Commuter bike ideas...

Easy Rider

Hello commuters!
This is my third winter of bike commuting and I'm looking for ideas for a new bike to improve upon my current "rain bike". At the moment that's a 2003 Klein Attitude V (hardtail mtn bike) with full fenders and Nimbus EX 26x1.5 tires. My commute is about 11 miles round trip with some killer hills. About half of it is on a very busy four lane highway with a narrow shoulder/bike lane along the side. In winter that bike lane is a trecherous obstacle course of huge piles of wet leaves, twigs, sticks, branches, beer cans, hub caps, glass. You know the story! In summer that same bike lane is dry and pretty clean, so at that time of year I ride my 2004 Lemond Buenos Aires road bike to work. The BA is so light, fast and nimble though that it's pretty much spoiled me. Getting back on the much heavier Klein this winter has seemed like a chore. More imortantly the Klein has always felt kind of squirelly to me, a little sketchy, twitchy and unpredictable. Not sure if that's the geometry of the bike or the Rock Shox front fork or a combo of the two. It might be a great off road bike, but I haven't ridden off road in years and never have with this bike.
So I'm wanting to find a bike that's lighter, quicker and a little more stable and sure footed in the debris zone. We have very wet winters here, so obviously I'll need to add fenders and probably a rack too. I prefer drop bars to flat, so the cyclocross bikes have gotten my attention. I'm interested in the Bianchi Axis so I'd really like to hear from any owners of that bike. The 2007 Axis is a great-looking bike but unfortunately it's gone back to a double chainring from a triple. I really want a triple - anyone know how cosly it is to have the LBS swap in a triple? Or is that even possible? I'm wide open to other ideas as well. Price range is about $1300-1600 USD.
Thanks for the ideas!
Gordon
Portland, Oregon

SEAcarlessTTLE

Are you ruling out steel or a lower-end choice? I happily ride a '02 Bianchi Volpe (Tiagra triple) year-round in sloppy, hilly Seattle. (Well, not this week, with the ice.) It serves me quite well as a zippy car replacement and was easy to outfit with full fenders and rack. It's a little flexy when I really load it up with groceries, but that doesn't bother me. The current model is still Tiagra triple but is a kinda hideous color...no celeste!

Easy Rider

I'm not ruling out any cyclocross bikes at this point, unless they're over about $2K. Just looking for feedback from cyclocross owners as to how they like thier bike (or don't) and if it makes a good commuter if they use it for that. Your Volpe looks like a nice bike, I'll have to give one a test ride at the LBS when I finally get down there to kick some tires. Thanks for bringing it to my attention because it's got a triple which I definitely want. The 07 Axis has only a double. In fact most of the cyclocross bikes I've checked out online are doubles.


LOL, yea, this winter has been pretty sucky so far for NW bike commuters!

Gordon,
Portland, Oregon

rek

I love my cyclocross-based commuter bike, it's the best starting point to build a fast commuter bike IMO. A light-tourer bike, or a flat-bar road bike (e.g. Giant CRX) may be another good starting point.

I run a rear rack, and full fenders during winter, and it works a treat. I have run up to 700x38 semislicks, but have settled on using 700x28 folding bead slicks for the added speed

I run it with a compact double crank (34/50) but I can't see any reason why they couldn't be retrofitted with a triple. I doubt they'd come like that from the factory floor, though. To fit with a triple you'll need to change the following:

* crank (obviously)
* bottom bracket (to suit the wider triple crank)
* front derailleur (to handle the extra front ring)
* rear derailleur (to a long-cage, to take up the greater variance in chain slack)
* possibly front shifter (if the existing one can't work with a triple already)

It's not a cheap option to do outside of the bike buying process, so if it's something you really want, I'd either look for a bike that already has it (as you're doing now) or negotiate something with the bike store you buy from.

That being said I've found the compact crank quite nice. And all you would need to do is change the crank, and maybe shorten the chain a link or two.

Another thing for rain bikes is braking.. Avid make a mechanical disc brake that's suited for the leverage ratio of road STI/Ergo levers. It's also possible to get front 700c forks with disc and fender mounts, which would give you consistent braking in poor weather.

I have done this with my commuter, except I just got disc tabs welded onto my existing fork, rather than buying a proper disc fork. The brake works great, I just needed to rebuild the front wheel with a 100mm MTB front disc hub. I may end up buying a fork meant for discs though, as I'm still not 100% convinced of my fork's ability to deal with the higher braking forces involved.

__________________
Peter
Cannondale Synapse Carbon Scalpel Cyclocross Ultra

SEAcarlessTTLE

Since you said you're wide open to other ideas, in case you haven't already looked, Trek's new Portland lists for just outside your range. It's got a triple with a mostly 105 drivetrain, plus the disc brakes that everyone seems to favor in wet conditions (although I've never had a chance to compare them to my cantilevers myself).

Not sure how it compares w/ the cross bikes you're considering weight-wise.

caveat: I'm baffled by the crappy fenders and the seemingly underspoked wheels, though...

http://www2.trekbikes.com/bikes/bik...eid=1437000&f=7

p.s. Yay, finally more normal weather in the northwest! I can handle rain, but I don't ride on ice.

Easy Rider

OK, thanks rek for that piece of info. It's making me think of something I hadn't looked into before. I'm noticing that most of the cross bikes I'm seeing online have a similar compact double crank in about the 34/50 range, often paired with 10 speed rear cogs. So I'm wondering if your lowest gear then, as measured in gear inches, isn't about as low as my lowest gear on my LeMond which is a triple crank but a 9-speed rear. I can't remember now what the smallest gear combo is on the LeMond, so I can't figure the gear inches. I think the granny gear in front is a 28 or a 30 maybe. I just know its lowest gear is just BARELY low enough to get up the last killer hill near my house, but maybe the 34/50-10 speed combo is same gear inches on the lowest gear. Anyone know more on this topic?? Thanks!

G