Very swish. I'd be afraid to leave something that stylish unattended, tracker or not.

Yossarian wrote:

One of these thanks to recommendations from here:



I am now awaiting delivery.

What is that?

Got wood?

It's the upmarket version of hot knives.

Done the car with it. More happy than sad now.

Oh man I hated working on that bike, even just changing a light was horrible. It were older models though, and they all were pretty beaten up (Amsterdam right, their birth city). Think the original owner even admitted to making faults in the first version of that (almost 10 years ago).
First model was offered to all Guerrilla Games employees with their name or gamertag etched into it, that was pretty cool. I'm still glad B didn't get one.

Did you actually get to try it? It's position is a bit different than most bikes.

Looking at that pictures it seems they made some good changes. That chain glider is really nice, only downside is you won't notice when you're chain gets loose easily, so check that at least once a year, it's better for your sprockets in the end.

Enjoy it! New bikes are great.

Edit, looking at the website, did you get the 3 or 8 speed?

Cool, I know most people that brought one in loved them, but testing a couple bikes each day their position always stood out. Doesn't matter if you haven't anything to compare it to, if it felt good and comfortable and you'd feel safe using it than that's a good fit.

Will you be saving a lot of money on your public transport commute if you get it now? Those government loans are nice, but if that means you won't be using it as much during the first half year you own it, that's wasted money.
Another plus when you get it now is that you have summer for everything to settle (chain, spokes, cables) and you could bring it in for a first service in autumn /winter if the shop offers something like that.

@Nina:

I think I've decided to order this very shortly, but I had one last question that I thought you might be able to help with.

There are two gearing options on that bike, the 3 gear version with everything nicely tucked away or a Shimano 8 gear version with the derailleur and whatnot.

It's my understanding that the 3 gear version is more reliable, but harder to fix when it does go wrong. This appeals to me, however, I do live on a steep hill and am wondering if the 8 gear one will be necessary for getting up it. Any thoughts on this?

Steep hills mean getting off and walking up regardless of the gears.

8 gears are a pain in the hole really, 3 is a much better option.

I had a three gear hub on my first commuter bike. It was brilliant if it's reasonably flat route in and out. If you have any desire to go fast, or up any reasonable incline, go for the eight speed.

It'll probably get you fitter with the 8-speed version.

Top tip. First and best thing I did was swap to puncture resistant tyres.

So solid drew.

Go for the three speed.

Yossarian wrote:

I think it already has them fitted if I’m not mistaken.

Website says it has CST tires which are the best "budget" tires out there. We usually gave people just the choice between CST and Schwalbe, depending on how much they wanted to spend.

3 speed is what we sold to every girl going to use it to commute to school, and some of them had some very rough roads they had to take. Dikes are no fun when it's windy and rainy.

Just a bit confused at the website. It says this under gears:
"Internal gear hub | 3-speed: Sturmey Archer with twist shifter | 8-speed: Shimano Alfine with trigger shifter"

Which seems to suggest that they are both internal (so no derailleur) and that's what I thought the Alfine was. Turns out they have both an internal and a derailleur version. I've only seen and tested the internal one, and that thing's lovely.

Sturmey Archer's twist shifter is quite horrible if it's still the same, even when we needed to replace just the cable we replaced the whole unit. It's just a cheaper brand overall than Shimano. Not bad, does what it needs but just a pain in the workshop.

If you want to use it all year round, and the 8 speed is internal, go for that. Will make the trip that much nicer if it's windy, if you're carrying more with you and you'll be faster if you're used to it.

If the 8 speed is with a derailleur, don't buy it as a commuter. If you don't keep the chain and sprockets in top condition it will cost you a fortune to replace. It also doesn't handle rain very well.

Otherwise go with the 3 speed, it will be absolutely fine. The thing with 3 speed is just that often you're just using the 2nd, as 1's too light and 3 too heavy. Depends on the weight of the bike etc how much trouble that'll be. It requires a bit more leg work, and doesn't give you as many options when weather isn't optimal. No schoolkid ever died because of that though (big chance they'd be late for school though).