I do apologise, I’ve misunderstood what you said about the Lithium. I’ve misinterpreted it as a lot of money for the bike rather than the other way around. What an idiot Sorry!
I’ve currently purchased a new belt to put on my current ebike. I will give it another shot for now and go steady with it. I want to at least get some of the £900 that it cost me out of it, even if it is costing me more to fix.
I will 100% be going for a new bike though latest by summer. Ideally though in the next couple of months. I think by the sounds of it the Subway 2 isn’t getting much recognition so I may leave that. Any thoughts on the VooDoo Marasa? Plus I’d really appreciate some thoughts on switching to a gravel bike?
I’m struggling with the Google maps thing that Slowster mentioned, I’m terrible with things like that so I’ll just give you the post codes I’ll be going to and from. I think it’s because I used an App called Komoot and switched to the gravel route which gave me my favourite route after trying a few different ways to get to work. If anyone is kind enough to evaluate my route that way I’ll be very thankful.
Maybe one or more people familiar with the Chesterfield Canal Towpath can offer more/better advice.
As I indicated above, lights would be close to the top of my priorities for an unlit towpath. If you read threads on the subject of lighting on this forum, you will realise that there are two types of front light beam: those that are designed for off-road use and emit light in all directions (like an ordinary torch), and those which are designed for road use and have a shaped beam which concentrates light onto the road in front of the bike and cuts off light above the height of the lamp. The latter usually conform to the german StVZO standard, which is the benchmark. Using an off-road beam on an unlit canal towpath is potentially dangerous for anyone you encounter coming from the opposite direction, because of the risk of dazzling them.
In your shoes, whatever bike you get, I would want one of the high performance dynamo lights made by Busch & Mueller, preferably an 80 lux or more model, or an equivalent StVZO battery light.
I don’t know the district, but CycleTravel and CycleStreets both suggest what looks like quite a decent route c10.5 miles long, using what appear to be two sections of old railway, linked by paths through a country park.
Maybe a route to try in full daylight to decide whether it’s good for the dark.
PS: I found a video of most of the route, and it looks really good …… this must be the way you go now, surely.
Sambo241 wrote: ↑28 Jan 2023, 4:31pm
Plus I’d really appreciate some thoughts on switching to a gravel bike?
A gravel bike typically has drop bars. I have one and love it on road and bridlepaths. Not as much fun on rocky descents, but I don't do them often. If you are not used to riding on drops (more stretched out, more of your weight on your hands) then you will feel it in your neck and shoulders, possibly wrists, compared with the more upright position of a hybrid or town bike. After a few days/weeks it will be fine. As they are in fashion they are expensive (I think its the MTB gearing with drop-bar levers), and I think you will pay at least double the lithium price for a similar spec. Often gravel bikes will not take the wide range of tyre widths of the lithium too. Personally I'd avoid a 1x setup that is increasingly common on a gravel bike ... on a commute as the gears you routinely use will wear out well before the others, as they tend to be more widely spaced.
HTH
The combined brake and shifter arrangement used on a drop bar bike comes out more expensive than the separate parts used on a hybrid and that alone pushes the price up significantly, added to which there are far fewer real bargains to be had in gravel bikes, because they are so popular. Overall look to spend £1000+ for one worth having (a few squeeze in just under, and there are cheap ones, but they have really cheap components).
Once you get used to drops, the power throughput, even in a fairly relaxed stance, is far better, so you go quicker, and personally I find I can go a lot longer too, all day sometimes, which I couldn’t on a flat bar bike, it would kill my arms and shoulders.
I agree about 1x for commuting. I did it for one winter on my previous bike, a CX that I used for everything, and it ate expensive cassettes and chainwheels ……. And thereby hangs another tale of cost with gravel bikes: they tend to have high quality, expensive drivetrains, SRAM Rival, Shimano GRX, that sort of thing, likewise brakes, and the parts are definitely not cheap. IMO 1x really only works where you are naturally changing gear every two seconds, quite technical stuff, so maintaining a steady tread goes out of the window.
If you can afford a gravel bike, you will really enjoy, it and get addicted though, so beware!
All of which is why I have one of each: a hybrid as a cheap hack, but I wouldn’t go much more than an hour each way anywhere on it, and stick mostly to decent paths (paved or firm gravel); and, a gravel bike for “proper bike rides” ranging from several hours to several days over all sorts of ground (which means rather a lot of mud currently). My gravel bike has 2x because I found 1x needlessly tiring (too large steps between gears) on easy going sections and on road.
Last edited by Nearholmer on 28 Jan 2023, 9:35pm, edited 2 times in total.
