bikesdirect_com

I am very interested in commuting bikes. Of course, they take all forms. In England folding bikes with 20” wheels are popular. In Japan, the famous ‘shopping bike’ rules. Trekking style in France; Dutch type in --- well you get it.

But what do USA customers really like? We have several bikes that we sell to commuters; and I will post those below so that members can criticize them; I can learn a lot from what people do not like about our current bikes.

I am interested in commuting for people who want utility at under $1000; and even better if they get good durability and function under $500. I view commuter bikes as second bikes for enthusiasts or primary for those with low income. Of course, bikes with rack braze-ons and eyelets for fenders and racks.

So what do YOU like in commuter bikes [include light touring if you like]

FRAME – aluminum or high-grade steel [no Ti or CF at this level]
Traditional, compact, pedal-forward, folding, bent

FORK – Rigid; steel, aluminum, or carbon: Suspension

STEM – Quill or aheadset; if aheadset, fixed or adjustable

SEATPOST – standard or suspension

GEARS – single-speed [FW or Fixed]
3-speed internal [coaster or FW]
5-speed or 7-speed internal
Single Der 7S, 8S, 9S, 10S
Frt & RR Der 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 24, 27, 30

HUBS – ball&cone, precision

WHEELS – 20”, 24”, 26”, 700c, 29er

TIRES – slick, thread, wide, medium, narrow [pv or English]

BRAKES – V, canti, sidepull, Disc [hyd or mech]

SHIFTER – Road, Trigger, Bar-con, Stem, DT

BARS – drop, flat, special bend

Any other special ideas? I am determined to increase the number of bikes we offer that can be used by commuters for several reasons. I have added eyelets and rack braze-ons to our cyclo-cross bikes, new SS ATBs, and many road bikes. But I think there are commuters around with lots of ideas I have not thought of.

I appreciate any ideas and all input I can get

Mike

Some bikes that commuters buy are posted below; so anyone who would like can criticize these and give ideas for improvement

CigTech

Frist off I'd say that most commuters down here in Flordia ride Wal-Mart bikes. Mostly MTB and only for work commutes. Most of the commuters down here make very little money. So If you are think of getting them off Wal-Mart bikes, you LBS guys will have to start carring the cheaper bikes in the $150 to $200 range for starter bikes.

Now that I have said that. I'll give you my wants in a commuter bike. I ride faster then a normal commuter. So I like a fast road bike.

FRAME – GMC Denail, aluminum 7005 Aero Dynamic

FORK – Rigid; steel, NO Suspension

STEM – one piece

SEATPOST – standard

GEARS
Frt & RR Der 21speed, 53th front 28th to 14th back

HUBS – ball&cone

WHEELS – 700c x 28 right now

TIRES – slick, NO thread, narrow 23mm to 28mm [English, because a commuter needs to be able to air up at any gas station]

BRAKES – V

SHIFTER – Trigger

BARS – drop

Lights- front: 10 watt 6v headlight. Taillight: 5 to 7 led flasher.

Rack and storage. YES, any one that commutes needs a bag to hold they work Clothing and tools for road side fixes (flat tires and the like).

greenstork

FRAME – steel - traditional or compact, doesn't matter

FORK – Rigid; steel,

STEM – aheadset, fixed

SEATPOST – standard

GEARS – Frt & RR Der 27, 30

HUBS – precision

WHEELS – 700c

TIRES – 700C 28-32mm

BRAKES – Disc - mechanical although hydraulic would be preferred but nobody make a hydraulic disc that works with brifters.

SHIFTER – Road

BARS – drop

MillCreek

I have been waiting for this thread. I would like an aluminum frame in traditional or compact geometry with flat bars, aheadset stem, rigid front fork, 700c wheels, a Shimano Nexus 8 speed red band (I would pay a premium for this), platform pedals, mechanical disk brakes, a built in dynamo front light, installed fenders, installed rear rack, medium tires with tread and a couple of water bottle braze-ons. My requirements here are very specific to being able to do a business commute in the rainy Seattle area. This is why I would like a bike to be as corrosion-proof as possible, require little modification out of the box to meet our rainy and dark weather, be able to carry a business suit onboard, and have mechanical disk brakes to maximize stopping power in our rainy weather.

I would easily pay $ 1000 and then some for a bicycle that meets these requirements.

