looking for a fast commuter
 

Hello,

I'm planning to buy a commuter bike and I'd like some advice from forum members.

I live in Bergen, Norway, it's very rainy here and quite mountainous. I used to ride a road/racing bike back in my home country (Poland), but now I was thinking about a hybrid or a cyclocross bike. What I'd like my perfect to have is:

• a light frame; I'm no expert here, but thousands of kms I made riding on a heavy steel frame taught me one thing: a good bike is a light bike;
• slick tires, but enough room to replace them with something more aggressive for winter;
• good brakes: preferably disc brakes, but perhaps good traditional cantilever-style or v-brakes would be enough?
• possibility of mounting a rack.

I thought of Trek FX series, like 7.5 or 7.6 FX (carbon 7.7 seems a bit too pricey), but they don't come with disc brakes and I guess it's rather difficult to replace brakes. Cannondale BadBoy is another option, but I've heard mounting a rack on a BadBoy can be a problem. Every cyclocross bike I looked at seems ok, but they're generally more expensive and less versatile (I think). My budget is about 10000 NOK (approx. $1700).

Should I think of some other bike that would suit my needs? Any other option worth exploring? Thanks in advance for any advice:)

The Salsa Vaya is a perfect all rounder bike. Its made of steel and has disc brakes. My Schwinn Super Sport DBX is a similar bike but its made of alluminum alloy. I think what you'd want would be a bike that could do anything you want it to and you can mount a rack to it and throw on wider tires that you can't on a traditional road bike.

Sounds to me like you want a 'cross bike w/ discs (or canti's)

Check out the Kona Dew range. There are a number of them with discs:

http://www.konaworld.com/platform.cfm?content=asphalt

@NormanF: yup, Salsa Vaya is great, but it's hardly available in the nordic countries. the Schwinn you've mentioned doesn't seem to produced anymore (or am I missing something?)

@frpax: yes, something like that. I just don't know which model exactly

@g00se: ok, I'll give it a try. there's a Kona dealer here in Bergen, so I'll pay him a visit soon.

thanks!

The Specialized Tricross Sport Triple is $1200.

- Cyclocross bike
- So lots of tire clearance
- No disc brakes, but
- Specifically mentions "rack and fender fittings"

It's difficult (though not impossible) to find a bike that's not a straight bar that has disc brakes. A lot of people have 2 different summer and winter biking bikes partially because of the difficulty of finding a bike that does both summer and winter riding well.

The Kona Dew Drop has discs and a drop bar :)

I like Kona Dew Drop 2009 version. 2010 is more MTB than road. YMMV.

I have a trek PDX that is pretty much an FX with discs set up for commuting. I like it for my commute and routinely ride over 20mph.

...and it's a steel frame with a steel fork, which is contradictory to "a light frame; I'm no expert here, but thousands of kms I made riding on a heavy steel frame taught me one thing: a good bike is a light bike".

The weather performance of rim brakes varies greatly, mostly depending on the brake pad used. A number of people on this forum have said that they get good wet weather performance with the "Koolstop Salmon" (they're salmon colored) brake pads. I own a pair, but haven't had a chance to ride in the rain with them yet. I wish I could offer better advice on disc vs rim brakes in the wet, but all I actually know right now is that disc brake road bikes aren't the easiest to find, but they're always heavier (wheel has to be built stronger, discs take up slightly more weight, tend to not come on the lightest frames, fork almost never carbon).

ok, thanks for the advice, I'll try to ask about "Koolstop Salmon" pads in the shops here. choosing good brakes is crucial, since statistically it rains 190 days per year in Bergen (making it "the rainiest place in Europe"...), but if I could drop the disc-brakes requirement it would make my choice way easier -- I'd probably just go for a cyclocross bike.

Actually, it's an ALUMINUM frame with a steel fork, but it seems the OP's got some other good ideas already.

http://www.konaworld.com/bike.cfm?content=dewdrop

Wow, interesting. Sorry about that - I stand corrected.

I live in the alps, where it's very rainy and quite mountainous too. As an American ex-pat, one of the things I discovered when I moved here is that my choices are far more limited than they are in the states. I can still get Trek, Specialized, Scott, and Cannondale, but none of the lesser known brands. Even with the big brands, I can't get every model. They don't sell the Trek Portland here, for example, but at least with Cannondale I can get European models which I couldn't buy in the states. The model names are often different so one has to be careful about that. You mentioned Trek and Cannondale, what other brands can you buy there?

I have 2 main commuting bikes. A 2008 Trek 7.7FX and a 1999 Cannondale T700 (touring) which has had most of its parts replaced by Shimano XT. The 7.7 is an Al frame with carbon fork and stays (the 7.9 is the fully carbon model). I thought about getting disc brakes for it, but it would cost about 250 euros for the conversion, whereas I can get 4 new v-brake pads for 10 euros. So, I'm sticking with the v-brakes. They work well enough in the rain and snow, and it only takes a minute to wipe the rims after a wet ride. They're very easy to adjust too.

