Oh my god, yes! Are those tires as fun as they look?

Like you, I will commute on any of my bikes even though the Moulton sees the bulk of my city riding as it is just that good of an all rounder.

For trips where I need to lock up and leave I take my newer '76 Peugeot fixed gear (you have to have a beater / bar bike) but most times I have really good bike parking so don't worry about what I am riding from a theft standpoint.

Of late I have been riding a different bike nearly every day as they come out of winter storage... will take me a while to get through them all.

:)

Awesome looking bike. The problem for me is that I would never ride it. I would spend all my time sitting and staring at it lol - -

They are! It's nice to take the gnarly roads I normally avoid on my commute. Changes up the scenery. "Floaty" is the word that comes to mind.

Thanks for the kind words, gents.

My wife's main commuter is a Breezer Uptown 8... I can only guess that the bike has seen close to 30,000 miles and still looks and runs like new.

We added the full chaincase as this was not a stock item in 2007 and it reduces the need for chain cleaning / oiling to a semi annual event and the chain life has been astonishing. It also got a new stem and wider bars with more backsweep and the Brooks saddle and the seatpost replaced the stock bits.

It is such a great bike and was worth every penny... they are still one of the best off the peg bikes you can buy and the new models come with a full chaincase, albeit not as nice as the one we fitted.

http://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...14breezer1.JPG

Parked in the warehouse.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=382064

Just picked up my new commute bike today from the shop. I have wanted to try a belt drive and have thought about having a Spot since first encountering them up in NYC years ago.

http://www.vinylspinnerphoto.com/pho...xvxGxDK-X2.jpg

My department at Stanford had one of these as a long-term departmental rental from the Campus Bike Shop when they were a Breezer dealer (and well after). It was well-loved and bulletproof. Nobody ever made fun of the vice provost for riding a purple bike with a step-through frame.

Waiting out the thunderstorm..

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/a...pslddncrku.jpg

Going to client after thunderstorm:

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/a...psk7e1lenn.jpg

- Andy

GREAT photo. Really.

Thanks! Just glad i could share! And believe it or not.... It smelled even better than it looks!!! Lots of wildflowers & freshly cut grass etc....

My "office". :D

- Andy

Very nice! What kind of gearing did you get, Alfine 11?

FWIW, a little encouragement for you. I weighed 266 lbs this time last year. Started cycle commuting first Monday in June, and am now 225 lbs (without really changing anything else in the diet department). My commute is just under 14 miles each way, and about 1000' of total ascent going to work, and about 1300' coming home.

Cycle commuting is a great way to lose weight! Good luck!

http://i1154.photobucket.com/albums/...pshnr9ztt9.jpg


a lot of fun. i changed the handlebar and the brake levers. it is now (imho) better than the original set up.

I think it's great, but I lack a frame of reference; I've only ever bike commuted here, South Lake Tahoe, CA, and Bend, OR (which is the gold standard of the three). I've been commuting here on and off (being that I've moved away and then back again) since 2001, and I can definitely say that it's better than it ever was. We have almost no bike lanes, and the city is criss-crossed by 45 mph 5-lane boulevards where the average speed is 55 mph. We have just under 300,000 people in Anch, but we're pretty spread out, so road speeds stay high outside of rush hour, and cyclists on high speed throughways are almost unheard of here. There are more cyclists every year, it seems, so motorists are getting used to seeing us.

On the upside, we have greenbelts with MUPs that cross the city several ways, and outside of those a savvy commuter can learn to link together slower speed neighborhoods, MUPs, and sidewalks to get where s/he's going with minimal motorist conflict. Sidewalk riding is legal in Anch (albeit risky, know what you're getting into) outside of downtown, and even in downtown there's zero enforcement (a common summer sight is the summer-only bike cops trying to weave through the crowds of tourist on the downtown sidewalks). Downtown is one of the areas where street riding is safe, though; low speed with lots of stops to keep motorist speed down. Between that and the high level of pedestrians, there's no reason to ride on the sidewalks downtown (unless you're a cop who doesn't know better :) ).

And then there's winter...

Very few of us ride all winter. Streets stay icy all winter, sidewalks become gigantic snow berms as the street plows bury them under (always after the sidewalk plows have cleared them, at taxpayer expense), the MUPs are groomed for skiing instead of plowed so they're frequently too soft to cycle on. In the past, when my commute was short, I would ski to work during winter storm cycles. Now that I've moved across town from work, I bought a fat bike to ride during storm cycles. Even if you don't ride on snow days, studded tires are a must, unless you like crashing a few times a winter.

