Utility Cycling - "the perfect bike" project

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum.

I have an idea of the perfect bike (for me) and would be really grateful for peoples opinions on this matter.

I ride my bike every day, to and from work. It's not very far, about 5 kms, and takes from 12 to 20 minutes depending on traffic and the weather. My bike is of course used for other things than riding to and from work (shopping, transporting stuff here and there), so I estimate I ride about 70 to 100 kms every week.

I live in Göteborg (or Gothenburg) on the west coast of Sweden. The weather here ranges from warm summer days (up to 30°C) to cold, wet winter days with strong wet (did I mention wet) winds. A really cold day here is about -10°C with those humid winds beating down on us from the ocean in the west. I imagine this weather is quite hard on the components of a bike.

The last couple of years I've had two bikes, one for summer and one for winter. Summer bike: Kona Jake (2003), winter bike: Trek 6700 SLR (2006). Right now I don't enjoy either that much.

The Kona has dropped bars, which is not very convenient when riding mainly in the city, nor do I find them very comfortable. The geometry of the frame makes my toes overlap with the front wheel. Something I swear over every now and then. Also, it has not been as durable as I hoped for. I've changed casettes, chains, bottom bracket cartridge and so many other things over the years that I've lost count. But what I dislike the most is the riding position. I find that I'm riding without holding the bars as often as I can, as this allows me to ride upright. But it's not very safe!

The Trek is an OK bike. It has held up pretty good, and I haven't needed to change that many parts. It is overkill for the climate we have here, though. I bought it because a very cold winter a few years ago made it downright suicidal to ride my Kona (ice and snow everywhere, and the rim brakes could hardly stop the bike), and therefore I ended up taking the tram or bus instead. I didn't like that. But the last two winters the Trek with its studded Nokian Hakkapelitta tyres and suspention for has just seemed heavy to ride.

Now I can't let go of the thought to put together a perfect city bike for the Swedish climate. I want it to be lightweight, simple, comfortable and good looking. And I seemed to have fallen in love with the classic european steel frames, like Mercian.

Here's a pretty good approximation of the bike I'm looking for, style wise:
http://www.jitensha.com/eng/8-07-650ebisu.html

I've come up with a list of features on my new bike that are essential.

1. Upright riding position, i.e. no dropped bars.
2. At least ONE non-rim brake (coaster, disc, drum), preferably coaster as it reduces the clutter on the handlebars.
3. Less than ten speeds.
4. Very low maintenance and hassle on the drivetrain/gears.
5. Mudguards.
6. Possibility of using studded tyres.
7. Possibility of a rear rack.
8. No toe/front wheel overlap.

At first I was thinking about using a Shimano Nexus 8 rear hub, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe three gears is more appropriate? KISS, you know.

I have very little knowledge on frame geometry, and would like some input in that area. I'm a fairly short fellow, 168 cm. The Kona I ride now is a 52 cm frame with a head tube angle of 70.7° and a seat tube angle of 72.7°. I guess that would be called a "relaxed" geometry, although I don't find it very relaxed.

Most of the steel frames I've been looking at have HTA's of around 72° and STA of 73-75°. If you put dropped bars on one of those it will be quite far from my Kona Jake (less "relaxed"). Are HTA's and STA's of 72-74° inappropriate to use with flat handlebars?

What rims are good for a bike like this? Lightweight is good, but I don't think those super modern rims look very good with a more classic bike.

Any input will be most appreciated!

Thanks!

Henning

Gøteborg feels close compared to most of the others here. Long time since I went there.

Are you thinking of building one or buying one? Did you take a proper look at what is available in Denmark (and also Holland of course). I think there is a lot of nice bikes there, like the BIOMEGA bikes. Remember great looking bikes with hub gear (3 or 5) and a dic brake in front. I remember flat bars, but that can be changed.

Did you look properly innto using your MTB? you could put a rigid fork. You could go for narrower winter tyres (do you really need studs in Gøteborg more than 5 days a year)?

They sell a lot of bikes now that looks like rigid MTB`s with moderate cruiser bars. Maybe put some of those on your bike? You canget two types at BILTEMA, both at under 100 kroner each. I use both types, put them on old MTB`s to convert them into comfort bikes. A brooks to finish it of.

If you do this you could get a folder as the new bike. Easy to take on bus, trikk and train if you want to ride across town.

Thanks for the tips!

The Biomega bikes look pretty great, but are a bit too heavy for my taste.

My plan is, to put the bike together from parts. I have a very local bike builder who will do the work for me (at a cost of course).

Sure, I could modify the MTB, but that would still give me 27 gears and all that stuff. By the time I've changed everything I don't like about it it will have cost me a whole lot. I plan on selling both of my bikes after I've put the new bike together.

I also suggest you put your question on the folding bicycle forum. You may be surprised how comfortable, and adaptable a folding bicycle can be.

you can find out if the Nexus3 offers enough range of gearing with your current bike. I did this and discovered that for my riding I really could use the 8 so I ponied up the money for it.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/internal-gears.html There's Sheldon's page about internal gears. It has a link to his gear calculator that does include the three speed. I took the gearing from the Bianchi I was looking at, put it in the calculator and then found the same gear inches on my current 21 speed bike. I rode around for a couple days using only those three ratios.

Some nice looking bikes here you might enjoy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiawathacyclery/show/

I also suggest you put your question on the folding bicycle forum. You may be surprised how comfortable, and adaptable a folding bicycle can be.

+1. I think you would enjoy the smaller wheels of a folding bike as well.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/internal-gears.html There's Sheldon's page about internal gears. It has a link to his gear calculator that does include the three speed. I took the gearing from the Bianchi I was looking at, put it in the calculator and then found the same gear inches on my current 21 speed bike. I rode around for a couple days using only those three ratios.

Thanks for the tip!

I did some research and found out that a three speed IGH would cover most of my gear needs. Also, it is light weight and durable, at least as I understand it.

One question though. All 3-speed hubs I've found have a rather small Over Locknut Dimension. From Sturmey-Archer SRC3 118.7 mm to Shimano Inter-3 120–127.4 mm.

Is it possible to mount such a small hub to a larger rear stay spacing, like 130 mm?


Does anyone know the OLD of the SRAM i-Motion 3?

Some nice looking bikes here you might enjoy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiawathacyclery/show/

Pretty sweet bikes! Thanks!

Göteborg (or Gothenburg)

My utility bike build below (i've posted the pic a bunch if anyone get's tired tell me :rolleyes:) sounds close to your needs, except for the internal gearing and one non caliper brake, but gives you an idea of what can be done.

ps: Göteborg is a great town...I spent 2 weeks there in the mid 80's with friends who went to Chalmers University. I picked up a bit of swedish before the trip and had the fun of getting Jambalaya ingredients from Polish vendors in the big market (SalHallen?) with a mix of swedish, english and pointing.

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w142/squirtdad/IMG_0248.jpg