Tag: commuter

March 15th – With the good weather comes the rash of new bike commuters. Spotted in the shed at Telford, this curious, new looking steed: a Dawes Haarlem commuter bike. Aimed at the female market, huge front basket, step through frame, chain guard, carrier and three speed Sturmey Archer hub gears. It weighs quite a bit, and the frame welds are hideous. Also surprised at the rim brakes rather than disc or hub roller ones.

The outward curve of the carrier stays bothers me: stop sharp with a heavy load on and they’re pre-shaped to bend unpleasantly.

An odd bike, but someone loves it.

November 23rd – Spotted in a customer’s bike shed, this venerable, full suspension Specialized bike. In the day, I think this would have been a fairly expensive bike and it’s interesting to see the complexity of the rear linkages, which seem heavy and very intricate. Particularly noticeable is the pivot ahead of the dropouts, just on the chain stays.

Obviously well ridden as commuter, it looks like a hard bike to ride on road, particularly with those tyres – but I also note the old school leather shoe straps and general patina of road grime.

Other people’s bikes are endlessly fascinating.

June 28th – Oh dear. A short train journey mid-afternoon, and I found myself sharing the bike space with this nice, well engineered Specialized hybrid commuter bike.

Nothing wrong with it, and it looks like a nice ride – decent tyres, nice wheels and gears – but oh my, those mudguards are annoying my snobby sense of order.

Clearly fitted as an aftermarket add-on, the spacing between the guards and wheels is… all over the place. Also, the carrier tilts up to the back of the bike, and I notice another of my pet hates: seat post mounted rear lights – easily obscured by closing or objects on the rack.

Sometimes when you see other people’s bikes, it’s hard not to whip out the tools and start fixing them up…

April 27th – I keep noticing this Giant bike at Telford; I don’t know who it belongs to, but it annoys me irrationally every time I study it. Giant are an American brand whose bikes I’m not a huge fan of; like fellow US companies Cannonade and GT they often have a non-standard, peculiar approach to design resulting in bikes with odd features or incompatibilities, usually only noticed after purchase when something goes wrong.

This one annoys me for two reasons: one is design, the other is just happenstance. The rear seat-stay seems to be 2 parts, a U formed tube for the stays and a curious, welded linkage interpenetrating between the U form and seat tube. The weld, being aluminium, is rough, not square and looks absolutely awful. What on earth was the designer thinking?

The other thing is that rear quick release. Who would leave it closed facing backwards in such a vulnerable position? I want to sort it but would never touch another’s steed.

A mystery are the two M6 tapped holes on the non-drive side dropout; they aren’t present on the opposite side, and serve no apparent function, but designing them, machining them and fabricating the form they’re in was clearly serious effort. What are they for, does anyone know?

An odd bike. Never been fond of US designs.