Go By Bike Month: employee bikes, part 6

I checked in with Dylan V of our Downtown store and had a look at his commuter bike. Dylan is one of our newest employees and has worked at Bike Gallery for about two months.
How long have you had your bike? I’ve had the frame about five years I found it at a yard sale and it fit me, so I bought it. It’s had lots of iterations over the years, different bars, risers, back swept bars, and now back to drop bars.

Describe your commute It’s not very far, it takes about 15 minutes to get to work.

What makes a good commuter bike? Depends on the commute obviously, but the frame needs to fit and the components should be decent quality so they last and don’t require too much maintenance. You don’t want something that you have to mess with every day. With some of those decisions you can sacrifice ride quality, like tires, the more durable tires are stiffer, so the bike might not ride as smoothly as it does with more supple tires. But utility is more important than design. Lights, and fenders are important, a drive train with a wide range of gears is really nice too. I tend to show people the internal geared bikes when they are looking for commute bikes. They are very low maintenance and have a nice wide range of gears.

What’s up with your lights? I really like them, I actually found them on a bike in a dumpster! I found out that Bridgestone made this for a couple years, the bike was trashed, but the rack was ok, there is still a good amount of rust on it. I had to fiddle with it to make it fit, but it carries the basics, no more than a 6-pack. The lights are powered by a generator that turns off the front tire. I’ve been using Schwalbe tires and they hold up really well to the extra demand of a generator.

What parts do you wear out most? Rear wheels, actually. I was buying pre-built wheels, but ended up replacing spokes so often the wheels become hand-built.