Holey saddle

As a plan to do some upgrades to my cyclocross bike (more about it sometime soon) I bought a new saddle - Selle An-Atomica Titanico. Apparently, this is supposed to be the most comfortable bicycle saddle in the world. At least this is what manufacturer claims. And many riders as well. We shall see.

So far I can say that Titanico is more comfortable than the old saddle I had on this bike. I do have to make some fine adjustments though. The slot seems to work as expected - It lets both parts of leather move independently as you pedal. Plus, leather is suspended across the rails so you feel more like you sit in a hammock. This way Titanico adjusts to my butt and not the other way around.

This piece of leather with a giant cut in the middle is not exactly cheap. It retails for $190 (yikes!). However, there has been a sale recently and I managed to get a new one for half the price. My saddle is white, which may make it less visually compatible with many bikes (In case I want to move it to another bike in the future.), but it does match my white cross bike really well.

I see bicycles everywhere!

Just when I was ready to put my bike away for a short Christmas break and focus on other things than bicycling, I saw this at the Christmas party:

UPDATE: And another one!

Merry Christmas!

Time to put the bike away. Temporarily, of course. Christmas is not a bicycling time for me. More like a time to spend with family at the table.

I hope that Santa will be good for you this year and you will find some appropriate gifts under the Christmas tree. Maybe those studded tires, biking gloves or a wicker basket that you were thinking about?

Have a great Christmas holiday!

Be American, save your legs?

Today's weather is quite amazing. It really feels more like October than the end of December. It is 13 degrees C outside! Obviously with such a winter weather, there is no excuse not to ride a bike. Or walk.

Elka took Dr. J. for a walk to Wilson Farm in Lexington this morning since she had to run some last minute Christmas errands. I would prefer to ride a bike since the farm is nearly 4km away from our house, but Elka likes to walk. Especially that we are not prepared to accomodate Dr. J. on a bike yet. His first ride will likely happen next spring.

On the way back, she met a German woman living nearby, who was also pushing a stroller with her kid. The ladies started talking and at some point our neighbor said "I thought you were European." Then she explained: "Because no American would ever walk that distance."

I just say: weather is nice so keep walking or riding a bike. Especially now with all that Christmas shopping rush when finding a place to park at the mall could be impossible.

Motivation

As you may remember, I wrote a post about 5 main reasons why a bike is better than a car. Today I discovered the reason #6:

You don't need keys to ride a bicycle.

Today I had one of those low-motivation mornings. I don't know if it is the winter time, darkness, low temperatures, or something else, but I didn't really feel like riding a bicycle and I planned to drive instead. I thought that it would be a good idea to let my legs rest for a day. And then, as I was going to leave for work, I couldn't find my car keys. I spent over 5 minutes searching for them and finally gave up. This is when I realized that my bike is just there, waiting for me, I don't need keys to ride it, and with air temperature of 2 degrees C it is really not that cold for a bike ride.

It seems that it is always possible to find motivation to ride a bicycle. With some help of misplaced car keys.

Trying The Other Bike

It is getting chilly. This morning my cheeks froze pretty well on my ride to work. I guess winter is finally going to visit us this year.

Last weekend I decided to do some tweaks on my Other Bike to make my riding position more comfortable. I am trying different stem lengths and saddle positions to figure out what the best combo will be. Until now, I felt a bit too stretched between the saddle and the handlebars and I want to make sure that even longer rides on this bike would be pleasant.

Riding on the Minuteman Bikeway (Pictures are from a cell phone, unfortunatelly. A SLR camera somehow doesn't fit well in my jersey's back pockets.)

To try out some of the new settings I rode along the Minuteman Bikeway to Bedford. It is a nice 25km (round trip) ride from Arlington ending at The Bikeway Source store...

...and a historic railway car parked next to the Bedford Depot Park museum.

Do you really know how to drive?

LuckyChow99 left a comment to my Tuesday's post:

It doesn't help that you can get driver license (here in Georgia) by taking the road test in a parking lot.

That made me think - do most people even know how to drive?

I remember my first driving test ever - 16 years ago in Poland. There were 3 parts:
1. The usual written test with 30 multiple choice questions where more than one answer could have been correct. Most questions were about various road situations, especially on intersections, presented in simple drawings where I had to decide, which vehicle should yield to others, etc. I was allowed to make only 1 mistake (And I did).
2. The second part was a parking lot driving, where I had to parallel park, back into a garage, start uphill (The test car had a manual transmission, naturally), etc.
3. Third part was finally a road test in regular city traffic.
I didn't pass the first time since my parallel parking was less than perfect.

