I bought a bike (and now I want another one!) Recommendations?

[Roar]

Hi there. A while back I posted a question about buying a road bike and fit and I got some great information from this forum. (Thank you.)

I have since bought the road bike --- it fits great and I LOVE it.

In fact, I love it so much I am reluctant to commute on it to work. (We have a garage at work but I am paranoid about having something happen to it.)

So, now I am thinking about acquiring a commuter bike. Can you please throw out some recommendations?

Here's a bit about my commute:
About 5 miles on relatively flat terrain. This is a major city, with aggressive traffic and few bike lanes (the ones that are here are shared with buses and taxis). The roads have huge potholes. It also rains a lot. A lot. (Sounds great, doesn't it?)

So, I am thinking that I need a bike that is:
- Somewhat zippy that will enable me to keep up with the traffic
- I think I want drop handlebars because they are narrower in traffic and less likely to get caught on anything
- Something that can handle potholes
- Something that can take fenders
- Need panniers - I would like to use this bike to go the the grocery store
- Something relatively inexpensive as I would like to be able to lock it at the grocery store and not have it be a thief-magnet
- Something comfortable for the potholes.
- I am also small so I need a smaller bike - my current bike is about 48.5cm from middle of seattube to headset.
- Finally, my current road bike has Campy and I like it a lot, so I'd like to stick with that if possible, but it's not a deal-killer.

I am thinking I need some sort of cross / cyclocross (I still don't understand the difference) or a touring bike, but I really don't know.

Does anyone have any specific suggestions as to makes / models?

Thanks in advance.

[roguedog]

I think you're preference for Campy seems to narrow the field a lot unfortunately.

At least I don't see Campy on a lot of stock bikes outside of Bianchi. And even Bianchi only offers it on a few models. Maybe others know of some stock bikes that are women friendly that offer campy.

The other route you can go is to acquire an older frame (i'd go steel but that's my preference) and build it up with some older campy group. I suppose if you've got the $, you can get a new frame too if you don't have the patience to wait for something to come your way in your size.

The latter seems like more fun as you can customize as you like.

I guess you can get lucky on the bay or on craigslist where someone might have customized an older bike to have campy parts and such.

Good luck.

BTW, welcome to the land of somehow acquiring more bikes. :/

[Zen]

http://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+choose+a+commuter+bike&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1GGGL_enUS344US344

[Biciclista]

Roar, if you're in Seattle (sure sounds like it) there are lots of urban bike shops that specialize in what you're looking for!

[Roar]

Thanks for your replies. Roguedog, it does not have to be Campy, though that would be nice.

If I bought a frame, or even went sans-campy and bought a whole bike (possibly my preference because building up seems like it could get expensive), then would I be looking for a cross bike or touring bike or something like that? For something zippy that would take panniers??? Is that what I should be focusing on?

And re welcome to the world of buying bikes, ahhhh, yesssss..... I can see how people get addicted to this. This would be bike #4.

Thank you very much for your input.

[MartianDestiny]

Salsa's new road tourer might fit the bill:
http://salsacycles.com/bikes/vaya/

Or maybe the Fargo (less zippy, more durable/beefy):
http://salsacycles.com/bikes/fargo/

Or the Casseroll (less touring type, but still commutable):
http://salsacycles.com/bikes/casseroll_double/

I'd also look into Kona's offerings as they have some small touring/cross/commuter type bikes. None are going to come stock with campy though.

[Roar]

Oh, thank you. I will look at your suggestions.

(The Campy really is not a deal-killer. Just a wish, if possible, which I am now thinking is not gonna happen.)

[Cataboo]

You know - if part of the reason you don't want to ride your road bike is because you don't want it to get stolen at work - you really don't want to spend a lot on your commuter bike.

I have a surly pacer frame that I built up with spare parts that I used to make a commuter - then I realized it really was a little bit too nice to leave chained up in the rain.

So now I have an old steel trek mountain bike (rigid fork) that I've upgraded the components slightly with stuff I had lying around (not campy by any means), put faster thinner slicker tires on it... and it does. And while i'd be mildly irked if it was ever stolen, I know for less than $200 or so, I can get another.

[roguedog]

Roar - no worries.

I'd look at Jamis Aurora series, the Trek Portland or 520 and the Specialised Globe series. Giant probably has something like those mentioned above as well.

The Aurora and the 520 are touring bikes and the Portland and Globe I think are categorized more as commuters.

As someone said above, if you're afraid of the bike being stolen or dinged up or whatnot, maybe looking for a used one might be better. It's why I mentioned looking for a used frame and building up from that.

I got lucky on eBay for mine. Found an old 1992 520 for $200 in my area.

I just cleaned it up, cleaned and lubed the chain, got a Brooks, got some pedals, a rack (that I'd gotten off craigslist), trued the wheels, put on new specialized aramdillos ... and I was done. Hmm.. I guess to get it ready to ready I was in bout $400 by the time I was done.

Hmm.. if it fits you I'd also consider zen's Mariposa in the classifieds right now. That's nice bike by a good builder. Not sure if it has rack eyelets though.

Even if a bike doesn't specifically have rack and fender eyelets, you can use pclamps. I've seen folks do that too. Not a bad solution as long as you're not hauling like 40-50lbs of stuff. Will likely impact handling though. It's just not ideal. I didn't like how the panniers worked for me (heel clipping) so I ended up just throwing a Wald basket on top of the rack (using pclamps) to haul my commute gear and farmer's market prizes.

Have fun!

[Cataboo]

Being short, I tend not to have enough clearange between the rack & hte saddle seat to do much with a basket or a bag. I get the heel clipping on panniers, but made myself some using some tool bags from home depot, that are much shorter than normal panniers, so I don't get the heel clipping...

[Roar]

Wow, thank you for your thoughtful replies. I am definitely up for finding something used on CL or ebay. This does not have to be the bike to end all bikes (that was the road bike, ahem) but it just has to do what I need it to.

I will look at the Jamis and 520s.

Catriona - I have never ridden with panniers but I see your point. Thanks for the heads up.


This bike-buying stuff is fun.

[Catrin]

This bike-buying stuff is fun.

I have no advice for you as a new cyclist - but +100 on bike-buying stuff being fun :D