New commuter ideas

My old tricross has died so I’m looking for a new commuter and would appreciate some thoughts. I commute year round which includes snow, salt and ice in winter so drivetrains get a bit shot from this. My ride is around 10 miles each way every day on mostly road with bits of gravel paths. I’m stuck between either getting something like a PX, arkose, caad x, CdF, or taking the opportunity to get my dream super commuter that would last me years to come, Fairlight, Mason, Enigma…. I spend so much time on this bike so want something I enjoy riding.

Requirements are minimum 35mm tyres, drops, discs, no carbon, something that would be suitable to use as a winter and gravel trainer as well, no hybrids. Hydros would be nice. I’m curious about internal gears as a low maintenance possibility. Any experiences of commuting on steel and how a nice frame might stand up to rust?

Has anyone else been through the same dilemma or can offer any suggestions?

Pinnacle Arkose Alfine. I have one. Bit heavy due to the Alfine but has hydros and is relatively maintenance free. Only £1K too….

Swap the tyres out and you’ll still be quick on the commute. Although it’s fairly quick with the nanos. I average 15-16mph on the road with it.

Fairlight Faran would be my choice.

Hub gears are great, I would definitely recommend giving them a try if only to scratch that itch. I would try Alfine 8 first, and if you like it then get a Rohloff after it’s worn out (yes, Alfines do eventually wear out!!! It takes a while though.. )

Don’t worry about the vertical dropouts, just get a chain tensioner and in fact this makes for a more problem free set up because

A) you can drop the wheel out easier when you have mudguards

B) the chain tensioner takes up the slack as the chain length increases with wear

C) slot dropouts with disc brakes is a bit of a faff.

Grade Alloy?  I’m literally only suggesting this as I’m selling mine as I’ve replaced it with something special..

Any experiences of commuting on steel and how a nice frame might stand up to rust?

Been commuting on a steel Surly Troll for 6-7 years now in all conditions, no rust problems (yet lol). The new Surlys have the inside of their frames coated with an anti-rust treatment. Mine doesn’t have that, and I haven’t looked inside to see if it’s dystopian nightmare or not but it looks fine from the outside!

Earlier today:

I had a Singular Peregrine set up with Alfine gears. The frame died where it failed at the bottom of a lug, It’s on it’s third rear rim but the gears are still going strong.

Now replaced with a Bombtrack Arise it’s fine/good/great and looks nice but it’s not not quite DREAM BIKE territory.

I looked at the Soma Wolverine but couldn’t justify the extra over the Bombtrack.

Versa drop bar shifters work with the Alfine 8 and Avid BB7s.

I rides much nicer without panniers on but it’s very practical.

The Bomtrack has sliding dropouts, the Peregrine had an EBB. Both worked flawlessly.

If you have any specific questions I’d be glad to answer them.

In theory, my ideal commuter would be a Tout Terrain Amber Road Xpress (steel, up to 55mm tyres, Pinion gearbox, belt drive). Not sure how that would work out, assuming I’d be willing to part with the money.

cube nuroad, discs, room for up to 45mm rubber and £1k

If you go internal gears you could get a belt drive. Impervious to bad weather. Add hydraulic brakes and mudguards and you’re sorted.

If you go internal gears you could get a belt drive.

Some Wolverine has split stays to go belt drive, the Bombtrack doesn’t.

Nuroad Pro with mavic allroad tubeless wheel upgrade

I have two commuters. A kona minute with drop bars and a cotic escapade.

The kona did 4 years solid as my only ride and has clocked up over 30k miles. It runs on fat schwalbe marathon supreme’s most of the time so can feel a little sluggish but very smooth also. Its been faultless. Its got claris 8 speed which again, is super reliable and superb value for money. It can carry anything and go anywhere.

The cotic came along last April. It has just ticked around to 6k miles and is brilliant mile muncher. It has ten speed group and hope wheels. Its also been faultless. It is about 2km hour faster than the kona for the same effort.

My Mrs had a surly disc trucker with a Alfine 8. It is a great bike also.

Its a buyers market.

If I was to change, it would be for a kona sutra or disc trucker I think but can’t see that anytime soon.

I have a surly, it’s treated with the rust proofing. Ive been involved with the bike trade for thirty years and ive never seen anything like it, the quality is something else.

So that would go on my list, my mate has a genesis day one 853, yep id consider one of those too.

My essentials would be hub gear, mudguards, front dynohub which powered both lights, a rack with decent panniers. but id assume you have your own ideas of what’s right for you.

Whyte Glencoe? Loving mine for long commute on crappy roads and tow path. Not much slower than my previous Synapse .

Some interesting suggestions here, thanks. Definitely hub/belt curious and maybe trying out an alfine is a good start before shelling out for a rohloff. I’ll have a look at the Soma and Bombtrack. As you say it’s a buyer’s market so it’s great to see what people rate.

I’ve got a Canyon Commuter as a city bike, rode an mtb with Rohloff as a commuter for many years.

Now I’d look for –

– hydro discs

– hub gear and belt drive (on a commuter it makes a lot of sense)

– dyno lights

– good mudguards.  The http://www.wingee.bike/Modelle/ that are fitted to the Canyon seem completely rattle free (though the rack part is useless – trying to fit a separate rack at the moment)

Not a fan of Alfine hubs myself. Pain in the bum when it comes to changing tubes/tyres and heavy.  How much maintenance does a cassette and derailleur really need anyway.