Years later, I decided to get a Massachusetts driver license. Out of 20 multiple choice questions, easily half of them were related to alcohol. I still keep wondering what is the benefit of knowing the maximum fine a person under 21 would have to pay for having an opened beer bottle in the car? I always thought that knowing how to respond to various road conditions is the most important part of every driving test. Well, apparently not in U.S. In this country, it is much more important to know how to safely transport a six pack than safely transport people.
I nearly failed that test, since I had to guess many of those stupid questions that didn't even apply to me (I was well over 21 at that time).

The road test was a joke as well. Mr. Policeman seeing me being familiar with the car, stopped me after driving just a few meters and decided that I was only wasting his time.

Seeing all this, I am 99% sure that no American would pass Polish driver license test. Of course, this doesn't mean that in Poland we know how to drive. Quite the opposite. How many people know how to really control their cars? Many more in Finland than in Poland or U.S. for sure.

Since having a driver's license in 21st century America became as important as owning a revolver in 19th century Wild West, I wonder - did we make it too accessible? Maybe 17 year old drivers should really learn how to drive before using their fathers' 3-tonne trucks? Maybe if we refocus test questions on what is really important, drivers would know what to do when they get to a 4-way stop?

Considering this, it would be safer to put all these drivers on bicycles. At least they would move slower and had less chance to kill anyone.

...and stop signs too.

Since I got pretty upset yesterday with some cycling idiots running red lights in the middle of always-busy Manhattan, it is time now to even things out a little. The other side of the equation is not much better (mostly much worse, actually). This video by a fellow bike commuter from Boston area proves the point - 60 seconds, 6 cars, not even one stopped at the stop sign.

Red lights are for fools

There is a good reason why road traffic is regulated by lights and signs, especially in a thickly-settled urban environment, like the middle of Manhattan. Yet it looks like some believe that red lights are only a "suggestion" to stop and one-way streets can be ridden in the wrong direction.

3-Way Street from ronconcocacola on Vimeo.

This is a year-old video but it is definitely worth watching again. It seems that most chaos in this part of Manhattan is caused by cyclists. I have no idea if those were some daredevil bike messengers, hipsters on fixies, or cycling moms with children. All of them seemed to ignore basic rules of traffic, endangering themselves and others. Unbelievable. Seeing this, I am not surprised that many motorists still hate cyclists.

If you like to have more freedom and not be limited by red lights, why don't you move to a place where it is perfectly normal to ride this way?

The Dark Age of Cycling

Do you remember your first childhood bike? You know, the one that used to take you everywhere. Do you remember all the fun you had then? Have you continued cycling once you joined high school and college?

If at any time of your life you stopped cycling, either for transportation and/or recreation, only to rediscover it later, you went through the Dark Age of Cycling.

The Dark Age is a period in our life when we stop using bicycles completely. It may happen to us at any time of life but most often we go through it in our mid to late 20's. This is when we graduate from college, get our first job and start commuting to work instead of going to school. It is also the time when we usually buy our first car, get married, buy homes, and plan to have kids. Our life gets busier and we just don't find time for recreational cycling anymore.

What makes us leave the darkness of the Dark Age is either new (cycling) friends we make, bicycle blogs we start to read, memories of childhood biking fun, and many other events.

My Dark Age happened in 2006-2007 when I didn't own a bike at all. The Worst-Bike-Ever that I got for free basically fell apart and I didn't buy a new one until early 2008. I drove a car to work and I didn't ride a bicycle for nearly 2 years. That must have felt like a long, long break and eventually I visited a local bike store and finally bought a new bike.

Human evolution (Source: Google Images)

Six most absurd ideas for cycling laws

1. Cyclists should pay "road tax"

Fake "Road Tax" payment tag (Source: ipayroadtax.com)

First of all, there is no such thing as "road tax" although many drivers would like to belive so. It is the excise tax what all drivers pay, even if they don't drive their car at all. That's because the excise tax is the tax of car ownership, not usage. Yet many drivers think that since cyclists don't pay for roads in a form of a "road tax" they should not use them. Roads are financed from income taxes, not "road tax", and those are paid by all drivers and cyclists.

2. Mandatory insurance

This has been discussed so many times yet still there is a large number of drivers believing that cyclists should pay a mandatory insurance. The reason why drivers have to be insured is that they use a 2 tonne vehicle that moves at high speed. Any accidents would likely result in injuries, even fatal, to cyclists or pedestrians, but less likely to drivers themselves. Cyclists on the other hand, operate a lightweight vehicle moving at low speed that is unlikely going to kill anyone, except maybe its rider. The damage done by bicycle in case of a collison is minimal compared to the one done by car and it doesn't justify the need for insurance. This is exactly why pedestrians are not insured either.

