I am not a experienced person when it comes to what bike to use, but I need a new bike for about a 2 mile commute to my college. It has a few steep-ish inclines and would like something simple to ride there and back. I've been looking at the Jamis Beatnik bike and wondered if there is any better bike/deals I could get for a similar price.

Thanks.

Kilott

I don't know about better deals, but I have a Beatnik and use it as my beater bike. I commuted on it 15 miles round trip 4-5 days a week for about 8 months before getting a nice bike and it held up well. The brake calipers suck and so does the crankset, but it is really cheap. Also #KiloTT .

Would you recommend it? Also, did your commute have many/steep inclines? The incline is kind of my biggest worry seeing as I'm not a huge guy and I dont know if i'll be able to make it up the hill and have to walk

Sure. I think I got my money's worth. My commute has 1 steepish incline. Since your commute is so short I say go for it.

Okay, thanks dude

So buy a geared bike then??

I don't want a mountain bike, I want to use a fixed gear.

Why? If you are worried about hills, gears are your friends. You know that road bikes have gears too, right?

yeah, I was thinking about a road bike but seeing as my commute is pretty short, I thought a cheap single speed bike would be suitable. Also, can't the gear ratio be changed? Unless that's on certain bikes but I don't know as I'm not really knowledged with bikes :-(

Gear ratios are easily changed. The problem is that if you have too low a gear that you end up spinning very fast on the downhills and some people aren't prepared for this or don't like it.

il be switching to freewheel when I get a bike so i won't be pedalling too fast when I'm going downhill. Is 46x18 a good ratio? The beatnik seems to come with that gear ratio.

That depends on you legs, heart, and lungs. You'll know the first time you go up those hills. Gears that are good for hills are not good for flat land, and vice versa. There's always a compromise with SS/FG. Changing the rear cog is not expensive either.

well my journey consists of one long, but quite shallow hill on the way there and then a rather steep hill on the way back, do you have any recommendations to the gear ratio I should use?

Again, everyone is different. There is no one "correct" ratio that works for everyone. Your body will tell you. You will have an answer at the top of the hill. Come back here after you ride the bike and describe your likes and dislikes and we can help you sort it out.

fair answer ;-), il do the commute on my current mountain bike on a single gear and use that as my ratio if it's fine.
Thanks for the feedback!

It will feel different because the tire diameter is different, but that's a good place to start.

I suggest you do this. Ride the route on your MTB and find the gear that works the best. Then use this calculator to calculate the gear inches of that set up (including tire size). Then you can use the calculator to determine what chain ring and cog you'll need on the new bike to achieve the same gear inches (feeling).

Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Gear Calculator

Attitude toward the hill counts too. It will suck in the beginning but you will learn how to overcome if you don't give up. It just takes some extra oomph on a fixed gear.

The beatnik comes with a freewheel installed.

okay, thank you!

I use a single gear on my mountain bike when going uphill usually because the damn chain comes off sometimes when I do! As long as it's not a huge challenge to get up the hill I should be fine :-)