals with 167.5 cranks never hang
-No toe overlap with mks platform pedals and extra long LL toe clips
-no clear coat over the decals (this is actually a big deal for me. I once bought a Cannondale caad 4 only to find out the the CPSC warning sitcker about wearing a helmet was under the clear coat)
-Last fall they donated one as the prize to an alleycat in SF. Not common for a big company.


If you want to run a freewheel, the long cranks and comfortable brake levers are a bonus. It is a fun bike and for the money, I would recomend it to a friend. Just change out the pedals, eventually plastic pedal bodys will crack and it could be ugly. So yeah. Buy one.

-James

What kind of tire clearance does the Rush Hour have? I see it comes with 23c, which would be kinda scary in rain and snow. Room for up to 28c would be nice, IMO.

i have a 28 on the rear and it fits pretty well
as for 23's in the rain; i never had any problem and the only snow riding i've had to do this year was with the 23s on in an inch of fresh snow and i didn't have any problems

I just purchased one of these and am waiting for it to arrive. It was sort of an impulse but I have been looking into a SS for a while now online. For a newcomer [i'm very new to SS] It seems to be the best way to break into it. I bought it knowing I would upgrade parts as they wear out. I looked into converting my MTB, but the cost was not worth the result. I would end up having to run a chain tensioner and it would be very bulky in weight and appearance. I absolutely love building things and am very mechanically inclined. It does make me a little sad that I did not build it myself. But for the price I could not say no.

i'd buy the mercier and upgrade the bb and crankset for the same money

I never heard of Mercier before. This should give you an idea of how new I am to cycling in general. It looks like a great bike. I'm having trouble though looking for any online retailers to get an idea of price.

i'd buy the mercier and upgrade the bb and crankset for the same money

wheels first.
the raleigh's are much better.

yeah, for how much everyone hates on quando, they are the hubs on the mercier kil tt and flite 100s...

wheels first.
the raleigh's are much better.

yeah i actually wrote wheels first, then edited. i guess they're both pretty much pronto upgrades, though neither's gonna fail and kill you in the first couple months. i just like the mercier frame geometry and overall look much better, and they're both plain-jane cromo

Why are they upgrades right away? Can't you use them, until they break, get your money's worth, and then upgrade? I've been using my Mercier stock for 3 months now -- no problems. Sure the wheels are heavy...but they work fabulously, and heavy wheels will make my stronger while accelerating.

cause you'll **** em and then you can't flip em on ebay for what you could if you just swapped them right out the lbs and sold em to recoup the cost of the new stuff which you'd be getting anyway and you'd enjoy so much more from both a performance and aesthetic standpoint.

there

cause you'll **** em and then you can't flip em on ebay for what you could if you just swapped them right out the lbs and sold em to recoup the cost of the new stuff which you'd be getting anyway and you'd enjoy so much more from both a performance and aesthetic standpoint.

there
That's what all the trackfriendly shops kept telling me. Buy a complete, upgrad eone by one then sell off the old stuff to help recoup for the price of new components. I do agree with this, because you can buy a complete setup but in a year, it'll be a new bike almost!

anyway right now I'm choosing the hard path. building from the frame up. And it'll end up costing under 500 total (maybe under 400 if I scavenge at some of the shops here (which would be really easy).

Thing is, I could probably sell these wheels for $70-90 for the pair, on ebay, new.

I could use it for a year, break a couple spokes, replace them, maybe decide to sell it then, for $40 as used (probably more, ebay seems to be more forgiving on used items). I've gotten a year of use out of them for $30. That comes out to less than $4/month.

Cheaper things depreciate at a fraction of a cost of more expensive things. I paid for these wheels, they're gonna get some use before I sell them. And, like I said, in a year when I get better wheelsets, I'll appreciate them a lot more, because these heavy wheels have made me stronger.

Thing is, I could probably sell these wheels for $70-90 for the pair, on ebay, new.

I could use it for a year, break a couple spokes, replace them, maybe decide to sell it then, for $40 as used (probably more, ebay seems to be more forgiving on used items). I've gotten a year of use out of them for $30. That comes out to less than $4/month.

Cheaper things depreciate at a fraction of a cost of more expensive things. I paid for these wheels, they're gonna get some use before I sell them. And, like I said, in a year when I get better wheelsets, I'll appreciate them a lot more, because these heavy wheels have made me stronger.

spokes aren't the problem. if you change the cog a couple of times on mediocre hubs and skid hard at all, you'll likely have problems with the threading on the hub (lockring and/or cog threading). i don't know of any quick and safe fix for that. get wheels with a durable hub.