I’ve been looking around at the 2009 bicycle models this week and I’m happy that many more “commuter style” bicycles are being made, but almost all of them are just sort of half-done versions of what I would consider a true utility bicycle – see the Trek Allant as an example. They have some of the features, but they’re still missing quite a few.
This morning, though, I took a look at Breezer’s upcoming Uptown 8 model, and I have to say I’m impressed. When I was test riding bicycles originally, I rode a few of the older Breezer models at Austin bicycle shop The Peddler on North Loop, and they were quite good for the money. These new models, though, are even better, and I consider them 90% of the way there to being just as useful as a Dutch or Danish bicycle. Keep in mind I’m not considering things like the longevity of the frame, for example, but just the built-in, off-the-shelf functionality and features.
Breezers have been pretty good versions of U.S. commuter bicycles for a long time. Their new models, though, almost have it all. Take a look:
Breezer Uptown 8, 2009 Model. Photo courtesy Breezer.
- 8-speed shimano internal hub
- Full fenders
- Front hub dynamo
- Dynamo driven LED lights front and rear (and I believe both lights have a standlight and light sensor)
- Full chaincase!
- Rear luggage rack (weight limit unknown)
- Almost completely upright riding position
- Schwalbe urban tires (but no cream option! bah!)
- Rear wheel ring lock (and from what I saw when test riding these earlier in the year, these were AXA brand locks)
So this is pretty good, I have to say, because this list of features includes almost everything that a dutch or danish bicycle includes, and some updated features like LED lighting that my Azor doesn’t have as well. Here’s what’s missing, though:
- Better bump absorption/ride comfort: I am not a fan of suspension seatposts, personally, because they always feel like they’re absorbing a huge amount of pedaling energy, but they are, of course, incredibly common on “hybrid” bikes here with aluminum frames. Perhaps they could address this better by removing the suspension seatpost and just including a cro-mo fork? I dunno. Or, even better, offer a chromoly frame version of the whole darn bike?
- Double kickstand - this is a big one, to me, since I use my bicycle for shopping quite often, and for carrying random loads just about every day. A double kickstand makes loading the bike tons easier. This could be added, but it’s hard to find a truly good one. Elliott purchased a Pyramid double kickstand, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the one on my bike, not even close.
- Front wheel stabilizer spring: This is somewhat minor, but yet again, one of those things that just makes loading easier, and is just nice to have. The Gary Fisher Simple City models have this included, by the way, so it’s puzzling why Breezer didn’t go the extra mile here.
All in all, these are very good bicycles. They are quick, comfortable, and pretty well equipped. I hope that other manufacturers take note, especially Trek, who seems particularly confused about making an actual commuter bicycle. We’re heading in the right direction, slowly but surely.
on Nov 13th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I’d add they need more swept back handle bars. These are still too mountain bike style which do not put your hands in an ergonomically natural position.
I agree on the suspension issue. They mainly add weight and reduce peddling efficiency and are unnecessary on all but the worst paved roads.
on Nov 14th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Trek knows how to make commuter bikes, just look at the style of models available in the Netherlands that they sell in their Leisure series. http://www.trekbikes.com/be/nl/bikes/bike_path/leisure/l700e/ 4-5 years ago these were part of their US catalog but consumer demand wasn’t there, retailers found them challenging to sell (very expensive relative to a hybrid or comfort bike) and Lance really was the marketing focus. It feels like this is coming around and I’m betting over the next 2-3 years all bike companies will evolve their utilitarian lines dramatically.
on Nov 14th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I’d have to agree with elliott on the bars. Straight bars are just plain uncomfortable after awhile, drop bars are unecessary while North Road (old English 3 speed type) and what Rivendell calls Albatross bars are much more comfortable in town. Some day we’ll look back and wonder why everyone was bent over all the time “like a monkey hunkered down over a football” just to get around town.
Changing out bars, lengthening or shortening cables etc, just adds to the cost and shouldn’t have to be done with a new bike. Still, the second commenter is probably right: put a perfectly practical bike in a showroom and most buyers will ignore it. Flash sells.
on Nov 15th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
This bike looks pretty nice. I don’t care for the spring seatpost, and the fenders look a bit on the short side for real spray protection. The fender mounts also look pretty wussy, a lot of the mounting bits will fatigue after a few years. That’s ok if parts are available and easy to replace. The Raleigh Sports fenders were bombproof. I’m not actually a fan of hub gears. There is still the chain to service, and they are not as efficient as derailleur gears. All in all though, this is a pretty nice bike, and would probably serve my needs pretty well.