PS: In terms of an off-the-shelf bike that would meet many of my requirements, the Ibex Corrida Ultimate comes close. But it does not have the Nexus, fenders, lights and racks that I would need.

yes

1. If you want to sell bikes to commuters, you need to put specs of interest to commuters on website: What size tires fit with and without fenders. Close-up shots or descriptions of braze-ons for attaching a rack.

2. Lots of people like road bikes like the surly pacer, soma smoothie es as well as do-it-all cyclocross like volpe/cross-check. Sell knock-offs of those bikes.

HardyWeinberg

Is this market research? Cool!

My needs are topography-driven, so basically I need mtn bike gears to accomodate myself and the times I use a trailer. The rest is negotiable, but so far I've found my best gearing on ... a mountain bike! And I retrofitted a racerboy Felt flatbar roadbike to give it more function (it seemed more functional than Felt's actual roadbikes w/ drops, 'cause it had eyelets for fenders/rack, but I was wrong).

So, mtn bike gearing, rack and (full) fender eyelets. I think something like the Bianchi Volpe has all that stock but I can't run out and buy one of those right now. Rasslin' w/ the derailers on the Felt had led me to believe that hub gearing is the way to go, but it seems like only a rohloff has the full range I would want, also $$. But the mtn bike I mostly ride has muuuuch more reliable shifting (is that just an 8 vs 9 spd thing?), so I am content for now.

mtn bike/wide gearing (~20-100 gear-inches, bigger gears fine but not at the cost of the bottom end), rack and fender eyelets, bulletproof shifting. I think that's about it for me.

walterk46

The Windsor Tourist that you offer is pretty close to what I want, but these are the changes I would make:

Tires: Kevlar belted tires for puncture resistance. For commuting in the city, flat resistance is a big deal. 28-32 mm wide. Reflective sidewall for extra bonus points.

Shifters: Good quality bar end shifters. Practically no bikes locked up outside my office have $200+ shifter-brake combos. At least not for long.

Brakes: Aero levers with cross-type interrupters. Keep the cantis. Maybe the new Tektro R556's if you really want a sidepull.

Fenders. Ones that stay put. Just ordered a new set of Freddy HC's because my current ones keep working loose at the stays.

Gearing. No triple chainwheel. I don't need to climb or descend the Rockies. Right now I run a single 44T chainring up front. If I ran a double, the most the big ring would be is 48T. I really didn't spend much time in the 53T ring when I had one. [edit] I see from the previous post that gearing is really location dependent. I'm in Chicago, which is about as flat as it gets.

PaulH

Here is my philosophy: a commuting bike is a car substitute. You use it where congestion is such that riding is less hassle than driving. Therefore, it should match a car in terms of reliability, maintenance interval, and lack of preparation required for use. Exposed drive trains went away in 1910 on cars. So did fenderless wheels. If you have to change clothing before and after each ride, pump the tires every few days, or change brake pads every few weeks, it's too much hassle to be a good car substitute. I don't want to have to fiddle. Four key words -- hop on and go. I would not consider any of the pictured bikes remotely suitable for my kind of use.

FRAME – Aluminum or steel. Traditional upright -- think Raleigh 3 speed. I don't have to hunch up in my car -- why must I do it on a bike? Relaxed geometry for riding in high winds. Alternatively, think Dutch, but lighter.

FORK – Rigid; steel or aluminum

STEM – Aheadset, fixed

SEATPOST – standard. Sprung seats are fine, however, especially when hammering over ice ruts in the winter.

GEARS – Minimum 7-speed internal, ideally Rohloff. I want to ride to work with minimum effort and not get sweaty. I may want to tow a child. I don't want to adjust anything or oil anything, anymore than I would with my car. I'd like a full chaincase, but will settle for anything that protects a $2,000 suit.

HUBS – ball&cone, precision

WHEELS – 700c, 29er. Must have hub dynamo. I don't want to plug my car in at night; why should I have to plug my bike in.

TIRES – 32-40 mm slick, same puncture resistance as car tire. I would never want a car that got a flat every 500 miles, and I put less milage on my car than on my bike. Schwalbe Marathon Plus meet this spec. Nokian studs for winter.

BRAKES – Drum or disk. Rim brakes wear the rims rapidly on salted, sandy roads. Pads wear out even more quickly and require fiddling. I don't want to fiddle.

SHIFTER – Trigger. Twist shifters can be slippery in the rain. After a few thousand miles, the rubber ribbing wears off and the surface gets slick.