3. Bicycle license plates

Custom license plate (Source: http://chiccyclist.blogspot.com/2009/06/cambridge-bicycle-license.html)

Some drivers believe that since they have to display a license plate on their vehicles, cyclists should do the same. You know, it would help identify those cyclists who break the law running red lights. The problem is that license plates don't stop drivers from breaking the law so why would they stop cyclists? Actually, why don't we require pedestrians to wear license plates as well? They too disobey law by crossing the street on red. Bicycle license plates would not increase safety but only add cost of owning a bicycle.

4. Mandatory helmets 

Must wear a helmet (Source: yehudamoon.com)

Well, this is not just an idea. In some countries it is the law. Requiring everyone to wear a helmet does not prevent accidents. It may result in less injuries. It definitely leads to decrease of number of cyclists. It discourages users of city bike sharing programs. In general, it leads nowhere.

5. Bikes off the streets

Some drivers would love to believe that cyclists don't belong to streets. Those are the same who think bikes should be only used for recreation in state parks. But bicycles are vehicles too. Just like cars, trucks and excavators. There is no good reason why bikes should not be allowed on streets. Except the highways. But the same way it is foolish to require cyclists to use bike lanes exclusively. Just like you don't expect drivers to use highways only.

6. Signal pothole-evasive maneuvers

That is the most interesting one I heard. Apparently, it aggravates drivers when cyclists ride in a some "zig-zac" pattern trying to avoid potholes and they think that cyclists should signal those maneuvers. Why should they, if they don't change lanes? When you drive on a country road that turns 45 degrees, would you signal that? Cyclists should remember that they move between much heavier and faster vehicles and should not try any sudden, unexpected maneuvers. But why would you require them to signal every change of direction? Especially that cyclists have a right to use the full width of the lane.

Lovely mountain bikes

A few weeks ago I read a post by Velouria of the Lovely Bicycle! about city bikes with mountain bike heritage. Velouria always looks for beautiful bicycles and her main interest seems to be in city or touring bikes. Her blog is always fun to read and thought-provoking. In the above-mentioned post she wrote: "contemporary mountain bikes are rather ugly", which made me search for beautiful mountain bikes.

Mountain bike is certainly a very different pair of shoes. Unlike city bikes, MTBs are usually designed with performance in mind. Using always-favorite car analogy, mountain bikes are Land Rover Defenders of cars. These boxy, raw, rugged vehicles may not appear beautiful, but once you drive off that paved road you will quickly realize that they are unbeatable in their natural habitat. So while it is unlikely to find lugged steel frames, hand-hammered fenders, chrome-coated headlights or cream tires on mountain bikes, we have to find beauty elsewhere.

Beauty of simplicity

Moots YBB MTB. (Source: moots.com)

This Moots YBB bike beautifully solves the problem of adding a rear suspension to a MTB frame without disrupting its classic shape. Also, its natural titanium color (greyish-brownish-purplish-whatever) makes it look clam, simple, and... beautiful.

Sure, this bike is handmade of titanium so it will cost you an arm and a leg but hey, it's Moots.

Beauty of power

I hesitated which bike should belong to this category as I considered two of them. Eventually, I decided to include both: Intense M1 and Foes DH1. Both represent a true beauty of power.

Foes DH1 (tube). (Source: Google Images)

Foes DH1 shown above is the original tube version of DH1 designed for Foes Racing Team. Some would say that the later monocoque version looked even more killer-like, but I somehow like the older tube frame better. The monocoque version was used in professional downhill racing by the "devil in the saddle" herself - iconic Missy "Missile" Giove.

Intense M1 with Hanebrink fork. (Source: Google Images)

If you need the ultimate downhill bike, Intense M1 is the answer. Or actually was, since it is not being made any more. It was replaced by some newer, lighter-looking models. But in terms of pure looks, M1 is still the winner, which must be due to its heavy, tank-like frame. Hanebrink fork is a beauty of its own. Large diameter tubes, upside-down design - it is essentially a scaled-down (although not by much) version of a motorcycle fork. The complete  bike looks, well... intense.

Custom-made beauties

A quick look at NAHBS website reveals more MTB beauties. These bikes are custom-made and often present some very unconventional design.

 Black Sheep Fabrication, Inc.

