zacster

Rust... See above, 29 YEAR OLD STEEL Davidson. It still looks new. Rode it for about 7 years in the PNW liquid sun, and 22 years here in the big apple. 'nuff said.

CliftonGK1

This is why you use Framesaver or linseed oil on a new steel frame. I rode a steel Stumpjumper for 15 years through Ohio winters (snow, slush, lots of road salt), then 3 more years here in the PNW and just gave the bike to a co-worker a couple years ago. He's still riding it without any problems.

TruckerMike

Trouble is, how to get the framesaver all over the frame internals? How would you know if you missed a spot, or when to re-apply (this isn't plug an forget stuff)? This is why it's a compromise. We're still back to the weight of steel for the equivalent stiffness and durability. If you ever got it as light as ti, it would be much more fragile. So now we're back cost being the reason for commuting on steel.

The trouble with answering the OP's questions with: 'my retrogrouch 20 yr old Davison' is the perfect PNW bike is this: if that Davison is perfect, why not any 10sp from 20 yrs ago? What makes that bike perfect other that it hasn't failed and you got if for a song? Moveover, if you haven't pulled the bb or the headset in 10 years, how do you know if the thing isn't rotting from the inside? If you haven't tried anything else in 10 yrs, how do know if the steel is flexing like a wet noodle?

zacster

It's DaviDson. It was built in the PNW and it was ridden in the PNW. Just last June I pulled the BB and repacked it. There was no rust, just crud. The bike does not flex any more than normal, I ride it all the time, my son rides it too.

Why do you assume I haven't done anything to the bike in 10 years? Obviously I have. Velomax hasn't been around that long, I have relatively new Keo pedals on it, the saddle is new, the seatpost is carbon, the brakes and levers are new. And I didn't get it for a song either. I paid what was considered a small fortune for the bike at the time.

Or why do you think I haven't tried anything else in 10 years? My other bike is carbon fiber from 2007. Plenty stiff, stiffer than any steel bike I've ever been on, and I've been on lots of them. Do the math, the bike is 29 years old and I'm the original owner. I wasn't in diapers when I bought it.

Bekologist

These are not good pictures of the bike necessarily but nice pictures, of one of my perfect PNW bikes - This is my British lightweight racer style upright, a bastard gentlemans' shrouded speed demon built on a Crosscheck frame with a road triple, mountain rear drivetrain and the stoutest rim brakes around.

This is running Nokian Hakkepillittas on the first morning of the great Seattle snows of 2008.

Bogester 

I believe the rust issue is a red herring. Have you ever seen a frame so rusted you couldn't ride it? Have you ever seen a frame break because of rust? I've seen 50 year old frames left out in fields that could still get you down the road...(note: I wouldn't be doing any jumping contests on them :^). I have seen ocean bikes, or bikes that have traveled salted roads, that look pretty crusted but I really don't think PNW rain is going to cause any bike frame to crumble within several decades.

Sixty Fiver

Just spent a week in Portland and found that the Twenty I sent ahead (and left there) was ideal for handling the urban landscape, terrain, and rather wet weather.

It also went up the mountain and made several zoobomb runs including the hellway.

I upgraded the wheels and brakes and lowered the gearing so it would handle the hills better as it will be used as a bike for guests as well as the girl's B bike.

Bent Ben

Catrike Road towing a BOB Yak trailer...the dog loves it!

When its wet and the leaves are out, the Bacchetta goes indoors on a trainer and the cat comes out to play

TruckerMike

So then we're back to: ask 100 people, you'll get a 100 answers. Nobody is saying why there's is the perfect PNW bike, just that it IS their PNW bike. Again, not much of an answer, but rather just a ride- whatcha-brung roll call.

CliftonGK1

If you look at them all, there are some things that are fairly common among most (not all) of the PNW bikes, whether they're commuter rides or not.