BARS – Traditional cruiser, North Road, Albatross, or priest.

I have a Kettler Silverstar, modified with a hub dynamo. It fits these specifications and has worked well for 6 years and 15,000 miles. I've got maybe $1,200 in it. Given that car parking costs several thousand a year here, shelling out $2,000 or more for a bike would be chump change.

Minimum hassle, low maintenance, suitability for year-round riding, ability to carry a load on occasion. Think upscale Dutch, with gears and lighter weight, because DC is much hillier than Amsterdam.


Paul

j3ns

My needs:

Frame: steel
Hubs: Internally geard rear hub (nexus 8 speed red-line ideally), dynamo front hub.
Suspension: not for me
Wheels: I would choose 26" because of choises for studded tyres where I live.
Brakes: Mechanical disks

Then I would of course need to add lights,fenders and racks.

chipcom 

FRAME – high-grade steel, traditional geometry

FORK – Rigid; steel

STEM – Quill or aheadset; if aheadset, fixed

SEATPOST – standard

GEARS – Compact Double 50-34, 12-28 cassette, 8-9sp (I'd opt for a SS if I lived in flatter terrain)

HUBS – precision

WHEELS – 700c, heavy duty without the heavy, 32sp front, 36sp rear

TIRES – 28-35c capable....Conti Contacts 700x32 are my favs

BRAKES – good ole cantis with coolstop pads

SHIFTER – Bar-con or DT

BARS – drop, like salsa short-n-shallows, or a trekking/butterfly bar

Full fenders w/mudflaps

lightweight rear rack

Brooks Team Pro saddle

Shimano M424 pedals

I'm probably not a good choice for the 'average' bike commuter. Indeed, I have 4 different bikes that I use for both commuting and recreation, so I can choose the right bike for the job and conditions at the time.

AndrewP

Adjustable stems (quill or threadless) are good for finding the optimum riding position. So you should carry loaners, and then fit the correct fixed stems after customers have found their favorite position.

The rack on the windsor is nice, but one that extends further back may be necessary to avoid heel strike.

No nobby tires.

rule

The more that I commute the more I find that a fixed gear or single speed road bike fits my needs. Light. Fast. Simple.

jimmuter

You mean something like this:

caloso

Every commuter is different and most of us have set up a bike for our unique commute requirements, so I won't go into specifics. But I think the classic touring bike, such as the Trek 620, is a good start:



Traditional but relaxed geometry, long chainstays, braze-ons for racks and fenders, high quality steel. Personally, I commute on a fixed gear but lots of folks have hills and bad knees so they'll want gears. How about going back to the Campy 1010 long horizontal dropout to accomodate both fixed/ss or derailleurs?

Artkansas 

Being a life long bicycle commuter, I find my needs have changed as my commute has changed. Usually, a 30 year old 10 speed is my mount of choice. For any commute of 10 miles or less without tall hills, it is great. But one commute had half its length through a nature preserve. For that I used a mountain bike. For another I had 17 miles of mesa and canyon to commute. I chose a nice road bike. Right now my commute is hilly, rough and short. I use a mountain bike converted for street use with street slicks, fenders, racks and lights. I'm contemplating my next commuter and it will likely be a recumbent.

fender1

The real issue is that everyone's needs for commuting are different and off the shelf bikes routinely need signifigant changes to meet the new owner's requirements. You should offer one frame style with different forks (Like Kogswell does) so the owner could choose the style of frame that best suits their riding style. Then you could offer a selection of component suites (Internal Hub, Derailer or SS/Fg: Drop or flat bars stem lenght etc.) and ship the bike as ordered. The customer has a shop do final assembly or they do themselves. This way the customer can order a complete bike without having to consult mutiple sources for the finished product.

The Surly cross check has ben so succesful on these forums because for many folks it is a blank canvas on which to work. They build it how they like/need it and that leads to satisfaction/pride, which leads to word-of-mouth style referals to other buyers. All of the bikes you posted look fine for commuting but all would require addtional upgrades to work as everyday commuters.

I think most folks who have a legitimate interest would pay more for Exactly what they want from the begining. Also you could design and sell the componet groups seperately to people who already owned one of these "custom" bikes wanted to say try FG/SS and they would buy from you knowing everything already worked for thier specific bike.

