Fifty Plus (50+) - New classy Gary Fisher City bike

Gary Fisher (i.e. Trek) has recently announced a new classic city bike. Kind of a surprising bike to find wearing this brand name.

These are aluminum frame, cro-moly rigid fork, 3 and 8-speed bikes. The 8-speeds come with a front rack. Model is the "Simple City" line.

http://www.fisherbikes.com/bike/series/simple-city

Cool looking bike. I think these would be great for riding around in cities, towns, and MUPs.

Geometry is on the relaxed side, with heat tube angles of 69 degrees and seat tube angles of 70 degrees.

All it needs is some drop bars and it would be ready to go

That would ruin it!

My sweetie (Ms. DG?) LOVES the one on the right. Like me, she also loves white bikes...:love:

Cool!

I like the double leg Pletscher kickstand. That's an interesting accessory.

I laughed when I read the internal cable routing is for ease of maintenance.

If I were to get one for my wife, I would change the gearing a bit. It comes with a 44t crank and 18t rear sprocket. That's a fairly tall middle gear, and a very tall top gear. Simplest change would be to replace the rear sprocket with a 20t, which are commonplace and inexpensive.

Found another interesting bike of the same general type. This one from a small company named Swobo. The Swobo Dixon. It has a 9-speed SRAM internal hub, with disc brakes. Optional basket and fenders.

There's a women's step-through version, but I couldn't find a pic on their web pages.

http://www.swobo.com/catalog/product_info_b.php?cPath=201_204

In August of last year I ordered a Trek Soho 4. It didn't come in until the first week of March. The snow was still a foot deep then. In mid March I was hit by a car while walking across the street in the crosswalk with the light and my shoulder was seperated. Surgery is Friday.

I would love to give a report on how the bike rides but I probably won't be doing any 10 to 30 mile rides this summer. Just walking and taking the bus. I really hope we have a nice fall riding season.

Good luck with that. Hopefully you will be back with a more upbeat report soon!

One of my LBS is carrying these.

http://www.civiacycles.com/civiacompletebike.php

Wish I could afford the Rohloff build. Even comes with front hub generator and light.

I've never seen one of those before. Very nice. Should be for $2K & up.

My sweetie (Ms. DG?) LOVES the one on the right. Like me, she also loves white bikes...:love:

It's made for utility. She wouldn't have to throw her leg over the saddle to get on it. She knows this. You've got a "keeper" there, DG.

My sweetie (Ms. DG?) LOVES the one on the right. Like me, she also loves white bikes...:love:

And what did the GF, ooops excuse me Ms. DG find today on the hunt for a new bike?

One of my LBS is carrying these.

http://www.civiacycles.com/civiacompletebike.php

Wish I could afford the Rohloff build. Even comes with front hub generator and light.

Civia is a new division of QBP (the people who make Surly and Salsa and distribute bike parts).

I saw them at the Seattle Bike Show and they are stocked at my LBS. Very nice, but a *lot* of money for an aluminum-frame bike. Would love the Rohloff version...

Nice looking city bikes. Okay, someone explain something to me. I am not an avid rider, just utilitarian. Why would they position the handle bars infront of the stem, like a road bike or "mountain bike"? I personally don't care for the feel of steering with bars out front, when I am sitting up right.

Which bikes are you referring to? The Gary Fisher bikes in the first post have the hand positions/grips behind the stem, and almost even to where the steerer tube is.

Which bikes are you referring to? The Gary Fisher bikes in the first post have the hand positions/grips behind the stem, and almost even to where the steerer tube is.

None of them use a roadster type stem. The fisher doesn't either. They just put some city bike bars on that stem which places the hands even with the stem, but still very low. You will be leaning forward with weight on your wrists.

The idea of a city bike ( aka gentlemans bike) is the upright riding position- which requires a tall stem, and a large seat, like a leather Brooks.

I suspect that none of these manufacturere wanted to produce a line of stems just for these bikes, so just adopted one from a road or mountain bike.

One just needs to look at any classic European city bike to get an idea of frm required by function, not style.


Look at the bars and the stem on the Batavus in the photo for an idea of how a real city bike should be configured.. This design is based on many millions of miles, being ridden everyday by thousands of Danes, Swedes, Dutch and others that use a bicycle as their primary transport- to work, school, shopping etc.

As for the new bikes in the thread, I am glad to see someone actually putting real fenders on an American bike again.

Is there anyplace to buy these "tall" stems??

The Fisher bikes' grips are behind the stem, but not as much as what the bike you show has them. There are bikes in the USA that have setups like you speak of, such as the Electra Amsterdam

http://bikeportland.org/wp-content/ElectraAmsterdamClassicGr.JPG

Is there anyplace to buy these "tall" stems??

There are different ways to raise one's stem. If you have a bike with a threadless stem now, you can add a stem riser. They usually cost $20-$30.

http://www.rei.com/product/700227?cm_mmc=cse_froogle-_-datafeed-_-product-_-na&mr:trackingCode=6B59A9CE-874B-DD11-98CA-001422107090&mr:referralID=NA

Or if you need a tall 1" quill stem, this one is 250mm tall.
http://www.niagaracycle.com/product_info.php?products_id=12078

Or this one for a mountain bike sizing, that is 180mm tall with an adjustable stem on top of it.
http://www.niagaracycle.com/product_info.php?products_id=12026

There are a lot of options out there, but you might have to search around to find what you need.

Felt also has a "Cafe" line of bikes, in 8 or 24 speeds. Nice classy look.

Thanks, Tom.

By the way, I rode a friends Amsterdam the other day, really a plush feel to it...

Felt also has a "Cafe" line of bikes, in 8 or 24 speeds. Nice classy look.

Sunshine Bike Shop had both of those bikes on the floor (actually several) at the shop when I bought my Felt 29'er. They sold two of them while I was buying and getting the 29'er set up. Big surprise, both of the bikes left in the posession of 50+ new owners. They look like very nice bikes for the purpose and for the money.

I really like the abbreviated chain guard on the Fisher bikes...

Found another interesting bike of the same general type. This one from a small company named Swobo. The Swobo Dixon. It has a 9-speed SRAM internal hub, with disc brakes. Optional basket and fenders.

There's a women's step-through version, but I couldn't find a pic on their web pages.

http://www.swobo.com/catalog/product_info_b.php?cPath=201_204

Hey! What's that basket doing where the milk crate is supposed to be. (At least that's
where mine is)

That Amsterdam is a fine looking machine, and... I'll bet with that fork geometry, is very soft riding. Look at the curve of the forks. The handling will be slow and precise with the grips so far behind the stem.