I'm a "roadie" because of where i live and ride

[Accy cyclist]

I was looking at this http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/whats-everyone-buying-on-payday.157039/page-3 when i saw Dan B's wonderful contraption and thought how nice it'd be to have a ride on it! Then i realised as usual that it'd be pointless having such a thing around these parts because of the hills. I've cycled through many towns and villages around west Lancashire seeing many folk on old fixed gear or three speed bikes,some with wicker shopping baskets on the front, but where i live the hills would make such pleasant cycling almost impossible. So i've always had a 10 speed upwards drop handled road bike to get around.
Does the landscape of where you live determine what kind of bike you ride?

 

[classic33]

I often ride the Brox up hills past people pushing their bikes up because its too steep/long a climb, so no not really.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

My brother is stopping over in a fortnight with his bike for the next tour. I'm not sure we're going to be able to have much of a ride together because his is a completely different beast to any of my road bikes. It is meant to go trekking in the North Indian uphills, not the London South Circular.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

It is hilly (VERY Southern Highlands) with many reasonably flat bits complete with cycletracks in the middle here, so although a single speed would be ok for some bits, a bike with at least some gears would be more prudent for overall versatility unless you wanted 'Thunderthighs'!!

So in short, no, it doesn't limit what bike I ride, although I wouldn't be taking a single up any of the nearby hills any time soon (not that I own one anyway).

 

[Mo1959]

Reasonably hilly around here too. My least geared bike is my Charge Grater 1. Single front chainring and 8 speed cassette but still has a good range of gears to tackle most hills around here.

 

[jazzkat]

It tends to be a bit hilly around here - I mainly ride fixed.
Ok, to be fair if I know I'm going over one of the passes (Hardknott/Wrynose/Kirkstone) I'll ride on a geared bike otherwise it'll usually be fixed.

 

[IDMark2]

It's quite hilly around here but an occasion recently where, due to a mech malfunction, my geared bike became a single speed for a few km showed me it was possible to do some seriously low cadence and really pushing a high feeling gear with burning effort in a determined fashion work. Although this had the effect of raising my enduring pain threshold on future geared rides when normality returned I wouldn't necessarily call it 'a pleasure'.

 

[HLaB]

Its quite flat down here and if you want to its easy to avoid hills all together but I ride a road bike because that the type of bike I want to ride, it has nothing to do with the terrain for me.

 

[Hacienda71]

I ride both a road bike and a mountain bike. For covering long distances quickly the road bike is the weapon of choice. For a bit of fun in the hills or Family rides with the kids the MTB does the job.

 

[Over The Hill]

I find the third cog is good for when I need it and really not a bother to have on the bike when I don't need it.



I have got down to two bikes (gasp!) Galaxy tourer and a fold up.

 

[MarkF]

Not really, I live in the Aire Valley, I can cycle West for 20 miles to Skipton on the flat, or, I can go north or south and be breaking my balls within minutes.

 

[vernon]

I'm a cyclist because I like and ride bicycles any other description is superfluous.

 

[fossyant]

I ride both a road bike and a mountain bike. For covering long distances quickly the road bike is the weapon of choice. For a bit of fun in the hills or Family rides with the kids the MTB does the job.

You are missing a fixed there you know. Needs must !!