Wow. I'm not even gonna touch that.

Coaster brakes are fine for low speed. Many adults ride in traffic where you need brakes that work at high speeds and can be properly modulated.

Too dangerous to go fast down hills? Eh? That's how you keep up with traffic. I wouldn't ride in DC if I were you. My commute is all hills and if I dragged my brakes down them it would take me forever to get to work and I'd be constantly burning through brake pads. I have absolutely no idea what you mean by the ramps and pins thing.

Modern chains are perfectly reliable. Any worn parts should be replaced,regardless of whether it's a SS or geared setup. As for perfect chainlines,yes,as long as the rear wheel isn't crooked. Remember,geared bikes with vertical dropouts don't worry about chain tension or making sure the rear wheel is on straight.

What kind of traffic are you going in?
I just ride in bike lanes and don't worry about cars. I don't think that I can reach 50mph even on the best mountain bike in order to stay in traffic. If I go downhill, I prefer just to coast looking for hazards and saving power for next uphills.

If you have a coaster brake, you can use your hand brakes as well. 3 brakes are better than 2, aren't they?

Ramps and pins in cassettes and chainrings are the things that help to shift. Single-speed sprockets and chainrings don't have them, and you can turn them upside down when the teeth wear out from one side.

Chains mostly wear not because they move but because sand and grime collect in them and act as abrasive material.
Full chainguards can protect from it.

I think the OP WANTS to buy a commuter style bike. That probably makes sense to him since that is his main intent. (to commute) So I guess all I can say is that if you buy that style of bike, you have painted yourself into a corner. Just don't say we didn't tell you so.

My girlfriend would kick your ass if you said that to her. (I'd sit back and laugh)
Because a brake with no modulation is worse than no brakes at all. Coaster brakes are great if you want to have skid competitions with the neighborhood kids, but not riding in traffic.
Too dangerous? Compared to what? (Don't make the mistake thinking I've only ridden in Florida either) Downhill braking is much easier and safer with hand brakes as opposed to the prone to skidding coaster brake especially since the weight will be concentrated on the front (downhill) wheel.

As for your comment on having three brakes, why on Earth would anyone who had the option of having modern handbrakes opt to have a brake that makes it hard to get started from a traffic signal since there's no easy way to rotate the pedals to a good starting position. A brake that more often than not causes skidding, resulting in excessive tire wear. A brake that when it fails (usually the result of chain breakage or derailment) fails suddenly and completely.

One other key point about riding coaster brakes in hills, they have this nasty habit of overheating and vaporizing the grease in the hub. https://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com/history.cfm?page=3

Let me ask.
Is your girlfriend American? Does she know how to drive a stick shift car?
The answer is no for 90% of American women.

How does she use her hand shifters and brakes when she holds a coffee cup and a cell phone in her hands?

A bike with Shimano Coasting, that's what Americans need.

https://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...icycles23.html

https://www.coasting.com
https://www.bicycling.com/article/1,6...55-1-P,00.html
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...35#post4085235


So you say that hand brakes are much superior in a bike that average Joe, who ignores maintenance, rides? Misaligned and worn out screaking brake pads, frayed cables, wet rims(are we talking about commuters?).
Also, I talked about intersections that you must be cautious about when you go downhill in the city streets.

I ride in city traffic. If I stuck to bike lanes,I wouldn't be able to travel anywhere. BTW,have you read any of the bike lane debate over in A&S?

I'm willing to bet the chain/spocket life for derailleur and SS bikes is pretty close. SS bikes run on the same gears all the time,derailleur bikes spread the wear out over many gears.

I think you might want to look into Raleigh's line of mountain bikes. I've heard good things about the Schwinn Frontier ATBs too.

Most Americans drive automatics because they're lazy,not because of their gender. When I was in England,most folks of both sexes drove manuals with no probs. Your previous statement was still stupid and you really should apologise for it.

Why should I apologise?
I can just add a line.

90% American women doesn't know how to drive a stick shift car.
75% American men doesn't know and have no will to drive a stick shift car.
Neither know they how to handle geared bikes.
So what? They need automatic, low-maintenance bikes.

Sure, the British have to know how to drive stick in order to obtain a driver's license.
In the UK they use all sorts of bikes for commuting, mostly Dutch style bikes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A689033
I heard you have to pay £8 to enter London in a car.

Maybe that is the problem you are having in this thread. We are talking about bikes, not cars.

Could you tell then why most Americans are afraid of riding bikes?
Maybe, because they are too difficult for them to maintain and operate.

https://www.bicycling.com/article/1,6...55-1-P,00.html
You say that internal hubs are bad, coaster brakes are bad.
Shimano sees it differently. People want them.

Must have missed the post where he quantified his riding needs like that. Could you provide a quote?

"Real mountain bikes" have lighter weight, stronger frames, lighter weight components and, yes, suspensions that have lockouts on the shock so that you can ride them on flat paths and still ride them off-road.

You might want to be careful what you say. I'm sure there are lots of women around here who might take offense. My daughters and wife certainly would. My oldest daughter has be riding multigeared bikes since she was 10 and she's 21 now. She's even done a loaded selfcontained tour along the Columbia River. She even knows how to change her own flats.

Because it's an ineffectual and rather non-intuitive brake. Teach a child how to ride a coaster equipped bike and eventually they are going to run into something with it because they don't understand how it works. Give them a bike with hand brakes and they will get it immediately.

Sorry. That's just not true. I live in a hilly city. Every hill I go down as fast as I possibly can. I've been doing it that way for 30 years. I don't creep down hills and I seldom see anyone with any experience riding a bike doing the same.

