How is it possible to replace your bike?

[Quadratica]

sometimes a different kind of bike is required. For instance age/injury may mean that one can no longer get on/off a normal bike with a cross-bar and needs a sloping top tube (like women's bikes) or space restrictions may require a folder. In such cases it is wise to let the previous bike go to a home where it will be used.

 

[EasyPeez]

I usually just upgrade components on existing bikes. My fixed-wheel, for instance, only has the cranks from the original bike. It's on its fifth frame.
However, I recently, with some trepidation, ordered a new complete bike from Richard Hallett. We had long discussions beforehand about frame materials & angles, gearing, wheels, etc. The result is a very fine machine, a pleasure to ride.

Hang on, I've got some questions here...

i) how do you wear 5 frames out before you wear out a set of cranks?
ii) how do you get through 5 frames in a standard human lifetime anyway? Racing & crashing? Or are you incredibly heavy and/or careless? Or very bad at choosing frames that suit you?!
iii) once those cranks go is it fair to assume it will, in your mind, cease to be the same bike?
iv) at what point does an 'existing bike' become a 'new' bike? Surely if you have bought 5 new frames and various other components then you've effectively bought at least several, if not 5, new bikes - just piecemeal rather than in one off-the-peg package?
iv) if answering no to the above, does any single original working component somehow retain the spirit/isness/authenticity of the orignal bike? i.e if it was the fork rather than the cranks that was all that remained, would you still consider that the same bike? How about if it was just the seatpost? or the bar end plugs? or a single spoke?...a nipple?...a dustcap?

Many thanks!

 

[Tom B]

I've often said brits have an odd relationship with cars and dogs. We elevate them give them status and personification they dont deserve making them an extension of their personality. People washing the car an cleaning it to treat it as a reward for passing the MOT, buying it a treat, naming cars... Elevation of dogs to human level. All Batty in my eyes. It's a tool, a machine for getting from a to b I'm more interested I'n value and functionality and more likely to give it an oil change or a waxoil than a wash or a valet beyond hoovering it.

Reading this thread I think I'll add bikes to that list. I have three bikes my all round commuter/trailer tower/childseatbearing 100miler, my Fs MTB that has also been know to tow a trailer and hold a Weeride and an ancient rigid Mtb which I should really get rid of to savespace but I'm attached, solely because its huge fun to ride and costs / owes nothing. I looked at a new commuter bike recently but didn't fancy any of the current crop so repaired my existing one had I liked something the old one would have been on eBay.

All that said I don't like to see waste so I always pass on bikes where possible even if it's just for a token sum.

 

[Threevok]

ii) how do you get through 5 frames out in a standard human lifetime anyway? Racing & crashing? Or are you incredibly heavy and/or careless? Or very bad at choosing frames that suit you?!

I can't speak for Ian, but in my case

I bought bike 1 in 2007 new. A Shogun Torsion cheapish full-suspension bike which I loved and upgraded most of the parts on. However, because I was using it for commuting as well off road, I kept wearing the bushings out, to the point where the rear triangle would "snake" as I peddled.

So I bought a second hand hardtail frame (GT Avalanche II) for £20 and took all the parts from bike 1 and put on bike 2.

I then upgraded the wheels on bike 2. However, these only lasted just over a year because I didn't check the max weight on them and cracks started to appear in the rim of the rear wheel. I sold the front one and had a brand new set built at Merlin

After a few years I noticed a crack in the frame around the headtube. No problem, I just bought another second hand frame (GT Avalanche 3) and took all the parts off bike 2 and put on bike 3.

However, the frame of bike 3 only lasted six months, before it developed a crack around the BB shell and downtube.

Fed up with second hand alloy frames, I bought a brand new steel hardtail frame (One One Inbred) and took all the parts off bike 3 and put them on bike 4

iv) at what point does an 'existing bike' become a 'new' bike? Surely if you have bought 5 new frames and various other components then you've effectively bought at least several, if not 5, new bikes - just piecemeal rather than in one off-the-peg package?

In my case, the only time the bike was new was at Bike 1, even though Bike 4 was a brand new frame, everything else has been replaced at some point.

iv) if answering no to the above, does any single original working component somehow retain the spirit/isness/authenticity of the orignal bike?

I'm not sure.

The oldest part on bike 4 is the brake rotors, which came from bike 1 when I upgraded the brakes to BB7s. I really should have changed them a long time ago, but, perhaps subconsciously, they do retain some sentimental value?

 

[froze]

Reading here, lots of people replace their bikes with nicer ones every so often. But I find myself very attached to my bikes, and thinking back over all the bikes I’ve ever owned, I’ve never actually replaced one. I’ve had one nicked, a couple written off, and a couple broken way beyond any economic repair (frame snapped etc).

I don’t think I could do it. After all, that’s the bike I towed my children with/went over the Galibier on/ did my first century on/ cycled to Germany /etc.

