Follow
Commuter bikes come in all shapes and sizes but here’s a particularly trick example that’s been built by staff at Chain Reaction Cycles. The bike was built as part of an internal reward scheme for the company’s customer support team; they’re the helpful folk that answer your emails, phone calls or live chat queries on behalf of CRC.
Starting with just the frame and fork, the staff agreed on the complete spec for the bike which was soon known internally as the ‘super commuter’. Deliberately unusual components choices – many of which came from CRC’s in-house brands – were supported by a healthy £2,000 budget. The bike was then built like a jigsaw as each week the highest performer in the team got to complete a stage, until the build was completed.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Exposure front lamp dishes out up to 800 lumens of light thanks to energy sapped from the dynamo front hub
At the heart of the build is an alloy Dee 29 frame and matching chromoly fork from in-house brand Vitus. Normally featuring in one of three simple and affordable commuter bikes, the Dee 29 frame isn’t currently sold separately. The frame’s mountain bike derived geometry mean that occasional off-road fun isn’t out of the question and its looks are tougher than most flat-bar commuter options.
As the name suggests, each production Dee 29 rolls on 29in mountain bike hoops, yet this bike gets an upgrade to WTB’s Frequency Team i29 rims. Both wheels are laced onto hubs that are interesting in their own way: up front there’s a Revo dynamo hub from Exposure, an unusual UK-made part that draws up to 800 lumens from a rider’s effort and powers it directly to a compatible lamp. Useful then, that the Exposure Revo 800 lumen lamp is mounted at the wide Nukeproof handlebar – its single wire neatly tucked into the top cap of the matching Nukeproof stem.
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
Leave a Reply