Help pick my commute rig!
 

I recently moved up to the Seattle area from Los Angeles, so I need a bike with disc brakes and fenders (and the Rivendell will be my trainer / summer rando bike).

I don't want to spend a ton of money, and I'm not going to be a brand weenie about my winter bike, so I'm thinking of taking advantage of some of the corporate discounts (40-60% off MSRP) we get at work on Raleigh USA bikes.

I'm looking for a reliable drop-bar commuter that can take a lightweight rack on a 24-mile (round-trip) wet, hilly commute, and that I can take out on wet roads for 60-100 miles every now and then.

The bikes (and keep in mind--the prices are more or less half what's listed):

Steel (which I prefer):

Stuntman: I don’t care about the dropper post. It might be heavy for hills, but it looks fun.

RXM: Neat, with my favorite saddle, but I know nothing about CX bikes — is the more aggressive frame comfortable for longer rides? Also, no hydros, but I'll save $100 not having to swap out the saddle.

Tamland 1: Cheap. Wish it had hydros, but cheap.

AL:

Willard 2: Super-cheap. Wish it had hydros, and wish it were steel, but super-cheap is good

Wildcard: Steel touring bike with discs, like a Specialized AWOL. There are a lot of them on pretty steep discounts in town right now.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

I like the hydro disc, and with 50mm tires and dropper post it's probably a very comfortable ride, even with alloy forks, but I am not a fan of the 1x11.

I'd go with the 2nd one. The 2x11 is probably more attractive for resale purpose, but also more like a road bike, especially with the 33mm tires if you're going to take it out for longer rides on the weekend.

I commuted on the AWOL last year and it works great for the job. I finally decided it was too heavy and I sold it. I am now commuting on a Felt Z100 and sometimes wish I still had the AWOL.

If I were just getting a commuter, I'd pick up something less expensive than any of these 3 models from CL since I'd like to be able to lock it up and not worry about it.

That said, all 3 of these are nice bikes. If it were me, I'd lean towards the Stuntman or even the Willard 2 because I like gravel riding.

+1) pick a bike you will miss least when it's stolen, which is always a potential ..

now ask about heavy, relatively secure, multiple locks..


Mudguards are after market add ons , in bike shops.. Add them to your california bike..

OP mentioned nothing about having to lock it up; locks aren't even a consideration. Buy the one that you'd miss the most if you crashed and trashed it on one of your weekend rides.;)

The RXM looks nice, and is the best looking bike of the bunch IMO. I second the no 1 x 11 idea if you have major hills. Double chainring all the way. I'm considering 1 x 11, but I'm in Chicago where the only hill I ever see is an occasional highway overpass.

I've only ridden a CX bike once, but I really, really liked it. Local bike shop had a Kona Jake on sale that I nearly snatched up...assuming all CX geometry is relatively similar, yes it would be very very comfortable on longer rides. Much more so than a standard road bike.

I'm assuming I don't need to say it, but do switch out the tires whatever direction you go, assuming you commute on roads.

edit: I just noticed your last comment. A CX bike with road tires IS a steel touring bike with discs, for all practical purposes.

I actually forgot to mention that--my apologies. locks were a huge deal when I lived in Los Angeles, even for my 80s beater. Up here, I'm fortunate to work at a company with bike cages and cameras at the office. And a number of much more senior co-workers ride bikes I could never afford (some of their wheelsets cost more than my last car) so even I'd someone broke into the cage, my bike would be low priority.

I was just in your situation and bought the RXM through the Raleigh corporate direct sale. I can't state enough how much I love the bike. I've already put about 60 miles on it and it rides great. There are a few things I would caution again that are not immediately clear from the online listing:

1) The RXM has rear fender eyelets as well as rack eyelets on the dropout. Note that it has eyelets ONLY on the dropout, meaning you'll need to put clamps on the seat stays if you want to fix a rack.

2) The RXM carbon fork doesn't have fender eyelets, so you'll have to use fenders that affix with an elastic band.

3) The Brooks saddle is really solid - no padding at all. It's great but it took some getting used to.

I got it for $1250 and I'm really very pleased with it. I was also looking at the tamland/stuntman, but I disqualified the stuntman based on the weight/1x11 pretty quickly. I wish they had the tamland 2 during the corporate sale because I rather dislike the color on the tamland 1, but I have no doubt the tamland would also be a nice bike, if a little more relaxed than the rxm geometry-wise. The nice thing about the RXM is that it does 90% of what you want to do 75% as well, meaning it can fulfill all of your commuting needs - road bike, gravel bike, etc.

I affix the rear fender stays and rack onto the same eyelet on the dropout. The fender kit came with longer bolts for this purpose.

Sorry, I'm relatively new to bicycles - can you explain this some more?

Do you mean that you attach the rack in two places - the fender eyelets and the rack eyelets?

He means he is running 1 bolt through both the fender AND rack hardware.

You still have to attach the rack to the chainstays without two sets of eyelets though, or am I overlooking something?

I don't have my bike with me....but I don't think most fenders actually use eyelets of any kind there. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but there are 3 points of connection for the rear fender:

1) eyelet at dropout
2) bolt at brake bridge
3) bracket across chain stays directly behind bottom bracket.

Yall are talking about two different things, and are both right.

Fenders have three points (generally unless you're running raceblades or something) - Dropout, brake bridge, stay bridge.

Racks need two points of mounting: dropouts and seat stays somewhere (or post mount but lets just not open cans of worms)

The RXM has eyelets only on the dropout, not on the seat stays, so mounting a rack would require P clamps on the stays somewhere to put the top mounting point on. The lower stays can use the same dropout position as the fenders.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...cycle_rack.JPG

Sorry. I misread/misunderstood your dilemma. Yes, you need p-clamp for the seatstay.

Pick the bike you would miss the most if it was stolen, because that is the bike that will make you grin the most when riding to work...

Wat

Crap. I accidentally took a test ride on a Salsa Marrakesh that fit me perfectly. Now I'm confused again. :)