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The current Brompton S2L-X

Brompton is currently working on a new bike design. It’s a semi-secret project they’ve dubbed “Project X”. As development progresses they’ve been letting out a few details about the project via email updates. They plan to initially release a few hundred prototypes before going into full production. Approximately a year after production starts a retrofit package will be available for existing Bromptons. You can get on the mailing list for updates at the Brompton website.

Brompton →

Name: Reva F.
Location: New York, New York
Started bike commuting: Spring 2007 when I began working in northern Manhattan and realized that the trip by bike was FAR more pleasant than the subway or bus or shuttle ride that I could take as an alternative. Especially since the subway station near my office features a particularly unpleasant long elevator ride up from the platform (affectionately called the “tuberculator” by many).
Commute distance (one way): Approximately 3 miles

Describe your commute: I get to ride on Riverside Drive, including a stretch near Grant’s Tomb (the least-visited National Park in the entire US) and Riverside Church, as well as the elegant and graceful pre-war architecture that lines much of the drive, along with beautiful old trees and plantings. Am also fortunate that I am usually commuting against the traffic; when I head north most cars are heading south in the morning, and vice versa at the end of the day.

Describe your bike and accessories: I use my trusty 4-year-old, 3-speed, cream-colored Brompton. Am an utter and complete convert and zealot about Bromptons….mine is tricked out with a sweet little Bromley leather seat, comfy handgrips that we ordered from Germany, and a front-loading bag so I don’t have to carry anything on my back. I also have a back and front light for safety. We calculate that my Brommie has over 5,000 miles on it by now, between commuting, errands and pleasure trips taken over the last four years.

What bit of advice would you like to share with new bike commuters?: BIKE SAFELY!!!! Always have a healthy respect for cars, trucks, pedestrians, etc. In NYC, its’ especially important to be mindful of police who are extra vigilant these days and very eager to ticket cyclists. I always make sure to keep 3 feet or so distance between myself and parked cars to avoid getting slammed by an opening car door.

[Visit our Bicycle Commuter Profiles page to add your profile to the collection. —ed.]

Name: Mark Potts
Location: Arlington, VA
Started bike commuting: 2007
Commute distance (one way): 18 miles

Describe your commute: I ride from our home in Arlington, VA over the Potomac river and through the District of Columbia up to the Maryland suburbs just outside of the beltway. Most of my ride is on bike paths or on city streets with bike lanes, but once I get to Maryland, I am sort of stuck on bike unfriendly streets. I have a few hills to climb along the way, but I really enjoy riding through the District and seeing all the other cyclists and pedestrians out and about. DC has really become a biking city in the last several years with many new bike lanes and the new bike sharing system (CABI) now in place. It is fun to see more and more people out and about on bikes these days.

Describe your bike and accessories: I have three bikes that serve different purposes for me. My main commuter is a Miyata One Twelve that I picked up from craigslist for $50 a couple of years ago. Initially, I had planned for it to be just a beater bike I could lock up outside in the rain, but I quickly realized how smooth the was on the triple butted frame. As a result, I have since upgraded just about everything on it. It now sports new Tektro dual pivot brakes with cyclocross interrupter levers (highly recommended), a Brooks honey colored B-17 saddle and Velo-Orange leather bar tape, chrome crankset, fenders, and front Rando rack. While my main commute is about 18 miles, I am fortunate that I can also work from a local office which is only about 1 km from my house. On days when the weather is awful or when I need a break from riding, I take my Breezer Uptown 8/xtracycle to work. The xtracycle also serves to haul my two boys (ages 3 and 5) around the neighborhood to various activities and is generally an excellent conversation starter at the park or soccer field. In addition to adding the xtracycle free radical kit, I have also added Nashbar mustache handlebars with Tektro direct pull brake levers and the J-Tek bar end shifter for the Shimano Nexus-8 hub. The new handlebar set up is a HUGE improvement from the original bars in my opinion, and I love the J-Tek shifter compared to the clunky twist shift provided by Shimano. My final bike is a Dahon Speed 7 which I take with me when I travel to Palo Alto about 4 times a year. It is more or less stock, though I did replace the straight handlebar with the old Breezer handlebar, which has made it a little easier on longer rides. I just love the fact that I can pack that bike into a regulation Samsonite suitcase and take it with me when I travel. Very cool.

What bit of advice would you like to share with new bike commuters?: Have fun! I started commuting to work in order to get some exercise after my first son was born, but I quickly became hooked on the sheer joy of riding to work. People often look at me like I am crazy when I tell them how far I ride to work, but I simply would not have it any other way. Riding to work (or anywhere, really) is just fun! There will be days when the weather is terrible or you don’t feel that great though, so just work from home or drive to work on those days.

[Visit our Bicycle Commuter Profiles page to add your profile to the collection. —ed.]

Name: Kevin
Location: Sacramento
Started bike commuting: 1986
Commute distance (one way): 9

Describe your commute: half streets, half bike trail

Describe your bike and accessories: Haluzak Hybrid Race recumbent + homemade tailbox fairing

What bit of advice would you like to share with new bike commuters?: Try a recumbent

[Visit our Bicycle Commuter Profiles page to add your profile to the collection. —ed.]

