I bought a used bike in Copenhagen for 1,200 Danish Kroner or ~175 USD and have been using it as my primary transportation for four months. Let’s take a look at the components I love and hate.
Drum brake
My bike has a Shimano drum brake on the front wheel. Drum brakes are designed to be very low maintenance and cannot be disassembled. Unfortunately, I am missing the cap that keeps the lubricant inside of the brake. The proper grease for Shimano drum brakes is proprietary and very expensive. So when it starts making loud screeching noise I just pour some chain grease into it and that seems to work. It works, but I would rather have caliper brakes. 3/10
Spring Seat
I really like this seat. The saddle is firm. The springs absorb shocks.
As a bonus, it has improved my pedaling technique. When I pedal quickly I sometimes start to bounce up and down on the springs. This means that some of my pedaling energy is being directed into the ground instead of being used to propel the bike forward. I am working on correcting this and I never would have known if I didn’t have a bike seat with springs! 11/10
Shimano Internal Hub Gear
Six speeds is plenty for Copenhagen. It is really flat here, but it does sometimes get quite windy so I regularly end up in the lowest gear. The shifting works OK, but it is a totally sealed system and you void the warranty if you open it. There is no way to fix it or maintain it and this sucks since one of the gears is grinding and another makes a weird sound
The primary offense of this component is that it has integrated coaster brakes. I hate coaster brakes and you should too. They barely work at all and they make it harder to start and stop since you can’t pedal backward freely. 0/10
Rear light
This rear light is fantastic because it is charged by the wheel spinning. I only wish I had the same light in the front. 10/10
Adjustable handlebar stem
I can’t tighten it enough to stop it from wiggling around. 2/10
Fenders
I haven’t biked enough in the rain to tell if fenders are really worth it. Biking in the rain sucks, do fenders really make it much better? ?/10
Kickstand
I thought kickstands were dumb, but that was before I used panniers with my bike. When you have a pannier attached to a bike it is so nice to be able to stand it up so you can easily find what you need in the pannier. Otherwise, you would have to take the pannier off the bike, lean the bike against something, and then crouch down to retrieve your picnic blanket. 10/10
Bell
This bell is obnoxious and that’s the way I like it. It reminds me of the bell at a reception desk. You can ding it really aggressively but I have been working on dinging it softly for when an old lady cuts me off and I am feeling gracious. 10/10
Chain guard
Barely weighs anything, but keeps my pants out of the chain. A few times, I have kicked it by accident and have had to adjust it because it is rubbing against the chain. But it makes me feel even more superior when I pass cyclists on $1,000 road bikes. 9/10
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