Day 23: Deep Thoughts about City Bikes

Of my core three bikes--road, mountain, and city--the city bike is probably the one that gets the most turnover. Well, maybe it's tied with my mountain bike, but the city category certainly has a lot of churn. It's a bit odd, since I probably spend most of my time these last few years on my city bike, that I never have a dedicated bike or even a fixed bike style that I use for it. I mostly use cast offs from my other categories: old mountain bikes, converted 'cross bikes, etc.

Early on in my blog, I posted some key points for a city bike (see here). Fat tires, fenders, gears, flat pedals, decent standover, etc etc... those all still apply. Within those requirements, though, there's a lot of freedom.

Some oddballs from my past builds:



I changed my custom built Curtlo over to a city bike after getting into 29ers:

I rigged a derailer onto my Rig and installed my old front mounted child seat:

At one point, I thought the kids might like a smoother ride for the child seat, so I picked up a cheapier full sus frameset:

Turns out they found the bumps kind of exciting, and full suspension on the road isn't any fun to pedal, even with a child seat.

I bought the Double Cross to build into a dedicated utility bike:

Between the lightweight tubing and the low trail, the rSogn wasn't especially good for pulling my bike train:

 

For a long time, the Fargo was my main city bike:

It did the job well, but it was too stiff for me, even for this role.

Recently, I've been trading city duties between the Buzz, the Cross Check, and the Breezer. The CC is my current ride:

However, I'm not happy with this role for the CC. Standover is a big high, and it's ultimately not how I want to use my CC. While I was hoping for a poor man's Rivendell vibe for this build, I like it better as a middle class man's Surly.

The Breezer filled this role for a while:

I really like the image of fat 26" slicks for this job, but the Breezer doesn't quite fit, and also falls short of useful braze ons. And it's potentially been sold.

I have a plan now to resurrect the Buzz for this job again:

I'll miss the 26" wheels, so I'll be on the lookout for an old Surly Troll, 26"/60cm LHT, or something similar to come along. But in the meantime, the Buzz will do this job capably. I have ideas for it, as well.. as Paula used to say on American Idol, "to make it my own."

Just a short ride today of no particular note.