Hi All,

My name is Yash Chandak and I am currently pursuing my masters at UCD. I am doing an assignment on the commuter bicycle market in Ireland and the motivations and perceptions of people about it. One of my methods for collecting data is via netnography (internet etnography) which in simple words is browsing through forums and social media websites and looking for posts, comments and opinions of current and potential customised bicycle buyers. There are a few ethical guidelines I need to follow and they include me actually posting this on here so I can get your approval of using your posts as data. On top of that, I am hiding all information about people's names and post dates so everything stays anonymous. If someone is not ok with me doing this, please leave a comment and I will make sure not to include your comments in my paper.

Please help me by answering the following questions:

1. What do you love and hate the most about commuting bikes (solely as as a product, not their use)?
2. And why do you feel this way?

Thank you all,
Yash

Perhaps a little more information of WHO you are soliciting.

You say you are a student at UCD (California?), but are interested in IRISH cycling.

Excessive cross-posting is discouraged, but there is a subforum for regional discussions.
https://www.bikeforums.net/united-kingdom/

What do you mean by “solely as a product, not their use?” I like that they are made of metal, plastic and other materials? I dislike some frame colors?

I suspect that Yash is at University College, Dublin. Not the University of California, Davis.

Ahhh... thanks for the clarification.

It still leaves the question on whether commuting questions/issues are being solicited globally.

1. What do you love and hate the most about commuting bikes (solely as as a product, not their use)?
2. And why do you feel this way?

what I like most is that they are versatile because I can use the bike for commuting & joy rides in good & bad weather
what I dislike (try not to use such extreme language as "hate") is that they can be heavier because of all the extra gear they have such as lights, fenders & racks

good luck with your project!

What I don't like about commuter bicycles, as a product, is a side effect of how they are made and marketed. They cost very little to produce because they are made in cheaper parts of the world, so once they are shipped to their market, they sell very cheaply, but if you want to get them maintained or fixed by someone locally the price seems astonishing. Part of the repair price is that the cost to pay anyone in the West is much higher than in Asia for comparable skill, but there's also monopoly practices in the price of the components. Until recently we in America were enjoying a healthy gray market of components from the UK and EU, where companies like Shimano could not legally enforce their minimum advertised price, a form of price fixing that is legal in the USA. Last year that channel was essentially closed. This also makes a bike essentially worthless and disposable after a few years of use. Someone will buy a bike and use it for a while and then their circumstances change, and the bike gets put out in the back yard to rust with the good intention of maybe using it again someday, or just thrown away because it's not worth the effort to sell, or sits on the classifieds for a year because the seller doesn't realize it's worth a tenth, not a half of what he paid new.

Another thing I don't like is that they are also often made to be sold, not to be ridden, in ways that are not always obvious. They have beneficial features that don't show well taken out (rust proofing, stronger wheels, nicer tires, provisions for accessories), and appealing features that are not that great bolted on (over complex drive trains, short travel no-damping suspension forks). They are sometimes very comfortable for a test ride by a naïf but in daily use show their comfortable design to be ineffective at moving down the road. It's educational to look at a share bike and compare it to a bike-shop commuter bike.

I feel this way because I'm uncomfortable that my life is exploitative and unsustainable in ways that I can't really fix, just by virtue of living in the West; and I'm an engineer.

Why two threads on the same subject? One is in Commuting the other is is in General Cycling with only one minute between them being started.

Cheers

I'd be happy to answer your survey if I knew what a commuter bike (as a product) is. I ride a bike to commute, I've no idea what a 'commuting bike' is.

So we can give divergent answers to each post?

As others have pointed out, there is uncertainty in the US as to what is a "commuter bike." Most bicycles sold in this country are road bikes, mountain bikes, or hybrid bikes, all of which are.optimized for recreation or sport. When people commute, it is usually on one of these. Bike shops almost never have any category for commuter bikes, but will recommend bikes for commuting along with accessories such as racks, fenders, and lights to make them more suitable. If either everything or nothing is a commuter bike, it's hard to respond to your poll.

Now, there is a category of bike that predominates in Northern Europe and Asia, with upright position, fenders, built-in dynamo lighting, hub gears, and drum brakes. I'm not sure if they have a name for them -- they might be just considered typical bikes. Since they are peoples primary short-range transportation, I don't think they would call them "commuter bikes," but I think these are the bikes you are asking about.

What I like is that one can just hop on and go -- no changing clothing, no mechanical tinkering. Basically, they are good transportation because they are more convenient than driving, can be fitted out with studded tires for winter, and don't rot out from road salt the way cars do. What I don't like is that they and their spares are hard to find in this country. Also, many bike shops are unfamiliar with hub gears and drum brakes.

I was just curious because the OP started two identically title threads within a minute of each other and has made ONLY those two posts. I was wondering if it was a Troll.

I used to commute in Toronto Canada whilst riding my MIELE EQUIPE PRO with a Dura Ace groupset. I think any bicycle can be use to commute with. Of course the length and terrain of the commute would make some bicycles more suitable as does parking facilities at the end of the commute, intensity of the ride and whether one can shower at the end of the commute.

Cheers

Yeah, I know. I had already responded to the other one when I saw this one.

Nary a peep from the OP so I expect that his data need is either satisfied or, more likely, confounded by the responses here. I have seen many of these type of student requests here and have to say that none of them have ever designed their questions in a way that ensures useful, unambiguous data. Entrepreneurship courses seem to be popular these days; however from my perspective it seems that the educators are more focused on product design and marketing than understanding real world need through a valid data collection and analysis strategy.

It doesn’t help that the Bike Forums conventional wisdom is so hard at odds with the marketing departments of the bike industry... and we compete to be more iconoclastic than the next guy in our echo chamber.

The response that goes “I’m not sure what you mean by commuter bike” is a great example. All the major bike companies have a selection of bikes presented in a commuter-bike page on their website. I’m 100% sure that’s the kind the OP means, not your old 1980s MTB

I presume Yash has posted this request, or a similar one, on every cycling forum s/he has found. Different forums have different geographical emphasis, not always by design. Most participants in this forum, as we all probably know, are in North America. The results here will be different from CycleChat, for example, which is mainly UK membership.

Anyway I'm sure Yash will be back to see the results every week or so.

I know enough about bikes that I can change any bike to suit my needs. I can make any bike into a commuter bike, the minimum requirements for which are good dynamo powered lights and mudguards. The things the bike shops sell aren't of much interest to me.

Those of us who do cycle commute have realized that there is quite a variety of bike commuters, each with different needs from the utility cyclists to the couple of blocks to work cyclists.

We even see quite a variety on the YTD commuting miles post.

The majority of the commuter bikes I see in use are old and battered. But, depending on the destination, a few nicer ones too.

I have to think this forum selects some of the more independent and active riders. So, often buying used. Finding a bike that suits our needs that isn't marketed as a "commuter", and melding it to our own purposes.

It is hard to say that I have one bike that is any more of a commuter than another.

He hasn't logged on since his original post! I reckon he could still browse the responses without logging in though.