What's a Good Urban Commuter Bike?
My bike was stolen today from Baltimore's Penn Station, where I had ridden it to take the MARC train to D.C. for a business meeting. I'm sure that many readers of this blog have had similar experiences. I'm not writing to whine -- I expected it sooner or later. I think I got six trips to the train station before it was stolen -- pretty good for Baltimore.
It was a fairly nice bike, but I've had it for almost ten years and there were some nagging mechanical problems with it that I couldn't seem to solve. A few months ago, when I began biking to the train station, someone gave me an old Schwinn for free, and I thought I would get that fixed up as a commuter bike. Then I changed my mind -- with bike shops as busy as they are now, I figured I'd end up spending a lot of money and waiting a long time to get my "second" bike fixed up. So, instead, I decided to ride the bike I had until it got stolen. Fate has taken it's course.
So the purpose of this post is to solicit your recommendations for my next bike -- a good urban commuter bike. It has to be pretty rugged. I occasionally ride on unpaved trails like the C&O Canal Trail, and I have occasion to ride across an open, unpaved lot in my neighborhood. But the Baltimore streets between my house and Penn Station are rougher than either of those. Another thing I'm looking for is fairly narrow handlebars -- my last bike seemed too wide, both in the city and on trails.
The theft part makes it interesting. A lot of bike enthusiasts are into expensive equipment. But, the nicer the bike, the more it's a target for theft. So my next bike should be something I can afford to lose, or else I also need good recommendations for defeating potential thieves.
A few details about the theft: When I go in to D.C., I'm not one of the earliest commuters. When I get to Penn Station, the few bike racks are filled up. I've always been able to lock my bike to a lamp post right outside the station, but the lamp posts are too big to use the "U" lock. So I lock it with a cable and padlock. It's a small cable, but it would require bolt cutters to cut it. In the past, I've used the U lock to lock the frame to the back wheel. I figured that would make the bike less desirable. I forgot to do that today, and that might have been crucial. This was a daylight theft in a crowded place. Thieves would still just have to snip the cable to free the bike, but if the U-lock were on it, they'd have to carry the bike away, rather than walk or ride it.
The only larger point I want to make with this post is that providing adequate bike parking is not just a gesture to acknowledge bike riders, and it's not just a convenience. We need good bike parking to avoid losing our bikes.
On the other hand, replacing that bike will cost less than one of my average car-repair bills.
So, who can recommend a good commuter bike?
Joe Chapline is web manager for Arlington County Commuter Services.
