I’m the founder of elephant (8.3 million readers/month, Google Analytics, voted #1 nationally on twitter for #green coverage, twice). Host of Walk the Talk Show. And I’m an everyday cyclist (as you’ll know from my Instagram, @waylonlewis).

 

What should my next bicycle be?

After five years of daily abuse, winter and summer, rain and snow, my last bike, a Masi, is having constant problems. Spent a fair amount of money trying to revive it, and it’s still causing some trouble.

So, next bike?

For a daily ride, Spot Bicycle seems like a gorgeous rip-off, and highly stealable. Belt drive makes it hard to hide how stealable it is, and might ruin the beautiful hub. The two models sold locally (at University Bicycles, my bike shop for many years) that would work for daily rider would be $1,800-2,200.

So I’m looking instead at “cheap” daily ride, one’s a Civia, one’s another model I can’t remember…both come with Nexus hub, at $850. Internal hub is key for daily rider. Both come with fenders and rack, unlike the Spot. Both would need better saddles and one needs a bell and one would need a rear rack. Both have gripshift which is far preferable imho for frequent-shifting commute use–no getting stuck between shifts in intersections.

Any alt suggestions I should look at?

~

Bonus: What should we look for in a daily commuter? This: “elephant’s handy guide to buying an everyday bicycle for commuting: save money, save time, lose stress, get in shape, enjoy life.”