I’ve been riding my new Breezer Finesse bicycle for a couple of weeks now. The verdict: I’m lovin’ it.
At first I wasn’t so sure because I had a bit of early bad luck. First, my handlebars wouldn’t seem to stay tight, no matter how much I worked at the bolts, but then I discovered that you have to tighten things in a particular order. And since then they’ve been rock stable.
The second problem was more vexing. From the very first mile, I couldn’t shift into fourth gear (rather, the bike wouldn’t stay in fourth gear - it’d seem to slide and click and clank and never really settle in). All the other gears were fine; it was only fourth that seemed cursed. This made me slightly apprehensive because the Finesse has a Shimano internal rear geared hub (or, as the info on the Breezer website says: “Shimano Alfine multi planetary with silent roller clutches,” which, of course, makes things sound very James Bond). What this means is that there’s no derailleur, which also means (I hope) no black and greasy fingers for me to clear a chain problem on the way to work.
But what do you do when you can’t shift into an important gear and you have no idea how to adjust the multi-planetary solar system yourself? You shrug and ride it back to the bike shop for a checkup.
And this is where my new problem began. This was on a Saturday, a glorious morning with no wind and an air-conditioned 70 degree sunny sky. I was putting the bike through it’s paces, riding quickly, then slowly, and then, suddenly, without any shifting help from me at all, I heard a loud clunk from the back of the bike, and I dropped into first gear. I was out in the vast Texas Panhandle wilderness, blown out in my puniest gear.
Riding in a low gear on a long, flat stretch of road is miserable. Your legs pump up and down madly like hyperactive pistons and yet you’ll still get passed by a guy flipping through an issue of Readers’ Digest on his motorized wheelchair. It’s a miserable way to ride.
I finally made it to my local bike shop, and after a few hours of waiting, I was fixed up. So I don’t blame any of these nasty issues on the Breezer at all. I think they were all due to the initial unboxing and setup here in town.
Now for the good stuff: the Finesse is a great ride. It’s snappy, handles much better than I expected, and since there’s no derailleur, you can’t hear it coming. It runs in stealth mode like my Prius, only it gets much better gas mileage. (It does have a bell, which I ding whenever I can; I am cool and macho that way.)
It’s a comfy ride. The grips on the handlebars are wonderful and the Joe Bars (a secondary set of handlebars that you can use to hunch over and ride quickly) really do work great. I have to ride under a railroad bridge on my commute, and when I hunker down with the Joe Bars, I cut the time from 20 seconds to seven on that scary part of the road.
The seat is also much more comfortable than I had expected (and this is comparing it to my recumbent bike, which is what I can ride and take a nap in at the same time).
The pedals were a particular concern for me. I didn’t want to clip in to anything, since this bike is my new all-around ride everywhere do anything bike. I didn’t want fancy shoes to limit my riding. So I bought a pair of Grip King pedals from Rivendell Bicycle Works for my freakishly large feet. Now I just have to get used to adjusting my feet on these pedals to avoid knocking into the Finesse’s frame, but that’s just changing my own spastic riding style.
The light system on the Finesse is bright. I mean very bright. I rode home late one night and was very happy at the magnitude of illumination my little front torch was throwing out, and I was able to avoid a few dark and looming potholes, a dead skunk (the smell might have helped though), and two kids who were playing the childhood favorite “Run Randomly Into The Street” evening game.
Now to the rack. On my old commuter bike, I’d load up a pair of panniers with clothes, shoes, lunch, and the occasional bundle of books and papers. Alas, the Finesse’s rack is a “Breezer Truss sport rack with a 14-inch bed.“ I didn’t understand this to mean I could not mount panniers on the rack, but once the bike came in, it was abundantly clear. I did have a trunk bag, but it was too small to fit my stupidly big clown shoes, so after a very nice conversation with Mitch at Breezer, I opted to buy the longer Breezer trunk bag to replace my small one. Now I’m quite happy. The Breezer bag unzips to a giant 17” tall, plenty of space for shoes, clothes, lunch, and the occasional super-secret work project.
The Breezer Finesse is a great bike, perfect for commuting, great for stopping quickly in the rain (the disc brakes are fantastic), speedy, comfy, and good looking to boot. Thanks Joe Breeze and all the Breezer-ees for a terrific ride.
