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Old 11-29-21 | 09:23 AM
  #37  
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Maelochs
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Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 15,917
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Bikes: 2015 Workswell 066, 2017 Workswell 093, 2014 Dawes Sheila, 1983 Cannondale 500, 1984 Raleigh Olympian, 2007 Cannondale Rize 4, 2017 Fuji Sportif 1 LE

[See end for Tl;Dr .... ]

A few questions---Do You Ride?

If so, what and how far over what kind of terrain and at what average pace?

If not ..... well .......

I am unclear on Exactly what you plan to do with this bike. it sounds like you are a watchperson in an industrial complex doing outdoor patrol and and need to be mobile---Or are doing indoor patrol but want to get between buildings promptly, and the buildings are too close to bother with a car but too far to reach efficiently on foot (of course, the bike will likely be only a bout four times as fast as a brisk walk ....)

If this is a work bike, build it as such and don't stress over your occasional off-the-clock uses. My thinking here is that if the bike doesn't work for work, you wasted money and don't do the job well .... but if you do the job well you can buy a better bike for personal use later on down the road.

By the way .... bikes are not fast, riders are. There is a Tour-de-France-type rider who traveled about 3000 miles with Full Camping Kit (https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/10152...-beat-the-pack) When I was fit I was able to ride slow hundred-mile days fully loaded day after day, or go pretty fast on a bike carrying 80 pounds of gear ..... Now I can barely crack double figures on a race bike.

If you want to have some fun, get a really light fast bike, ride by a bike cop---on his/her MTB with fat tires and 40 lbs of gear---and smack him/her in the back of the head and say, "Bet you can't catch me."

Not too far down the road you will find that part of that gear load are handcuffs, which you will be wearing, and a radio, with which the officer is summoning the car to haul you to jail. Carbon wheels aren't the key to speed---massive training is.

You need to identify the primary mission and buy/build for that--IMO. And if you are not already a rider ...... you need to learn to ride. It is easy to do .... but the tons of junk on the handlebar will make it harder and also and crashes will be much more expensive. You had best be able to keep the rubber down.

Also, if you need to go from one group of facilities to another .... then you will want to throw the bike on a car, right? Unless you live a short ride from work and only patrol one small group of buildings .... when I was a security guard I might get assigned anywhere within a dozen miles or so, because clients might have factories, warehouses, and office buildings in different neighborhoods. If this is how you will be working, you will need a rack for your car and a bike you don't mind throwing on and yanking off a rack. Al frame, CF fork, Al rims Strongly advised.

So .... - looking for a good value up to $1500 maybe (cant really swing 6k bicycles right now)---$1500 is about what will get you a low-mid-grade "Real" bicycle right now. If you need any other gear ......

- looking for something more modern by design with good aesthetics if possible (again for official business use)----"Good aesthetics .... purely subjective and completely pointless for a work bike. Are you going to Not buy a bike if you cannot find one you find esthetically pleasing? So .... either scratch that as a requirement or say up front you aren't serious about the rest.

- ability to add front and rear led lights for safety and legal compliance---yeah ..... those lights are designed to mount on any bike. The fact that you don't know that makes me think this is all a not-vwry-well researched dream of yours. You seriously haven't checked out lights?

- abilty to mount a tablet to the bars between 11" and 12" That is a big device .... you might need to rig something. Certainly can be done---I have built sturdy racks for touring bikes ..... but you will need to make sure the table it very securely mounted and also vibration-isolated. I don't know anyone who makes such a product---you might be able to modify something from an exercise bike. But .... Why do you need a Tablet on the bars? You really can't be riding and staring at the tablet, you know .... right?

In fact, a Lot of riders mount a phone on the bars and use it for navigation .... or a dedicated computer, but since you have and will need the phone .... but you really don't need to be watching streaming movies when you ride, and since you will know where you are going---to the next building ion a compound---navigation won't be a big thing. Why does the tablet need to be on the bars while riding?

- ability to mount a gopro or similar camera to the front and rear of the bicycle ------------Again, this shows that you have not done any research.
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need something i can actually get as soon as possible insetad of waiting 3 months for delivery ---------- Really? You think we have stocks of bikes in out garages, waiting for your order? We don't even know what country you live in .... pretty hard to suggest sources at random and actually guess the right one, eh?

See here is why people think you are trolling---You obviously have not thought this through at all, and once you got the idea, you didn't do any serious follow-up. No one is taking you very seriously because you obviously are not taking this very seriously.

At the very least you would---if serious--- gone online and found bikes which You Think might meet your criteria and offered them as examples. You would have researched GoPros and lights, racks, etc and would already have a clue about what was out there .... I mean, you are planning to buy this stuff, right? Don't you need to research it first, to make sure it meets your needs?

On top of that you have a list of disparate and in some cases mutually exclusive "requirements" which make us think this is all just a fantasy for you .... you are sitting in class drawing pictures of bikes with wings and beautiful, scantily-clad damsels-in-distress waiting for you to ride up on your Bionic Bike and rescue them or something.

Seriously .... you Might want to take yourt bike on an airplane someday .... maybe? And you want to ride up to the gate? have you even begun to think that through? How about your personal luggage? How are you going to carry a bike case to house the bike in flight---or did you think you ride onto the plane and lock it to a rack? There are plenty of threads on this site about shipping bikes .... did you do a google search about shipping a bike?

Seriously .... right now we have So much information available and we all have about 200 times the computing power NASA needed to reach the Moon---in our pockets. There is no reason you couldn't have looked around more seriously to find out if what you want is possible at anything like the budget you quote .... and sorry, but if you can only afford a $1500 bike, how are you planning to pay airfare, shipping, hotels, etc on your maybe-someday bike journey?

My advice to you: Get Serious.

Figure out For Real what you Need the bike to do. "Looking good" is not a "need" unless you plan to park the bike at the café and sip lattés while passers-by admire it---and frankly, even a $6000 bike won't draw much attention because there are so many $16,000 bikes parked outside cafés ...... So forget people admiring your no-name work special.

Decide exactly what you need the bike to do while you are at work, and buy to fill those needs. After work .... you can do almost anything with any bike, particularly with a road or gravel bike, but I have done serious commuting on an F/S MTB when all my other bikes were being repaired. And I wasn't slow.

If you know you need lights ... research lights. Might I suggest This subforum---https://www.bikeforums.net/electronics-lighting-gadgets/ where people might even be able to help you with your tablet mount, or a better alternative. Just don't waste their time .... do your research or at least read some threads, before you start asking unfocused questions---would be my advice, for good or ill.

Also consider the https://www.bikeforums.net/utility-cycling/ and pages.

Tl;Dr----- Get serious, do some research like it matters to you---act like this is a real thing in a real life, because it is a real thing in our lives. We will give you all the help you can handle if you start by helping yourself, which will help us to help you.
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