After a year-and-a-half and over 1,000 miles on the
Breezer Uptown 8, I thought I'd write a review. There is a dearth of material on
commuter bicycles and bicycling. The trade press is advertiser-focused and almost all of their bicycle reviews are non-critical and improve as the price increases. Most bicycle stores don't focus on the commuter cycle market segment. If one store started doing it in or around DC, I suspect they'd get a hardcore following pretty quick. There's a rush-hour on the
CCT even in the winter. (
Minneapolis claims 3,000 winter bicycle commuters -- they plow 50 miles of bicycle trails there.)
First: my ride. On days that I ride (I'm not a 5-day-a-week rider yet), I ride seven miles (mostly downhill) into work in 35 minutes. That same ride home (mostly uphill) takes about 45 minutes. I carry a laptop and a full set of work clothes each way in panniers on a rack.
Overall, the Breezer Uptown 8 is a great bicycle. However, there are some things to nit-pick about, mostly because commuter bicycles are relatively new in the United States. Nobody reviews them because they're not sexy.
First off, the Uptown is comfortable. I ride in an upright position. The seatpost is suspended, and overall it's a pleasure to ride. However, it's not a fast bike. It's got full fenders and a fully-enclosed chaincase. The only place I get splashed in rain is my feet.
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| This is my Breezer's fully enclosed chain. It keeps the chain clean and
reduces the maintenance, which is a nice feature. When you do
maintenance, however, it takes longer to get to the chain. |
You can see photos of my
nitpicks here.
I bought the bike at
Bikes at Vienna in Vienna, and get some help with maintenance from
Griffin Cycle in Bethesda. There's nothing wrong with the service at Bikes at Viennna, it's just that Griffin Cycles is close to home.
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| While the generator hub is on the front wheel, the rear light is in,
well, the rear. Those two buttons are the connectors, and that's where
the cables disconnected the third time I rode the bike. The cable runs
inside the frame until the bottom bracket, where it connects to the two
little buttons on the rear fender. Wires built into the rear fender
carry the current to the rear light, until... |
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| These two buttons are the
original connections for the rear light. At least one of them came off
every ride. Vibration would make it happen. I love the bike, but those
connectors are engineered to fail. And it's the rear light, so it FAILS
SILENTLY when I'm in traffic at night. Not that all rear lights don't
fail silently -- just don't ever rely on a single one. Not that all the
lights and a bright reflective jacket will make motorists "see" you. |
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| The generator on the Uptown 8 is in the Shimano hub. It's a great
feature and the generator's always there. It's silent in operation, too,
unlike the old-school tire-wheel generators I used to see in Europe on
the 1970s. Some say the drag is not noticeable, but I notice it. Almost
my whole ride home is uphill, and in the winter it's uphill and dark |
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| This is the Shimano Nexus hub on the Breezer Uptown 8. The internal shifting is really nice, although it took some adjusting of the cable to get it to shift correctly every time. At my first tune-up, the bike mechanic told me the cable was misrouted. Dude, I bought the bike from you. |
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| This is the rear rack, where I carry my laptop and work clothes each day that I ride. It's generally a good rack, but when you keep your panniers at the rear... |
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| It can be tight with the pannier clips until you figure out that Arkel clips are laterally adjustable. |
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| The enclosed chain and internal-shifting rear hub are great, but I can't replace the rear tire in the field. I left the super-heavy City tire on the rear, but replaced the front tire with something much lighter. Creating an enclosed chain that's easy to deal with and lets me replace a tire/tube in the field is an engineering challenge. |
The built-in Shimano front hub generator and lights are great. The headlight is pretty bright. I did get a
Niterider light because the trail is not lit and pitch black. The rear light connections are weak and the light failed after going over a few bumps. Some new wire fixed that. The generator does add a little drag when it turns itself on. It's great having lights without ever having to worry about a charger or batteries. I have two Planet Bike flashies (one of them even works consistently) mounted on my panniers. That worked out especially well after I wrecked and my black laptop pannier fell off and onto the dark, unlit trail at night.
The stock tires, Schwalbe City, are heavy. I replaced the front with a Conti 1" which works fine. The rear tire I haven't replaced because the rear wheel is a pain to take off. You need to shift to 4th gear, remove the tiny screws in the chaincase, and then use a 15mm wrench. Not something to do on the trail after dark.
Update: When I started my new job, my commute grew from 7 miles each way to 11.5 miles each way. I'm now riding my 20-year-old no-suspension mountain bike back and forth to work. However, my Breezer Uptown still sees plenty of use on the weekends with an Adams Trail-a-Bike or a Burley Trailer. The Uptown's Fenders are perfect for protecting the kids behind the bike from road spatter.
I also ride it to the local Metro stop on days I don't ride all the way in to work. When I'm wearing pants for work, the chainguard is awesome. This is also my guest bike.
