Six super-commuter bikes

Whatever your daily ride, we’ve got the perfect bike for you

Commuter bikes all too often inhabit the realm of the mundane, the humdrum, the utilitarian. But that doesn’t need to be the case – as these six super commuters demonstrate. They have flat bars and drops, are made from aluminium and steel, come with a single chainring or two, disc and rim brakes – but each of them is much more than a ‘mere’ commuter bike. None of them have unnecessary suspension forks – hurrah! – but all have more strings to their bows, ensuring they don’t sit in your bike shed untouched, unloved and unridden come the weekend.

The bikes are different because not all commutes are created equal. The idea behind this test was to find bikes that could tackle this tester’s present and previous commutes. They’re designed for tarmac, track, towpath or

various combinations of these different riding surfaces.

Our least expensive is the ‘classic’ commuter bike, complete with a flat bar and slick tyres for zinging through city streets. Spend a little more and Giant’s Toughroad looks like it’ll live up to its name. Goldhawk Bikes is a new name and the brainchild of an engineer who never got on with drops so designed his own speedy-looking flat-bar bike. All three of these have hydraulic disc brakes.

Our first drop-bar bike is Norco’s Search XR, a Reynolds 725 steel gravel-cum-city bike with cable disc brakes. Next up is Genesis’s classylooking 725-framed Equilibrium allrounder, with mainly Shimano 105 components. Our sextet is finished with an Airnimal Joey, which looks expensive until you realise this is a high-end folder with 26in wheels. But can it compete with its biggerwheeled brethren?