To simply offer another selection in the low-cost chinese bike arena builds no emotional attachemnet to the product you are selling. Look at Rivendell as an example. I doubt that thier $1400 frame and fork are of a substailialy better quality that the bikes you show. Yet through specific marketing, quality products and the abiltiy for the client to feel involved in the "design" process they have created a winning combo for their target market.

Oh and I ilke steel frame touring bikes w/ internal hubs, fenders, drop or moustache bars and caliper brakes. I built the bike below as I could not find one like it off the shelf.

[IMG][/IMG]

Cyclist0383

FRAME – high-grade steel Traditional or compact


FORK – Rigid steel

STEM – aheadset fixed with a high angle (+15) for more of head up position in traffic

SEATPOST – standard

GEARS – Nexus redline 8 speed internal or SRAM X.7

HUBS – - Either ball&cone or precision with excellent seals.

WHEELS – 700c (personal preference) minimum of 32 spokes.

TIRES – 32 touring
BRAKES – V for Nexus Disc mech for SRAM X.7

SHIFTER – Trigger

BARS – Flat bar for more of a heads up position

Rack and fender brazons. Plenty of clearance for wide tires with fenders. Semi-horizontal or adjustable rear dropouts for versatility. Longish chainstays for stability and to counter heel strike when using panniers. Two water bottle brazons.

Phantoj

My idea for a good bike like this is a sort of all-rounder - a well-equipped commuter, but with enough emphasis on speed that it gives up little in real performance to a true road bike.


FRAME – Aluminum, traditional or compact, I don't care. Keep it light.

FORK – Rigid, would prefer carbon, whatever is light and strong enough

STEM – Aheadset, adjustable stem

SEATPOST – Standard

GEARS – Front and rear derailleur, triple crank with 9 or 10 speed cassette

HUBS – whatever works, Shimano preferred

WHEELS – 700c

TIRES – 28mm slick, but with room for an honest 32mm with fenders

BRAKES – Avid road mechanical discs, or V-brakes/cantis with disc mounts available. Personally, I think that if you design it for discs, you can just leave off the brake bosses for a clean look. But I'm a disc fan, others here will think it's dumb.

SHIFTER – Road STI, 105 preferred

BARS – drop


Must have adequate room for fenders. Put good "normal" wheels on them - aero section rims are OK, but they should have 32+ normal round spokes.

Lengthen the chain stays a bit for stable handling and heel clearance.

I actually have a bike that I commute on that meets most of the specs above - a Giant OCR Touring. But it's nearly 30 pounds. I'd like to see all the specs above with a weight target of 25 lbs.

CBBaron

My first preference is:
Frame: traditional steel
Fork: rigid steel
Stem: fixed threadless
Seatpost: fixed
wheels: 700c sealed cartridge bearings
tires: 35-45mm slick or semi-slick with puncture protection
brakes: disc or canti
gears: fixed
bars: drop or moustache
Also: include fenders, a rear rack mount is required, chain guards and integrated lights are not bad
I perfer my commuter to be simple and reliable but also to be efficient and agile. For a new bike I'd probably build myself a fixed gear CrossCheck.
Another posibility is a 700c bike with hub gears, disc or hub brakes (no coaster), chain guard and moustache bars. Keeps things simple and reliable but provides gears and allows coasting.
A converted MTB is not going to work for me. I see a purpose to crank forward and cruiser style commuters but my commute is long enough I perfer a lighter and faster bike.
Craig

Michel Gagnon

I'll twist the question a bit: what do I like to commute onto?

First of all, I'm somewhat traditionalist but not old fashioned, I ride on bikes with drop bars since 1970 and enjoy touring. My bicycle either has to be rather universal, and I don't want to have more than one style of bicycle. Living in Montréal also means I have potholes to deal with, but not any mountain terrain to ride on.


Frame. I prefer steel and traditional.
Some say that steel is a bit more resilient – I'm not sure – but it's certainly more crash forgiving.
I also like the top tube to be as high as possible. My touring bike has 64-cm (25") frame and I'd love to get a 66-67-cm" frame with a very short seatpost. More room for water bottles on the road.

For commutes, my older touring bike with a 62-cm frame is easier to jump onto (I'm 48 years old), but I can't put 4 large bottles in that frame. Not a problem for commuting, but a drawback when touring.

The older style of touring bikes make great commuters. They have slender chainstays and seatstays which are relatively forgiving of road imperfections. They tend to feel like a noodle when there is a lot of load on the rear rack (ex.: grocery shopping), but widening the frame to 135 mm rather than 126 mm solves that problem quite nicely.