It comes down to personal choice. I don't like 'commuter' bikes. They have too much stuff that I don't want, don't need and wouldn't use on them. I don't see the Nexus system as a big step up from derailer systems. It doesn't have the range nor the weight that I want on a bike. Let's face it, if it were so superior, it'd be on the majority of bikes. Hint: it isn't.

I was thinking more along the lines of the nutted axle and the cable issue. Also I was thinking about trying to do it at night. Loose parts (even cables) can be an issue then. I'm sure it's not a huge problem but it has a higher hassle factor.

Apples. Oranges. Plus it's very insulting.

My Grandmothers knew how to drive stick. My mother knows how to drive stick...and a tractor. My mother-in-law knew how to drive stick...and tottled around in a 1960 Austin-Healy Bug-eyed Sprite. My wife knows how to drive a stick...she even learned how to drive one using a 4-on-the-tree transmission and drove one until her current car. One of my daughters knows how to drive stick and currently drives a Ford Ranger 4wd pickup. My other daughter doesn't know how to drive stick because she hasn't started driving yet.

And, just to prove the point, I know how to drive stick. If a idiot like me can learn anybody can. Same with shifting a bike.

Now. Apologize. I'm done with this.

Just a wee bit insulting.

I can drive a stick. My wife can drive a stick. My sister in-laws both can drive a stick. My mother can drive a stick.

I ride in the dark so a mt setup was perfect for me. Our roads SUCK.

Born and raised
Indeed she does.
I love these percentages. My turn. 90% of all percentages on the internet are false.
Shows what you know. She doesn't drink coffee and she almost never uses the cell phone. To further illustrate how little she uses the cell phone, she has a Virgin Mobile prepaid phone. As you may or may not know Virgin requires you to purchase minutes at least once every 90 days. She has never run out of minutes purchasing only a $20 block every 90 days.
I just LOVE being told WHAT I NEED, by someone who can't even get their facts straight. 58 year old baby boomers and beginning cyclists are not indicative of American Cyclists. In fact with minor instruction nearly any one can learn to use shifters and hand brakes.
Again more generalizations. Wet rims haven't been a real issue since aluminum rims became the standard. Let's take the rim brake out of the equation just for a laugh. There are several other hand brake options, the lowest maintenance of them is the Roller Brake.
While I appreciate your misguided concern. Riding down hill is far more dangerous on a coaster brake bike than on one with hand brakes.
Gee I don't know, for your ignorant sexist, blatantly false remarks?
That's funny since 80% of the American women I know CAN
Again hilarious! Especially since I and most of the guys I know can and/or do drive manual cars.
Further garbage. Of the people I mentioned only about half are active cyclists (who ride multi speed hand braked bikes with great proficiency) and the other half are intelligent enough to learn with or with out instruction
So the crux of your arguement is based on the "Fat, lazy American" stereotype? Good one. Now for a few generalizations of my own:

• Anyone who would take the time to come to a bike website such as Bikeforums and ask honest questions is certainly showing enough initiative to shed the lazy tag
• Anyone who starts commuting on a regular basis does start to experience weight loss.
• People who won't disclose their location, though it's obvious they've never lived in America, love to use spurious stereotypes to paint a picture to fit their false notions rather than obtaining the facts.

Whoopity doo. What's your point?

So far you've thrown bogus percentages and generalizations at us, managed to insult every woman on the board (as well as anyone who knows a woman), and spewed false information on a inferior brake. You are a magnificent troll.

There are numbers above.
There are 6 million enthusiasts who know bikes well, 12 million bicyclists who ride Walmart bikes from time to time, and 160 million Americans of both sexes who could but never ride bikes.

It seems they are not sold on lightness, carbon, numerous gears, etc and would prefer an inferior but low-hassle and low-maintenance bike. It's the same reason why they prefer automatic cars with the maximum number of cup holders as the first criterion.

Again you're "numbers" are meaningless. You can't decide what a public needs in a bike based off a demographic that doesn't ride.
Placing a new impressionable rider on an inferior bike will not make a cyclist. It will make another garage ornament.

We await your apology

Well, you told that everybody in America can shift a derailleur bike.

I found the numbers.
6 million can shift
12 million probably can shift
160 million have some idea about bicycles, probably can't shift
120 million left, can't shift for sure

I don't know what planet you are from but most Americans are not "afraid" of riding bikes. Most Americans are too lazy to ride bikes.

Bleh. You can find studies and coincidentally numbers for anything and every position nowadays. They are meaningless. Personal experience is far more important.

Wrong, here's what I said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raiyn

In fact with minor instruction nearly any one can learn to use shifters and hand brakes.*

*emphasis mine
You can't even follow your own garbage numbers! Suddenly there's an extra 120 million people?

I demand that you apologize to all the people you've offended with your sexist, stereotypical, and ignorant comments.

Well, the US population is 300 million people and growing.
https://www.census.gov/population/www/popclockus.html
160 million Americans are those who have tried bikes and ditched them. Some of them can potentially return to biking if they find suitable bikes.

OK. You say that 100% of American women can drive stick shift cars.
Though, 90% of all cars sold in the USA are inferior automatic ones. If you don't trust me, go down a few blocks and count the percentage. So, they tried superior stick cars and ditched them.

What was the topic of this thread?
Are mountain bikes good for commuting? Sometimes, I say. And super cheap ones are the favorite among poor commuters.
Are commuter bikes good for commuting? Usually, I say.
Are folding bikes good for commuting? Yes, when combined with other means of transportation.
Are touring bikes good for commuting? Yes, for long commutes.
Are road bikes good for commuting? Rarely, too expensive if new. But used are good choice.

Let me point out an obvious fact, you do not have to own a vehicle with a stick shift to know how to drive one. You need to have been taught how to drive one. Besides... automatics really aren't that inferior. Just quite a bit boring to drive.
Our one vehicle is an automatic.