A good commuter bike

[Steve Austin]

ride hands free == no hands on bars for the whole ride, accel, decel, cornering?

[jacob]

No cornering, that thing is directionally stable.

[KevinW]

After reading "Effective Cycling" at Jacob's recommendation, and commuting by bike for a whopping two weeks on a 24-speed "hybrid" bike, my opinion is that a road bike with one gear up front and and internal gear in the back is ideal. This arrangement is nearly as simple as a single speed but still grants multiple gear ratios. This seems necessary, at least for my commute, because it involves a long steady hill. Any one gear ratio I might pick would be a hindrance on either the uphill or downhill trip.

[S]

I just went through bike shopping this weekend since my husband's bike finally reached an unridable state (the frame has been bent a while from several crashes and some broken parts were hard to find due to odd french sizing). After looking at some sweet touring bikes, he ended up with an 80s steel road bike. He just moved the rack and panniers over from the old bike and it was instantly functional. We took a nice 50 mile tour of the Wisconsin countryside the next day.
Just buy a (nice) old bike for $400 that fits and throw a rack on?

[Britz]

I've got a great electric bike (Wisper 905SE, about $2000 new, though I'd get one used if possible) that I commute to work on, the roudtrip being 53km = 33 miles. The hills and any headwind are taken care of, but the downside is the bike is heavier than it needs to be (though still only 20kg) and isn't fast on a straight stretch.

As backup for when it is being repaired (only usual bike repairs so far), I just got a fancy non-electric mountain bike, $2000AUS as new but bought from a friend for $550AUD = $500USD. It's very light and has those click-shoe things so your feet are attached to the pedals. It's really great fun to ride on, and I've ridden it the whole week so far (and am a bit sore), thus saving about $50 in train tickets/petrol. Another 10 weeks of this, and the bike will have paid itself off!

To my delight and slight dismay, I almost get to work as fast as I do on the electric one - about 1hr (58-64min) vs. 54min (49-58) - and only end up slightly more sweaty and out of breath than usual. The hills and headwind are no longer harmless though.

[Steve Austin]

Britz, maybe the electric machine should be your back up. How many kWh to charge (say, half-charge to full-charge)?

[Britz]

@Steve: Yeah, I've had that thought flitting about one or twice, and in fact, come to think of it, you're completely right! It might just take me a week or two to get over the feeling of disloyalty, haha (I'm already in love with my new bike but don't tell my old bike that.)
I'm not completely sure how many kWh it takes to charge the battery (14A 36V LiPO4) completely but it would be somewhere between .25-1kWh, maybe about .5kWh, assuming a charging efficiency of 85%, say, and estimating (very loosely, based on my bike trips) that it could run the bike motor for 60-130min at 250W. This gives me enough battery power to commute the 33miles at half-strength, me doing 50%(?) of the work, without draining the battery completely. At 15c/kWh, that would cost at most 15c per 33miles, or under .5c/mile. On top of that, you have to add the cost of a new battery at some point, which is $450USD (probably less nowadays), but I've ridden the bike more than 4500 miles so far, and the battery is very nearly the same as it was when I got it, so I'm not sure when it will die. If it were to die unexpectedly tomorrow, then that would increase the per mile cost by $450/4500 = 10c/mile. My loose guess is that I can ride another 4500 miles before replacing it, so it would turn out to be about 5c/mile. That's a lot more than the electricity - 10 times as much - but still far less than by car/motorbike/bus/train, and I would expect battery prices to fall quite a bit in future too.
Of course, the cost per mile in fuel is 0c when riding my new bike Hmmm... or is it? As fuel, food is expensive, I'm guessing, and my added exercise must make me eat/snack more. Let's see: the round trip takes about 2hrs, so about 7MJ = 1650kcal. I'm not sure what food is cheapest per kcal, but let's just take rice (good quality but bulk-bought at $45 for 25kg), which is about 90% carbs (18kJ/g) and 10% protein (14kJ/g), so about 17.6kJ/g. The cost per mile for a bike at a moderate rate would then be
7MJ/17.6(kJ/g) * $45/25kg /33mile = 2c/mile.
Pretty good, and bteer than I'd expected; that's 72c for a 33mile roundtrip! Somewhat more than the electricity for the bike but still pretty good, and better, if you add the price of a new battery at some point. Of course, I don't just eat rice to get this extra energy, so it's actually more expensive, but still pretty cheap, I reckon.
Here's more specs on the electric bike:

http://wisperbike.en.made-in-china.com/ ... cycle.html

[jacob]

It is also possible to do a conversion if you already got a mountain or a cruiser bike. The cheapest kits (search "electric bike conversion kit") are $300. If anyone wants to do it that way but isn't too sure about how to do the rebuild, I can help do it if you can get to the bay area. I can even supply the bike

[Q]

Speaking of that bike - what's the going rate?

[jacob]

I put some new tires on it.
I had some interest on craigslist at $50. (Both of them sat in my junk mail box for four days before I found out and by then it was too late. ARGH)

[Q]

SOLD! But, I can wait till the meet-up to receive such item

[jacob]

Sure, I can bring it. Or you can drop by and pick it up if you're in the neighborhood. (Send me an email)

[JohnnyH]

How long is too long for a bike commute?... I just moved and my bike commute will be between 26-30 miles daily. I know that's easily doable (my Dad did similar in his 50s/60s 5 times weekly!), but I'm worried about how much time it will take.
I'm going to shoot for a min 3:2 bike:car ratio.
1. I'm not sure, but I think I cruise about 16-20 m/hr.

2. I do carry stuff, but rarely more than 20 lbs. Average maybe 10 lbs.

3. Flat valley floor.

4. Rains and snows.

5. Not too windy.

6. Decent with maintenance. Not great, but that might change if I got a better bike.

7. Roads mostly dirt, but a mix of both.
Auto needs tires, but I'd rather invest such money in bike commuting... I'm not sure my old Schwinn Ranger is up to the task. I wonder if I should buy parts new, or just wait for a decent used deal on ebay/craigslist.

[EAbbey]

Hi all:
I am an avid cyclist for fun and transport. Here is my 2c. I really wanted to like the new 'cargo bikes' and I rode a number of them: Kona Ute, Surly Big Dummy, and the one from Trek (I forget the name). The idea is good, the execution is lousy. These are simply not good bikes for the money. You can buy a much better bike plus a trailer and you will be a lot happier. The Big Dummy is a solid bike with decent components but it is really pricey. The Trek is awful in terms of build quality. The guy at the bike store told me it had the same components as their $400 mountain bikes and it really shows when you ride it. The Kona Ute is the best deal all around but it simply did not feel all that good in terms of the quality of the ride.
I have opted for a trailer (Croozer) which I got for around $170 on Amazon or eBay (I forget which). It is solid, folds up, and can haul 50 pounds or so. I was just out yesterday and covered 25 miles with the trailer and perhaps 20 pounds in it.
For the bike, I am a fan of cyclocross bikes for fun and transport. You can get them used pretty cheaply. But I hasten to suggest not going cheap in terms of components. If you have ever gone down a hill at 30+ mph, you will understand why going cheap on things like brakes is a bad idea. I have an 11-year-old cross bike (Bianchi Axis) which is the best all-around bike I have ever owned. I would much rather have a good used bike than a cheap new one, as long as you are careful about the size.
Good luck.

[KevinW]

Does anyone have an opinion on Dynamic Cycles shaft-driven bikes? http://www.dynamicbicycles.com/
The shaft drive seems well-suited to commuting.
@EAbbey

Do you have trouble locking up your trailer while you shop inside a store? That seems like a drawback that trailers have vs. cargo bikes.