custom made indestructable town bike

[[email protected]]

After many years of patching my wife's bicycle back together, the time
has come to replace it. The problem is that she's enormously fussy
about the frame shape and utterly careless about maintenance. The
particular frame shape she has (a sort of curved cross-bar thing)
appears to be available only on really cheap and nasty models that,
with the way she's likely to treat them, will be lucky to last 3
months. So, I thought it would be fun to get her a custom made bike
with the most indestructable components available fitted to a custom
made frame of the shape she prefers.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a company/person to make this for
me or for components to use? A Rohlof hub gear seems like a good idea
as do disk brakes but I don't really know how much more robust these
are likely to be than lower end stuff.

Bob

 

[Marvin]

[email protected] wrote:
> After many years of patching my wife's bicycle back together, the time
> has come to replace it. The problem is that she's enormously fussy
> about the frame shape and utterly careless about maintenance. The
> particular frame shape she has (a sort of curved cross-bar thing)
> appears to be available only on really cheap and nasty models that,
> with the way she's likely to treat them, will be lucky to last 3
> months. So, I thought it would be fun to get her a custom made bike
> with the most indestructable components available fitted to a custom
> made frame of the shape she prefers.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions for a company/person to make this for
> me or for components to use? A Rohlof hub gear seems like a good idea
> as do disk brakes but I don't really know how much more robust these
> are likely to be than lower end stuff.
>
> Bob

If you're wanting a robust town bike with a curved frame you could do
worse than look at Pashley. Five hundred quid will get you handmade
steel, hub gears and brakes and fully enclosed chain, and the missus
will love the look of the thing.

Failing that, the fun you'll have is getting a decent handmade frame in
that style. Pashleys are whacking great lugged steel beasts, there are
lighter things around but tend to be aluminium with truly massive down
tubes. Dunno if that's the shape she's after.

Rohloff and discs will make the bike nickable and probably be massive
overkill (although the Rohloff's reliability might be worth paying
for). The Nexus hubs are cheaper for the same effect, and drum brakes
are lower maintenance and relatively **** braking performance.

Any decent LBS should be able to assemble the thing for you, getting
the frame built in the first place - I have no idea. Try some of the
regular framebuilders like Bob Jackson, Mercian etc and see what they
suggest.

HTH,
Marvin
(used to sell bikes, including Pashleys, to exceedingly fussy women so
I've got a rough idea what you're going through

 

[[email protected]]

Plenty of companies already make much what you are looking for at a
very reasonable price. One example which is available in the UK is the
Giant Expression N7.

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/uk/030.000.000/030.000.000.asp?model=10466

 

[Tony Raven]

[email protected] wrote:
> After many years of patching my wife's bicycle back together, the time
> has come to replace it. The problem is that she's enormously fussy
> about the frame shape and utterly careless about maintenance. The
> particular frame shape she has (a sort of curved cross-bar thing)
> appears to be available only on really cheap and nasty models that,
> with the way she's likely to treat them, will be lucky to last 3
> months. So, I thought it would be fun to get her a custom made bike
> with the most indestructable components available fitted to a custom
> made frame of the shape she prefers.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions for a company/person to make this for
> me or for components to use? A Rohlof hub gear seems like a good idea
> as do disk brakes but I don't really know how much more robust these
> are likely to be than lower end stuff.
>

You could have a look at the range of bikes carried by
http://www.dutchbike.co.uk

Indestructible Dutch town bikes with a variety of gearing options at
reasonable prices.


--
Tony

"The best way I know of to win an argument is to start by being in the
right."
- Lord Hailsham

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks for the replies, there's some things there for me to go and take
a look at. If I can persuade the mrs that afr ame not _exactly_ the
same shape as what she has now will be ok, then a Pashley or the Giant
might be to the way to go.

Marvin, you have my undying sympathy for ever having had to do this for
a living!

Bob

 

[Simon Brooke]

in message <[email protected]>,
[email protected] ('[email protected]') wrote:

> After many years of patching my wife's bicycle back together, the time
> has come to replace it. The problem is that she's enormously fussy
> about the frame shape and utterly careless about maintenance.

Might try http://www.robinmathercycles.co.uk/; he seems to be rather more
willing to experiment than most other artisan builders. Or Darth Ben at
Kinetics , but I'm not sure he's actually building frames any more.

> Does anyone have any suggestions for a company/person to make this for
> me or for components to use? A Rohlof hub gear seems like a good idea
> as do disk brakes but I don't really know how much more robust these
> are likely to be than lower end stuff.

Rohloff yes, but I /really/ wouldn't use disk brakes if the objective is
a bike to be abused/ignored - they're too attractive to thieves and too
vulnerable to damage. Magura HS33 type hydraulic rim brakes would be
almost as low maintenance while much less vulnerable to damage, and the
various internal hub brake mechanisms would be lower maintenance still
and very much less vulnerable to damage at the cost of being not very
powerful.

If you're prepared to accept 7 or 8 speed gears rather than the Roholff's
14, both SRAM and Shimano offer epicyclic geared hubs with integral
braking for very considerably less money:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/Default.aspx?ProdID=5360007364
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/Default.aspx?ProdID=5360014573

These are much more nearly 'fit and forget' systems than disk brakes, and
both manufacturers offer similar front brakes:

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/Default.aspx?ProdID=5360014578

(This isn't a particular endorsement of Wiggle, BTW; it's just that their
website works well and they carry reasonably comprehensive stock).

--
[email protected] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; If Python is executable pseudocode,
;; then Perl is executable line noise
-- seen on Slashdot.