A majority of modern internal gear hubs (IGHs) are supplied from the factory with either twist, thumb, or trigger shifters designed for flat bars (an exception being Sturmey Archer who offers bar-end and downtube shifters for their 3-speed and 5-speed hubs). Because IGHs are mostly spec’d on city and commuter bikes, the flat bar shifter design makes sense in most cases. But, with the increasing popularity of internal gear hubs, as well as the wider variety of bikes being classified as “commuters”, there appears to be a small, but growing demand for drop-bar-compatible IGH shifters such as the Versa from Sussex Enterprises.

The Versa is an “STI” style, integrated brake/shift lever (aka “brifter”) designed for use with Shimano Nexus and Alfine internal gear hubs. Sussex offers two models; the VRS-8 designed for use with 8-speed Nexus and Alfine hubs, and the VRS-11designed for use with the new Alfine 11 hub. Other than the fact that they’re designed to work with different hubs, the two models are nearly identical.

The Versa is a true road lever that pulls the appropriate amount of cable for road brakes such as dual-pivot calipers and cantilevers. It will also work with Avid mechanical disc brakes specifically designed for use with road levers. It will not work with linear pull or off-road mechanical disc brakes.*

The designers of the Versa opted for a dedicated brake lever and two smaller levers for up- and down-shifting (see photo at top). Personally, I prefer this three-lever design over the more common two-lever design that uses the brake lever for shifting. Though I’ve certainly tried, I’ve never really adapted to the feel of a brake lever that moves in two planes.

I like the ergonomics of the Versa. The hood design borrows heavily from Shimano, SRAM, and others. It has a smooth transition off of the bar that provides good support and comfort. The long-ish body is easy to grip and provides ample room for changing hand positions. Both the brake and shift levers angle slightly toward the outside away from the lever body, making them easy to reach.

The Versa’s shifting action when combined with an Alfine hub is crisp and clean. Each click of either lever shifts the hub a single gear up or down. The shift levers are easy to reach and provide plenty of leverage. There is one idiosyncrasy to be aware of with the larger lever used for upshifting. The lever has a longer throw than necessary, which may lead one to push the lever further than is required to make the shift, occasionally causing a mis-shift. The trick is to only push the lever until it clicks and no further. Once I figured this out it’s been fine.

Versa levers are clearly a niche product, yet I’ve been surprised by how many questions I’ve received regarding their installation and performance. This, along with our poll showing drop bars as the top choice among our readers, leads me to believe there may be a growing interest in IGH-equipped drop bar bikes. Personally, I’ve been happy with the ergonomics and clean cockpit provided by the drop bars and Versa levers on my Civia Bryant.

Sussex Enterprises →

* NOTE: If you’re converting a bike from flat bars to drop bars with Versa levers (and assuming your bike is currently outfitted with MTB levers and linear-pull brakes), you’ll need to either replace your existing brakes with short-pull road brakes, or install a pair of Problem Solvers “Travel Agents” to match these short-pull road levers to your long-pull brakes.

A debate regarding the validity of separated bicycling facilities has continued non-stop for many years. On one side there is John Forester and the bicyclists and planners who support a strictly vehicular approach to bicycling, and on the other side we have John Pucher and the bicyclists and planners who support a system based upon separated facilities such as those seen in The Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany.

The vehicular side argues that we currently have a fully functional road network and bicycles are already classified as vehicles, so all we need to do is maintain our rights as road users and educate bicyclists on the techniques of riding a bicycle as a vehicle. One of the strongest arguments for this approach is that these goals are attainable and realistic.

The separated facilities side argues that until we do more to separate bicyclists from motor vehicles we’ll never see the numbers of bicyclists in the U.S. that we see in other parts of the world. Numerous studies support this notion, with the fear of cars often being cited as the number one reason people don’t ride their bikes more. One of the strongest arguments against separated facilities is the difficulty of creating such a system here in the U.S.

My thinking falls somewhere in the middle between these two opposing viewpoints.

On the one hand, when I ride on roads, I employ many of the principles of vehicular cycling as laid out in Forester’s Effective Cycling. Many of his techniques truly are “effective”, and with proper training and experience, they’ll serve riders well in a wide variety of situations. That said, I like to think of myself as a “pragmatic vehicular cyclist who rides as a vehicle when it’s appropriate, but then switches to a bike-pedestrian mode when conditions call for it.

On the other hand, I fully agree that the fear of auto traffic is one of the main obstacles we have to overcome before we’ll see a dramatic increase in bicycle use in the U.S. The data support this idea, and anecdotal evidence supports it as well. The fact that we see so much sidewalk riding suggests many casual bicyclists are fearful of cars. The studies tell us that bicycling is a relatively safe activity, and I believe this to be the case, but still, sharing the road with fast moving motor vehicles is frightening to many people on a gut level, regardless of what the numbers tell us. Personally, I find riding on a quiet separated path far preferable to riding on a busy roadway just feet from cars traveling at a high rate of speed.

Bicycling may be a relatively safe activity, but the perception that it’s dangerous is a major obstacle to increased ridership. We must find a way to build more separated facilities to make bicycling less intimidating to beginners and non-enthusiasts. We also need more training in vehicular cycling techniques to build rider skill and confidence for dealing with the realities on the ground as we build those new facilities. This combined approach will give us the best chance of growing bicycling for transportation in the U.S.

[A slightly different version of this article was originally posted in 2009. —ed.]