Pocket Rocket Pro or Pocket Crusoe Light?

Hi folks. I just ordered a pocket rocket pro with ultegra components, drop handlebars, and women sized brake levers. I am so excited!!! I got a lot of really great advice from Lynette, so we decided to post our correspondance below so it might help others. Tim Link in sales was also really helpful, in fact he designed the bike. I started out thinking I needed the crusoe for touring, but didn't understand that unless I planned to carry a lot of weight in pannier bags, that I could get more speed from the pocket rocket pro. While I have used a bike for transportation for more than 25 years, I am at a point in my life where I want do do more long charity rides, suppported tours, and club rides. So, in addition to wanting the portablity a friday offers, I really want to move up to a speedier higher performance bike.

Eileen's Original Post to Lynette:

Here are my questions. I absolutely want a friday, because I want to have a bike that packs easily for trips with my husband who has NWT. I want a model with a trailer so I can carry my suitcase when desired or required (recently my husband learned storing a friday suitcase at an airport is not always possible). I want it to be comfortable for touring, but also fast for club rides. For the last two years, most of my riding consisted of a daily 16 mile/ day commute to work in city traffic. Recently I started doing club rides on the weekend. I am currently doing 1, 30 mile ride/weekend, and plan to start doing 2, 30-60 rides/ weekend, and then some longer charity rides such as an MS150 in Oct. and tours with my husband. For this varied riding, I am favoring a pocket tourlite crusoe, as a compromise between light weight for speed and touring geometry for comfort. I currently ride a Terry Classic Touring bike, and enjoy the fit of this bike (it has a very short top tube which really suits my body), and the comfort of the touring frame geometry. This model is also equipped with flat mountain style handelbars with bar ends which I really love. So, the most obvious thing to do would be to have them make me a bike friday matching the fit of my terry classic, with either the H-bar or a mountain bar with ends.

But, my husband thinks if I want to do longer tours (500 mile) I should get curved road style bars. I understand the thing about varying hand positions, and have my bar ends set up parallel to the flat part, so I can move my hands all over. I have never in my life enjoyed riding a bike with curved handlebars. I don't know if the problem was that the first bike I bought with curved handlebars also had too long a top-tube, so I couldn't reach them, or if I just don't like them. Physically I can't even squeeze the break levers on my husband's bike, although again its not my frame size. I did notice when I tried the Terry version of these break levers they were more comfortable, but I still didn't feel comfortable on the bike. But, I don't know if I spent more time on such a bike I might get used to it and prefer it. It seems to me that how fast I go on a long ride is dictated by my fitness, my willingness to go fast on downhills (which I am reluctant to do after my accident) and the weight of the bike. Obviously being tucked over racing handlebars could improve speed, but I have never felt comfortable riding in such a position. So, the question is, if I got curved bars with terry break levers, would I in time adjust and become a better cyclist, or should I go with what I know and like. I should say that Georgena Terry really encouraged me to go with the straight bars on my classic, saying most women my age (45) prefer them.

Another obvious idea was to keep my terry set up as a commuter bike, and get a fast friday (pocke rocke pro) for longer fast rides, but I will give/loan my daughter my terry as she wants to start doing the betty rides with me and needs a faster bike than her hybrid.

So based on all this, do you all think a pocket tourlite crusoe with H-bars would be a good match for my interests? Then the next question is whether to go with 3 rear chain rings, or one of the hub styles that shifts without using rings. My husband has this on his NWT. Which will be lightist in weight and highest in performance? I do need a granny gear, I live in the texas hill country.

Lynette Replied:

Hi Eileen,

Reading over your last two emails, you want what I always wanted - a
bike for touring that you can also use for fast club rides. I am
convinced now that AT THIS TIME you can't do a bike that does both
excellently - it will do one thing excellent and the other pretty good
and vice versa. If you get a bike for carrying stuff and strange roads
it will feel sluggish on those centuries. If you get the fastest BF Pro
it will probably not like much luggage or rugged terrain.

