Balk city racer

My bicycle commute is quite a long one at 15 kilometers. After wrecking two beaters (usual means to get around town here) in one year I decided it was time to upgrade.

In order to cut commute time it had to be fast but sturdy. No cables, derailers, brake levers, et cetera but not a fixie. I want to be able to brake and a low gear for traffic lights would be desirable.

So I bought a second hand steel Batavus or Gazelle frame (which of the two is not known) refurbished by Balk bicycles in the late eighties.
A SRAM Automatix internal gear hub which, in a 700c rim, will change gears (1/1.37) at around 15 km/h.
Mavic Open Pro rims, DT Swiss competition spokes, an All City track hub for the front wheel. I was able to keep the bottom bracket and cranks (Sakae Ringyo Royal, 144mm BCD) but got an All City 42 teeth chainwheel to go with a 22 rear sprocket.

Spoking my own wheels for the first time was a lot of fun and made easy realy with Sheldon Brown's directions at hand.

I later tweaked the Automatix hub as per Dave McCraw's instructions to shift a little later. I'm guesstimating it now shifts at about 21 km/h. It's easier on the knees, especially considering that on bumpier terrain the Automatix is often knocked in high gear far earlier then it would of it's own accord on flat tarmac.

The hub is very cheap and functions perfectly but you can kind of hear that it's cheap. It's shifting weights make an audible rattle over bumpier roads. I would spend lots more money on a more sophisticated version of this hub if it only existed. It would probably be a lot lighter too. But at current pricing this thing really is a steal.