The same comment goes for the traditional fork with a bend at the bottom. The shock absorbing property of that bend is wonderful, and as a bonus, the wheel follows the ground more closely, so one gets more adherence on ice whan with a stouter fork. I feel that riding my old bike with 700x30 tires (or my new touring bike with 700x32 tires) is as comfortable as riding an unsuspended MTB bike (1985-1990 vintage) with 26 x 2" tires.


Suspension or not?

See above. Simpler is better.

Unless one faces extremely harsh conditions, I don't think a suspension is necessary. And it adds a lot of weight.

Stem and handlebars

I really like drop handlebars. For short commutes, I don't hate the old style curved bars that were typical on 3-speed bikes. But, my short experiences with flat bars tell me they are good to give me shoulder pain and wrist pain in less than 15 minutes.

However, I like my bars to be HIGH. The tops are about level or slightly higher than the saddle, which means I need either a long quill or an uncut fork with a high-angle stem.

I also prefer the look of a quill stem, but the threadless one never squeeks. Basically, with threadless, as long as the bars are high and there are 5-10 mm of fork steerer left to raise the bars again, I'm ok. But don't even try to sell me a bike without any height adjustment left.

Gears and shifters

I had single speed when young and felt great when I got gears (at about 10 years old)
I tried fixed gear a few years ago and didn't like it. So I definitely prefer gears, and with an aging right knee, it's more of a necessity than ever.

A single rear derailleur could work on relatively flat terrain or on short commutes, especially if I were solely using the bike for commuting and other short distances. But the triple allows me to find proper gearing on flat terrain and steep hills alike, and whether I'm riding solo or pulling 80-100 kg of groceries (ex.: last weekend).

I prefer the openness of the derailleur system, but know that having 2 shifters is intimidating for many people.

My preferred shifters are bar-end shifters: close to the drops and easy to use, with visual indication right there. My second choice is with downtube shifters and STI come last. I find them hard to use from the drops and really don't like the feeling of levers that move inwards.

Wheels and tires

I'm 1.82 m tall with 90-cm inseam, so I use rather large bike frames. So 700c wheels look nicer than 26". I also prefer all bikes to have similar wheels, so I have only one spare tube to carry in my pannier. No risk of having a 700c tube in the pannier... and get stuck with a flat on a bike with 26" wheels. For me, that's the only rationale between 700c and 26".

Tire with and pattern is a more important issue.
For 3 seasons, I ride with 700x30-35 slicks. My long-time favourite has been Continental Top Touring 700x32. In Winter, I use 700x37 Nokian Hakkapelliitta on the commuter/bad weather bike and 700x37 knobbies (no studs) on the tourer/long distance bike. Let's say I generally don't ride 50-100 km on days with snow storms, icing rain...
Pressure is 100 psi in summer, 70 psi in winter.


Brakes

I don't have any disc brake, but for most of my riding conditions, it seems a solution to a non-existent problem. Well-tuned cantilever or v brakes are equally effective in dry weather and almost as good in the rain. For all-weather effectiveness, however, they need to be well tuned and equipped with Kool Stop salmon brake pads.

Because I prefer bar-end shifters, I don't see any real difference between cantilever and newer v brakes that are fitted with pads with threaded posts (v-brake style pads). I have one bike with cantis (old style, which is a pain to adjust) and two with v brakes and the brake feeling is exactly the same.
Still, minor advantages of v brakes:
- slightly cleaner look (less cable junctions);
- easier to adjust;
- the rear brake doesn't stick out in panniers or into my heel;
- on a small frame, a canti has very little room for adjustment.

So far, I have replaced only one rim because of brake wear.

Drawbacks of disc brakes:
- Need for a sturdier stiffer fork, which makes for a more bumpy ride (we have potholes in Montréal).
- Compatible racks are more expensive.


Other points

Don't forget fenders, rack and lights, preferably all permanently attached to the bike.

For the front, my preference would be for the newer Shimano dynohub with a DLumotec (LED-based) headlight. No batteries to recharge, no bulb to replace... And for the rear, either a wired one (but wiring means more mechanical problems) or the newer Planet Bike Super Flash, creatively attached behind the rear rack.

buzzman

My present commuter is an REI Novara Buzz.

My round trip is 22 miles and a mix of urban streets and a bike path. I'm riding in the Northeast and ride in the winter with studded snow tires.