Sambo241 wrote: ↑28 Jan 2023, 4:31pm
I’ve currently purchased a new belt to put on my current ebike. I will give it another shot for now and go steady with it. I want to at least get some of the £900 that it cost me out of it, even if it is costing me more to fix.
A colleague of mine, his belt went during summer 2020 when Covid was massively effecting supply. Zero chance of getting a replacement belt. I was able to stick a chain drive on it (£15-20) in parts. He's now on his third £3 chain. Keeps saying he will put a belt back on it, but hasn't so far.
No idea if it's possible with your hub, but a decent bike shop should be able to tell.
That said belts should not go, they are supposed to last. There have been a few chats on here about it. Seems getting the tension correct and the chainline straight is the key to longevity. Might be worth getting that checked before just putting a replacement belt on.
I’ve got a pretty bright bike light but it does sound like an off road one such as you have described. It emits like you say that type of light does. I actually run with 2 lights, the one I’ve just mentioned and also one that isn’t as bright and doesn’t seem to emits to the sides very much. These are a matter of just slipping on and off onto a latch system and can be removed any time. I leave the one that isn’t as bright on during my dark travels and I turn the bright one on and off as I need when paths are incredibly hard to see and I need more visibility ahead. Obviously when I approach someone the brighter one is turned off and the lesser one stays on. I will look into the suggestion you mentioned.
Nearholmer & 2wb.uk:
Yes that is one of the routes I’ve been on before. Lovely route. In the warmer months it is a real joy to witness!
Also thank you for the info on gravel bikes. I have noticed they are quite on the dear side and I did assume that the cheapest isn’t the best so thought it might of been reaching more into the £1k pluses.
I think maybe that’ll be something to consider in the years to come. Now when you speak of these gearing 1x setups I have got to admit, you lose me the Voodoo Marasa says on Halfords it’s a 2x9 so is that any good? I didn’t realise how much there was to learn about bikes, it’s quite enjoyable to learn to be honest. Especially as I’m discovering a bit of a passion for it so I will need to broaden my knowledge anyway.
Jupestar:
Yes it’s proving a bit of an annoyance to get hold of a belt at the minute. So god knows how difficult it was during covid. I’ve been in contact with the company of my bike and they want £119.99 for the belt which is double the price I’ve found else where. For the same belt too. Plus they want about another 70 for packaging, pick up & delivery etc and then add on the labour at the end of the fix for a sub total cost. Criminal. But with this day and age it does not surprise me. I’ll try my luck with getting the belt myself and fitting it. There are video guides so hopefully it won’t be too much of an ordeal.
1x, 2x and 3x refer to how many front chainrings a bike has.
As examples, the Lithium has three front chainrings, so is a 3x, while my posh bike has two, so is a 2x, while my former bike had one, so was 1x.
You will then see things like 3x9 (again the Lithium).
The second figure refers to how many cogs there are at the back, in that case nine. So a 3x9 bike has 27 gears in total (we’ll come back to that).
My posh bike is 2x11, so has 22 gears.
As a generality, the more cogs at the back, the more expensive a replacement cassette (set of back cogs) will be, and the more expensive the derailleur at the back is.
So what is “good”?
That hugely depends on what you are trying to achieve.
With gearing you need to think about two things: range (sometimes called spread), which is the difference between highest and lowest gears; and, steps or gaps, the difference between successive gears.
1x11 (or 1x12, and even 1x13) are very popular for mountain bikes and for gravel bikes to be used over rough terrain, and even for cyclocross bikes. They come with a wide range, but the steps between gears can be really noticeable, you will hear people complain that they are “gappy”. Those large steps don’t matter much when you are racing for an hour, or putting in short bursts of intense effort on ever-changing terrain, but they become annoying if you are trying to cruise along at a steady tread and level of effort - one can find that there is no “exactly right gear”.
2x helps a lot with the “having the exactly the right gear” business and is common on road bikes and on gravel bikes used for longer trips. The exact range used depends on exactly what the bike is to be used for, and the number of steps depends n the cassette chosen, but 2x9, 2x10 and 2x11 are very common these days (it used to be 2x5 when I were a lad!).
3x is fairly niche these days, used on long distance heavy tourers and a few hybrids to give a very wide range and “just the right gear for every occasion”, with 3x9 or 3x10 being the usual. It used to be normal mountain bikes and hybrids in the 80s and 90s with 3x6 then 3x7 being common at that time. The down-side of it is that the huge range of gears, and all the possible combinations, can befuddle inexperienced users, and that using combinations of the big wheel at the front and big cog at the back, or tiny wheel at front and tiny cog at the back cause excessive friction and chain-wear, and can even lead to the chain jumping off, so the number of usable gears is fewer than the total, by at least two, more conservatively four, and a really careful user might subtract the extreme big and small cogs when using the middle ring too. Zipping up and down gears on a 3x fast takes a lot of practice, which is why t fell out of favour for mountain bikes.