If you're going more than 15km each way, I would not recommend a flat-bar bike. I wish I had known that before I bought the Trek. Aside from that, it's been a great bike for commuting.

well, I can get Specialized, Bianchi, Kona, Everest, Scott and probably many others. Cycling is popular in Norway and I haven't visited all the bike stores in Bergen yet, so I guess availability shouldn't be a big problem.

great! if you're able to use rim brakes in the alps, then I should be able to use them here, too. This makes choosing a bike much easier.

My commute is less than 10km one way, but I'd still prefer having a drop-bar bike, just because of my habits. I find upright position annoying.

Thanks for all the advices! Cheers!

+1 for the Kona Dew series. I've put >400 miles on my new Dr. Dew in the past month(ish) and I love it. I've got it kitted out with fenders, a rack, a dynohub front wheel, and dyno-driven lights.

Only down side is that you can't quite fit 40mm tires and a full fender in the front fork. 37mm or so (real diameter) should be fine, though.

Kona is Canadian. So they automatically cooler than the regular stuff. ;) But I do like Devinci (oops! That's also Canadian brand). Really I am a big fan of Marin and Scott. I'm just a sucker for smaller bike brands.

I went with a touring bike and haven't regretted it. I found this site and bought the brand sold by my LBS:

http://bicycletouringpro.com/blog/to...tance-touring/

I have a specialized tri-cross (expert double), and it's worked out great as a "fast" commuter. The only change I made was to put on a pair of slicks in place of the standard knobbies. I'm not sure why you'd consider a 'cross bike to be inherently less versatile. As long as it has rack mounts, I'd think a 'cross bike would actually be the most versatile choice -- you can use it for commuting, touring, 'cross racing or even non-technical trail riding.

Hmm, you know I just remembered - don't Cyclocross bikes come with less grippy brakes, something about Cyclocross riders using them to slow, not stop, the bike?

I seem to remember numberous comments about it on the Tricross...

Most "cyclo-cross" bikes are simply touring bikes reborn as "cyclo-cross" - the bike makers follow the market trends. That is why you find your "cyclo-cross" bike has the holes in place for mounting fenders and racks. My Bianchi Volpe is marketed by Bianchi as a "cyclo-cross" now. So I ordered it from my LBS configured as a touring bike and it became my "fast commuter" bike.

Do you mean the canti brakes? I think the reason cantilever brakes was used is due to the clearance over tires/wheels. In terms of performance, I can only speak from my ltd experience with a few CX bikes I rode that had canti brakes. YUP. The canti brakes did not illicit the confident stopping power as that of V-brakes and dual pivot brakes... let alone disc brakes. Now some canti experts would say this was due to bad tuning. Maybe, however the LBS CX bikes I rode didn't stop as well as my own bikes with amateur tuned brakes.

Yeah, I think that's what I was thinking of. I don't own a cyclocross bike myself, but I've heard about the debate several times about how cyclocross brakes aren't as fast at stopping as regular road bike brakes.

I think that just goes to show what little use broad labels are. If you want to be really precise, my "cyclo-cross" bike is really just a relaxed geometry road bike with rack/fender mounts and a beefier wheelset.

Half Canadian:
http://www.konaworld.com/page.cfm?content=contact

Kona is 50% US and 50% Canadian owned. It is an independent company; no one owns us and we don't own anything else.

Also,for the OP,the search function seems to be acting up,but if you look through the General forum there's a thread that lists all the various drop bar disc-equipped bikes. It's titled "Drop Bar Off the Peg..." something or other.

Oh well. But I still :love: Kona eventhough it's not perfect. :p

I found the Fuji Touring to be the most comfortable new bike that I test road last year FWIW.

anybody ask the OP how many miles the commute will be? all paved roads?

What's with the hate on steel? The OP just said they rode a heavy steel frame and didn't like it.

Steel isn't inherently heavy. Yes a cheap steel cruiser can weigh upwards of 40 lbs, but there are also plenty of steel bikes out there in the 20-25lb range, which I think is well within the realm of "light frames." And on the other side of things, there are plenty of tank-like aluminum frames out there. My girlfriend's aluminum mtb weighs waaay more than my steel Ironman.

I think the OP would be more than pleased with any number of high-quality steel frames.

For the amount of money the OP is willing to spend, I would think about getting two bikes, rather than forcing one to be their "jack-of-all-trades."

Well the other day I squeezed my canti's in a blind panic to avoid a right hook and both wheels locked up and I was sliding to my doom. Luckily I was able to release the brakes and regain traction just in time to avoid a spill, and my speed had slowed enough to avoid the right hook as well. I don't know how you can stop any faster than stopping your wheels from rotating. My cantilever brakes had no problem doing that.

I think most bikes are faster if someone else is riding them.