Rosene Hand Built Bicycles

Coffee with sugar

I decided to upgrade my Coffee a little and now this project is almost completed. I mentioned earlier that the one part I really disliked about it was the saddle. I replaced it with a sprung Brooks B67. It still has to be broken in a bit but I can already feel the difference in my butt. The new saddle is noticeably heavier, but I guess it doesn't really matter since this bike was not lightweight anyway.

I also added some cheap leather grips, to color-match the saddle. They are not exactly the same color (Saddle is dark brown, grips are honey color), but still look better than the stock, black rubber grips.
I added two lights on the rear rack. I feel safer with two lights, especially now, during the winter months when I have to ride back from work in complete darkness. Usually I set the bottom 5 LED PlanetBike light in continuous mode, while I keep the top Cateye TL-LD150-R flashing. This should increase my visibility.
There is also a new brass bell on handlebars. Loud and shiny. I found my old panniers in the basement and now they work pretty well as simple bags to carry my stuff to work. They are easily 12 years old but I didn't use them much and they are still in a pretty good shape.

The last thing was the front light. I would like to use something retro and I remember that I still have the old headlamp from my grandfather's commuter bike. It must be easily 30 years old. It has a mounting bracket to attach it to the side of the fork and it also has a bottle-type dynamo on it. It is pretty simple to install, still works, looks classic so why not use it? Since I left it in my parents house in Poland, I would have to get it the next time I visit them. For now, I use the light I had on my cyclocross bike. It is an older Dinotte headlight. Incredibly tiny, yet still outputs 300 lumen beam on full power setting.

The bike is complete now. Looks pretty good, I think and rides nicely. I am glad that I bought a bike that has handlebars positioned at the same height as the saddle. Plus, handlebars are swept back, but not as much as in Dutch bikes. This requires me to lean forward just a bit so I don't really sit fully upright. All this is good, since my work commute takes me through a number of hills. After riding this route several times I have a feeling that a fully upright 3-speed Dutch bike would not work well for me. It would be difficult to ride uphill and could make my commute unpleasant.

Total cost after all upgrades was about $550.

Power of the horn

Boston drivers love to sound their cars' horns. I got beeped twice this morning on my way to work. I rode in a straight line, half a meter from the curb, thus being in a perfectly safe and correct position on the road. I wonder what were those drivers trying to tell me? Was it either:
 

"I am passing on your left. Watch out!" or
"Stay away form the road. You should not bike here!".
 

I don't think they were trying to warn me. Lanes in that area are really wide and even if I ride away from the curb drivers still have plenty of space to pass me without entering the opposite traffic lane.
 

Something tells me that those beeping drivers are just trying to "educate" cyclists that they should either stay glued to the curb or not be on the road at all.

Immobile generation

Kids on bikes (Source: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK0709/S00212.htm)

The K5 Learning Blog published recently results of a study on the time children spend with digital devices. The results are telling - the future belongs to digital, immobile kids.

"More kids aged 2-5 can play a computer game than ride a bike."
"More kids aged 2-5 can open a web browser than swim unaided."

Pretty sad, I would say. When I was growing up we didn't have computers and we used to spend a whole day playing outside. In fact, our parents had usually a hard time to make us come back home. Today's generation is drastically different. Parents have to try hard to make kids play outside. Actually, I wonder if parents prefer them to stay home and play a computer game instead of ride a bike because it seems to be a "safer" way of spending time.

Thanksgiving

Thank you drivers for sharing the road with us.

Thank you city governors for the new bike lanes.

Thank you readers for visiting this blog.

Thank you all for riding a bike.

...

Now back to the turkey!

Riding in suburbs

If you, like me, happen to live and ride in suburbs, you a bit out of luck. Many bicycle blogs would give you some really good advice on how to deal with drivers and heavy traffic, yet what those blogs sometimes fail to notice is that riding a bike in suburbs can be a dramatically different experience than when riding in a densly-populated downtown. Let's compare:

1. "Counter-intuitive to what many drivers believe, cyclists actually reduce congestion on the roads by not driving cars. They're reducing the time you spend in traffic jams as they're taking up so much less space."

This is true in a heavy downtown traffic. But on a narrow road out of town, not so much. Unfortunately, a slower vehicle (bicycle) will slow down the traffic.

2. "If you must take a route without the designated bike lane, try to use roads where cyclists ride more often. Drivers get used to bicycles on those roads and learn how to pass them safely."
Again, this works great in the city, but what if you are always a lone rider during your morning commute on a suburban road? Usually, I ride alone and I don't see even a single cyclist on my way to work.

