Best Run-around Bike?

[MacB]

MacB - can you fit an eccentric BB in a standard MTB or road frame? And how much play does the eccentricity give you? Logic would say that you only need one chain link's length - approx 1/2".

There is a product called the Eccentriker which is claimed to achieve this for any standard BB shell, but it costs about £120. At that price you're able to source another frame or droput replacements if you have a steel frame. I've read mixed reviews on EBB's, Thorn use them as do Van Nicholas in the Amazon. I think there's an eccentric hub option as well, but don't know much about that. On EBB's write ups indicate issues around level of refinement, slippage and the grub screw that is used to hold the BB position.

I'm not sure how much development will go into certain areas as I'm seeing more hub gear bikes with things like belt drives. I'd imagine the desired way forward is removing the chain stretch problem altogether. Then you could run any system on vertical dropouts, certainly seems to be a growing market for these innovationsin Europe. The big downside is that belt drives require the ability to open the frame.

 

[Piemaster]

Trickstuff also do a EBB that fit in a normal shell.
To echo MacB, hub gears and belt drives will need some sort of solution to splitting the frame, or a different frame design such as in this thread

 

[Arch]

Yet another option!

The thick plottens.

How expensive are they and how quick are they to fold/unfold?

£600 and up, new, and about 10 seconds.

There's nothing like showing off folding a Brompton. I don't own one, yet, but it's on my want list, eventually. They are just soooooo neat folded, like no other folding bike.

Would put a link, but the website seems to be down...

 

[XmisterIS]

Trickstuff also do a EBB that fit in a normal shell.

Sehr gut aber sehr teuer!


I think £600 for a brompton is a little out of my price range too.

I'll see if I can pick up a track frameset on EBay, there's one I'm watching at £30 so far!

 

[jimboalee]

What the hell is that?!




(I'll get me coat)







MacB, I'll phone you tomorrow or Thurs if that's OK with you

When you said "run around bike", you should have said you wasn't intending to 'run around' to the off licence and Indian takeaway.

 

[XmisterIS]

When you said "run around bike", you should have said you wasn't intending to 'run around' to the off licence and Indian takeaway.

Lol!

Well, on the plus side, no bugger'd nick it! I imagine people would pay me not to chain in up outside their shop.

 

[Campfire]

What is a BSO please?

I use whatever bike I feel like for shopping, mainly my Orange Clockwork as that's the one I ride most, but sometimes take the recumbent trike. I have put new tyres & tubes on a 1980s Peugeot mixte hand brazed Flamenco (pretty in pink with chromed end forks) and theoretically that's for shopping until I bang it on Ebay in the Spring. It's a lovely lightweight even though it's got sit up and beg bars.

 

[MacB]

What is a BSO please?

Bike Shaped Object, should mean a cheap, not fit for purpose, mockery of a bike, ie unsafe, poorly built or components that won't last 5 minutes. Unfortunately it's been widely adopted by folks to refer to bikes they consider beneath them.