I was wondering about a new bike project (I've pretty much got everything I do and more covered, and have enough pride and not enough skills to try a bmx!)

Edinburgh is pretty hilly, has cobbles and crappy road surfaces. It strikes me that a short travel fs could be a good town bike. 1 x 9 & narrow slicks.

Anyone done it? How much could I get an old scalpel or similar for? Any thoughts on avoiding brake dive?

Or no front suspension and 1.6 slicks and carbon fork?

nteresting! Are they that good? Suppose a soft suss post might do it

Carbon forks? Certainly are, and with a fatter tyre you'll hardly notice any road buzz. I've never cycled around Edinburgh though (love your City BTW) just thought that set up might be a bit more efficient, especially when climbing.

Eh? Why do you need sus for a town bike? Admittedly on the crap edinburgh roads 23mm slicks at 120psi are a bit uncomfy, so something bigger is nice.

For Edinburgh I have my ultimate town bike, it's a specialized tricross single, running 42:18, with some semi slick-ish cross tyres on at about 60 psi. Gets me up all the hills fine (even with a pannier and bag full of stuff) comfy and fast round town, and it's great fun for occasionally ragging round the pentlands.

I'm not sure how seriously to take this, but what advantages would narrow slicks and full suspension have over wider slicks and not faffing about with the full suspension? Or a nice big sprung saddle. 🙂

Go to your local tip shop & buy a sh!tter for less than the cost of a pint. Then if it gets nicked or you're too drunk to remember where you left it, buy another one.

I just like the idea of the comfort coupled with the speed of lighter (ie narrower) tyres, and it's an idea rather than a plan, up for discussion.

My good road bike (on light 23's) just feels so nice on the commute.

Your ultimate town bike sounds good IA, My commute has too much elevation/drunkness/fatigue for a ss/fixed to be fun.

i have just built up a 29r inbred with big apple tyres on.
big balloon things they are.
sound for rough old road commutes.

Rigid bike with mahoosive slick tyres!

A mate of mine has a Surly 1×1 as a commuter with massive 2.3 slicks on it and is a very comfy ride and plenty fast enough.

Edinburgh is pretty hilly, has cobbles and crappy road surfaces. It strikes me that a short travel fs could be a good town bike. 1 x 9 & narrow slicks.

I watched a woman ride the Kapelmuur on a Dutch bike with a child in a seat on the back.

I saw no evidence of light weight, skinny tyres or suspension.

Get a grip, cynic-al..!

😀

Used to ride stuff rigid that I now use 5" on…s it ever about need? 🙂

It strikes me that a short travel fs could be a good town bike. 1 x 9 & narrow slicks.

If such a bike could talk, it would beg to be put out of its misery. 🙂

This is awesome:

is it ever about need?

No, sometimes it is about wrong, foul and perverted lust. This is one of those times. 🙂

Jeez BigDummy you've lost weight! You're still hot tho.

BD – I made the mistake of clicking on that pic and reading the article. It has to qualify as one of the weirdest things I have ever read.

Can you go back to octopron, please – I find it less distasteful than *that*.

I knew this existed. Gents, I give you the Riese & Muller Delite.

do them eletric bikes have altonators on them?

short travel, easy gearing, for commuting, this should get you moving

Ditto bigger tyres. Even regular touring tyres will get you over cobbles ok. FS for the road is just wrong.

Im thinking something small but long with about 100mm each end and a slack head angle should do it. 1×9 sounds good to me and about 1.5" tyres as you will need the extra cushioning and the suspension for blasting down the stairs that all old cities have.

Not sure what fits that criteria but it sounds fun. Meta 4x?

There you go. Get rid of the Pikes and put some 100mm Rebas on Ultrega cranks 717s and save a bit of weight elsewhere and you have a sweet street bike.

I-ache I think something shorter might be OK, and tyres would need to be reasonably beefy, maybe 1.25". I'm off to scour ebay.

Ditto bigger tyres. Even regular touring tyres will get you over cobbles ok. FS for the road is just wrong.

Not nearly as fast as narrow tyres though, and "wrong" always appeals…

Dunno what route you take Al but sus is pretty well essential for a fast run down leith walk – and leith Street has a bump on it that you can get a bit of air off. Add in some cobbles and speed bumps and Als suggestion is not the most stupid thing I have heard on here.

1×9 hardtail with 1.6ish tyres and a short travel fork for me tho. Can you still get those softail frames?

You might be ok with 1.25 tyres it just depends on how you want to ride. If the same style as you would on a normal road bike then yep go narrow and short travel if you want to mix it up a bit and have fun on the way down the hill you should get longer travel. You can always flick the pro pedal leaver if you want to firm it up and effectively shorten the travel. You cant make travel longer if you see a sweet drop with an iffy landing.

Not nearly as fast? The difference between 28mm tyres run a little soft and 23mm @ 120psi is gonna be a smaller difference than a fs frame soaking up your pedalling energy vs a rigid frame. Plus the weight difference is much smaller.

Mind you, a Moulton is a cool bike.

George wishing he'd've fitted suspension for that tricky section down Leith Street…..