That said  mine is a 2011 (Kona Dr Fine) version so they’ve  probably improved the design since then. I gather the Rohloff and Sturmey Archer hubs are much better and easy to remove rear wheel.

There was a thread recently looking for belt driveable frames. I think the OP was called submarined or something..

Here you go:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/belt-drive-frame/

Some more useful threads here:

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/belt-drive-commuter-bikes/

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/belt-drive-i-t-may-be-time-to-admit-defeat/

Something like rocketdogs would be fine.

I’d be wary of getting your dream commuter, you still wont want to be cleaning it every day so decent components will die and the frame won’t be special. I’ve got an old Saracen Hack and if the new ones are lighter I’d get one of them (if I could find one on sale obvs, they’re steep at full price).

For me I’d go with something like a basic arkose with Sora and then HyRd brakes or Giant Conducts, 9 speed cassettes and chains are thicker and cheaper than 10/11 speed.

The new Giant gravel bike is nice too and not too spendy. Grade is meant to be good but is ugly.

 <span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Requirements are minimum 35mm tyres, drops, discs, no carbon, something that would be suitable to use as a winter and gravel trainer as well, no hybrids. Hydros would be nice. I’m curious about internal gears as a low maintenance possibility. Any experiences of commuting on steel and how a nice frame might stand up to rust?

Has anyone else been through the same dilemma or can offer any suggestions?<span style=”font-size: 12.8px;”>

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Yup:

35mm tyres (easy and with full guards) (Check)

Drops (Check)

No carbon (Check)

Suitable as winter gravel trainer (Check) – I did the Exmouth Exodus on mine in the pouring rain.

Internal gears (Check)

Rust free (Check)

It’s also Di2 and has a Dyanmo front hub.

I’ve done 20k km on mine and have been through 1 set of pads, 1 chain ring, 2 hub services (£30), a chain and a pair of rings…so, maybe £120 in 3 years.

It’s now got guards and a rack.

Daffy, is that an Aldine 8 or 11 DI2 set up? Been looking at this kind of thing for my escapade.

Any experiences of commuting on steel and how a nice frame might stand up to rust?

My commuter is a 30 year old Raleigh.  Internally coated, rust free as far as I can see.  clearance for 35mm.  delightfully smooth ride, easy handling.  No discs, though.

11sp Di2.  It’s the only way an 11 can be made to wor.k faultlessly IME

Daffy,Where did you get the set up? And how much would it cost? I run shimano ultegra and hope v twins at the moment which are a good set up but the alfine/hydro set up would be perfect.

I bought it all separately.

BR785 STIs

M9020 XTR Callipers

Di2 11 32h

Di2 display/junction

Alfine Motor

Internal Battery.

It’s not light (my math says about a kg to a mechanical Ultegra setup on TRPs…and it’s all in the wrong place), but is robust, reliable and effective.  I’m using 38/18.

My arkose is great. Been running it for 3 years, gets ridden every day pretty much. rack, full guards, d lock, hydros, 32c marathon plus tyres. Great commuter.

every now and then I think about an upgrade but 3 things stop me

1 – bike is still fun, still enjoy it

2 – doesn’t owe me anything now, and it gets a daily dose of loving abuse. has been used for commuting, shopping, carrying kids, towing a trailer, fun rides

3 – lots of people still buying this bike, must be a reason for that

3 – lots of people still buying this bike, must be a reason for that

My friend just got the last of the 2017 Arkose 3s. It’s in **** you orange and looks incredible! 🙂

The Charge Grinduro SS at Wiggle, with Hylex brakes for £700 (some lucky people on here got them for £510 back last autumn).

Good to see the Cube Nuroad Pro at ~£1300 comes with 105 hydraulics, plus the 45mm clearance of the £900 1×10 Arkose X.

I’m running an upgraded Norco Search from a few years ago. Steel frame gravel bike.

Hunt 4 season wheels with 35mm conti cx’s

Lynsky carbon forks

105/XT/Sora 9 speed drivetrain

Juin Tech brakes

Easton bits.

Frame has been fine rust wise but I do swill it off at work every morning.

Pretty fast and comfy on road, great off. Cheap enough STI’s to not worry when dropped on ice, strong durable and cheap to replace XT/105 drivetrain.

The new steel Search series looks great but unfortunately not available in the UK anymore.

I picked up a titanium charge plug five which ticks the posh box as well, but without the price tag.

My current commuter is an Avanti  Inc 3. Alfine 11 gears, Gates Belt Drive, virtually maintenance free. However I’ve found the Alfine is a pig to tune the gears on, if it’s not perfect you can get gear slips, which if you are out of the saddle and trying to accelerate hard, have the potential for a nasty mishap.

Next time round I think i’m going to look at Pinion gearbox, belt driven urban/commuters.

I would love to try a pinion box bike. Especially this https://www.vannicholas.com/touring-bikes/deveron

They do a disc version now I think.

This is hansome http://rabbit.de/bikes/titan-gravel-pinion/

Ooo that Niner is nice Daffy, and might just tick enough boxes for me. Looks practical, special enough to be excited to get on at 6am in winter, but no so fancy I’m going to be precious about riding it. Thanks for all the suggestions it’s great to hear some real world experiences and some different considerations.

I’ve been on a 10 year old tricross for a couple of years, and an early 2000s ss rigid stumpy before that so I apparently keep bikes for a while and want to get it right.