I agree with the comments about flash sells. Everything in the business is sold with marketing BS. If you were to just plainly talk about the product, nobody would buy it. As more experienced commuters enter the market, things will change.
on Jan 16th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I would like to see 700c wheels. They make the difference on longer commutes.
on Mar 28th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I spoke with Joe last week, He agrees the fender mounts could be better. I have two of Joes bikes. Joe now ha a great company he works with.
I have a Dutch bike I bought 6 years ago, it’s bullet proof. We will make more fully equiped bikes in the future. The American bike market is changing fast and most product guys just want to make bikes that go fast, they have no clue what a useful bike is. They will learn or die. I love real kick stands, skirt gards and full coverage fenders, Chaincases!, generator lights, Cream tires that don’t mark the walls. I love a bike that I just get on and ride and has everything I need to ride anytime, in any weather, to pick up what I need everyday, It’s not my racing bikes.
I can not tell you how much stuff is coming down the pike, it’s LOTS.
on Mar 30th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
I wrote the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_city_bike to explain the purpose of each feature of a Dutch city bike. I missed two details — the front wheel stabilizer and the back-swept bar on a rack. An explanation of wire baskets would be good too. I also have to add what Civia explained to me at the Seattle Bike Expo: a skirt guard isn’t for the *rider*, it’s for the girlfriend riding on the girlfriend rack — at last an explanation that makes sense.
After temporarily owning a Batavus $1800 city bike with NuVinci hub, I’m buying a Breezer Uptown 8 – the latest version. Its Premium Nexus 8 hub gear is much easier to use than the NuVinci. The Breezer designer and I are on the same page for design goals, because he’s in San Francisco (hills) and I’m in Seattle. I researched what bike would go over well for an American audience in a hilly area, that has all the performance of an American bike plus all the ease-of-use of a European city bike. The Azor Oma is too heavy to become popular for Seattle; it’s just not optimized for hills; for example, the rollerbrakes require ten times the squeezing power, for a quarter of the braking power of rim brakes: I’m sure I would break the cable, I squeezed the handles so hard.
I plan to put on Azor handlebars from Dutch Bike Seattle, or Wald 872 angled-back handlebars, on the Breezer. I wish the step-through frame were available in extra-large. I’m getting the extra large diamond frame, and plan to raise the stem and seat all the way and angle the seat up, rotating the riding position toward full upright, even toward semi-recumbant. The Breezer runs circles around the $1800 Batavus Overture. Sheldon Brown is right, the Rollerbrakes are not powerful enough for hills.
And the guy who tried to turn my encyclopedia article into a dismissal of European city bikes as too heavy is right: weight *is* important, going up steep Seattle hills without breaking too much of a sweat, while transporting a load. I think that I’ll like the balance of the Breezer best, in practice, and that this design has the best chance of selling in Seattle and the U.S. A heavy Batavus or Azor is ok for flat Phoenix or Sacramento, but Seattle presents the most stringent requirements — both the steady reliability of a hub gear, and the responsiveness of brakes other than drum brakes.
Breezer is respected and widely available in stores, compared to the other contenders. I don’t trust the Electra Royal 8′s foot-forward position. The best Fisher transportation bike lacks too many European features, such as O-lock and built-in lighting. True load-carrying transportation bikes need a rack with arms that go back more to support wide- bottom saddlebags. However, big Dutch saddlebags catch air like pulling a kite behind you, so I’m interested in wire-mesh baskets, which have no air resistance and are often inline with the rider’s body.
No American understands why an O-lock is a good thing. Even the Breezer website mis-explains it. It’s not “for a modicum of security”. It’s to add even more security. How much is a back wheel worth, with a $200 hub gear? Secure the back wheel quickly and easily. And it prevents sudden ride-off theft when you are standing 10 feet away, more than when you’re 30 feet away.
First I had to figure out why the features made sense for day-in, day-out riding in Europe. Then I had to figure out how to make those features work in, worst case, Seattle, riding all the way up the worst, steepest, longest streets. No wonder the bike I’ve chosen is designed by another American, in another very hilly city: Joe Breeze in San Francisco (the brochure shows a streetcar and a 415 area code).
