Electra Straight 8 3i

Originally posted to Google+ on Jul 04, 2014

My second toy of the week! Luckily for me, I live extremely close to my new employer, Google - only 1.3 miles! Being that close, I'd kind of feel guilty driving to work everyday so I'm planning on biking to work most days.

Now, I already have a mountain bike as well as a road bike, but the idea of riding either of those bikes to work was not very appealing. From an ergonomic standpoint, I just don't really like road bikes with their hunched over riding positions. It's one of the reasons why road biking has fallen out of favor with me. The riding position on my mountain bike is more comfortable, but I don't really want to be wearing out my knobby mountain bikes tires on pavement. And perhaps the biggest downside to either bike is that I have Egg Beater clipless pedals on both bikes which require specialized shoes.

Sure, I could swap out the clipless pedals for flats but it would be a pain having to take the pedals on and off. The bottom line is that for me, bikes are fairly specialized in terms of function. For road biking, you give up some comfort and the ability to go off road in exchange for going faster. For mountain biking, you want knobby tires and suspension for rocky trails. However, for casual, general use riding like biking a short distance to work or a quick jaunt to the grocery store, a cruiser bike is pretty much the ticket.

To be honest, I used to kind of look down upon cruiser bikes. However, my recent Costa Rica trip changed that perception. While in Costa Rica, we rented cruiser bikes which we used near daily to go into town, get groceries, eat, etc. I loved how comfortable and fun they were to ride. Of course, you're not going to be riding any technical dirt trails with them or biking any kind of long distances, but for casual riding, they're a blast!

As I am wont to do, I did a bunch of research into cruiser bikes. While you can get basic cruiser bikes for less than $100 at Walmart, I wanted something a bit more high-end. While I like the mechanical simplicity of a single-speed, I felt that it'd be a good idea to have at least a few more gears. I found some cruisers with 3-speeds which I felt was perfect. 7-speed cruisers also exist, but those utilize an external rear derailleur whereas the 3-speed uses an "internal gear hub" which highly appealed to me since the entire gearing system is inside a sealed hub. Unlike external derailleur systems, internal gear hubs basically never go out of adjustment.

I could have gotten a 3-speed cruiser for around ~$300 (heavier steel frame) to ~$400 (lighter aluminum frame), but then I came across the Electra Straight 8 3i and DAMN, it is one frickin' AWESOME looking bike! It had everything I wanted - 3-speeds, aluminum frame (lighter than steel, but still pretty heavy at ~35 lb), and great looks. The Straight 8 also has a more relaxed position than most cruisers - basically the pedals are positioned a bit more forward from the seat resulting in a more recumbent and comfortable riding position. Of course, all that awesomeness comes at a price - right around $800! After test riding it at the local Bike Connection, I slept on it, decided it was worth the premium, and took the plunge.

I've ridden the bike a few times and I love it! I ride it to the skate park, grocery store (Fresh & Easy and Whole Foods), to the gym (both the nearby 24 Hour Fitness in Mountain View as well as the further away Planet Granite in Sunnyvale), and once to the nearby Target. And of course, I rode one day to the Google campus and it took me less than 10 minutes! I'm loving this bike and have a feeling it's going to get a heck of a lot of use. I have not doubt that its cost will be money well spent. :-)