Specialized Globe San Francisco

OK – I bought the San Francisco 2 to commute to work insted of riding my heavy dual suspension mountain bike or wrecking my carbon fibre road bike on gravel bike paths. The geometry of the bike is pretty much the same as a mountain bike so it has a fairly relaxed riding position. The frame and fork are aluminium and the bike has a low standover height. The bars, stem and seat post are also aluminium. The mounting point for a water bottle cage is way down near the bottom bracket and is hard to reach on the move. It comes standard with cable operated disc brakes, a Shimano Nexus 3 speed rear hub and gumby looking rubber platform pedals. The paintwork is gloss black and looks good except mine had one small run on the headtube. The bars are a little narrow and a wierd shape so I replaced them with a carbon bar with a 40mm rise. I also had a spare carbon seat post which I fitted as well. Both the original bars and seat post were pretty heavy even for alloy ones. I was surprised at how well the cable operated disc brakes worked until I fitted a spare hydraulic front brake I had lying around (Avid Elixir CR) which improved the braking by at least 30% so a rear hydraulic was fitted as well. The pedals were replaced with mountain bike pedals as the standard have no teeth and are just a flat platform and I think they might be slippery in the wet. The tyres are Secialized Nimbus Sport and I can't speak highly enough about them. They have great grip yet the bike rolls like a rocket and steers well which was very surprising as the rubber is a reasonably soft compound, but I did have tham inflated to their maximum pressure of 80psi. The seat is a reasonable compromise comfort wise without being too big. The Nimbus 3 speed works great although 3 speeds probably isn't suitable unless there are only moderate hills where you ride. With the changes I've made I'm very happy with the bike and the only other change I'll make is to fit some bar ends but that's only a personal preference. If your after a commuter and not interested in modifying your ride I would recommend the bike but if you need a do it all bike you are probably better off with a light hardtail mountain bike with more than 3 gears. see Overall see Overall