People don’t know what they are talking about when they equate a city bike with a mountain bike. I’ll grant only a grain of truth, in the case of Joe Breeze: he’s made a bike that is a true city bike, that yet can be viable on real hills. I’ll still probably put on a couple rear cogs with more teeth, as many as 23: I want at least as low gearing as 1st gear on my hybrid-mountain bike, to ride at walking speed all the way up my unrelenting hill, that’s the street I live on, with textbooks and a laptop, and some groceries and locks. Toward 300 pounds total. I know I should be smooth and gentle on the hub. Gearing it down will lose top-gear speed, but I only need to coast downhill anyway. I have no need to go fast, and it’s dangerous: I figured the principle of “Don’t ride faster than you’re willing to crash”.
I found that the Premium Nexus 8 is easier to use in every way than the NuVinci. I agree with Shimano in the double-page spread in the current issue of Momentum, that these 8-speed hub gears are the easiest gear system to operate. I’m grateful that I got a chance to ride the NuVinci Batavus bike for a week and thoroughly conclude that it has no future in a hilly town. The Breezer Uptown 8 rides circles around the NuVinci Batavus in terms of performance and ease of use. I will miss the extra support rod at the back of the Batavus rack, which supports wide-bottom saddlebags. America needs better back racks, not the tiny V shaped sides. And better selection of wire baskets.
Seattle is the hardest city for transportation cycling: wet and hills, not to mention inattentive drivers and $100 helmet fines to discourage cycling and encourage driving. A transportation bike that combines ease-of-use features with good hill performance is a miracle; if such a bike exists that can provide ease of use in hilly wet Seattle, then a good city bike exists for any North American town. In this sense, the mountain bike does offer some criteria for a good city bike to meet. I’m glad I’m getting a new model with 1.75″ width semi-slick tires, so I can watch traffic and people instead of focusing on cracks in the pavement.
America is only beginning to comprehend the proper objectives for a transportation bike. Joe Breeze has done a remarkably good job in improving his Breezer line. This pretty much sums up my year of research on city bikes and ease of use, with a special focus on serious Seattle hills. One issue I’m undecided on and have to test again: is it kosher per Copenhagen Cycle Chic website, to use grip-strap pedals, in a wet, hilly city? Or must pedals always be rubber block pedals? Some of my best, most retro cycling shoes go flying dangerously off the pedals, when the soles get even slightly damp — often when I’m trying to pedal up a hill.
on Apr 18th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Each year you can see Joe Breeze making improvements. But he has a ways to go, as I report here. I’m going beyond Joe Breeze in spec’ing the ideal bike that combines American performance with European city bike conventions.
Fender attachments — My latest Breezer (April 2009) has the improved fender attachments — black plastic modules on both ends. The length adjustment occurs at the hub, not at the fender. I think the adjustability would enable moving up from this year’s stock 1.75″ width Schwalbe City Plus tires to a 2″ width tire such as Schwalbe Marathon. I took photos of my Breezer next to a previous version.
Dyno hub and LED lights — The headlight is good. I love the built-in lighting system: I simply leave it on automatic, and I am emancipated from the whole battery and lamp attachment and aiming routine. It’s bright enough and nicely spread. It flashes when moving at low speed, and when stopped, it changes to perhaps 1/3 intensity. I had to fix the dyno hub connection in the store before buying the bike: I had to prevent the wires in the dyno hub connector from short-circuiting. The other Breezer owner has to replace his halogen rear bulb. I’m glad I bought the latest Breezer, with LED lamps.
Premium Nexus vs. NuVinci — Surprise additional benefit of a hub gear — it’s silent when you coast! (The Schwalbe City Plus tires are silent, too, being semi-slicks.) I love that, Ninja mode. My single-speed red Schwinn cruiser must have been silent as well. I bought the bike as a result of Seattle Bike Expo. I was glad to spot Batavus city bikes there — from Skagit Cycles, in Burlington/Mount Vernon, an hour north of Seattle just east of I-5. That’s tulip country, where the Dutch live and grow tulips for export to Holland. So with a big stretch, you could say I found an actual Dutch bike shop (selling to Dutch people) in the U.S. Seattle Bike Supply has liquidated its Batavus bikes by 50% pricing, while Toronto-based 4th Floor Distribution has become the new North American distributor of Batavus.
After buying a Batavus with NuVinci hub for a steal ($650 out the door for an $1800 bike), I found it was far too small a size, and that I hated the NuVinci and to make it worse, the NuVinci was set up with a tiny (17-tooth?) cog, so it had no low gear whatsoever, and weighed too much to ever ride fast in the high gears. So I got a deal on the latest Breezer Uptown 8, $1000 out the door (the list price is $1159 + tax = $1263; I got a 21% discount). The NuVinci grip shifter won’t budge until after you stop pedalling. Then you have to move the shifter over a huge range to have any effect. The Premium Nexus shifter only requires a slight, 1/8″ movement, with barely any letting off of pedalling at roughly the same time; you can move the Nexus shifter at any time, it never resists you. The NuVinci shifter constantly resists you. And the NuVinci weighs more than the Premium Nexus. However, the NuVinci might be more durable than the Premium Nexus.