3. "Use bike lanes."

Bike lanes? What bike lanes?

4. "Don't get stuck in traffic. Ride your bike to work and be there faster."
This would apply well to a traffic-corked downtown. In suburbs where heavy traffic could be rare and distances are longer, driving may actually be faster than cycling.

What is your experience like?

Safe and dangerous

Being a suburban bike-commuter I have to share road with cars and I don't have convenience of bike lanes since there simply aren't any. Fortunately, a part of my route has a really wide shoulder, which essentially substitutes a bike lane. This is the easiest and safest part of my daily ride.

On the other hand, I have to cross I-95, a major highway. This means riding along a line of cars while many of them enter the ramp to the highway on my right. As you can imagine, those cars must either wait for me to clear the access to the ramp or speed up and pass in front of me to enter the highway.

So far, most of the drivers were courteous enough to let me go first but sometimes I encounter an impatient one who puts me in danger of being right-hooked. This is clearly the most dangerous and most stressful part of my morning commute and unfortunately, there is no bike-friendly way of crossing this highway. I noticed that most drivers are well-behaved yet you can imagine that they may drive carelessly in the morning traffic when everyone rushes to work.

The accident that happened this year in Poland, on September 9th, reminds me how dangerous this situation can possibly be. A CCTV camera in the city bus captured the moment when a minivan driver right-hooked a cyclist while attempting to enter the ramp on the right. The cyclist survived but ended up with multiple fractures of his collar bone and ear injury resulting in partial loss of hearing. Worse, 2 months later the driver still remains unidentified.

And what is the most dangerous part of your bike-commute?

The 5km challenge

You have heard it many times already. According to the 1995 National Personal Transportation Survey approx. 50% of all trips are made within 3 miles (4.8km) from home. This report is quite old but numbers haven't changed that much in the consecutive years. Plus, a kilometer more or less does not change the general conclusion - we really shouldn't have to drive everywhere.

 (Source: Baltimore Metropolitan Council)

Of course, we can easily blame it on our car-centric urban development. Downtowns of large U.S. cities start to change and bike lanes finally start to show up there. However, the situation is much, much worse in suburbs. In my area, there are no bike lanes at all, except the Minuteman Bikeway, which is basically a recreational, not a commuter path. Despite that, I would like to bike more to local destinations like, e.g. grocery stores. Let's ask Uncle Google how far they are from my home:

Stop and Shop: 1.5km
Really close, but the way back would be a problem. I live on the top of a steep hill and I would have to push my bike, loaded with all the groceries, uphill. This side of the hill is really bad. I can ride it up on my 20-speed cyclocross bike but even then my knees hurt. There is no way I could make it on my 3-speed commuter bike.

Whole Foods, Medford: 5km
A bit better, since I can use Minuteman partially, but in the end I have to ride on Mystic Valley Pkwy. Anyone who drove that road would know that it is not a place you would want to be on a bike. Two, very narrow lanes in each direction, no shoulder, lots of fast moving cars. Also, the same problem with uphill battle on the way back although maybe I could approach it from the north and go around the steepest part somehow.

Whole Foods, Woburn: 5km
Not better. Most of the ride would be on Rt3. It is a busy street, lots of fast-moving vehicles, no shoulders. No wonder bikers stay away from it. The only plus side is the more relaxed ride on the way back as this side of the hill is longer but less steep.

Whole Foods, Alewife: 5.5km
A bit further away than planned 5km, but it is a really pleasant ride. Probably 90% of it is on the Minuteman Bikeway, away from all the traffic. And of course the same hill challenge on the way back.

Trader Joe's: 2.5km
Much better choice: very close and easy to ride (Minuteman Bikeway mostly). Again, pretty long climb up on the way back, which means pushing the bike up for good 300 meters.

Wilson's Farm: 4km
A bit further than Trader Joe's, on the same route. Pleasant ride on the Minuteman Bikeway towards Lexington. Same problem with the hill on the way back.

Considering all this, no wonder that I don't ride my bike to local grocery stores as much as I should. I could skip those that are not easily accessible due to a heavy car traffic, but what to do about that hill?

The flatter side of the hill: 16.7% grade. The other side is much steeper.

This hill is likely the first reason why I don't use my city bike more. I am thinking that a strong electric assist motor is the answer. I would have to research this more. So far I found out that StokeMonkey assist motor can candle even 31.5% grades but it looks like its production was stopped. Can someone recommend a good product?

