Question about cruisers

DaWei said:

Hi. This may sound like a silly question, but I was just wondering- are
cruisers basically only designed for riding on perfectly flat,
perfectly smooth surfaces? Are they ill-equipped for anything else?
They look kind of cool in my view but I'm guessing that climbing a hill
or riding on anything other than a boardwalk or well-maintained road is
probably a challenge on one of those?

While multi gear bikes would provide better climbing ability and
possibly a higher top speed, they are similar to a fixed gear bike which
have only one gear. Now you need to ask yourself what kind of riding do
I plan on doing, and what kind of terrain am I likely to encounter. If
you live and ride in an area with hills you might want to consider a
bike with more gears. Just my opinion.

Ken
--
You never have the wind with you - either it is against you or you're
having a good day. ~Daniel Behrman, The Man Who Loved Bicycles

Homepage: http://kcm-home.tripod.com/

"DaWei" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi. This may sound like a silly question, but I was just wondering- are
cruisers basically only designed for riding on perfectly flat,
perfectly smooth surfaces? Are they ill-equipped for anything else?
They look kind of cool in my view but I'm guessing that climbing a hill
or riding on anything other than a boardwalk or well-maintained road is
probably a challenge on one of those?

Yes. Even those with 4 or 7 speeds are very hard to get up hills. Even with
the multiple gear hubs, they aren't geared very low, and, they are very
heavy. They are nice to have for going around a few city blocks though.

Pierre

A lot of "crusers" like the popular Elektra brand, offer certain models
with internal gearing up to 8 gears. They look just like the regular
models, but they have a larger hub and shift lever.

I think most of them are a bit ugly, but some are a bit retro fun in
the style department. The riding position isn't the best for long
distance, but for anything under five miles on fairly even
terrain--they're fine. They make a better Starbucks scoot than the
average carbon race bike, but that may vary depending on your need for
frappuccino fetching efficiency.

landotter said:

A lot of "crusers" like the popular Elektra brand, offer certain models
with internal gearing up to 8 gears. They look just like the regular
models, but they have a larger hub and shift lever.

I think most of them are a bit ugly, but some are a bit retro fun in
the style department. The riding position isn't the best for long
distance, but for anything under five miles on fairly even
terrain--they're fine. They make a better Starbucks scoot than the
average carbon race bike, but that may vary depending on your need for
frappuccino fetching efficiency.

Ah yes, I alway forget about internal geared hubs. When I think cruiser,
it is mostly the x-mart bikes I think of. I am curious if any use the 14
speed hubs.

Ken
--
You never have the wind with you - either it is against you or you're
having a good day. ~Daniel Behrman, The Man Who Loved Bicycles

Homepage: http://kcm-home.tripod.com/

The thing that slows those cruisers down the most is the tires. Now I
love whitewalls, who doesn't--but take a multispeed Electra, and swap
out the tires for something 1..25-1.5 in a higher pressure 60-90 psi,
and you'll give that bike a major speed improvement.

The only problem with that is with the cruisers that have fenders, the
skinny rubber looks a bit lonely under the wide fenders.

I wish they made 45mm wide fenders for 26" wheels, would help bikes
like the Kona Smoke from looking unproportioned.

landotter said:

The thing that slows those cruisers down the most is the tires. Now I
love whitewalls, who doesn't--but take a multispeed Electra, and swap
out the tires for something 1..25-1.5 in a higher pressure 60-90 psi,
and you'll give that bike a major speed improvement.

The only problem with that is with the cruisers that have fenders, the
skinny rubber looks a bit lonely under the wide fenders.

I wish they made 45mm wide fenders for 26" wheels, would help bikes
like the Kona Smoke from looking unproportioned.

Why not use a fat tire with low rolling resistance like the Schwalbe
Big Apple:
<http://www.schwalbetires.com/on_tour.php?Nickname=BIG%20APPLE&Image=TireImages/big_apple.gif>?

--
Tom Sherman - Fox River Valley

In article <[email hidden]>,

DaWei said:

Hi. This may sound like a silly question, but I was just wondering- are
cruisers basically only designed for riding on perfectly flat,
perfectly smooth surfaces? Are they ill-equipped for anything else?
They look kind of cool in my view but I'm guessing that climbing a hill
or riding on anything other than a boardwalk or well-maintained road is
probably a challenge on one of those?

For getting up paved urban inclines I doubt they'd be much
worse than a Raleigh 3-speed Roadster. IOW, they'd involve
some out-of-the-saddle pedaling. If a cruiser is equipped
with only a coaster brake, getting downhill might be more of
an issue than getting up. I suppose with a stylishly low-set
saddle and a running tab at the shoe store, a rider could
resort to the ol' Adidas jake brake.

"Looking cool" is the cruisers' rasion d'etre. IMO they're
aimed at a marketing segment that wants to ride, but also
reactionarily wants to depart from some preconceived,
sterotypical "bicyclist" image. I think that includes
a lot of younger adults to whom bicycling might look like
a mostly "old people's" thing, and are also not into the
BMX scene. And maybe appearances are more important to
that young adult set than to us older, middle-aged+ fogies?

But don't get me wrong -- I don't mean to knock cruisers.
I like 'em myself, and I appreciate their existence. They
also provide a li'l change of pace & unconventionality for
riders who otherwise usually opt for more traditional
approaches to riding. Cruisers' limitations enforce a more
laid-back style -- taking time to smell the roses, 'n all that.
I believe therein lies the usefulness of cruisers -- to slow us
down once in a while, in order to remind us of the pleasurable
sensations that come with simply making a bike ... go.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Hi. Thanks to everyone for responding. Your feedback seems to confirm
what I'd suspected all along- I'm probably better off getting either a
comfort bike or a hybrid. For the record however, my casual and
fleeting interest in cruisers was not an attempt to avoid any bicycling
stereotypes in the least. I'm hardly a teen or 20-something with
delusions of being hip- just a 34-year old looking to lose a lot of
weight, with bicycling being a key part of that. I thought that
cruisers might be an option in terms of a comfortable seating position,
but based on other factors (only one or several gears - not conducive
to climbing hills when necessary, and of course weight) I've decided
against that type of bike. Thanks again for everybody's input.