Gears?

[Rickshaw Phil]

Yes but now I have a dilemma cos the Dawes are pretty lol... Mr Puddles peered and just rolled his eyes and then went pale and said how much more than the other one lol

Oops, sorry about that.

Good job I didn't mention Pashley.

 

[Puddles]

I have peered at the Pashley Princess, that was when Mr Puddles knew he was doomed when we walked in to Halfords and I said ooh look a Pashley Princess Sovereign I believe his words were "Oh shoot you know the names of these bikes & can recognise them", then he looked at the price tag and went v.v. quiet then said "and you used to be so cheap to run"

 

[Pat "5mph"]

@Puddles Phil is right about the weight and the gearing.
I have recently acquired the bike you see in my avatar, it's a pretty bike, single speed (no gears), very heavy. A poser's bike
You can wear a skirt riding it, never needs cleaned or lubed, hardly any maintenance necessary due to the hub brakes and full chain guard.
Although I made sure I could manage my daily work/town commute before buying it, I don't think I could tow a loaded shopping trailer up a hill with this bike.
I too tend to use just one or 2 gears on my 5 speed bike (much lighter) or maybe 6 on my 21 speed (quite heavy bike) but this one really makes the legs work!
For the kind of riding you do, you are better off with a basic hybrid imo.
Of course you could have 2 bikes, one for posing, one for heavy duty

Points to consider if you go for dutch style:
you might have to walk some hills
changing the back wheel in case of a puncture is a bit more fiddly with hub gears, get the bike mechanic to show you, even better, do it once with him checking over you
check if the back wheel can take a trailer hitch: mine doesn't, at least not the hitch I'm using on the hybrid.
the very upright position is hard work with a headwind
the curved handlebars feel a bit cramped, I'm getting sore elbows after a week of riding my paper bike.

Good luck!

 

[Puddles]

Points to consider if you go for dutch style:
you might have to walk some hills
changing the back wheel in case of a puncture is a bit more fiddly with hub gears, get the bike mechanic to show you, even better, do it once with him checking over you
check if the back wheel can take a trailer hitch: mine doesn't, at least not the hitch I'm using on the hybrid.
the very upright position is hard work with a headwind
the curved handlebars feel a bit cramped, I'm getting sore elbows after a week of riding my paper bike.

Good luck!

Thanks @Pat "5mph"

All that is very useful information, the trailer hitch was one of the questions I was going to mail them about.

The hills the way to the PYO Veg Shop & the Supermarket is all uphill, but it is one of those you don't really notice hill and most people are surprised when I tell them it is up hill they assume it is flat, the other hills I encounter are 1 down the village (that when I was wee, cars used to have issues getting up - I do not cycle up it, if no cars or boats get in my way and I get up a huge turn of speed I can sort of get about 1/8th up it normally ( it is a very steep short hill) so no change there, in the country park we also walk up the hill from the beach too

The punctures, hmm since using those slimey innertubes & getting decent tyres I resolved the constant puncture problem, it is something I would most likely ask the LBS to do when they put the bike together to put slimey tubes on and also ask for a quick lesson on how to, now that I know it is not normal.


One of the reason I want an upright is I tend to ride sat up straight and find the handlebars far too low for me even on the highest setting I have short little legs but a long upper body when I am nearer purchasing time I shall try some out hopefully somewhere that will let me have a cycle around the car park or shop

 

[Pat "5mph"]

If you make friends with your local bike shop he/she will let you test drive a bike. Sometimes they have second hand ones similar to the one you fancy buying, it might be useful to you to try one, even if it's not the exact bike you want to buy.

 

[RedFeend]

Cos he was a very fat Squidgey baby hence Squidge

Ah like our squirrel then, who gets fat on my peanuts. We have a running battle. He/she (how do you tell from a distance) sneaks in and prises the wire apart on the feeder and every time I see him I chase him away brandishing a bamboo cane. Don't care what the neighbours think. Sometimes I'm in Lycra, sometimes my dressing gown, yelling 'Ill get you you 'orrible grey rat' or similar. Must look even more ridiculous as I can't run. A left over from an old spinal injury. I sort of lurch like Quasimodo.