Five main reasons why car is better than a bike

We looked at the reasons to choose a bike over a car. Now, let's be fair and try the other way:
 

1. Try to haul a queen bed on your bike.
2. Driving in heavy downpour and headwind can still be enjoyable.
3. If you have to be in a place 100km away within an hour, leave your bike at home and drive.
4. You can transport your bike on/in your car. It is difficult to put a car on a bike.

 

(Found somewhere on Internet)

5. You get a full set of lights and fenders with EVERY car. And they don't charge you extra for them.

Anything else?

Five main reasons why bike is better than a car

Continuing my last week's car-related topic I decided to figure out why a bicycle is better than a car:

1. You can ride and park pretty much anywhere. See that "No parking anytime" sign? It doesn't apply to your bike!

2. You are closer to nature, and you see more. This is why Sunday ride through countryside is much more enjoyable on a bike than in a car.

3. It costs less. Bikes are cheaper, don't need gasoline, and spare parts cost peanuts compared to car service.
4. You need only 10 min. to fix a flat tire and you can do it yourself. Anywhere.
5. You can take your bike into your bedroom. Or even hang it up above your bed.

Would you add anything?

Is life best when driven?

I am going to write about cars for a change. Well, just one car, actually. I noticed this new FIAT 500 commercial on Youtube:

I like the new Cinquecento. It is a cute, little city car with really nice Italian design. Its "eco" version (obviously not available in the U.S.) with tiny 2-cyl. 0.9L Twinair engine has an impressive 4L/100km (~60mpg) rating for urban driving. What strikes me in this video is the message: "Life is best when driven". I really want to think that they meant something more by "driven" and not just "spent in the car".

Car manufacturers like to remind us that we can be more "cool" if we sit in the car, instead of e.g. a bike. Just like the recent GM ad campaign.

Darkness

I am not happy with the last weekend's daylight savings. What's the point of having just a bit brighter mornings if I have to pedal home in darkness? I can't see any benefit of it so far. Fortunately, there are many fellow cyclists on Minuteman Bikeway and front light on my bike is more than adequate. Still, riding in complete darkness is not much enjoyable.

Why I hate Schrader valves

I really hate Schrader valves. Most of them. Why? Just look at the valves I have in my Schwinn. Try to inflate these tires:

Easy? I don't think so. When you push the pump head on the valve the whole valve dips into the rim and installing the pump on it is a real PITA. Good quality Schraders come with fully threaded body and thumb nuts that secure them on the rim. Like this one:

Schrader valve with threaded stem (Picture from Wikipedia.org)

But these are rare and it is not easy to find a factory built bike that would have them. Most Schraders that come with factory bikes are crap. It is a perfect example how saving a few cents in manufacturing costs does not make sense. The result is a worse product that becomes a source of aggravation for its users.

2012 Schwinn Coffee review

Recently, I was looking for a simple 3-speed bike that I could use for these 3 things:

- daily work commute in regular clothes and shoes,

- relaxed riding on bike paths around the town,

- weekend family rides with some grocery bags or a child seat for Dr. J. attached to the rear rack.

After some research and a test ride, I decided to get a 2012 Schwinn Coffee. Here is my review.

2012 Schwinn Coffee (Click to see details. Warning: very large file! Source: Schwinn website)

First impression
The bike is pretty good looking. It is a modern bike but with some retro styling. After a test ride I knew it would be comfortable and it should serve quite well for my needs. At first, I was also positively surprised how "light" that bike felt. Then I weighed it and it turned out to be 16.5kg, which is definitely not light, but acceptable. So maybe it was just me expecting the Coffee to be much heavier somehow. The price was attractive as I as able to get it for only $400. One more thing I immediately noticed was that both screws used to adjust brake cables were not secured properly and even worse, the head set was not tightened (You could easily feel that fork was loose)! Lousy bike store job of putting the bike together. Honestly, I don't care that much since I would double-check it myself anyway, but many people would just ride the bike, as received from the store and then wonder why is everything falling apart.

Frame and fork
It is a Chinese-built steel frame and a steel fork. The frame is definitely not the prettiest one around since it does not look like those old classic ones - no lugs. It has some ugly features like the seat tube cluster with seatstays that are welded to both sides of the seat tube but are not tapered.

On the positive side, it has a pretty comfortable geometry: 69deg head tube angle for a better pot hole handling, long wheelbase for more relaxed riding (And no toe overlap at all). It features a "Schwinn" emblem on the head tube and decals on the top tube. That's nice.

