Yeah, I know it’s black, but trust me – commuter bikes are green! This custom steel commuter has a bunch of neat features. The bike is built up with Shimano’s Alfine group – an eight speed internally geared rear hub, a front dynamo hub, and disc compatible. A Titec ‘Jone’s’ H-Bar makes for a wide variety of hand positions with a performance but comfortable rider fit. A Brook’s Flyer saddle provides a touch of luxury. The Flyer saddle is the B-17 top with sprung rails – and is surprisingly comfortable on rough roads – after it is broken in. The frame is custom steel, uses an eccentric bottom bracket to tension the chain, and has clearance for 700x35C tires and fenders. Very fun, and the black-black-black colour scheme looks very sharp and neo-retro!
Lean, Mean, Green Machine…
Jun 27, 2008
Very cool. Batman meets Ralph Nader. It reminds me of the motorbikes you see from the old WWII footage. Nice.
Mark
Oh man I like the Amish Ducati. How to you say Hugh is the new Black or is it Black is the new Hue.
One thing puzzles me – there are only 24 spokes per wheel. Even with no rear dishing required, isn’t that a bit low for the application? With disc brakes, wouldn’t it be quite annoying to break a spoke? Or would the rims prevent this from being a problem?
Another thing… I’ve never had much luck setting up disc brakes so that they don’t result in some serious full-frame reverberation in the wet. Obviously they still stop well, but that doesn’t help when you’re too embarrassed to use them! Is there just something funky in my setup, or is that a common issue with discs?
I don’t really care if my mtb brakes make a racket when I’m on the trails, but having my commuter squeal like a banshee doesn’t seem that appealing! 🙂
Yeah, I find disc brakes can squeal if you don’t occasionally get dirt on them – a bit of dirt seems to help grind off any glazing. Sanding the rotors and the faces of the pads lightly will temporarily fix your problem. Also, try metallic pads. They are in general more noisy, but are less prone to glazing and squealing very loud.