Comfort Bikes
I really hate "comfort bikes".
Does the name imply that other sorts of bike are uncomfortable?
A comfort bike is like a mountain bike, but for people who bought a mountain bike when they should have bought a roadster. It has the same size wheels and type of handlebars as a MTB, but the bars are higher up, the tyres are less knobbly and it often has a suspension seatpost.
They are heavy, slow and still uncomfortable. It's the small wheels and short wheelbase that are the problem. Small wheels are less smooth than big wheels. Suspension seatposts just make the saddle wobble.
It's not just me that was annoyed with them. Those sensible Germans at the Schwalbe tyre company took one look at them and realised they were nonsense. They developed the Big Apple tyre, a 60mm wide 700c tyre that when a bike is designed around it, gives far more comfort and ease of pedaling than the springs of a comfort bike.
One comfort bike we repaired had a strange riding position. It was very upright with wide bars. Eventually I realised it made sense if the rider had a huge belly.
Amazingly for something that annoys me, the Comfort Bike has almost disappeared from the shops.
Does the name imply that other sorts of bike are uncomfortable?
A comfort bike is like a mountain bike, but for people who bought a mountain bike when they should have bought a roadster. It has the same size wheels and type of handlebars as a MTB, but the bars are higher up, the tyres are less knobbly and it often has a suspension seatpost.
They are heavy, slow and still uncomfortable. It's the small wheels and short wheelbase that are the problem. Small wheels are less smooth than big wheels. Suspension seatposts just make the saddle wobble.
It's not just me that was annoyed with them. Those sensible Germans at the Schwalbe tyre company took one look at them and realised they were nonsense. They developed the Big Apple tyre, a 60mm wide 700c tyre that when a bike is designed around it, gives far more comfort and ease of pedaling than the springs of a comfort bike.
One comfort bike we repaired had a strange riding position. It was very upright with wide bars. Eventually I realised it made sense if the rider had a huge belly.
Amazingly for something that annoys me, the Comfort Bike has almost disappeared from the shops.