I'm lucky in that I live at one end of an MUP that spits me out into downtown, where I work and where street cycling is easy. For several years I commuted solely on surface streets, summer and winter, all the way across the most motorized parts of town, and it was harrowing. I got to where I was going, and it was generally fun like riding a bike is fun, mixed with regular moments of extreme stress.

Long story short, I like it now better than I ever did. It used to be terrible, now it's less so, and you can mitigate that further depending on where you live and where you work.

I have to respectfully witness that it is not always the case. I have been bike commuting for 17 mo now and am the same weight as when I started. My commute is much shorter (about 5.5 mi each way), flatter (300ft ascent in the morning, negligible ascent on the way home), and I am lazy so I don't work that hard, it's really like taking a walk. So weight loss depends on how much effort you put into your riding.

Yes, cycle comuting doesn't always result in weight loss. But it doesn't hurt. It's even possible to gain weight while riding an hour a day.

OTOH- cycling even that little, or at low effort levels, generally replace some body fat with muscle, so even at the same weight, you're still healthier.

Weight is a poor indicator of condition, and over emphasized because there's not an easier index, but I'll venture that a 250# football player is likely fitter than most people with very favorable BMIs. Proponents of the BMI even had to come up with a category -- the fit fat -- to get around the statistical issues with the system.

IMO, those Clydesdales who take up biking should focus less on the scale, and more on their belt size. This will usually show more progress and be less discouraging than the scale.

Good points, and it must be a fact that if I had been driving instead of riding all this time, I would undoubtedly weigh even more!

I will be losing weight over the next few months though, as my work is paying for registration in the Devil Dog Duathlon, so I'm going to have to do some running training, and also up my cycling fitness with intervals and generally commuting harder.

What stand are you using?

The stand is a feedback. It is an Alfine 11 speed in response to an earlier question. Really enjoying the bike for trips around town and to the train station so far.

The rear of the front fender is way too high off the ground..... :D :D

How wide is the fender vs the tire?

- Andy

For me:
Fitness is earned on the bike.
Weight control is earned at the dinner table.

Enjoy your ride!

Longtime lurker, infrequent poster, but I thought I'd share my trusty steed (good ol' Japanese steel from 1975). Added this to the stable two years ago and have added about 3,200 commuting miles to its unknown total lifetime of miles.

No braze ons, so everything attached is a bit jerry-rigged, including the rear rack (nothing has fallen off, yet :) ).

New rig: Focus Planet 2.0
 

New commuter here... with a new commuter here:

2014 Focus Planet 2.0. Hydro discs, 8 speed Alfine hub with Gates belt drive. I really like it. It came with 32c Conti Sport Contacts on it but I swapped them out for Marathon Plus 38'ers. Don't want to be dealing with punctures. And picked up the Thule pannier for it. An impressive bit of kit.

Just wish Focus hadn't added the graphics to the frame this year. Would prefer it stealthier.

Nice bike!

Jamis Nova Sport 2014
 

Hi there,

After a few weeks, here it is :)

http://s27.postimg.org/q40viwhcy/DSC02425.jpg
--
http://s27.postimg.org/z6ty3o6hu/DSC02445.jpg

I sold my Breezer last fall. I didn't want to but I can't keep every bike and it was ready to roll so I found a buyer. Very smooth a great bike and I miss it a little, but the 3-speed wasn't enough gears for an everyday commuter with a bridge I had to go up and over.

This is true, but the Nexus 8 we had was a little overkill for puttering around campus.

Nice looking machine! It's one of those bikes I would probably never ride because I'd be sitting staring at it all the time lol. These city bikes are real lookers these days.

One thing, though - Switching from the SportCONTACTS to the Marathons was more of a side-grade (if there's such a word) than an upgrade because they are both exceptionally puncture resistant. I've ridden on a pair of sportCONTACT tires and haven't punctured since 2008 (6 years, prolly 12,000 miles). Continental and Schwalbe really have it going on as far as puncture resistance. I'm not bad-mouthing the Marathons, but you already had good slicks my friend . . .

BTW welcome to the groupo!