Welcome to the second part of our “Complete Beginners Guide to Commuting”, we're going to look at what makes a good commuting bike. The good news is that any bicycle from a mountain bike to a unicycle can be used to commute but each type of bike has its good and bad points. In this article we'll summarize the different bikes available to you and try and give you an idea about what will work best for you.
Before I start it is worthwhile to bring the pricing of bicycles into perspective compared to car ownership. The Automobile Association of New Zealand have calculated the running cost per kilometre as between 16-29 cents per kilometre with total costs ranging from 50-96 cents per kilometre depending on the size of car and fuel type. If you are commuting 5 kilometres each way this equals 50 kilometres a week or 2,400 kilometres a year which equates to $620 running costs and $1,900 total costs for a medium sized car. As a brand new good quality commuter bike can be picked up for around $600 there are some serious savings to be made.
MOUNTAIN BIKE WITH FRONT SUSPENSION
These are the most common bikes in New Zealand and can range in price from $99 to $9,999. Mostly designed to go off road these are sturdy and offer a comfortable upright sitting position for most people. As an added bonus their low gears make climbing even steep hills a lot easier and most of them come with mounts if you wish to fit them with racks or fenders. However knobbly tyres suck on the road (see TYRES section below), some people find that the gearing is not high enough and front suspension (see SUSPENSION section below) for road riding is not only pointless but also slows a bike.
MOUNTAIN BIKE WITH FRONT AND REAR SUSPENSION
Generally “full suspension” bikes fall into two categories; ones that are designed to go off road and cheap parcpy ones that are designed to look like they go off road. Neither of these work particularly well for commuting on road as suspension makes a bike noticeably slower on road while adding complexity, weight and cost to a bike. While a higher end full suspension mountain bike ($2,500+) might work well under an experienced rider the cheaper full suspension bikes (under $500) are like riding on a heavy piece of metal with a hinge in the middle and should be avoided for commuting.
MOUNTAIN BIKE WITH NO SUSPENSION
Still relatively common these “fully rigid” mountain bikes offer the sturdiness of suspended mountain bikes without the complexity, weight, cost and sluggishness of suspension. The other advantages you get is a comfortable upright riding position, rack and fender mounts, a good range of gear, strong brakes and a generally sturdy frame.
MODERN ROAD BIKE
The modern road bike is all about speed, these bikes are specifically designed for riding on the road either in casual bunch rides or competitive events. The advantages of the fast skinny tyres, light weight, and aerodynamic riding position are balanced by a higher susceptibility to puncturing (see TYRES section below), and a riding position that may be uncomfortable for riding with a backpack and limit your side and rear view. The other factor to take into account is that while the gearing will give the rider heaps of options for relatively flat terrain an unfit rider will find themselves running out of gears riding up steep hills (see GEARS section below).
OLDER ROAD BIKE
This category covers the many “ten speeds” which are still in circulation such as the “Morrison Monarch” and “Healing 10 Speed”. These bikes were popular in the 70s and 80s and can be picked up for next to nothing. Compared to a modern bike they are generally uncomfortable, heavy and have weak brakes. The majority have a limited gear range which is “non indexed” (the gears don't click into place) meaning some riders tend to set the gears to a ratio they find comfortable and leave it. If you only travel short distances on the flat and don't have much money these bikes are a really good option, but don't fall into the trap of scoring one from the dump for $10 and then spending $100 fixing it up, if you're going to spend more than $50 it's probably not worth it.
HYBRID/ CITY BIKES
These bikes are very common in Europe but less so in New Zealand. They are a cross between a mountain bike and a road bike sharing the mountain bikes gearing selection and upright riding position with the road bikes larger wheels, narrow tyres and lighter weight. Complete with fender and rack mounts these are about as close to a perfect commuter bike as most people will get. However some people buy this style of bikes with the mistaken belief they will be able to ride it off-road. While a hybrid bike will happily pootle along a gravel road or bike path attempting to ride one of these bikes seriously off-road will mostly like result in a trip to the bike shop for major repairs.
CYCLOCROSS BIKES
Again very rare in New Zealand a cyclocross bike is an overbuilt road bike (or underbuilt mountain bike with dropbars) with stronger brakes and fatter/ knobblier tyres designed to go on and off-road. I'm including them in this list because this is what I currently commute on. They are capable and fun commuter bikes but aren't that common on the shop floor so only worth a passing mention.
TRACK BIKES/ FIXIES
For the masochists and the very fit amongst us there is the option of the track bike or “fixie”. Not only do these bikes only have one gear but the gear has no freehub meaning that when the rear wheel is turning so are the pedals and vice versa. They are very light, very simple, very fast, and very scary for the uninitiated. Originally favoured by the very fit and/or mad amongst serious cyclists these bikes have been are gaining popularity and have spawned their own sub genre of “fashion bikes” which are remarkably expensive and aesthetically interesting compared to their more functional siblings.