Fenders, tires wider than 25mm, and some low gears for the hills.
The PNW is a pretty vast area with a widely variable climate and terrain, so you're not going to find 1 bike that is "the best" for the entire PNW. A mid-70 inch gear ratio singlespeed makes a great city commuter in Portland. I wouldn't try to mash that up the 25% grades coming up from the Seattle waterfront. Riding in eastern Washington may entail a lot of rural dirtpack and chipsealed roads unless you want to ride on the interstate, but you don't need a CX bike with 38s to ride around Vancouver, BC. Except in the winter, when everything from Bellingham and north is covered in snow... but it's only raining in Bellevue, so you don't.

Andy_K 

Maybe that's the answer. The perfect PNW bike is the bike that you're riding. It's soooo much better than any bike hanging in a garage collecting dust. Of course, this is not unique to the PNW.

Anyway, some criteria have been given and I suspect we agree on most of them:


PdxGecko
------------------------------------
stable ride
fast handling
Comfortable
gearing to get up the hills
gearing to keep a reasonable speed on the flats
no gears, no derailleurs no hassles


lonesome steve
------------------------------------
good fender clearance
can handle the occasional dirt road adventure


Tourmalet
------------------------------------
siped tires
fenders
mud flaps
shouldn't cost a whole lot
(then admits to owning a really great bike which likely meets none of these criteria)


Wildwood
------------------------------------
PNW manufactured


BGrayvy
------------------------------------
full fenders


Andy_K
------------------------------------
can use it in a muddy cyclocross race
a tank ready to roll in eight months of constant rain
a good bike for long distance rides in our beautiful summers


TruckerMike
------------------------------------
lighter frame for hills
something that won't corrode in rain
700 wheels
fenders/larger tires
brakes as strong as your tires will support without excessive skidding
custom fit


Sixty Fiver
------------------------------------
handling the urban landscape, terrain, and rather wet weather
handle the hills
(I don't want as to speculate how to translate this into concrete criteria, but I think the other lists point this way.)



So, if I may attempt to consolidate these into a single list....

siped tires
full fenders
mud flaps
PNW manufactured
light frame
700c wheels
support for large tires
cyclocross race-ready


And a few comments...

I like "stable ride, fast handling, comfortable, etc." I'm also in favor of mothers and apple pie.

We've clearly beaten "won't corrode in rain" to death, and IMO eliminated it as a major issue.

I think "gears to get up the hills" and "gears to go fast on the flats" are rider-specific and easily customizeable for anyone or nearly any bike.

I like "shouldn't cost a whole lot" but I think it gets trumped by PNW manufactured.

I also like "no gears, no derailleurs no hassles" and so a frame that can be converted to ss/fg when desired but also handles gears is a nice bonus.

I'm going to pull a Grant Petersen and claim that most people don't really need a custom frame to get a good fit, but only because I think that there's some reasonable limit to cost in even an ideal bike.

Did I arbitrarily omit anything else?

Anyway, after a bit of processing, I give you the perfect PNW bike:

Cielo Cross

Sixty Fiver

Clifton -

It is always nice to visit other cities and my time in Portland was really interesting from a riding perspective... every kind of bike was represented except mountain bikes which I saw very few of.

Coming from a higher altitude was really noticeable from a performance standpoint as I felt that even on a rather heavy and loaded up folder I was was ripping up the east and west side of Portland with relative ease (despite having a nasty cold). Other people may have found this to be more laborious but the gearing on the bike was already adjusted for those long rides up and down the east side.

I saw a lot of fixed gear bikes that all seemed to be set up with reasonable gearing, just about every bike had fenders, I saw a great number of folders, and old electro-forged Schwinns were also abundant.

There were also a lot of Dutch bikes and bakfiets cargo bikes to be seen and a higher number of high end and custom built rides were also seen on the streets... bikes with 3 speed internal hubs are not as common as 7 and 8 speeds and I understand 3 speed bikes do not sell nearly as well.