I recommend the Premium Nexus except with the caveat that I doubt its durability and I won’t be surprised if it develops skipping problems, as the other Breezer owner reported to me today. I must treat the Premium Nexus gently by not shifting under pressure. The guy with the older Breezer reported that his Premium Nexus geared hub has become defective. It doesn’t bode too well for hub gears in hilly cities: he rides up to the top of Capital Hill every day, which is one of the highest spots in Seattle. His Nexus can be adjusted so that either gear 4 skips, or gear 6 skips. There is yet another Breezer on campus, that has the Counterbalance Cycles store name on the top tube. I will ask other Premium Nexus owners in this hilly city how well the hub has held up. The grip shifter is mis-designed for intuitive ease-of-use ergonomics. I expect to twist it forward (on the top) to go faster, into a higher gear, and to pull it back (on the top) to go slower and downshift. My Specialized Expedition’s grip shift is the opposite. Perhaps there is a motorcycle influence. I am still seriously considering changing my American ATB to a good hub gear, for $500 total. Now that I’ve heavily Dutchified that bike, the biggest complaint is the flaky derailleur.
Chaincase — the bike is silent, except that the chain bangs, probably sideways, against the plastic chaincase. American bikes have an annoying freewheel noise we’ve learned to not notice, but European city bikes coast silently — except for the very non-American noise of the chain banging within a plastic chaincase. I wonder if Azor bikes’ “cloth” chaincases are silent.
Front wheel stabilizer spring — there isn’t one, unfortunately. Azor bikes are superior here, for stability and controllability while parked or loading.
Instruction manuals — the promised Safe Cycling booklet was not given to me, as mentioned in the instruction manual. The instruction manual is hard to follow, it looks like, regarding how to remove the back wheel, and I think it’s outdated: it doesn’t explain how to remove the back wheel for the latest model, which has a full chaincase in the way.
Rear rack — The front two bars on the back rack are extremely short on the new model. Each year they seem to get shorter. Early photos look terrible: the rack is tilted backwards, ramping way down. I am enjoying the rat-trap spring clip; it opens up more options; with some care, I can support a backpack upright on the rear rack. I am interested in front and rear black wire mesh baskets, however.
Seat — The seat material is poorly chosen compared to my seat on my Specialized Expedition. The Breezer seat is fabric in the back, which unnecessarily soaks up rain. The Specialized is great — you just wipe the rain off the top of the entire seat, and it’s dry. It’s all rubber-plastic, while the Breezer seat is rubber-plastic in front but fabric (bad) in back, like a sponge. For Seattle rain, I’m going to have to switch out the seat.
Bell — The bell on the Breezer is being a problem. For my Specialized Expedition and a Cannondale hybrid bike, I bought two Electra bells. The one on the Cannondale rings annoyingly all the time, while the same model of Electra bell on my Specialized never makes any noise unless I ring it. I want to learn to adjust bells to be silent until rung.
Kickstand — The kickstand is completely defective on the newest model — it’s 1.5″ too short, and the bike obviously falls over! Anyone could see this problem in an instant, so why did it happen, that obviously the wrong kickstand was provided?! Joe Breeze needs to make the manufacturer recall the kickstand and send out new ones of the proper length! I have photos proving it — photos of my bike leaning way over on a flat surface, and photos of my kickstand held next to that of an older Breezer, which has a kickstand about 1.5″ longer. This is a manufacturing mistake. The wrong kickstand was provided.
O-lock — Additional surprise benefit of an O-lock: it helps stabilize the bike for leaning it against a tree and for parking and loading. (I need to add that to my Wikipedia article “European city bike”.) The older Breezer requires the key be in it when unlocked; when riding. I’m glad the newer Breezer enables removing the key while riding. This enables keeping the key on a keychain. I think the Axa and other genuine European O-locks are superior for security. Anyone could remove the two screws on the small O-lock on the Breezer (current or past models), with an allen wrench. I don’t think the Axa Defender or other European O-lock can be removed, I don’t think any fasteners are accessible on them. The O-lock on the Breezer has inferior security, and contradicts my assertion that the function of the O-lock is to secure the rear wheel to the frame. To steal the $300 rear wheel of a Breezer, simply use an allen wrench to detach the O-lock from the frame, and a wrench to detach the bolts at the hub. Then at your leisure, use bolt cutters on the O-lock. Bad job on this choice of O-locks. Azor bikes are superior here.
