City bikes  It seems that U.S. bicycle companies have finally discovered that people can use bicycles for everyday transportation. Most bikes that are now manufactured are intended for recreational riders: road bikes for the faster sport riders, mountain bikes for trail riders, and hybrid or comfort bikes for paved trail riding. Most of these bikes can be adapted for all-weather riding, but it's usually a challenge mounting fenders, lights and racks. Plus, it adds to the final cost of the bike.

Breezer has been making transportation bikes for a while. Now others are starting to follow as described in a recent article on transportation bikes in the Wall Street Journal.

These bikes come standard with fenders, racks, lighting systems, and usually a small horseshoe-like lock attached to the seat stays and intended to encircle the rear wheel to prevent someone from riding off with the bike. This kind of bike was everywhere when we travelled in Basel, Switzerland. To see examples of these bikes see this article on how Copenhagen, Denmark is being transformed in to a bicycle paradise.
posted by Bruce Wright at 2:00 PM #