The only bike I’ve every got rid of in working order was my track bike, sold after not using it for 5 years or so but not replaced.

I will fairly soon take delivery of a new road bike for best – as a special treat and in anticipation of the current 10+ year old one not lasting a whole lot longer. Will I be able to get rid of the old, now entirely worthless one? I doubt it. I went over the Galibier on it!

I don't replace my bikes that often either. I bought a new bike in 1984, a Trek 660, I put on over 200,000 miles on that bike and did some racing with it, I still have that bike though I don't ride it much at all now because I bought my last new bike in 2013 because I felt 200,000 miles was pushing my luck with mechanical failure out on some remote ride. In 1987 I bought another new bike, a Miyata Team because I was racing and needed a backup bike, that bike I rarely rode; then I did buy a new bike in 2007 which was Mercian Vincitore with long point lugs while in England, that was a stupid impulse buy because I was touring the their factory and shop, the bike was so beautiful I was afraid to ride the thing and get it scratched! I had the skeleton style Campy Athena components on it too; so a friend who hounded me for 5 years bought it for the price I paid for it! Now I don't care if gets scratched...LOL!! Then in 2013 I bought my last new bike so far, it's a Lynskey Peloton, fantastic bike, the best riding bike I've ever owned, this one I'll be riding till I'm at least 100 years old. I have either found in dumpsters or bought several used bikes along the way because they were good deals, including 2 more Miyatas (a 712 and a 512) which I sold all my Miyatas to a Miyata collector about 2 years ago; I also bought a used 84 Fuji Club which is the one I ride to work on; a frame/fork with brakes and levers Dawes Galaxy from about the late 80's, that was in a dumpster; and an 84 Schwinn Voyageur that was a gunky mess when I pulled it out of a dumpster but cleaned up to look really quite nice, I just need to replace the cables and tires and it's good to go! I also bought a used 1985 Schwinn Le Tour Luxe to be my touring bike which sadly a car sideswiped me and I crashed the bike bending the fork it's now toast, so because that was my touring bike I now I have to buy another touring bike, so my next new bike will be coming early next year which I decided will be a Masi Giramondo 700c.

As you can see I don't buy new bikes every other year, in fact there are decades between new bikes. The dumpster bikes I have to fix up and sell them because they're both one size to big for me.

 

[Vantage]

I've had plenty of bikes over the years but it was the Dawes Vantage I bought January 2012 that remains in my fondest of memories. That one is when I got back into cycling after a long break due to marriage and parenthood. Even took my username from it.
The one remaining part from that bike is the front derailleur and it has always worked flawlessly.
The vantage was one of few bikes that weren't stolen by scumbags. Never took a beating from a driver. Never caused me any real injuries. Almost never had mechanical issues. It was pretty much perfect in every way. I had a strong attachment to that bike.
The current Spa Wayfarer? No attachment to it other than the financial cost to date. But it's still fairly new and hasn't done anything like the mileage of previous bikes.
I've always found that if I have some sort of feeling towards an inanimate object, I'll look after it better and use it more.
Good job I love my kids then!

 

[ColinJ]

My bikes are like foster children rather my own kids... I respect them, look after them, and have some great times with them, but I don't love them like a parent!

 

[ianrauk]

I don't really have any great attachment to any of my bikes. There's only 1 bike I own that I would be loath to get rid off at the moment and that is my Van Nicholas roadie I bought in 2012. But one day I will get rid of it and replace it with an upgraded model of the same brand.
All the others are come and go items when I fancy an upgrade or something different. I've never thought to myself, I miss that bike after getting rid of one.

 

[Ian H]

Don't throw it away sell it for a small profit.

Metaphor, dear chap... metaphor.

 

[Ian H]

Hang on, I've got some questions here...

i) how do you wear 5 frames out before you wear out a set of cranks?
ii) how do you get through 5 frames in a standard human lifetime anyway? Racing & crashing? Or are you incredibly heavy and/or careless? Or very bad at choosing frames that suit you?!
iii) once those cranks go is it fair to assume it will, in your mind, cease to be the same bike?
iv) at what point does an 'existing bike' become a 'new' bike? Surely if you have bought 5 new frames and various other components then you've effectively bought at least several, if not 5, new bikes - just piecemeal rather than in one off-the-peg package?
iv) if answering no to the above, does any single original working component somehow retain the spirit/isness/authenticity of the orignal bike? i.e if it was the fork rather than the cranks that was all that remained, would you still consider that the same bike? How about if it was just the seatpost? or the bar end plugs? or a single spoke?...a nipple?...a dustcap?

Many thanks!

One bent beyond repair, one broken. Two swapped out for better. Currently a shiny new one when I found someone who could provide a custom Ti frame with long, road dropouts.
As for the rest, it's all philosophical.

 

[EltonFrog]

They’re just bikes, I’m not emotionally attached to any of mine, but the last one to go will be the Kingpin, it ain’t worth anything but it cost far too much to sell.