Yippeee!! I got a commuter

[PscyclePath]

Beautiful bike Tom. What is it?

My commute is 14miles 1 way - I've been using my Portland (more road bike style but with rack, fenders, drop bars, and disc brakes) which seems to be the perfect bike for the job. Oh, and I really like riding it too.

Martha

It's a Specialized Globe/City 7. Basically a hybrid frame with 700C wheels and 38mm slick tires. Triple chainring, 8-speed (11-32) cassette. Linear-pull V-brakes, fenders, and a rear rack rated for up to 100 pounds of stuff. It comes fully built-up on the LBS floor; it even comes with a bell.

One thing I really like about it is that it has a generator in the front hub, so when your wheels are turnin' your lights are burnin'. My first real commute on it two weeks ago involved a return trip through the downtown area in the dark, and I found that when you stop at a light (I've taken the LCI pledge not to run those things any more -- at least when someone else might be looking) the lights go out. So, I added a big battery-powered tail light set to the rear end of the rack, and moved the headlight set from the MTB that I had been using as my commuter over to this bike.

I'd been looking hard at a Portland, and may eventually move up to something like that, but I got an excellent deal on this one... a little less than half what it would cost me to order a Portland and build it up as a commuter/city bike.

So far, the Globe has been as good as it felt when I tried it out in the parking lot. I moved my rack trunk and occasionally my panniers over to it, and it's been a lot of fun. Not only is it nice to have a place to carry stuff other than in my jersey pockets, but I've made a point of riding it strictly in street clothes. Not to mention that it's been fun catching and dropping a lot of the local road/recreational riders with it ;-)

[sundial]

Did ya shop at Richard's store? I have been debating about converting my Sequoia to a commuter or getting a Globe. Me thinks it would be much more fun to ride a Globe.

[PscyclePath]

Did ya shop at Richard's store? I have been debating about converting my Sequoia to a commuter or getting a Globe. Me thinks it would be much more fun to ride a Globe.

Yep... I actually bought it from Robb, but I got it over at the WLR store. They had them on display at the Earth Day festival back the end of April, but I was up to my eyebrows with little cyclists at the BACA bike rodeo, and didn't pay a lot of attention to it at the time.

I've been using my 29er as my city/commuter because the shortest route to the office runs over a little less than half a mile of graveled doubletrack into the back side of the industrial park, or a little longer distance of ill-kept dirt road. Problem was, there wasn't a good way to carry a change of clothes or my other stuff on the MTB. The Globe has wide enough tires to handle both roads and while it's a little heavier, it cruises a bit more smoothly on the paved parts of the trail. It's hard to really pick between 'em, since each can really get the job done, but the Globe is a lot more convenient for tooling around town. And after cruising around on either of these, I feel like I can fly when I bring out the road bike

Tom

[sundial]

Are there any more Globes on sale?

[PscyclePath]

Are there any more Globes on sale?

Richard said they bought three initially to see if they would sell... They sold the first one they put together to show off for Earth Day; I bought the second one, and they had one left and were planning to order more.

The city/commuter bikes are becoming quite popular here in the Rock these days, for some reason...