Well, on first blush, that is a good question Randy. Currently, as I wrote, my commuter is my cheapest bike. While I don't intentionally abuse the bike, I will put it away wet. It does not get the level of maintenance of my "good" bikes. Once a month I'll wipe the chain, give it some lube and call it a day.

But that is what makes it a challenging design problem. How do you make an "abused" item nice? As revealed thus far, the stainless steel tubing is a material that can get "forgotten". I have other ideas that will be shown as time allows. This bike will be a commuter/grocery getter/toodling around town bike and hopefully the design will reflect that.