Hello All,
Firstly sorry but whilst trying to post for the first time I may have posted this twice as I tried to post in the Commuting section but nothing appeared so I'm trying again. However sorry if this does appear twice!
Back to my question and I wonder if anyone has any advice or ideas on bikes that I could consider for all year round commuting to and from work. My commute is a 20 mile round trip on a mixture of rural and urban roads. Whilst I know that there isn’t any bike out there which would be no maintenance however I’d like it to be as low maintenance as possible. I work long hours have a toddler plus another baby on the way and so whilst I’d love to spend plenty of time maintaining my bike being realistic my prospect of finding lots of time for maintenance is not an option.
I’d like to make use of the cycle to work scheme and so keeping the budget under £1,000 is a must. I do have a list of things that I’d love to have on a bike and there are a few bikes which meet some of my requirements plus one which meets all of them but isn’t available to buy in the UK.
Because I’ll be commuting all year around in all conditions, whatever the weather, my dream wish list for a bike would include the following. Now I know that I could buy a bike without any of these things and buy most if not all of these things separately but if I could buy a bike with everything already fitted then that would be great.
Mudguards;
Pannier Rack;
Internal hub gears;
Dynamo hub;
Dynamo lights;
Disc brakes;
and if possible a Gates Carbon Belt Drive.
Now I’ve found a bike that ticks all of the above boxes and would be perfect for me. It’s the Breezer Beltway Elite:-
http://www.breezerbikes.com/bikes/details/beltway-elite
Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that Breezer bikes aren’t sold in the UK. There is a distributor who will import it from Germany but if I did that it would not be possible to use the Cycle to Work Scheme. On this point in an ideal world I’d like to be able to buy a bike from a local bike shop which is also why I’m not keen on importing a bike.
When searching for bikes that fit my dream wish list I there is one bike I’ve found from a British company and I’d love to support a British bike company however this bike is way over my budget. Looking at the specs the Milk Bikes RDA would potentially make a great low maintenance commuter however as mentioned unfortunately it’s more than I can afford:-
http://www.milkbikes.com/rda/8-rda-the-commuter.html
The Focus Wasgo 3.0 ticks quite a lot of boxes however I would much prefer disc brakes and so it doesn’t tick as many boxes as the Breezer Beltway Elite.
http://www.focus-bikes.com/gb/en/bikes/2014/trekking/wasgo/wasgo-tr-30.html
Looking at other bikes in the Focus range there is the Planet 2.0 which has disc brakes and the Gates Carbon Belt Drive but there’s no of the features that I see as essential for all year around commuting such as mudguards and a rack. In addition with no dynamo I’d need to get the wheel rebuilt with a dynamo hub.
http://www.focus-bikes.com/gb/en/bikes/2014/urban/planeturban/planet-20.html
However if I did go down the road of taking a more basic bike and having to add all of the commuter kit then there is the Roux Carbon Drive A8 but as with the Focus Planet 2.0 I’d be having to add the mudguards, rack, dynamo, dynamo lights etc.
http://rouxbikes.co.uk/shop/carbon-drive-a8/
At the moment I’d be grateful for any advice suggestions from people who can recommend bikes for commuting, from anyone who has had any of the bikes above and can say anything about them or from anyone who has alternative commuter bikes that they could suggest that I look at. As mentioned above from looking at the specs the Breezer Beltway Elite matches all of my requirements but I’m left really frustrated because I can’t buy it from a bike shop in the UK and it seems a difficult task to find anything similar at under £1,000
Thanks to anyone who can offer any thoughts and advice!
John
Firstly sorry but whilst trying to post for the first time I may have posted this twice as I tried to post in the Commuting section but nothing appeared so I'm trying again. However sorry if this does appear twice!
Back to my question and I wonder if anyone has any advice or ideas on bikes that I could consider for all year round commuting to and from work. My commute is a 20 mile round trip on a mixture of rural and urban roads. Whilst I know that there isn’t any bike out there which would be no maintenance however I’d like it to be as low maintenance as possible. I work long hours have a toddler plus another baby on the way and so whilst I’d love to spend plenty of time maintaining my bike being realistic my prospect of finding lots of time for maintenance is not an option.
I’d like to make use of the cycle to work scheme and so keeping the budget under £1,000 is a must. I do have a list of things that I’d love to have on a bike and there are a few bikes which meet some of my requirements plus one which meets all of them but isn’t available to buy in the UK.
Because I’ll be commuting all year around in all conditions, whatever the weather, my dream wish list for a bike would include the following. Now I know that I could buy a bike without any of these things and buy most if not all of these things separately but if I could buy a bike with everything already fitted then that would be great.
Mudguards;
Pannier Rack;
Internal hub gears;
Dynamo hub;
Dynamo lights;
Disc brakes;
and if possible a Gates Carbon Belt Drive.
Now I’ve found a bike that ticks all of the above boxes and would be perfect for me. It’s the Breezer Beltway Elite:-
http://www.breezerbikes.com/bikes/details/beltway-elite
Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that Breezer bikes aren’t sold in the UK. There is a distributor who will import it from Germany but if I did that it would not be possible to use the Cycle to Work Scheme. On this point in an ideal world I’d like to be able to buy a bike from a local bike shop which is also why I’m not keen on importing a bike.
When searching for bikes that fit my dream wish list I there is one bike I’ve found from a British company and I’d love to support a British bike company however this bike is way over my budget. Looking at the specs the Milk Bikes RDA would potentially make a great low maintenance commuter however as mentioned unfortunately it’s more than I can afford:-
http://www.milkbikes.com/rda/8-rda-the-commuter.html
The Focus Wasgo 3.0 ticks quite a lot of boxes however I would much prefer disc brakes and so it doesn’t tick as many boxes as the Breezer Beltway Elite.
http://www.focus-bikes.com/gb/en/bikes/2014/trekking/wasgo/wasgo-tr-30.html
Looking at other bikes in the Focus range there is the Planet 2.0 which has disc brakes and the Gates Carbon Belt Drive but there’s no of the features that I see as essential for all year around commuting such as mudguards and a rack. In addition with no dynamo I’d need to get the wheel rebuilt with a dynamo hub.
http://www.focus-bikes.com/gb/en/bikes/2014/urban/planeturban/planet-20.html
However if I did go down the road of taking a more basic bike and having to add all of the commuter kit then there is the Roux Carbon Drive A8 but as with the Focus Planet 2.0 I’d be having to add the mudguards, rack, dynamo, dynamo lights etc.
http://rouxbikes.co.uk/shop/carbon-drive-a8/
At the moment I’d be grateful for any advice suggestions from people who can recommend bikes for commuting, from anyone who has had any of the bikes above and can say anything about them or from anyone who has alternative commuter bikes that they could suggest that I look at. As mentioned above from looking at the specs the Breezer Beltway Elite matches all of my requirements but I’m left really frustrated because I can’t buy it from a bike shop in the UK and it seems a difficult task to find anything similar at under £1,000
Thanks to anyone who can offer any thoughts and advice!
John