Pedals — rubber blocks with rubber dots. Same as on my Specialized Expedition. In this rainy and hilly city, I am forced to swap these out due to an injury that is re-injured when my shoes slips and the pedal hits my ankle very hard. I need metal teeth or prongs in the pedals, and will probably use Power Grips straps, against flat-land Dutch/Danish conventions. For U.S. city riding, particularly in wet all-year riding conditions, I must declare the stock pedals as too unsafe.
Stem and handlebars — It amazes me that people exclaim about the supposed “upright riding position” of the Breezer Uptown 8. No way is this upright; it’s the opposite. The Breezer handlebars, even raised all the way, force me into a very hunched-forward position all the time. It’s the opposite of an upright position. This is an agressive racing position, compared to a true Dutch or Danish fully upright Oma handlebar position, as on the Azor Oma or the Batavus Oma. A *true* upright position is semi-recumbant, compared to the Breezer. Thus the U.S. bike industry still doesn’t get it. What to the U.S. standards is considered “upright”, is considered by Dutch/Danish standards to be “hunched far forward”.
There are 3 aspects of a Dutch/Danish European City Bike that make it semi-(recum-)bent compared to the U.S. notions. The seat is angled up, the stem is tall, the handlebars have a rise and are angled back 45-60 degrees, and the seat tube is laid back at a low angle, moving the pedals forward relative to the seat. A Breezer dealer said angling the seat up sounds painful, but I had to explain that the handlebars are simultaneously moved up and back, and the seat tube is laid back with the pedals thus moved forward — rotating the seat, hands, and feet all together, toward the direction of recumbent. I set up my Specialized Expedition for a true Dutch bolt-upright position, and I’ll never go back to being forced to look down all the time. The stem on the Breezer is quite short and angled forward alot. I’m going to have to buy a Dutch-type stem that’s tall and barely angled forward, and handlebars such as Azor or the $10 Wald 872 classic rise-and-angle bars. Azor bikes are superior here.
Cog — I believe there’s a 20-tooth cog. There’s plenty of room in the chaincase for a bigger cog, such as 22 or 23 teeth. The stock gearing is well-chosen; 8th gear is not excessively high, so I occassionally use it, and the 1st gear is usually low enough for serious hills unless you carry a load of groceries and backpack. I advocate slower cycling, with less strain, so I think for hilly cities, for normal, non-cyclist people, the gearing should be moved down, like sacrificing gear 8 in order to gain a gear 0. Adding 3 teeth drops down the gearing range about 15%. But I haven’t tried that yet to prove it’s a better range, for slow cycling for normal people in a hilly city. And I fear the hub might malfunction from the potential extra torque.
Frame size and geometry — The XL 23.5″ frame is too small for tall people. I’m used to a 27″ frame. I want an XXL 27″ frame in step-through red. The one nice thing about the small frame is that even though the top tube is level, I can lift my leg over it, as when the back rack is loaded — if I’m not wearing tight jeans. I like the raked forks. I can actually ride no-hands; greater stability than sports bikes. I’d much rather have step-through like my Specialized Expedition, however. Azor bikes are superior here, offering larger step-through frames than Breezer, and larger diamond frames. Why have American bikes gotten so tiny?
So I want to swap out the following on my Breezer Uptown 8 to make it an ideal bike for non-cyclists in America in rain on hills: basket, stem, handlebars, bell, seat, kickstand (the one Joe intended would be good), cog, and pedals.
– Mike Hoffman, author of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_city_bike
on May 22nd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Greetings from Fort Worth – I had the same idea as Mike did with regards to the Breezer’s handlebars. I recently swapped the stock ones on my new-model Uptown 8 with the Wald 872 – here’s the result:
http://fortworthology.com/2009/05/22/new-handlebars/
I may still go back and change the stem but I’m going to ride it for a while with just the handlebar change and see how it feels.
on May 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 am
The Walds are OK but I’ve found them to be too short with the brake/twist shifter combo. The Velo Orange Tourist bar is a little longer and the Nitto Albatross sweeps inward a bit more for the most comfortable setup of the bunch.
on Dec 24th, 2011 at 4:55 am
I will immediately seize your rss as I can not find your email subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Please let me understand in order that I may subscribe. Thanks.