Top 5 Commuter Bikes UK

Top 5 Commuter Bikes UK - Intro

Cycling is in growing both as a sport and as a means to getting around if the latter is more important to you, and you use you bike day to day for getting about, then this list if for you.

I have based this list on the assumption that low maintenance is of the utmost importance. So to that end I have favoured the following features:

1. Hub Gears
2. Disc Brakes or Hub Brakes
3. Dynamo Lighting

All of these features make for more expense, but ultimately mean that the bike will serve you better as a work horse.They are Ordered in Price High to Low.

Although a bikes tires should not be a deal breaker, you should set them at top of you priority list, get the most puncture resistant tire you can afford, if you go to you bike in the morning and the tire is flat, you'll be back in the car.

Top 5 Commuter Bikes UK - 1 -Revolution Shadow 13 - £999

From Edinburgh Cycle Co-op this beauty has a gates belt drive, this replaces the chain with a lube free rubber belt. Which require little in the way of maintennace, and do not get every thing covered in oil.

 

 This is a sporty offering and would in my opinion need mudguards. Dynamo lighting would be nice but battery variants would suffice.

Top 5 Commuter Bikes UK - 2 - Cube Travel SF RF - £790

Available from discount bikes de, this bike costs around 1000 euros, it has everyting going for it and apart from its sporty riding position ( a draw back I think) is an ideal commuter.

The description describes this bike as a sports tourer. And would be better suited to the more macho rider. The ride position would suggest more weight on the hands, which may not suite every one. But if you have longish distances to travel, then this more aerodynamic ride position may be of benefit.

Top 5 Commuter Bikes UK - 3 - Electra Amsterdam Royal 8i - £750

For the true Dutch experience why not go choose this bike, with 8 speed hub gears and roller brakes (similar to drum brakes) you will have versatile and capable bike.

Top 5 Commuter Bikes UK - 4 - Pashley Roadster Sovereign - £695

If a laid back approach is more your style, and you live in a fairly flat area this is a great bike at a great price.

Hub gears, Hub brakes, Hub Dynamo. Mudguards, wide saddle, upright ride. Nail on the head. If you value comfort over speed then this is the bike for you. Sturmey archer drum brakes are very good.

Top 5 Commuter Bikes UK - 5 - Challenge Crusade - £109

My wife has the ladies version of this bike, which comes from argos. It is a perfectly functional commuter bike, and for the money you just can not fault it. It will require upgrades. But if you a new to commuting and want to get on the road for cheap then you can't go wrong.

This a very cheap but for day to day use expect to pay out another £120, on brakes and tires as those provided are not great. It does work as is though, and will certainly last you long enough to decide whether cycle commuting is for you, or rather you'll be getting back in car / tube / bus / train.

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Bicycle Child Seats for Older Kids

Bicycle Child Seats for Older Kids - Intro

Since starting school our 5 year old daughter is whacked out at the weekends, sports, music lessons, swimming lessons . . .  .so to the get her to cycle miles on a Saturday . . .I don't think that is really fair. The problem is I normally like to go for a bike ride on Saturday, but now she is getting too big for a bicycle child seat what shall I do?

Bicycle Child Seats for Older Kids - Solutions

 

Basic seats as used in Italy.

There are a number of child seats out there aimed at the 5 - 10 year old market, most of which coming from Europe. A recently holiday to a flat part of Italy saw our hired bikes with rear sets that I could have probably sat in myself.

What is available.

Ordered in Ascending Price

Yepp Mini Ahead

Yepp Mini Ahead - £59.99 (sale) Wiggle

GMG 6+ Child Bike

GMG 6+ from Practical Cycles - £60

Bobike Junior Child bicycle Seat

Bobike FA003535007

 So as you can see the seats are expensive, even a cheapish one from italian ebay! Still £45 with postage.

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DIY Longtail Cargo Bike - Chapter 3

DIY Long tail Cargo Bike - Intro

Having finally sorted out the geometry to the best of my ability. There are the following things to do.

1. Strengthen Rear Rack
2. Build Lower foot rests.
3. Check over welds
4. Sand down knobbly welds.
5. Paint
6. Assemble

Catch up on Chapter 1 or Chapter 2? 

DIY Long tail Cargo Bike - The last of the welding.

So strengthen rear rack, after all it will be carrying a fair bit of weight. You can see in the below picture that I have added some builders fixing strap 90 degrees to main bars. This was a pointless addition and it would have been better to have created one high quality join half way along the span.

After adding the fixing strap the outer bars were still pretty bendy so I added in some thin tubing for support (below), I also added the same gauge tubing at the rear coming up from the seat stays (as was). All of the thin tubing was from stuff lying around, most of it coming from a kids play pen, probably some type of mild steel.

Finished Length

1.63.m - Front Drop-out to rear drop out.

2.25m - Overall length with tires.

DIY Long tail Cargo Bike - Paint Job

I let my daughter choose the colour for the paint, and she went for Howard Rotovator Orange (by Temac) which we bought from Mole Valley Farmers. I didn't bother with a primer, and painted over the top of any existing paint. It took two generous coats equating to around 1/4 of a 1 litre tin.

DIY Long tail Cargo Bike - Rear Decking

The last thing to "build" is the rear decking for the top deck I used a bit of 1/2" marine / exterior ply wood. I figure I may attach things to this like grab handles and seats etc. so I wanted it to be fairly sturdy. This was secured with a combination of M6 bolts and (my favourite) builders fixing strap.

The lower deck was a thinner 1/4" ply, and this was secured use fairly large zip ties.

DIY Long tail Cargo Bike - Assemble

So now for the fun bit putting the bits together.

Forks for your long tail cargo bike.

