General Cycling Discussion - City bikes: What forum?

So I've got all these great ideas for a city/commuter bike and was looking for people to help me focus so I can start purchasing what I need but seem to be having trouble finding the right people to ask.

I'm living car-lite, so car-free isn't quite right. I'll be commuting to work, but I'll also be riding everywhere else. It could be a fixed gear, but they get snarky when brakes come up. I'll ride it far, but not touring/long distance far. It'll be utilitarian but far more attractive (ha!). It'll be fast, but not quite road bike forum fast.

Maybe we should consider opening up a new forum for daily city riders who are looking for fashionable/classy/trendy/whatever and practicable bikes. As far away as it might seem for many communities, my home Chicago is becoming more and more a bicycle town and I for one would love to see more bikes on the street that aren't ugly, corporate-billboard hybrids or faddish track bikes.

Steel and chrome; leather, cork and cotton tape; baskets, racks, and classy panniers; chain guards, fenders and generator hubs; these are things I want to see more of and wish there was a single place I could go to find.

Covered by the Commuting and the Utility forums.

Covered by the Commuting and the Utility forums.

thats what i thought. until the commuting forum guffawed at the idea of having a classy looking bike. they're really hung up on getting to work without getting hit and how many lights you can put on your bike before it gets ridiculous.

the utility forum on the other hand ought to be renamed the xtracycle forum. i'm not sure that they talk about anything else.

They're on an Xtracycle kick right now, but they do discuss other things. Here's my city bike, which appears there with predictable regularity. She's all dressed up for Christmastime. :)

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u94/donnambr/IMG_0640.jpg

Dare I say the ss/fg forum?

Hi doomkin,
If you can avoid the rhetoric in the LCF there is a lot of good information buried in that forum. FWIW I spent an inordinate amount of my time in there and my only claim to being car free is that I only own trucks:eek: I was car free from 1981-1984 then car light until 1997...working my way back as we type. I only own "classic" style bikes that can be comfortably ridden in street clothes to various locations. My bike of choice for most of my riding is a 1972 Raleigh Superbe (http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2725424670066886751OpUuOz). I just ordered a 2008 Redline R530 (http://www.redlinebicycles.com/adultbikes/R530.html) (still waiting on it to get here from the left coast:() I already have a sizable pile of accessories for it.:D Here is a link to my photo album of bikes (http://community.webshots.com/user/wahooncx)

Aaron:)

http://inlinethumb58.webshots.com/3001/2987525810066886751S500x500Q85.jpg

Steel and chrome; leather, cork and cotton tape; baskets, racks, and classy panniers; chain guards, fenders and generator hubs; these are things I want to see more of and wish there was a single place I could go to find.

That sounds like Classic & Vintage to me. I've had better luck asking my harebrained questions there. Most other places immediately pan me as being too picky or unpractical. SS/FG just doesn't have the overall life experience or knowledge to do the things I like to do with my builds.

C&V is probably the way to go, even though that is not quite right either for new bikes. I love new old-style bikes myself, from randonneurs to dutch bikes, but none of the forums quite works.

I think it is inevitable that there will be topic overlap. I'm sure someone with more spatial intelligence and ability than me could diagram the overlaps in an interesting way.

For me, the "happy cluster" is an intersecting of Utility with Classic & Vintage with a smattering of SSFG, Alt Bikes, and Recreational & Family. There are also some nice Women's Forum threads, but they're all about decor, and so I'm sure you guys wouldn't be interested. ;)