Originally Posted by
MEversbergII
Always wanted to own one of these, though I'd think the two major inclines on my way home from work would make it not a practical commuter in my case. I did not know the Dutch chain case was actually non-metallic bodied; what's the deal with that? Are the metallic / plastic ones an English thing?
I don't know exactly, but I believe the classic English steel chaincase was an oil bath to protect the chain. Somewhere in the 20's chain technology changed and could do with much less oil, so they didn't need to hold oil but just had to keep the water and dirt out. I've always wondered why enclosing the chain had to be that complicated with it beeing quite vulnerable too, but the modern plastic ones don't seem to last longer, on the contrary, I see a lot of them with a corner missing.
Has anyone ever made these out of lighter frame materials, such as titanium or aluminum? Or even higher grade steel that can be butted? Seems like you could still have considerable hauling strength on those for less weight, though I suppose they'd cease to be "bomb proof".
Most new bikes here are aluminium. But aluminium works better with wider tubing and that fits into the fashion of very sturdy looking bikes with fatter tyres, often an extra top tube and racks up front and on the rear. So in the end the weight loss is little, from about 23 kg to 18 kg.
I don't know. I think bike weight is overrated but not irrelevant outside flat lands. I don't care because it's only a small part of the total weight, weight only part of the total effort and depending on the steepness, and because weight works the other way around too, but the inclines are short here, so I get the reward very soon after the effort. So I guess it depends on the length and steepness of the inclines, you could put the extra kilo's on your current bike and try.