BMXS
The bombproof BMX bike can often be seen flying through town under lanky youths in hooded sweatshirts. They bring the advantages of simplicity, low cost and the ability to get thrown down a concrete stairwell and (generally) still be rideable at the bottom. However the small frame and wheel size gives a cramped riding position meaning medium to long distances will kill your back - unless you are short or remarkably supple
RECUMBANTS
Hard to describe unless you've personally seen one, this rare style of bicycle puts the rider in a low down sitting down position. Aerodynamic and reportedly comfortable they have the disadvantage of low visibility both for the rider and for vehicle drivers. They are remarkably fast on the flat but are less manoeuvrable, heavier, more complex, notably more expensive and require a completely different style of riding from the more standard upright designs. Because of these differences recumbents experienced cyclists tend to have a love or hate relationship towards them. For examples of this relationship and amusing comments about the length of recumbent riders beards please see the replies/ comments to this article (yes, I’m calling this in advance.)
BEACH CRUISER/ CHOPPER
With their laid back riding style, interesting frame designs and radical wheel sizes the beach cruiser/ chopper occupies a position of form over function. These bikes can generally be ridden quite comfortably along flat, firm surfaces at medium to slow speeds where sudden acceleration or deceleration isn’t required. The sluggish performance and lack of manoeuvrability means these bikes aren’t recommended for dicing with vehicle traffic on the streets but if you want something different and spend most your time on bike paths these are worth a looksee.
TYRES
Out of everything the tyres will make the most difference to a bikes performance. Smooth narrow tyres running high pressures will roll substantially faster making the bike easier to pedal on road. However narrow tyres are often norpe to puncturing and handle badly on gravel or off-road. At the other end of the spectrum wide knobbly mountain bike tyres generate noticeable amounts of drag on road and wear out quickly rendering the tyre suboptimal for off-road conditions. The best solution is to fit narrow to medium diameter tyres with either smooth or inverted treads (channels/ blocks are cut into the tyre surface like a car tyre) to your commuter bike.
Some mountain bikers swap their tyres between “slicks” for Monday to Friday commuting and “knobblies” for riding over the weekend. It takes a bit of practise to swap tyres quickly and can become a bit of a hassle so some riders run two sets of wheels on the same bike (one on-road, one off-road) on their mountain bikes. Using knobbly tyres to commute is an expensive exercise so a bit of fore-thought and planning will save you a lot of grief, rubber and cash.
SUSPENSION
Suspension forks, rear suspension, and suspension seatposts have become ubiquitous in the cycling world. Be warned, suspension on cheaper bikes (sub $500) is often more for show than performance and can negatively affect the handling (and weight) of a bike. For general road and bike path riding front and rear suspension is not needed and it will make a bike less efficient, especially if you pedal out of the saddle and/or stomp the pedals rather than spinning them smoothly.
If you are looking at buying a bike for commuting please keep in mind that suspension will add cost, weight and complexity so a $600 bike with no suspension will normally be lighter and have better quality components than a $600 bike with suspension. Some suspension has lock-out switches which allow you to stop the suspension from moving or at least dramatically harden it – while these will increase the bikes efficiency on road it is a complex way to make some expensive equipment non-functional.
GEARS
There are broadly three styles of gear systems; the most common is the derailleur system with multiple chainrings on the front and a “cassette” of gears on the back. This gives the widest range of gears but it norpe to wear, expensive to replace and requires regular maintenance to keep in order. Common in Europe but less common in New Zealand are internal geared hubs where the gearing system is entirely enclosed in the rear hub. These are heavier and have less range than the derailleur system but can be shifted will standing still and require substantially less maintenance. Finally there is the singlespeed/ fixed systems which simply involve a cog on the front connected to a cog on the back by a chain. These have the disadvantage of one gear ratio but are simple, low maintenance and cheap to maintain.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Here are my three recommendations for commuting bikes:
1# Hybrid/ City Bike Designed for commuting on city streets this style of bike will work perfectly for most cycle commuters. Not as heavy as a mountain bike but retaining a comfortable upright riding position a well maintained hybrid/ city bike will serve you well for many many years.
2# Fully Rigid Mountain Bike If you are a mountain biker you will probably find that a hardtail with rigid forks and slick or semi-slick tyres will suit you well. You will have the upright seating position combined with the ability to hop kerbs and ride across gravel/ grass/ dirt with the speed of slick tyres. Front suspension will also work OK on road but avoid full suspension if you can.
3# Modern Road Bike If you wish to get into recreational/ competitive road cycling and travel a reasonable distance each day (5 kilometres or more each way) a modern road bike will get you there quickly and efficiently. Make sure you talk to your local bike shop about running wider/ puncture resistant road tyres rather than stock standard or competitive tyres.
I hope you have found this summary useful, in the next article we will be looking at picking a commuting route. In later articles I hope to write about buying and setting up commuter bikes in more details. |