It does not have brake pivots as it is designed to work with caliper brakes. It has several braze-ons, most important the ones for a rear rack and a fender. The bottom tube has a bunch of braze-ons for shifter cable so this means that the shifter cable runs around the bottom bracket and is fully enclosed in housing. This is good as it prevents water from getting into the housing and corroding the cable. It also has a welded-on kickstand mount.

The fork is made of steel with something that is supposed to pretend to be a lugged crown. Threaded tube. No brake pivots. Fender mounts included. Overall, not bad. For lighter use this frameset could work fine.

Wheels

Aluminum rims (good), 36 spokes (good), unknown front hub (not so good), Shimano Nexus 3-speed rear hub (great), Kenda Kourier cream (!) tires 700x38C (nice). Unfortunately, tube valves are those crappy Schrader ones. Overall, not bad, I guess.

Drivetrain

Shimano 3-speed hub is a nice change from all derailleur-powered drivetrains. Especially in a city bike. It turns out that 3 speeds is probably all I need, even on some hills that I have on the way to work. The only "problem" is that the difference between gears is much, much larger than in my 20-speed cyclocross bike, which means than going uphill I have to remember that I can't that easily fine-tune in the right gear. I have to push the bike uphill in the 2nd gear for a little longer before switching to the 1st one. It is something I have to adjust to. Changing gears is easy and of course they can be changed even when bike is not in motion. That is really nice.

The bike has 170mm long Schwinn aluminum cranks with a steel 38T chain ring. The rear Shimano sprocket has 19 teeth. This gives a really nice range of gears. I can ride pretty fast on a flat bike path and still handle those hills. A welcome addition is the chain guard with a "Coffee" logo. It is not fully enclosed guard but still protects my pants from getting messy. And it is made of sheet metal, i.e. is more stiff than those cheap plastic ones. Pretty good. Exactly what I wanted.

Brakes and shifters

The bike has Tektro dual-pivot caliper brakes. I found them to be fully adequate in most road situations. They feel good, are powerful and thanks to dual-pivot design they should be easy to adjust. Obviously, as most rim brakes, they lose some power when wet but even then I did not have any problems stopping my bike at all. They look like standard road calipers but wider. Levers are by Tektro as well, long, 4-finger type. The shifter is the Shimano Revo 3-speed. Overall, very good. No complains here. 

Handlebars, stem, seat post, saddle

Coffee comes with a Schwinn high-rise quill stem for threaded forks. Handlebars are 105mm rise bars, swept-back. The bike has a regular, old-type seat-post with a separate saddle clamp. Not sure if I like it but it is more compatible with some old saddles that require non-standard clamps (i.e. for rails that are not round). The saddle is a "Schwinn Classic Downtown with rivets" (That's what Schwinn claims on their website.). I can't find any rivets in mine. It is a sprung saddle, which helps a little but honestly I find it to be literally a PITA. I will be replacing it with Brooks really soon. 

Other components

Grips are by Schwinn. Color-matched with tires. I think they are good enough. I may change them to something else but I don't feel like paying $100 for some fancy Brooks leather grips. The bike comes with some some cheap plastic pedals with reflectors. They do the job so far. Maybe some metal ones would be better but I am going to leave these until they fall apart.

There are also fenders, made of metal. The rear one is a bit shorter than many city bike fenders. I read many comments that cheap bikes come with terrible fenders that are wobbly, soft, bend easily, etc. The Schwinn ones are pretty good, I think. They seem to be quite rigid as I can't really bend them by hand. They stay firm on bike and don't wobble. We will see in the long run.

The rear rack is really a great looking, chrome-coated piece of steel. It looks lightweight, has a mousetrap-like spring clamp on top and some short, vertical rods positioned down (These will help securing bungee cords). It has a red safety reflector installed in the back (I will put some rear light there in the future). It is a nice rack for my daily commuting since I can put my panniers on it and since I never really stuff them anyway (Just some keys, wallet, phone, lunch, some papers), a lightweight rack would be totally sufficient. For family rides with Dr.J. in the back (In a Co-Pilot seat), this rack would be too weak. This is not an issue for me as I can put on this bike the heavy duty rack from Elka's bike. 

Conclusions
The good:
+ nice geometry, relaxed position,
+ 3-speed hub,
+ decent brakes,
+ good looking,
+ kickstand,
+ metal chain guard.

The bad:
- uncomfortable saddle,
- some frame features could be finished better,
- Schrader tube valves.

