cycling withdrawals

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simonlil

New Member
hi, guys. i just arrived in london from australia after a few months of roaming asia. anyway, back home i cycle everywhere, i don't want a car, i hate public transport and i love flying down the road on my bike. i need to find a bike that i can ride around london, primarily to work and back which will be somewhere in central london and involve me chaining it up outside a restaurant from early in the morning till past midnight. i was just going to buy something good but seeing mangled bikes and lone wheels chained up all over the place has me a little worried about that. so i'm hoping to get something cheap (maybe second hand? ) the most important thing after price is that it will cope with being ridden hard. are fixed speed bikes a viable option? i've never ridden one and thought they were stupid but there aren't really any hills in london and from what i've read they kinda look ok. is there somewhere i could get second hand bike that isn't just an expensive hipstermobile. anyway, the lack of a bike in my life is making me depressed. please help me.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
It's been a while since I was looking but I think it seemed fairly easy to buy a second hand singlespeed in London from one of the refurbishers for a bit over £100 and hub geared for £250 or so. I don't know about fixed because I wasn't looking for them. The peanut factory rings a bell. Lfgss.com probably has more ideas on them.
 
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simonlil

New Member
The residents of Highgate and the surrounding area may disagree with you there.

Anyway, eBay surely is your best stop? Local papers? Bike shop? Cash converters?


Tony
i live in se16 and will most likely be working in central london so if i end up in highgate it will be for leisure and not a regular commute. still at it's highest point it's less than half the height of my old weekend route in brisbane.
i did look at ebay and the likes but i don't want a stolen bike or something of poor quality and a lot of the bike shops i have found that are selling second hand bikes are very overpriced.
i was hoping for a little insight from people who have been her longer than i and thought maybe there's someone on here that has an old bike kicking around in the shed that they'd be happy to part with.

It's been a while since I was looking but I think it seemed fairly easy to buy a second hand singlespeed in London from one of the refurbishers for a bit over £100 and hub geared for £250 or so. I don't know about fixed because I wasn't looking for them. The peanut factory rings a bell. Lfgss.com probably has more ideas on them.

thanks, i'll check out the peanut factory this week. i've been to a couple of refurbishers and encountered a row of rusty death traps for £250-£500 i could find a suitable new bike for that price....
 

biggs682

Touch it up and ride it
Location
Northamptonshire
@simonlil welcome to our strange country

single speed or fixed gear do seem good ideas for commuting etc etc less mechanicals to go wrong etc etc

i normally have a selection of 2nd hand machines and some times they include one ot the above

at the moment i have this geared bike http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=93121

and i do have a single speeder built round an older style track/path frame , i think the following link will give you some info on the bike but if you want more just message me https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/the-pollard-has-arrived.132366/page-2
 
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simonlil

New Member
looking at that single speed bike all i can see is myself getting impaled on those handlebars haha, but the geared bike looks like pretty much exactly what i'm after. i'm going to go to (http://britainlovesbikes.co.uk/) tomorrow to see if they have anything there but at the moment you're looking like my best bet @biggs682 thanks, i'll be in touch.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
There's a bike recycling place at elephant and castle if you've not tried them too

Or get a frame and build your own SS?
 
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simonlil

New Member
the place at elephant and castle has really bad reviews.... i was going to go there first but the reviews turned me off. i'd love to build my own but i don't trust myself to do it properly and don't really have the time to learn how at the moment.
 

vickster

Legendary Member
I don't know - of the two used bikes I have, one was from eBay and one off here, but both were in the £400 range

What's your actual budget?
 
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simonlil

New Member
ideally at the moment i'm looking for something kinda old that people aren't going to go out of their way to steal, i'm thinking around 200 pounds should suffice. i could spend more but i'd rather spend less. i would absolutely love to drop 1000 on a really nice bike but i'm too scared that i'll finish work one night and it'll be gone.
 
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simonlil

New Member
yeah i'll be getting some good locks, i'll look into insurance as well, didn't think of that. i went to decathlon and the guy told me that if i ride it too hard it will pretty much fall apart. my first road bike was from the 70s/80s and it could handle anything i threw at it hoping to find something like that....
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
The big chains don't make 'em like that any more, sadly!

I suspect you won't find anyone professing to make such a bike these days (too much fear of being sued if you get one that doesn't?) but there are probably still a few who do. I wish I had enough money and time to buy a few and test them to destruction. :smile:
 
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