I ride the early version of the bike pictured below. REI's 'improvements" include disc brakes, and double chainrings and a higher price tag-none of which I find necessary. Mine was cheaper, has V-brakes and a single chainring with 9 spd rear. My "improvements"- a rack, lights, fenders, a bell, Performance Campus pedals (spd one side- bear claw other side) and a milk crate.

I also use a Hon Helios Folder when out of town on trips for work.

I'd definitely add a steel framed traditional geometry fixed gear back into my mix if I could justify the additional storage space given the road bikes and mountain bikes I have in addition to my wife's commuting bike and mountain bike.

-=(8)=-

I dont know whether I would ever buy a dedicated commuting bike only
because I enjoy piecing together other peoples junk but if I was it would
be a 3-4-5sp internally gear/brake back wheel, drum/dyno front wheel, fenders
and 700x38 tires.....sealed bearings, short top tube, uprite drop bars.
No suspension anything , a small rack too !
If a 'commuting' bike has an open, cassette type drive train I wouldnt even
give it a second look. The same goes for carbon. Let roadies have it !
Maybe even flame coated matte type paint ?

knucklesandwich

Where are those Monocog lookalikes on your website (SS MTB's)?

I'd like to see the specs on those, as I'm currently in the mkt for a cheap SS MTB (tho not for commuting...)

ken cummings

I have commuted on all of the types of frame except "pedal-forward". All were fun but I kept coming back to the traditional frame. MTB for snow and touring bike for everything else. Fork; rigid steel except for the one aluminum bike which I kept when I upgraded. Stem: what came with the bike, has always been quill. Seatpost: standard with leather saddle even in snow. (suspension anything just seems to mean more things to fail) Gears: 10 to 70 (recumbent tandem) except for the Dahon folder 3 speed internal. Hubs: casette ball bearings when I have a choice. wheels 16" to 700s. Prefer large wheels. Little ones for folders and recumbents. Tires: 28 and above At 200 lb I want no failures on bad roads at night. 38s at the moment, 32s when they wear out. Brakes" Cantilevers amost always. Shifters: prefer Barcon. Bars: flat for short rides, drop or other for long ones. I have really heavy duty wheels so I can keep riding with one or two broken spokes until I can afford to fix them.

At the moment I am using a Bruce Gordon BLT touring bike for the commute. And if I have a problem , well my current route goes within a mile of Bruce's shop in Petaluma.

nashcommguy

Take a good long look @ fender1's conversion/rebuild and offer one exactly like it. Well, maybe a choice of colors and straight or drop bar option. Oh yeah, schrader valves instead of presta as most 'entry level' commuters aren't familiar w/t unique P.I.T.A. features of the pv's. But, beyond that it is THE commuter rig. Unless one lives in SF or the 'burgh...major hills. Maybe include a chainguard. Zerobikes in the UK offers a shaft-driven 7 sp version of what he's designed.

The shaft-drive would be an intreresting option tho there may be a weight issue.

A 700.00 limit would be good.

My rig is an 80's Fuji DelRay w/vallite frame. Sora 7sp brifter, single chainwheel(52t), 170mm cranks, wellgo dual-sided clipless, bmx spindle(110mm), stock cups w/loose bearings, stock nitto stem and hbr, cassette(12x28), stock dia-compe side pulls w/koolstop mtb pads, shimano aero brake lever(frt), specialized split ergo saddle, sun cr18 700 rims(36h rr and 32h ft), rsx hubs, dt alpine 3 spokes, kenda kwest 28mm tires, tuffy liners, Delta universal rack, Jandd saddle and seat bags, Zefal fenders, TP road morph pump. 2 niterider trailrats w/universal taillight, Cateye Sport and an assortment of rear blinkies including an older Vegas light. My girl says I look like a 'low level ufo'" at night.

Arrived at this configuration over a period of years. Trial and error, mostly. I've got an mtb version w/1.5 tires, 46t chainwheel, 11x28 cassette. Everything else is stock. Alivio shifters, etc. Use it when weather's really foul or I need a change of pace.

I think the extra spoke count for the rr wheel should maybe go as high as 40 for safety considerations when cycling under load. Even 'light touring' can easily reach 50 lbs(combined bike and gear) when adding food, water, etc. I work 2nd shift and the temp can drop 30 degrees for the ride home. I'm always amazed at the weight of the extra gear. Booties, balaclava, base layers...it adds up quickly.