7 practical commuter bike features
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- Опубликовано: 2 авг 2024
- A commuter bike needs to be practical. But what characteristic or set of characteristics makes a practical commuter bike?
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I'm 62 with arthritis and bad knees. My commuter bike is an electric assist. I chose it because of easability to mount and dismount, price point, comfort, and distance I will commute everyday. I added a headlight and tail light. I wear a helmet, hi-vis gloves and vest. I have lost forty pounds in four months. My goal is to lose eighteen more pounds.
I tip my hat to you! E-bikes are a great way of getting people cycling who otherwise wouldn't be able to.
One practical feature that gets often overlooked is the kickstand. You don't always have bikeracks where you park your bike. It's also just so useful when taking something out of your fanny bags.
Your channel is really helpful. I've built up my own commuter bike, really happy with it.
Great video. I haven't been back for a while because the algorithm seems to have stopped reminding me of new videos.
Living in a rural area with mostly small towns and villages in a 20km radius, often my comments from my experience are from a different perspective to city and urban cycling.
Because I'm almost totally riding on country roads or streets with no bike lanes or hard shoulder I'm obsessive about being seen.
I work as a van driver mostly at nights and I have had countless near misses and one or two actual contacts with suicide jockeys out on bikes in the dark with no lights or very poor lighting.
The stories I could tell......!
In these long dark winter nights and dull days I have put a 70cm length of ½ inch light plastic water pipe on the back of my carrier attached with two hose clips.
I put a 150 lumen flashing red light on either side to give me a wider presence on the road for traffic approaching from behind.
It's the same width as my handlebars so if anything is going to get close enough to actually clip them passing, they're also going to take my elbow and the handlebars.
I just carry a screwdriver with me and it only takes 4 turns with the screwdriver to tighten or release the hose clips enough to either add or remove the length of plastic hose pipe in half a minute.
It hasn't made my bike any wider, it just makes it look considerably wider to approaching traffic from behind.
And in my experience so far over the last few months I have been doing this, I am really noticing the additional space overtaking traffic is giving me on the roads.
Of course there are the expected exceptions but I'm swearing by it now.
It is literally putting my centre of attention to any approaching vehicles from behind over 30 centimetres wider to either side than if I had one of the same lights fixed to just the centre of my carrier rack or the seat post.
I also wear a helmet with a rear light attached plus I always wear a bright orange hi-vis vest summer or winter.
I have also fitted permanently the same light half inch hose pipe to my two bike trailer's so that I can fit the same bright lights at least as wide as the trailer wheels again to make me look as wide as possible on the road.
The lights are rechargeable from AliExpress and last for about two hours for less than €5 each and I always carry spares for front and back lights with me when I'm out because I have found myself in the dark previously when batteries ran out or were lost or broken.
"Better looking at it than looking for it" is my motto.
A little bit on the long side but it is damned dangerous and scary out on the roads where there isn't any established infrastructure for cyclists and especially where motorists aren't as used to dealing with people out on two wheels day or night on roads where they don't expect to see bicycle's often.
Well, that is the dream communing bike for sure. But I can only affor the fenders and the Rear Rack
Thank you again for your great content!
Lighting: I use 4 units of rechargeable lights, two on the front and two on the back. I run only a single light on the front and a single light on the back at a time, so I always have a backup light. These were bought on AliExpress, and are very bright and simple to charge. Not to mention it is a simple solution compared to a hub dynamo, which probably necessitates spoke lacing in case the dynamo - however reliable - needs replacing. Since these lights are relatively cheap, nobody bothers stealing it. That is why I never take it off the bike.
Bell: I tried a few. These do not make any impression on pedestrians walking on bicycle paths. My economical yet effective alternative is shouting "Meow" to inform others of my presence.
Internal Gears: I am sure internal gearing is superior to external derailleurs, maintenance wise. But If your derailleurs need constant re-adjusting, then there is something wrong with your drive-train and the derailleurs are probably not the culprit.
Thank you for the comment! I'm glad you find it useful.
As for my derailleur, by constant adjustment I don't mean it literally, but whenever my regular tune-up is due, I feel that shifting's off a bit.
@@BikeCommuterHero What is the symptom of your bike's poor rear shifting, and how do you correct it every tune-up? (sorry for burdening you with my curiosity, but my bottom tier derailleur - Altus. Your Acera is considered better - hardly need any adjustment, although I shift frantically ;-) Please reply only if this issue bothers you to the point you actually consider changing your commuter.)
my commuter bike has a string of lights on the frame
hub brakes as well
I feel like a kickstand and frame lock are must haves too
The lock is definitely a must but I didn’t consider it a bike feature (but rather an accessory). The kickstand is definitely nice to have.
I'm not a fan of dynamos because they turn off when the wheels stop turning, which can be suboptimal in dark conditions if you need to stop for whatever reason.
Most modern dynamo lights come with built in capacitors that store enough energy to keep the lights on for a short time. Usually just enough for waiting at a traffic light :)
@@DonMoretalk could you give me an estimate of how long that is? Some of the stop lights near me take absolutely forever.
@@devinm.6149 Well the exact times depend on the specific model. E.g. the Busch&Müller IQ-XS is supposed to last 4 minutes while the Supernova E3 pro last at least 5 minutes according to the manufacturer. I hope this answer helps
Your first problem is getting a brompton clone and not upgrading to brompton mudguards that actually do their job as mud guards as the properly cover the rear tire
Set up your gears to have complete outer cabling and get a decent rear mech. I do food delivery and never have to adjust anything. I also use at least 2 chains and rotate them so the cassette lasts longer
A lot of apartment-dwelling urbanites don't have the luxury of private backyard and shed/garage to store their bikes, but might be forced to carry them up and down to their basement storage room or the community bike/trash/laundry room. The daily struggle on the stairs with a wet dirty bike, trying to avoid leaving scrape marks on the walls while navigating that narrow staircase with the 90 degree turn at the top, is real. Suddenly, the full-size 40+ pound ebike becomes less appealing.
True. Which is why my last point is about folding bikes. Thanks for the comment!
@@BikeCommuterHero Thank you for your time and effort putting these videos together to help people. My comment stemmed from the frustration having witnessed people getting talked into buying an ebike as "the perfect commuter" meant to "help them get back into riding more". After spending a lot of money, they come to realize that due to the size and weight of these bikes, they lack the practicality (too much weight to handle by themselves) that a conventional bike (let alone a folding bike) offers. As a result, they end up riding less. The Brompton (and clones) are nice in that they fold small enough to take into the workplace or the grocery store as a shopping cart (no getting stolen outside), and onto a bus/tram/train without being charged extra (as is the case for regular-sized bikes in some countries).
Internal gear hub is all you need. I hate derailleur so much.
It does mean one problem less.
So I hear! My next bike will definitely have an internal gear hub
WTF are those GIMIC lights?? FAIL.
Get a Sturmey Archer dyno hub, even better with DRUM brakes that last 30,000 miles easily with basically ZERO maintenance. But clean the outside.