"Motobecane" Jury

                                          Motobecane Jury eBay Frame

My next fixed gear is not shown! I owned a Surly Steamroller for about 3 years, but never seemed to get a picture of it! It was a pretty nice riding bike, but Surly had some strange ideas for braze-ons...it was not the ideal commuter bike, but not bad. Unfortunately the frame broke after about 2 and 3/4 years. I must say, Surly was good about giving me some reimbursement for that. Good company, with interesting designs.

UPDATE: Well, I found a shot of my Steamroller set up for commuting, here it is:

Steamroller commuter.

With the refund in hand, I went shopping for a new commuting/ fixed gear frame. I wanted another purposely designed for single speed riding. I was inspired by an internet article about the Jury in "Bicycle Fixation", see the link below...

http://www.bicyclefixation.com/silkpurse.html

The picture above shows my Jury before the final addition of Velo Orange Stainless Steel fenders and my Carradice Nelson Saddlebag.

This is a $200 dollar frame, you can't really expect to much of it. However, having said that, I must say that I was pretty happy with the quality of it's construction, and overall finish. It's a TIG welded frame, nothing fancy, but the welds were nice and clean, and the frame was straight and true. The braze-ons were just what I wanted for my commuter frame, one set of water-bottle eyelets and threaded eyelets for front and rear fenders, perfect.

The one odd thing about this bike is the crazy amount of clearance for the brakes. You must use extra-long reach brake, and even then, if you want a rear brake, you need a drop bolt, (which is supplied), to even reach the rear rim! For a fixed gear, a rear brake is not needed, so this is not a problem for me. I think the reason this frame was so cheap was because of this clearance issue. I'm pretty sure it had to be a mistake in the specs.

Anyway, this is now my main commuter, so it gets plenty of mileage. It gives a good ride, I'm very happy with it.

Here's the Motobecane with commuting gear mounted. That's a Carradice Nelson on back. Also installed are: Velo-Orange SS fenders, and a Sigma Pro LED headlight.

UPDATE: In the above posting, I neglected to mention one problem I have found with this bike; there is a fair amount of "toe clip" overhang with the front wheel. It's really apparent with the combination of my big, (US size 11) feet and the fenders. It's something I've got accustomed to, but it can cause problems for the unwary, some might find it unacceptable.

UPDATED: Link to my latest post regarding the frame failure on this bike.