jur

Warning: If you don't have broadband, go get some sustenance!

https://members.iinet.net.au/~jdekter...e/commute.html

zzxxyy

Fantastic!

Averaging 30kmh for 27km is fast.

A couple of questions though:

1. Do you do this everyday?
2. Reasons for going singlespeed?
3. Have you tried dropbars? Any reason for going flats with bar-ends?
4. Anything you would change to your existing commuting bike?

Thanks!

rykoala

I envy you!! That is a way cool commute. I wish mine was that GREEN! Its mostly industrial area with crazy drivers on big roads.

jur

1. Every day barring illness or holiday. Since beginning 2005.

2. That bike was 7 speed, and the rate at which I wore out some cogs on the cassette and chains drove me dotty. Single speed = no wear (well almost none).

3. I'm a recent starter, but I see drop bars in my near future. Because I'm a recent starter I thought I would never be able to use drop bars, and besides, they are for racers only, no? WRONG!

Barends help for hand positions and during those climbs. My hands are on them most of the time. I have a pretty slick smooth movement back to the grips for braking in a hurry, just a rotation without hands leaving the bars.

4. That is a really good question. I assume you mean setup, not stuff like paint and finish. Besides the drop bars, I will put on a front brake this month (when I GET one on ebay), put back the busted front mudguard (better than nothing). And I am toying with the notion of fixed gear but am still too chicken. (Too many steepish downhills.) This is my project bike so it is changing all the time, hence the Frankenstein monster. At one stage I was on a lightness drive (read carbon), now I am on an aero drive (drops).

Eggplant Jeff

That is flippin' awesome. I wish my commute were that nice. Take the busiest third of your commute and you'd have mine .

Was it hard to get used to the single speed? For some reason I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that people are faster on single speeds... I keep thinking multi-speed ought to be better but anecdotal evidence on this forum would say otherwise.

Bklyn

Just fantastic. You make me want to live in Melbourne. (Or at least 27 Km outside...)

max-a-mill

nice commute! amazing how long you go with that little road involved.

it really freaked me out till i realized you were in austrailia and you are supposed to be on the other side of the road for everything...

use anti-sieze on that ti stem.

cwodave

Awesome shots, thanks for sharing.

jur

I made the transition to single speed by riding the same gear for a while to see how it would go. That's how I also arrived at the initial choice for gears.

I doubt I'm faster on the SS. All sections of the commute I can go faster if I choose the optimum gear. The SS forces me to pedal properly when going fast and exercises the legs when going uphill. Plus on looooong uphills I stand on the pedals most of the time so my ability to stand for long whiles has improved drastically, and therefore so have my times during uphill time trials where I can now really hammer the last bit (and almost lose my breakfast at the top )

rusty_2000

Awesome Jur, nice shots. Was your route pretty easy to work out, or has it evolved over time?

Stubacca

Nice, jur. Very cool commute.

Making me homesick.

jur

Refined over several iterations. I ride 2-3km further now than when I started a year ago, but it's nicer and flatter so I take the same total time.

jyossarian

You got a nice commute there. Shorten that commute to 10 mins., add 10 million more cars and subract all the nature and you have my commute.

oboeguy

How'd you take all those pictures? Did you get that boomstick thingie?

jur

Most on the fly, my arm was pressed into service as boomstick thingie. I stopped on bridges and places where I normally have to stand on the pedals, not easy to do that one-handed while aiming a camera with the other. The nice shots (creeks, sunrise) I took some care to hold it steady.

zzxxyy

Thanks for the replies Jur.

I might be lucky enough to get a job in the bike industry which is 29.7 km away by car, which means around 32km away by bike via a scenic river half of the way. The rest unfortunately would take some exploration to find a better route. I would absolutely love to commute, especially when the workplace is a bike-friendly environment with shower and lockers.

I was (still am to be honest) worried about the longish route, and doing that twice a day but yours show that it is possible.

Btw, do you have any experience with internal hubs? I just bought an Shimano inter-8 hub and am wondering if I should just slap that on my wife's bike and go singlespeed myself? I have a flattish route actually...

I am crossing my fingers on gettng that job first!

jur

You definitely have the right attitude, which amounts to a whole lot. I have workmates who promise long and short that they will also start riding to work, but no amount of nagging and pestering on my part has resulted in anything.

I started out by putting the bike in the car, driving in say 2/3rd, and parking. Cycle the rest. This rapidly expanded to 1/3rd driving and 2/3 cycling because I found it too tame, even though I was a middle aged couch potato. (Still am, but without the spare tyre ) Then one day I took the full distance plunge, was knackered but persevered. Nowadays it is really amazingly easy. No doubt you will find the same. And take a look at Cyclaholic's Sydney commute, a whopping 60 miles every day! The big thing becomes not the distance, but the time.

Only from school days, decades ago.

Well, here's hoping you do, mate!

recursive

Excellent work. I wish that was my commute.

You have inspired me to make a cheap knockoff version.

My commute is here:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...06#post2324406

marqueemoon

Great stuff. Can we get a sticky going?

worker4youth

I love the "watch your head" sign. I wonder how many cyclists have had their head decapitated before they put that up. Melbourne is not tallbike friendly!

drissel

Nice pictures but your camara must turn everything backwards, people are on the wrong side of the road Oh yeah right, you're down under. Thanks for sharing with us Yanks