The ugly (The verdict)
Overall, I am very happy with this bike. It should serve me well for what I intend to use it. As a light commuter in a pretty good weather, it should work very well (And you can read here that this is what my commute is like). Can it replace a proper heavy-duty commuter/transportation bike? Definitely, NOT! Here is why:
- poor saddle,
- too weak rack,
- no mounts for the front rack,
- no full chain guard (chain will get messy in mud and rain),
- fenders with no splash guards,
- rim brakes (worse in mud and rain),
- welded-on kickstand (What if it breaks off?),
- no lights.
As you can see, not a chance. If you want a serious commuter bike, you bike-commute EVERY day, you bike for a case of beer every weekend, you smile in rain and you just LOVE New England snow blizzards, then get a proper heavy-duty commuter bike (Dutch-style like this Pashley or Opafiets). Keep in mind that those will cost you an arm and a leg, since they are roughly 3-4 times more expensive than this Schwinn (~$1500+). Truth is, you wouldn't have to replace anything in those, and they should survive ever the worst beating. You get what you pay for.

I will be upgrading my Coffee with a rear light (to feel safer on the road with cars), and with a good leather saddle (to save my butt). I am not counting the stronger rack (for the child seat) and panniers since I have them already. Still, this will cost me total of around $550. Not bad for a simple utility bike.

Update: Read also my impressions after several upgrades and 17 months of use.

About safety again

I have just found an excellent post by James Schwartz from TheUrbanCountry.com and I decided to write about it here since it complements well with my two previous posts. James even used the same graph to show that mandatory helmets are not the answer. He also prepared a list of action items that should be done in order to improve safety of urban cycling, instead of mandatory helmets. I liked this list so much that I decided to re-post it here:

• Reduce the speed limit on streets that are shared with cyclists (in North America, most city streets have a posted limit of 50km/h and motorists usually drive faster than this)

• Build infrastructure to segregate cyclists from fast-moving automobiles

• Raise awareness about cyclists through driver education

• Modify traffic laws to take bicyclists into consideration and enforce the laws for both motorists and cyclists

• Restrict automobiles from turning right on red lights at certain intersections

• Build traffic signals that accommodate cyclists (especially for safe left-hand turns at dangerous intersections)

• Build bike boxes to help prevent cyclists from being squeezed at tight intersections

How to discourage people from cycling?

There are days when we all feel sometimes discouraged and refuse to cycle. It can happened for numerous reasons: inclement weather like a heavy downpour or extreme cold, aggressive drivers who would like to see us rather using sidewalks than occupying a precious part of "their" road or even a poor quality equipment like a bicycle that is too uncomfortable to ride.

But what method would we use in order to effectively encourage masses of cyclists to leave their bikes at home? We would have to ask Australians:

Source: http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1194.html
See also: http://www.cyclehelmets.org/1020.html

What happened after 1991 that suddenly Australians decided to stop cycling? (Well, not completely stop, but being on a rise with the cycling-to-work trend, they essentially went back to the levels of 1970s). Whatever they did was very effective since in most states of Australia number of cyclists went down by over 30% within a single year!

It turned out that the introduction of mandatory bicycle helmet laws in 1991 was a real killer to number of cyclists on Australian roads. People started hating cycling, businesses started to lose customers and going bankrupt, and cycle-to-work scheme nearly ceased to exist when more cyclists chose leisure cycling instead.

You may think that at least it should be now safe to cycle in Australia since number of injuries should have gone down. And it did, but mostly due to a reduced number of cyclists. However, number of head injuries remained almost unchanged, despite of a strictly enforced helmet law. The costly legislation resulted in no savings and indirect promotion of a more sedentary lifestyle.

The government tried to encourage Australians to revisit cycling by, e.g. opening a bike sharing program in Melbourne in 2010. The city installed 50 stations with 600 bikes but after first 4 months of operation the system attracted less than 650 bikers. Interestingly, the city of Dublin, Ireland introduced a similar system a year earlier (40 station, 400 bikes) and it has became increasingly popular since, with over 47000 users within the first 12 months and plans to expand the system up to 5000 bikes by 2015.

On the contrary, the Melbourne program is on decline and may share the fate of New Zealand's Auckland bike sharing system that was closed in 2010 after reaching only 50 rental a day. As you may have guessed, Both Australia and New Zealand require all cyclists to wear helmets, while Ireland does not. In fact, 85% of surveyed people in Brisbane said that the helmet law was the main reason why they didn't use the system.

Knowing this, I wonder what sort of future our new Boston Hubway sharing program has, since it requires all users to wear a helmet as well.

Source: http://www.thehubway.com/safety