Commuting - Specialized Globe

At least I think it was a globe?

I was just shopping for mountain bikes last week, and spotted a specialized commuter. The shop was crowded and I just had time to ride the bike I went there to try, but this thing was impressive.

It looked like the Globe City 7 on Specialized's site, but it had a great chainguard over the tripple front deraillur. I've never seen that. The guard covered the chainrings and the top chain most of the way back to the rear wheel. It also had nice light fenders, rack, armadillos, and a hub generator powering front and rear lights. The total weight wasn't nearly as bad as my crosscheck with nexus, rack, and fenders. It was marked $800. Thats only $200 more than I paid to build a Nexus 8 wheel, and get the right hardware to buy and install my chainglider on my $900 crosscheck.

I'm also impressed that it was in-stock at a local shop. When I went commuter shopping three years ago, people looked at me like I had three heads if I asked whether they had anything like this to test ride. Way to go Bicycle Pedaler in Wichita, three years late, but way to go!

Sounds like you're describing the Globe City 6 IG8. That looks like a pretty sweet, ready-to-go commuter.

no pic?? null and void with no pic :P

http://www.specialized.com/OA_MEDIA/2008/bikes/9287-60_l.jpg

QUESTION... the marketing spin is so enthusiastic about the low maintenance required of the Nexus hubs... but how long do these things last? How many tens thousands of miles before you have to overhaul or replace? And how much would it cost to overhaul or replace? And who in the world even knows how to overhaul these things? I mean, they're probably damn complex inside.

What I am saying is, let's not get too hasty about cheap derailleurs & cassette systems that are poorly maintained and therefore don't work properly. They're open to the weather, yes, but it's also open for you to work on, no? And if you don't like the Sora derailleur on your entry-level Sirrus, you can always upgrade to a better group. If your cassette goes bad on your derailleur bike, it doesn't cost much to fix it.

If your wheel based on a Nexus 8 goes bad, are you facing a replace-the-wheel or replace-the-bike kind of decision? Sort of like when the non-standard, proprietary motherboard on an out-of-warranty PC goes bad?

I can see a Nexus 8 as a good decision for a bike that hardly ever gets used. The user will never take the rear hub to the end of it's lifetime. But if you're putting 5000 miles per year on the bike, is this a good technology for you?

Another thing with these built-in lighting systems. LED technology is changing so quickly, sort of like a Moore's Law evolution of brightness over time... why would you want to strand your bike with proprietary lighting technology obsolete that will be obsolete in 6 - 12 months? You'll have to do surgery to cut the proprietary light off, then find the next generation light for you that matches the voltage put out by your dynamo, then do more surgery and soldering to feed it with wires to your dynamo hub instead of batteries, gosh it's just too much hassle. Again, it's a great solution for non-challenging applications, but if you are a real commuting road warrior, and you want to keep the best lights on your bike so that your safety keeps improving, then you don't want to be locked into a lighting solution, either.

I see the Nexus 8 lasting more than 5K miles and it's the way to go if you ride in snow. However, replacing the Nexus 8 internals isn't that expensive and used models can be found on Ebay for a song.

Wow--I didn't know the Globe came with an 8speed internal gear hub. Looks like a great bike, with high quality components. Nice color. Go for a test ride. Double check the size of bike for you, as you have a slightly downsloped top bar on that diamond frame, like I do. It adds a little confusion to sizing the bike properly.


You will love the rack, fenders, chainguard. I wouldn't get a commuter bike without them--it's best to have them designed into the bike. You'll love the hub, too--once you have one life is good!:D

The one I saw wasn't nexus. It was a 3 x 9. The only thing nexus was the gen hub in front. that is partly what was so different. a 3x9 drive train with a good chain guard

Pic woot now we talking. :)

I got the Specialized Globe model that is just below this one but test rode the one in the picture. I chose the less expensive model because the gears showed the "number" of gear that I was in. Because I just started getting on a cycle again after 20 years (I am only 35), I chose something that I could study as I was learning how to commute and what my stamina was comfortable with. As for smoothness of ride, I found both bikes to be similar in comfort, but there was a slight pull on the one you are looking at due to the generated lights. I chose to put fenders and lights on my own Specialized Globe because I could not afford everything at once.

I am pleased with my Globe but am overdue for a tune-up after ten weeks and have not done anymore than 20 miles at a time.