The most common tyre seemed to be the Schwalbe Marathon... it seems like everyone was running them and I found the Marathons to work extremely well in the rain and they dealt with the high number of leaves on the streets which are slippery as hell.

With Portland's short blocks I appreciated a low 1st for quick acceleration off the line... when you have a dozen bikes waiting at a light you also want to get away quickly as to not interfere with the bike flow.

Anyone living at the higher reaches would probably appreciate a geared bike as the climbs are not steep but they go on endlessly... I met the owner of Clever Cycles and he and his wife have a bakfiets with a Stoke Monkey to give a power assist on the long climb to their house.

And you really want good brakes... with the type of weather the PNW sees discs are really the way to go to preserve rims which can wear out in a season.

One day I will come ride in Seattle...

mattm

My "good enough" PNW bike, Surly Pacer:

Bekologist

ah, I hope to be building up a Pacer in british racing green once they become available.

going to be the front rack'd rando bike since my smoothie ES now sports a carbon fork....

lonesomesteve

Wow, that's a beautiful shot, Matt. And a beautiful bike.

lbear

Beautifully summarized Andy. I did however have to google "siped tires". (new to me!)
I think this thread is great. Many variations on a common theme. All great in their own way.
I was already leaning toward a steel cyclocross frame to build up. So far this is confirming it. Now which one....??

jdeane4

How stable is the Pacer with a front bag? I saw someone make a rando bike out of a Cross Check. Whats you opinion?

dminor 

The perfect PNW bike:

Frame from a Pac. NW company based in Ferndale; tested and perfected on the gnarliest trails in the region. Bristling with components designed in the Pac. NW (Vancouver, B.C.); tested and refined in the granddaddy of test-beds - - the 'Shore:

sportridertex

Fenders,, something with Fenders, I just moved to Vancouver,WA from Dallas/Fort Worth in Sept 09, and I've installed Fenders on my TREK SU100 already, this is my WET weather rider.

knobster

Well, from what I've found in Portland, it's anything cheap, fenders and easily replaceable. Any bike of value, it seems, will be stolen if not stored inside when not being ridden.

Oregon Southpaw

No. I do not own the perfect Pacific Northwest bike.

I'm about a 0.5/10 on the bicycle-mechanic continuum so I try to keep my bikes as de-grimed as possible so I don't have to get into the scary world of repacking headsets, hubs, BB-maintenance, etc.¹

Withdrawal is kicking in: I'm planning to set the roadbike on the trainer for most of the winter to keep it functional and not as slopped up. I got a ride in yesterday but it was a full 30-minute wipedown afterwards. I'm hoping for a ride tomorrow too but there's just no getting around the fact that it will be wet.

I have an entry-level Giant mountain bike that has been commuterized for rainy riding, but I have to say, riding all winter is not really that fun (at least as it was the first few years I did it). I almost like it better when its straight-up steady raining than when its dry and the roads are still wet. Less grime. I also strongly dislike putting on the jacket, pants, rain boots, then taking them off, wiping them down, folding them away.

I'm still on the prowl for a full-fender accepting fixie rainbike. But finding donors isn't exactly easy in this part of the country.

¹Mechanicry is part of the journey, of course, and fortunately I have a grime-destroyed project to learn on this winter.

16v

came into this thread thinking I'd see a Transition or something similar on the first page. I'm suprised it took this long.
very nice bike

mattm

Thanks, Steve! The bike is so comfy too.

I think it's stable enough, but I wouldn't be serving tea on the handlebar bag top or anything.. I use a big Ostrich bag and when it's loaded I can ride no-handed at speed - I think most of that comes down to balance more than wheel flop and fork rake, though those are of course factors.

I see more Cross Checks on brevets, I'm guessing since it fits wider tires/fenders.

HardyWeinberg

Same here; cascadia fenders + reliable lighting!

dminor 

Thanks! Ya, I think it's mostly roadies, tourers and commuters here.