Sorry that's nothing to do with cycling :-)

 

[tyred]

For pottering around, I would consider a 20kg with 3 gears perfectly useable. I do it myself in a lumpy area.

The trick is to ask the supplying dealer to fit the biggest sprocket available, would be 22t for a Sturmey although the Sachs 24t will fit. With low enough gearing, these type of bikes are very pleasant to ride.

Unfortunately, a lot of 3 speed and single speed bikes leave the factory with time trial gearing and are murder to ride as a result.

 

[Shortmember]

As far as i'm concerned you can never have too many gears on a bike.Even if you rarely need to
change gear on your everyday riding trips it's still comforting to know that, if a hill or a strong headwind
suddenly pops up in front of you, you've got the lower gears to tackle them. The dutchie 8 speed looks like a bargain for the price.

 

[Puddles]

Turns out 2 ladies at Mr Puddles work have Dutchie's - a 3 speed & 8 speed and they do a 10 mile commute on them daily Mr Puddles spoke to them and they said the weight is not an issue to them and they do some hills too, the 8 speed lady said she found the bigger hills no problem but the 3 speed lady said she found tough going so I think perhaps the 8 speed it will be if I go for Dutchie. They also volunteered their bikes for a test ride around too so yay!

 

[RedFeend]

Turns out 2 ladies at Mr Puddles work have Dutchie's - a 3 speed & 8 speed and they do a 10 mile commute on them daily Mr Puddles spoke to them and they said the weight is not an issue to them and they do some hills too, the 8 speed lady said she found the bigger hills no problem but the 3 speed lady said she found tough going so I think perhaps the 8 speed it will be if I go for Dutchie. They also volunteered their bikes for a test ride around too so yay!

That is very decent of them. Good luck. I hope you find the bike you like best. Of course after riding them, you might decide on something completely different! The World is your bike oyster. So many models to choose from !

Let us know what you end up with in due course (you said something about filling the piggy bank first...............can't you just raid Squidge's & Maggot's and pop in an IOU).

 

[Puddles]

Let us know what you end up with in due course (you said something about filling the piggy bank first...............can't you just raid Squidge's & Maggot's and pop in an IOU).

LOl If Only, I am not good at spending pennies on myself especially larger sums of pennies, but yes the pennies are being saved Mr Puddles insists I will have a new bike and one that I really really want

 

[Sara_H]

I can't help noticing the weights of the Dutchie bikes. 19kg for the 3 speed and 20kg for the 8 speed.

If it's the style you're after, could I suggest these from Dawes. Still decent quality and quite a bit lighter.

Another point is that having toyed with the idea of building up a bike with the Sturmey Archer X-RD8 hub I suspect you may find the bike overgeared on 700c wheels unless they have fitted the biggest sprocket and smallest chainwheel possible. This is because it's designed for small wheel bikes so the gearing is a bit OTT for those with larger wheels.

They are very pretty bikes!

 

[Sara_H]

@Puddles the Dawes bikes are available at Evans if you have one near, they will let tou have a test ride if you take some photo id.

@Pat "5mph" I was wondering about the bike in your profile pic, is it new?

 

[Sara_H]

Yes but now I have a dilemma cos the Dawes are pretty lol... Mr Puddles peered and just rolled his eyes and then went pale and said how much more than the other one lol

Of course, you could get the cheaper dawes and provide your own skitguard. The crocheted ones are lovely.

 

[Puddles]

Of course, you could get the cheaper dawes and provide your own skitguard. The crocheted ones are lovely.

But they also do not have the light thingies :-/ I am peering and I like a lot of the other models here & there but I cannot find one that has all the stuff the Dutchies do, the lights, skirt guards, etc especially the lock I love the lock, it is probably rubbish for security but I don't care I still like that too.