Commuter bike advice

mirrormatrix

Looking for some advice on a decent commuter bike to replace my giant rapid. Have been looking at either an adventure/cx bike or a tourer/audax. Anything I get absolutely has to have clearance for full length mudguards (and not the SKS race blade long style ones either), with associated drop outs. Also should have clearance for min 28mm tyres.

I'd be ideally looking for a non-disc brake model (which is where i seem to be running into trouble!). Don't want the maintenance of hydraulics or the PITA of changing wheels with discs. The idea of this bike would be a general commuter/winter trainer that I could also stick on the turbo when the weather gets bad.

Anyone any suggestions of something that could fit the bill?

mirrormatrix

Found this: http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Bobbin-Scout-Copper-2016-Touring-Bike_77917.htm

anyone any experience with this brand?

Parchment

Probably not going to be a popular choice but I commute daily on a Cannondale Bad Boy. It is a pleasure to cycle even when loaded with panniers and a back pack.

triggermortis

I was going to say Planet X London Road bike but you say you don't want discs. Apart from this, it ticks all the boxes

Rokta

What was your bad experience with hydraulics? I gladly pay my lbs for a bleed but other than that I had very little maintenance on them on both my MTB and my touring bike.

mirrormatrix

Rokta wrote: »

What was your bad experience with hydraulics? I gladly pay my lbs for a bleed but other than that I had very little maintenance on them on both my MTB and my touring bike.

No bad experience per se. I just like the simplicity of rim brakes and don't feel the extra power of discs is necessary for commuting.

Discs add all sorts of extra unwanted maintenance problems into the mix (keeping disc true, replacing hydraulic fluid etc), and to be honest I really don't see any benefit to them. Any issue with rim brakes can be sorted out in 5 minutes.

Different strokes for different folks i guess.

TooObvious

You seem set against hydraulic discs. If i was buying a new road bike today, particularly for commuting, I would get them. There seems to be a bit of bias against discs, not sure why, they are a bit heavier but have minimal maintenance and have much better stopping power particularly in the wet (irrespective of tyre size). I'm not sure how they make it difficult taking wheels off?

If you're looking for advice, I would say you at least owe it to yourself to rest ride a bike with hydraulic discs! You're worth it!

cdaly_

Disc brakes also mean no rim wear. This means a wheel will last much longer as you can easily replace a worn disc rotor.

You don't need hydraulic brakes. The Avid BB5 or BB7 cable disc brakes work really well and require minimal maintenance.

mirrormatrix

cdaly_ wrote: »

Disc brakes also mean no rim wear. This means a wheel will last much longer as you can easily replace a worn disc rotor.

You don't need hydraulic brakes. The Avid BB5 or BB7 cable disc brakes work really well and require minimal maintenance.

Cable discs might be a solution alright. Though I really think that disc brakes on road bikes are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Sure only the other day there was a thread on here with someone complaining of squealing issues with their disc brakes. I think rim wear is a non-issue - i've never had a rim wear out before, and that's even after 10k+ miles on one bike.

I appreciate that there are advantages, i'm just not going to switch myself until such a time comes that I can't find a new bike for sale without them.

tomasrojo

I use a Dawes Horizon tourer as my main bike when not travelling with children. It's well suited to life as a utility bike, I find: good heel clearance with panniers, nice range of hand positions, tough bike, good choice of gears, pretty good component quality, good chromoplastic mudguards (though I extended them with mudflaps).

The cantilever brakes don't give good stopping power is the only real drawback (apart from the cost; tourers are niche, and not cheap), unless you use KoolStop BMX pads. Then they're pretty good.

You definitely can wear rims down to a dangerous point though. Through financial hardship, I ended up using the original rims that came with the Dawes for about six years. The rims were so thin in the end, that hitting a pothole or even using a tyre lever was enough to deform them (not a good photo, but I think it gives some idea):

beauf

mirrormatrix wrote: »

...Though I really think that disc brakes on road bikes are a solution to a problem that doesn't exist....

I'm undecided. I can lock up my MTB wheels with canti brakes, but its a bit harder in the wet, especially if water/dirt gets between pad and rim.

AmboMan

I got this a year ago for commute and find it very reliable. First time with disc brakes, managed to change the pads with no issues with no other maintenance required !

http://www.jamisbikes.com/16_pdf/16_auroraelite.pdf