On the back of my employer recently opening up the CTW scheme I'm in the mood for a pimped 700c Alfine machine.

Requirements in order of preference:

1. Moon on a stick
2. 700c
3. Alfine
4. Discs
5. Light (26-28lbs)
6. fast geometry
7. flat bar
8. guards compatible
9. sub £1k

I've had a look around and have seen quite a few makes and models. allow me to critique my searches so far

Marin san-andreas whatever – looks to "hybrid" for me

charge mixer – bit pricey and looks a bit wrong

cube hooper – just about on the money but looks a bit too slack

Ridgeback – looks about perfect to me bar the ugly chain tensioner and leaves me with 1p to spend

I really like the look of the cotic roadrat but not a huge fan of singlespeed.

convince me, people. 🙂

I'm with you – the Ridgeback looks the best of that lot (apart form the tensioner….)

Slightly off-topic – I'm after a pair of those Alex XD-Lite 700c rims on the Ridgeback. Anyone know who sells them?

There must be a Cannondale to fit into the mix there, they have all sorts of things aimed at that kind of riding/usage, tend to look damn good to.

As for the ROADRAT, 18bikes do Alfine builds : http://www.18bikes.co.uk/content/custom_build_bike.php

I'm in a very similar position as the OP … just waiting for my company to start it up, and I'll be looking for the same setup.

Cannondale do the Badboy 8:

Looks fantastic in person … only issue I have is that as cool as the lefty fork is, there's no real option for a full front mudguard, which depending on the commute may put a downer on things.

Personally, my choice is cannondale, then cube, then ridgeback … not a fan of shitey brown.

Buy the Ridgeback and swap the tensioner for something smaller?

Take a look at the Alfine RoadRat from Sideways. £999 and looks the bizz.
http://blog.sidewayscycles.co.uk/

Genesis Day One and buy an alfine for it?

Merida Espresso, don't look bad and think they tick all your boxes except perhaps No. 1

Cube for me. I like the Canondale, but the mudguard business is a deal-breaker.

good links on the alfine'd cotics!

The merida is an option too…

that roadrat is approximately the most ugly thing ever!!!
the wheels look tiny, the cranks are gopping and the bars just don't suit it, imo…

the dale looks great, but the mud guard issues would also break the deal for me too. clearly designed somewhere dry!

aye, ignore the drop bar one and check the flat bar cotic below it! (on the 18bikes site)

Re: the chain tensioner on the Ridgeback Flight 04 – makes dropping the back wheel out for punctures, etc a whole, whole lot easier than if the frame had horizontal dropouts and no chain tensioner.

That drop bar one is an abomination.

I can second 18 bikes.. I have a roadrat alfine from them (custom build), I got magua julies, flat bars, easton / xt kit and dt swiss 5.1 (i think, 700c touring ones whatever they are). Very helpful lads and very pleased with the bike. It was slightly north of £1k, probably bit more now the prices went up. You can spec down a bit to get it under £1k, but if you don't have to it is the best bang for buck, quick, comfy, durable (read: not light) and in that set up, quite pimpin.

Roadrat is about the only thing I could have been happy with (as of almost a year ago) it was pretty much the only frame that'd do a rack, guards, alfine (horizontal drops) AND take disk brakes, with the advantage of being locally built, not mass market, and a nice comfy steel frame.

So many shops tried to sell me a surly, "why do you want disk brakes" yadda yadda yadda, I just do alright now if you can't get me a roadrat on cyclescheme, get off the phone and keep your grandad bike.

better value and less nickable than a cannondale. (although I did seriously consider them too)

Re: the chain tensioner on the Ridgeback Flight 04 – makes dropping the back wheel out for punctures, etc a whole, whole lot easier than if the frame had horizontal dropouts and no chain tensioner.

Having owned a roadrat with close-fitting full length mudguards i'd agree with this, especially on a commuter.

The ridgeback is looking attractive I must say. Needs a stealth black makeover though 🙂

If you're going to run a tensioner with an Alfine, why not just run a 1×9 setup with a normal mech?

Oh, and that Cannondale is right pretty.

The tensioner gets questioned a lot but to expand on Alb's point –

Toby went through a few combo's on this one. Ridgeback sells a lot of bikes to people who want a practical bike for commuting to work. The tensioner makes wheel removal for fixing flats as simple as possible. an EBB would do the same, but a good one isn't cheap and this bike needed to be under £1000.

Kelvin the advantage of alfine is the low maintenance / mech free appeal, a 1×9 wouldn't appeal in the same way.

Removing the rear wheel on the alfine is a bit of a pain. Best remedy I could think of was to use marathon plus tyres.

or go back to old skool foreward faceing dropouts 🙂

Surely this is a niche on-one should be exploiting with the kaffenback?

and why does it need such a huge tensioner, surely a little surly style one would be easier?

that's the std Alfine tensioner, it's sprung so – i won't say foolproof! – more suted to less mechanically minded riders that the bike often appeals too. a smaller one would be a nice upgrade tho, nothing stopping the buyer / shop tweaking the spec.

giant seek 0 is another one – it has an eccentric bb

i had a quick look at mine it might take mudguards but not totally convinced.

My fave is the Scott Sub10.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/scott/sub-10-2010-hybrid-bike-ec020657

i have fitted a front mudguard to my bad boy lefty , just a bung up the steerer and job done
its a fantastic road bike

Where do the drive-side stays attach to? Or is it stable enough without any?

Looking at exactly the same type of C2W option as the OP (also thinking about a longtail, but that's another story!).

Giant Seek 0 looks the best option for me, with a Roadrat second. Winstonsmith – have you got any pics of your Seek to post up? 🙂

(Edit) Oh yeah, and take a look on the On One site, there's a new Pompino with disc tabs and Alfine-friendly dropout spacing on the horizon soon.