Bicycle questions

[drumpriest]

Gerd, I've been riding and racing for almost 20 years now (gah, I feel old!), and I've never owned an internal geared machine. I don't think they have been very popular here in the states for whatever reason. It's an interesting idea for people such as yourself. Maintenance on an "externally" geared machine isn't that bad though. Proper cleaning and lubrication every so often will keep you riding for years.

Shimano is the most popular name in components here in the US, though Campe is around, and every once in a while Suntour shows up as well. There are so many lines of such components that it pays to know specifically which lines you are after.

As for accessories, those also depend upon how you are going to ride. For instance I only take my under saddle bag with my cell phone, some emergency cash, ID, spare tube and patch kits, and tire irons. Water bottles, of course, and my cyclo/hear rate/altimeter.etc.... super bike computer. But I agree with all here, I never ride without my Giro. My rides are almost always pre-planned, for exercise purposes. And while I've ridden on enough busy roads to know how to handle myself, I do tend to avoid them when possible. So far I've been hit by 1 car, on a semi-busy road, after I signaled for a turn WELL ahead of time, was in the center of the lane (going about 30mph), and as I went to turn, the car behind hit me, and took off. Other than throwing something at him before I made the turn, I don't know what else I could have done. There is a general lack of respect for cyclists here.

We have 6 bikes, 3 are racing bikes (mine), 1 road tour (the wife's) and each of us has a mountain bike. My mountain bike hasn't seen action in over a year, and my wife's didn't get ridden at all for almost 2, but the main trail around here was just rebuilt, and she's got a group riding it this year. It's easy to spend big money on stuff that you might not use.

Sorry for such a long post, but one more thought for Larry! If we are to be treated like other vehicles, then we are illegally passed all of the time!!!

[rg32]

He knows his stuff about bicycles!
This is a very good link that wiil help answer some of your questions.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/gloss_ba-n.html

Make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to the yellow box for his articles.

enjoy your new bicycle

Ron

[JR]

One question about the gears though: When I grew up internal 3-speed rear hubs were the most used and reliable, external gears were considered troublesome and fault prone and reserved for racing bikes. Has that changed and these are more reliable now, or should I be looking for internal X-speed rear hubs? I want the bike to be relatively low maintenance, but a smooth and easy ride is of higher importance.

That Shimano 7-speed on the REI bike mentioned above is sort of the modern-day version of the old Sturmey-Archer 3-speed. Shimano came out with it a couple of years ago specifically for commuter applications such as yours.

As drumpriest points out the modern derailleur is pretty reliable. I just tweaked my rear shifter (1/2 turn of the barrel aduster) a couple of days ago to clean up a slow shifting problem. I can't remember the last time I touched it. Of course, the real risk to a derailleur system is that you'll bend the derailleur when the bike falls over or some such. Then it's a pain to get it right again.

Good luck with bike. And the commute. Hope you get the job!
JR