Hybrids are a bit of a nightmare to choose, because these days they come with all sorts of different gearing set-ups, 1x, 2x, and a few 3x, and the range of gears they have may be optimised for riding fast on fairly level ground (often branded “city bikes” as if no city has steep hills!) or be geared almost like a mountain bike, able to tackle bonkers steep climbs, but with a low top speed. One of the positives of the Lithium is that being a 3x it has a huge range of gears, the least is almost “silly low”, and the highest is plenty quick, but as I said above 3x can be intimidating to new users.
Another thing to be aware of is that gearing set-ups, notably the derailleurs and shifters, come in different qualities. Very generally, cheaper kit with fewer cogs at the back gives clunkier gear changes, while expensive kit, often with more cogs at the back, gives smoother changes, but expensive kit can be wear-prone and a bit finicky to adjust.
Mid-range kit strikes quite a good balance for utility cycling, commuting, and touring, where the super-slick gear changes needs for “sporty cycling” are less important than robustness and reasonable price of replacements when things wear out.
Which is a lot to take in, but is only the beginning of the subject!
Wow thank you Nearholmer for breaking it down as much as you have. Im genuinely more in the know about gearing than I was before. Couldn’t of told you what a cassette (in bike terms) was to be honest
So if I could pick your brain a little more, could you please kindly recommend any hybrid bikes that you feel are suitable for the 11 ish miles commute I’ll be making to work that includes a couple of hills, towpaths and the odd bit of road? I know the lithium 3 so far is got the wide round of 3x9. I know from research the VooDoo Marasa has, from reviews, a decent budget set up and a 2x9 gear range. But what would you go for if you was commuting my journey? I’m not afraid to learn the 3x if you feel that would be ideal. Any help is much appreciated and thank you for your kind knowledge so far!
Looking at the specs, either the Lithium or the Marasa would do the job, low enough gears for the hills, and high enough gears to get a good pace on the flat bits.
It’s a tough choice between the two bikes.
If you get the Lithium, I’d advise putting better tyres on it straight away, and you may get fed up with the pedals fairly quickly (they are very small), so maybe £100 to spend on top of the basic price. The extra-low gears it has won’t be needed on your commute, but you’ll love them if you do a day out into the hills.
The tyres on the Marasa look reasonable, ditto the pedals, but the brakes aren’t such good quality.
As you know, I bought the Lithium. I already had spare tyres and pedals, and one factor that would have put me off the Marasa (not that I looked at it) is that I don’t trust the mechanics at our local Halfords (they messed-up badly on the assembly of the one bike I bought there, nearly causing a very nasty accident).
Nearholmer wrote: ↑27 Jan 2023, 11:09pm
Yes, having seen the OP reject the Lithium 3, I’m baffled. I tried to say that it is a very good bike for the money!
Confused me too. Looks like a very good option at that price.
Another vote for the lithium 3 -- great value for money -- I have a pinnacle R2 and yes it's a 105 with a few better parts on but it was twice this price and 9 x 3 is good enough gearing -- hydraulic brakes with more fixing points for touring racks than you can shake a stick at --room for mudguards and good tyres -- don't need much more than this bike in reality.
With 9 cassette it'll be an easy conversion to electric if you ever go down that route.
Well the lithium 3 is spoke highly of so I’ll definitely be keeping that one in mind.
Any thoughts on the boardman HYB 8.6? I know it’s a little bit more expensive but as far as I can gather, boardman bikes seem to have a lot of really good feedback.
Another bike that would do the job you need done. Decent tyres, slightly less good brakes than the Lithium, suitable range of gears although as 2x9 it lacks the really, really low ones that you get on a 3x9.
It seems to be £600 full price, which is competitive.
Yes, Boardman brand does usually give good spec for the money, only downside is the mistakes the guys at Halfords are too prone to make when assembling bikes.
You are the second person here to tee-up these bikes same bikes for comparison in the past few months. Last time it didn’t end well because the guy asking the questions simply couldn’t make his mind up ….. which in the end is what you will have to do, and I’d suggest quickly if you want to get winter sale prices.
Sambo241 wrote: ↑29 Jan 2023, 6:51pm
I’ll try my luck with getting the belt myself and fitting it.
You can always just take it to a bike shop and ask them to fit it for you. They might also see what caused the first one to go. Most likely set up incorrectly.
Another alternative is to take it to your LBS and ask them if they can covert to chain. Then you are using much cheaper parts for maintenance.
Sorry! 