Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

Ah right, sorry.

Readers:

I've had this Cross Check for 11 years I think. It was pretty much the only frame that could take big tyres back then. Had it set up many different ways although it's pretty settled as a commuteur for the moment. I added a Salsa Vaya disc fork for that old school mullet look and so it actually stops. Drive train is a mongrel collection of 9 speed stuff but very reliable, including for 2 years living in Africa. Love this bike!

Very cool. Info on bag?

Any opinions about Marin Fairfax SC4 with Gates belt drive as all-year commuter? How wide tyres can it fit? Is alloy frameset noticeably less comfortable than steel in city riding? How does Nexus 8 disc fare compared to Alfine?

Thanks!

It's a Lomo tail bag. Fits perfectly on the pizza rack and is really good value for money - solidly built and £37. It's a decent size for commuting. In that picture it's got work shoes and shirt, spare clothes, tools, tube and pump.

Did you use the triangle brakcet supplied with the pizza rack, or did you mount it dirrectly on to the fork? Mine has threaded eyes and so does my fork, so I had to use the brackets, but would love to hear/see if can be mounted directly, as it would move the weight a little back, which would be nice.

You can take the triangle bits off and flip them around if you want to push the rack back.

That's exactly what I did. Plus I straightened the bracket that attaches to the top of the fork to run the rack lower. You can just about see in the pictures that it sits just above the mudguard. Although I wonder in retrospect if flipping that bracket upside down would have worked instead.

Yeah, I finessed mine "flat" with mole grips and a hammer. Did end up a bit like that Father Ted scene where he tries to hammer a dent out of a car.

I wondered about the bracket upside down too! Never got round to trying though

Finished my Velo Orange, complete with shorter cranks to avoid 650b related pedal strike.

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Rad! Did you have to make a custom bracket to mount the dynamo light to the basket?

Fit shorter crank, then fit fat flat pedals on.

That came out nice, @lemonade! Awesome frame colour.

I asked this in the any questions thread but maybe I should have asked here.

httpsww.lfgss.com/conversations/328022/#comment14511798

Tldr; looking for a replacement for my 26 inch single speed commuter. Want discs, reasonably big tyres, mudguard and rack mounts and some options for gears. I've been considering the bombtrack arise geared, Vitus d29 and lately the Marin Nicasio RC. Does anyone else have any ideas?

I bought one of these and drilled the hole out so it could fit in between the rack leg mount thing.

http://freshtripe.co.uk/velo-orange-rack-to-light-bracket/

I didn't buy new cranks, just swapped with a pair from another bike I already had. If it doesn't solve the problem I'll buy some thinner VP pedals off Planet X.

I used SPDs for years but I'm never going back now I've seen the flat pedal light. And reflectors are a must for me too, I know from driving at night that they make more of a difference to visibility even than many rear lights.

Cheers. I think the orange yellow fade on the All City Gorilla Monsoon is my absolute favourite, but in the absence of $$$ this will do nicely!

Just found a truly functional handlebar on the Polish gumtree-like website.

Makes pizza racks obsolete?

But seriously I am considering it, will the weight be noticeably higher than in pizza rack? And willchanging stock 680 mm handlebar in hybrid bike to 530 mm make it much more nervous to ride?

My pizza rack takes 30kg +.
I wouldn't trust those handlebar things with more than maybe 5kg without something going wrong.

Pretty sure I saw those on the BLB website a while back.

150mm reduce handlebar width will affect the feel of the steering.
Placing the load higher than the pizza rack will also contribute to a more nervous feel and wheel flop.

I'd say get it if you like the looks and don't intend to carry more than a couple of kilos.
For proper touring and everything else, I'd go for the pizza rack.

Alright, I was already guessing that it might be too high making the bike unstable.
Any cheaper alternatives to the Spec rack? Price seems quite high for my taste.
And generally speaking, for commuting to work and bringing shopping home, where is pizza rack better than panniers in the back? Never used any front rack so no experience with that.

Do you want to use panniers on the front or just the platform?
If you have mid blade eyelets you could use the Racktime topit, which is around 30€ I think and zip-tie whatever basket you like to it, but I'm not sure you could get away with panniers on that.

I was thinking more about something with a "bigger luggage platform" so I could just put, say, a shopping bag with bungees. This one and other narrow ones seem to need to put some basket permanently.