Originally Posted by
missmixte
Now that I've been actually commuting on this bike, let me post an update, for people who might be interested in this either now or in the future.
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However--it is difficult for me to get up steep hills on my surprisingly hilly commute from downtown DC to Silver Spring. I can do it, but it's hard, and it's also hard on my hip and knee joints after a while because my leg muscles aren't really strong enough yet to push me and the bike up that 10th hill. The gearing also seems high.
I don't have much to compare it to but I think the bike is fairly slow. And something that I don't love about it is that it's a magnet for attention. It doesn't blend in at all. It's beautiful but that has a bad side when I don't want to talk to five different people every time I lock it up or draw looks from people as I pass in okay but not familiar-to-me neighborhoods. It sticks out like a beacon and I can't imagine compounding that by putting a Brooks saddle on it, not without people trying to steal the bike. Not a strike against the bike, but just something I've discovered that I never thought of.
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This has turned into more of a review of Linus in general but I thought I'd share.
For some more late comments
If you're having problems with hills, I'll repeat the earlier comment that it should not be hard to change the rear sprocket to a larger gear (more teeth). This will give you lower gears to make the hills easier, but it will also lower your fastest gear. So if you use the fastest gear, it will be even slower if you change gears to make hills easier.
I have a bike with a Nexus 7 IGH; while it's possible to change the gear yourself, if you have limited experience and ride the bike everyday it might be easier to have a good bike shop do it for you. Washington should have enough bike shops that I'd expect to be able to find one that works with commuters - go to them instead of to a shop that doesn't like your Linus for whatever reason)
For the pretty bike/theft issue, you might try wrapping bar tape or old inner tubes around the frame. I bought a Bridgestone MTB in Cambridge Mass that had some bar tape around some of the frame tubes. This has no effect on the function and is easily reversible if you want a pretty bike in nice areas, but in high theft areas it covers the labels and other wise makes the bike look poorly maintained. Of course, your bike really is brand new, so some attention is likely unavoidable.
Let us know if you find a good bike shop/mechanic.