The forks are  thorn carbon fibre forks with a very long steerer tube. These are completely the wrong forks to use, as thorn specifically say they are not suitable for off road or tandems. Still that is what I had spare.

An ideal fork would be a thorn mt tura fork, which are strong and made of steel, and have attachments for everything except disk brakes, for that reason you may wish to opt for surly disc trucker forks, which offer nearly the same length steerer.

Suspension forks with disc brake mounts may also be a good choice.

Wheels for your long tail cargo bike.

I would not go below 36 spoke for wheels, but then a lot depends on the quality of the rim too. In my spares pile I had a Shimano DH-3N20 paired with a Sun RhynoLite XL. This is an ideal front wheel for a cargo bike as it will provide reliable power for lighting, and the rim is bomb proof.




The spares pile did not yield a particularly good rear wheel for the long tail cargo bike. A grunert   something or other, laced to an old shimano 9 speed hub.

Gearing for your long tail cargo bike.

The biggest problem is obviously the distance from the rear hub to the chain set. The distance for this bike is roughly double of the that on a normal bike, I had to join 2 chain together. As you can see from the above picture I am running in single speed for the maiden voyage! This keeps very good chain tension obviously, but previous attempts using a powerful chain tensioner (gusset I thing) were not successful with lots of chain flip / flap/ flop.

So if you have horizontal drop outs a hub gear might be ideal here, but I will have to stick with derailleur or single speed for the time being, as I am low on funds.

I will be opting for a 1x9 set up, as I can't stand rubbing noises from front mechs, so I will limited to a gear range of around 300% provided by a 11 - 34 cassette

The 33 tooth M - igthy chain set was very cheap from SJS cycles, but you will need a fairly long bottom bracket axle in order to allow clearance, the chain ring was rubbing the frame on my maiden voyage, so I will have to make some adjustments there.

Tires for long tail cargo bike.

world is your oyster here, I went for cheapest schwalbe tires on ebay at time which are speed cruiser just make sure they are good a grippy. A side effect of having a very long bike is that when you are riding solo the weight to set very far forward, pedal hard on a slightly slippy surface (that would be fine on a normal bike) and the rear wheel will spin.

Please concentrate on the tire in the picture below and overlook the jaunty angle of the framing! The pitfalls of frame build without any kind of jig I presume.

Brakes for Your Long tail Cargo Bike

So in an ideal world it would be sturmy archer drum brakes all round, they are lovely. But as it was the spares heap gave me v brakes, so on they went.

Just as well it was v-brakes, as I don't think a standard brake cable would reach down to a disc or hub brake. As you can see from the above picture the uncut cable was just long enough.

More pictures of nearly finished long tail cargo bike.

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Giant Conway 1.0 Folding Bike Review (16")

Giant Conway 1.0 Folding Bike - Intro

My Giant Conway 1.0 was on sale for £110 nearly new. I am still trying to work out whether I have got a bargain or not. It is Giant brand so you would expect functional quality and up until now that seems about right. I have now upgraded this folding bike.



Giant Conway 1.0 Folding Bike - Weight

The first thing I noticed (when I took delivery) was the weight, official stats put the bike at around 11 kg, which is not too bad. But I am not convinced this is accurate, it feels heavy for its size. The frame, seat post, mud guards, main part of steerer, are all steel. With alloy only for the bars.

Giant Conway 1.0 Folding Bike - Folding

The Conway 1.0 folds up quiet easily, but could do with folding peddles as these add to the width a fair amount. Don't get be wrong it will go in the boot of a car easily, even a small car, but it makes for a knobbly package.

Giant Conway 1.0 Folding Bike - The RideThis is fine. The ride comfort is surprisingly good, with an upright position if you want and a more "flat back" ride if you prefer, the adjust-ability is immense I am 6 ft 1", and I am pretty sure my 4 year old daughter could ride this as well.

Being single speed you are limited to how strong your legs are as to where you can cycle, steep hills are not OK, but shallow ones are fine, and walking or riding up a steep hill takes around the same amount of effort anyway, if a little slower.

The biggest let down are the tires, which only inflate to 45 psi, even for a fairly light rider (which I am not) this is not high enough. I overinflated the rear tire to around 60 psi, and it didn't explode. See one of my other posts for a detailed look at the Kenda 123 tyres.



The bike has a nice little rack over the rear wheel, but don't expect to put any panniers on this bike as your foot will bump in to them whilst peddling. A rack pack is your best bet, or maybe something on the handle bars.

Giant Conway 1.0 Folding Bike - Giant Specs

Frame: Steel
Net Weight: 11 KG (???? Will confirm)
Size: 16 inches
Brakes: Front and rear
Load: 120 KG
Folding Time: 15 Seconds
Tyre: Kenda 16*1.75

Giant Conway 1.0 Folding Bike - Brakes

It is a long time since I have ridden a bike without v-brakes. Oh my goodness calliper brakes on the front are fairly useless, and the rear hub brake (although neat) is not much better. However with both clamped on as hard as possible you can pull up fairly quickly and the fact that you won't be traveling too fast helps.

Giant Conway 1.0 Folding Bike - Suggested Extras / Upgrades
I would suggest getting some better tires for this bike that inflate to at least 65 psi or higher. Schwable Kojaks would be ideal, or continental super tours. The mud guards are pretty snug so I wouldn't increase the width.

Update 12/ 11/12 - I have upgraded the tires for some Schwable Marathons with Green Guard. Which have made this bike roll very well. The gearing is a little low for a strong rider. I have also changed the brake levers they were rather bendy under load, and have swapped them for some alloy one. Braking is still poor, especially on the front brake!
 

For carrying stuff around I would get a rack pack too I opted for a Carradice Super C Rack Pack which is a nice bit of UK made kit.

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