Unless you plan to have two bikes - your all rounder and a fast bike -
you have to ask what you will be doing 95% of the time, and get that
bike. Every time I get on the Pro I think, ah, this is it -
performance - I will change my Crusoe to have drop bars ... Then,
everytime I get on my Crusoe I think ah, this is it ...comfort ... but
it's not the sprightly Porsche that the Pro is, and can feel downright
sluggish after riding the Pro.

You sound exactly the same kind of rider as I - didn't much like drop
bars in the past, more comfy with flat bars+ends/H-bars, building up to
going longer and faster but not intending to be Lance Armstrong's
female equivalent, but wanting performance. But then I tried it and...

I have to say the Pro is so fast and light, and after a few days I
really got used to the drop bars. The actually feel way more stable
going downhill than flat bars even with bar ends (and I mean around 47
mph downhill). They allow you to kind of hunker down over your bars
with great stability, and uphill, you can crouch over the bars to
really pull. I tend to ride on the hoods rather than the drops because
I am still a little inexperienced. The tires are 0.7" and pumped up to
110 psi - faaassstt. The STI shifters and brakes are right under your
hands so bam! you click into the right gear instantly. Both the bars
and shifters are the thing that gives you spppppeeeeed. As well as
skinny pumped up hard tires. YOu will feel faaassst on this bike.

But the Pro is not designed for carrying much weight or kit, including
my to and from work accoutrement, nor for hitting anything rougher than
the odd gravel patch, or massively steep hills unless you are in shape
for them - hence my other bike - the Crusoe.

As for that bike, I have been experimenting forever with different
setups - 3x hub, Rohloff, traditional chainrings, flat bars with Cane
Creek Ergo bar ends... because I am finicky. always searching for the
lightest, fastest most versatile setup, which is somewhat impossible.
The set up I have now is double chainring, 11-34 cassette, H-bars, with
bar end shifters. The most significant point is that I have the brake
levers mounted on the bar ends, rather than on the cross bar of the 'H'
like on most flat bar bikes. Of course to do this I had to have the
H-bar cut down so the bar ends were the same as my shoulder width plus
a little. This means I rarely ride with my hands on the cross piece.I
found this setup gives much better control for climbing and descending,
indeed, think about it - it kind of mimics a drop bar with STI position
(what you call curved bar) setup .. if you get my drift. However,
unlike the Pro, my shifters are a bit further away from my brake
levers, so my hands has to travel to change gear. This is not really a
big deal when commuting and touring but it does introduce a delay in
shifting, which you could not tolerate on a performance ride. Bar
controls hark back to an earlier time, when people used column shifters
mounted on the down tube, the difference being that today, they are
usually indexed (meaning they 'click' into gear like most modern bikes
with gripshift etc). The beauty of them is that if the clicky mechanism
gets out of whack, you can always switch to ye olde style friction
shifting and continue your journey. If the STI setup breaks you need a
replacement! This bar controls are often recommended for touring.

BUT GUESS WHAT - MY CRUSOE IS STILL SLUGGISH COMPARED WITH THE PRO!!!!
There's something about that drop bar position...

So what is it t be? fast rides with friends? Or zippy (but not as fast)
comfort? All tire widths or just skinny ones? Choose...

Reading your emails again, there could be another option. You might
want to ask Tim about a flat/h-bar Pro - we built one for South African
road cycling authority Bill Horne who writes for SA Cycling magazine
(that's South Africa). He was very specific that he wanted a flat bar
Pro. Alan specified it. Phil Liggett(tour de france commentator) also
told me he'd get a flat bar road bike as he and his buddies are feeling
like more comfort in their lives. Alan Scholz (CEO) had a H-bar
AirFriday, and he put a pair of Cinelli aero bars on the front and he
goes 50 mph at lunchtimes on a regular basis. There are many ways to
skin a cat! But remember, drop bars say you are a serious performance
rider.

As for gearing, the lightest setup is chainrings. I might change my
Crusoe double to a triple but honestly, have neverreally needed it,
even loaded.
Tim will probably get you to go with the new Capreo cassette, 9-32 if
that is possible, as that would give a great granny gear and a great
high end.

So in summary, what do you want to do 95% of the time on a Friday?

Lynette