Thread: Step throughs
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Old 06-15-19, 09:54 AM
  #35  
FrontFive
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I started this thread almost a year ago and I am happy to report that I have just completed the build of a step through of my own. I built up a commuter bike at the beginning of the year because I did not have anything suitable for commuting on among all my bikes. However I selected a diamond frame because I couldn't find a suitable step through frame, which are really difficult to get hold of. I was happy on the diamond framed bike...until we had an issue with our car in March. It's a good car but an older one, and German so relatively expensive maintenance is a fact of ownership. This issue looked like it might be very expensive so it gave me cause to consider our transportation options, which included sticking with this car, getting a new car, or an electric one, but in the end we decided that we would do a 3 month experiment of living without a car.

What I quickly found was that my panniers just would not cut it on their own as I needed to carry more things to make shopping convenient. I looked at front racks but the bike had carbon forks with no rack mounts, so I put a large basket on the back. The basket has been fantastic. It swallows large items (cartons of milk, boxes of cat food, etc) easily and provides handy overspill if I buy too much for my panniers. But I now had a problem because swinging my leg around behind the seat and over the basket became very difficult, especially as I prefer to commute in my work trousers. I briefly experimented with other methods of mounting but none of them was easy. Consequently I decided a change of frame was necessary to support my new lifestyle.

I was lucky enough to find a cheap Cube step-through frame in a big enough size for me (I'm 6'3"). It fits tyres up to 700x2.1", which is great because I love fat tyres (I have a Surly ICT too). It didn't come with a fork but I managed to source a steel one designed for a rigid mountain bike. I have built several wheels but I decided instead to get some professionally built as they will no doubt be (and are) better built than anything I could manage. It has Ryde Andra 321 rims and a Son dynamo - I thought this was a sensible investment as I'm going to be relying on this bike all year round. It is the most practical bike I've ever owned. It's far from the fastest but I don't care about that. It's still fun to ride and I love loading it up and carrying things. I think a trailer is the next thing on the agenda. Anyway, this is it....

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