Dear N7CZinMT

First of all, thanks for the info about shimano Sora Hub. Below are my opinions of the commuter bike you are going to buy. That is not a good bike to buy, neither from its function nor the money you are going to pay.

1 you don't need front and seat suspension. Though I am new here, form your posts I guess you have ridden bike LONG LONG time. So if the bike is not for the tough trail use, you do not need those suspensions. When you meet potholes in the street, you can always relieve yourself from the saddle and let the bike take the punch, even better you may be able to jump the bike over the hole to avoid the punishment. Also tire pressure plays a big role in city commuting, keep pressure around 80 psi, it is fast enough and at the same time give you a lot of cushion. Talking about the seat suspension, I had one in my Mongoose bike, I later found out that though it smooth the pothole a little, it also takes some of my energy of paddling so I changed to regular seat post. Plus city street here at Austin, TX is not that bad.

2 About the hub generator. First of all my believe of generate light is either not bright enough or if it bright enough it will rub too much of your peddling power to the generator. I would go for a rechargeable battery lights. I made a bicycle lights 20W + 50W bulbs and a 4.5 AH battery. It gave me 2+ hours on 20W, 45 minutes on 50W. I used those bulbs on different occasions. Cost was under 70$. And they were BRIGHT. I once had a ride with around 300-400 people at night here at Austin, many of them had fancy lights, but I would say that my light was the brightest.

3 About the integrated lock of the bike, IMHO it is useless because if the thief want to take you bike he will just lift it on his truck. Or simply enough, use a rock to knock out the lock.

4 last it is too high price of this bike. 700$, first you do not need many sale features of this bike, second, it increase the possibility to be stolen if you have to lock it outside, use cheaper bike instead. If you park your bike in a safe place then that sale point of the integrated lock is not needed. The only extra thing this bike offer to your purpose is the fender, but hi, fender is 30$. Plus I guess you already have the rechargeable battery bike light. Other say that you can buy similar bike without those added features at 450$.

finally about the gear, the pattern of 8spd cassette is 11,13,15,17,20,23,26,34 for 28/38/48 chain ring the last two small gears are 22" and 30", If you ride steep hills then that jump will not be comfortable, at least for my experience, mine are 22" 31" and I don't like it and I will modify it later.


Also I checked your webpage and found out that you listed the aebike.com there, I checked aebike.com a week ago and found that they had a brook 17 sale for 34$ and two days later when I check it was gone, 34$ for a brook 17 is a VERY GOOD DEAL but unfortunately it is gone, have you noticed that before?


Regards

Lei Lin