Spec me a commuter bike

Hamish

Hamish

Hamish

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2003
Posts
4,950
Location
Deepest Yorkshire
Hi All,
Looking for a commuter bike for cycling in and out of London, 5 miles each way. Some sort of hybrid which can go nicely on the road but also handle the odd drop off a kerb or rough path.

Desirable features:
  • Hydraulic discs (must have)
  • road/hybrid tyres
  • flat bars
  • internally geared hub (Alfine/Rohloff)
  • singlesided fork

budget ~1000 GBP

Bikes I have been looking at:

any others to consider?
 
When you say it "must have" hydraulic brakes, do you really mean it? Of the four bikes you've linked to, only the Canondale is available with hydraulic brakes - On-One don't appear to sell the Dirty Disco any more, and the other two have mechanical brakes.

If you're okay with mechanical brakes, then the On-One Pompetamine ticks most of your boxes. It has flat bars, takes 32mm tyres, Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes, and has an Alfine internally geared hub. I had a drop bar version of it, and found it to be a competent commuter.
 
You've got the Day 01 in there so I take it you aren't completely adverse to drop bars.

Also, are you aware of the substantial weight penalty of the Alfine hub?

I've got a Civia Bryant with an Alfine 8 that I imported form the states a few years ago; I wanted a carbon drive, internally gearing and discs and at the time there wasn't anything in the UK to match it. The important thing for me was the lack of maintenance.

It's now relegated to nursery drop off duties as it's too heavy at the back end to really enjoy riding.

I'd recommend you try one before committing to buying.
 
Saundie said:
When you say it "must have" hydraulic brakes, do you really mean it? Of the four bikes you've linked to, only the Canondale is available with hydraulic brakes - On-One don't appear to sell the Dirty Disco any more, and the other two have mechanical brakes.

If you're okay with mechanical brakes, then the On-One Pompetamine ticks most of your boxes. It has flat bars, takes 32mm tyres, Avid BB7 mechanical disc brakes, and has an Alfine internally geared hub. I had a drop bar version of it, and found it to be a competent commuter.
Click to expand...

Ah my bad. The Boardman also has hydraulics: Avid Elixir 5 hydraulic disc brake 160mm rotor.
Maybe I shouldn't be so dismissive of cable discs but I've always found them spongey and need asjusting all the time, although maybe because they were low end ones.

I know the Pompetamine is a great bike but the steel frame puts me off a bit as I think it might be too heavy, plus I find the look to be a bit hipsterish. I guess it's pretty similar to the Genesis though.

Leaning towards the Boardman at the moment: Alu frame, hydro discs, nice looks, flat bar, carbon fork, decent price.
 
As [DOD]Asprilla pointed out, the Alfine hub moves all of the weight of the gearing to the rear hub, which makes the bike especially back heavy. I had a rack on my Pompetamine which further exacerbated the sensation. I actually liked the steel frame and fork, though; I found them nice and forgiving. More importantly, you don't approve of the looks, so I think it's safe to say the Pompetamine is not for you. Ridgeback have a similar bike (the Flight 04) which has an aluminium frame, carbon fork, disc brakes, an Alfine hub and flat bars, but without the hipster styling.

I didn't realise that the Boardman had hydraulic brakes, so my apologies for that. I should have looked more closely at the spec. With regards to brakes, I've not ridden a bike with hydraulics so I can't comment on that, but I've certainly had no cause for concern with the Avid BB7s that I have on my current bike (as well as on the Pompetamine). True, they don't self-adjust, but all you have to do on the BB7s is rotate the two dials a couple of notches every few weeks to bring the pads inwards, and then replace them when they're worn. They're actually not too difficult to adjust once you get the hang of it.
 
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