My favourite bike in the world was,,,,,,

[bongofury66]

Hi all

Having ridden numerous bikes over a 5 decades with generally increasing amounts of gears and fancy dan shifters etc, i have to say that my favourite bike that I used to commute on for about 10 years (in the 80's), was an old early 1940's Sun Manxman (cute little seat tube stays) Reynolds plain gauge 531 (I believe one of the first bikes using the tubing). It was bought from a charity shop for £3 and because the old derailleur was knackered (simplex), I converted it to a single speed (sadly not fixed) and use the existing Williams chainset and gave it a home respray -British Racing Green. A few drops of oil now and again in the bottom bracket nipple kept it going.

Now riding this was a relevation...............how simple it was with minimal cables etc. Sounds a bit sad, but I used to look at folks on geared bikes with some disdain (luckily I live in a flat area- although the SW winds are a b*astard). I don't think I have felt as proud of a bike as that -possibly because I also knew I had saved it and it was a classic. My commute to work -8 miles each way used to take me past sand dunes which when the wind was blowing wrecked derailleur chains, but not this baby. It was stormproof and bombproof. My least favourite memory (never to be forgotten) was riding home from work on my 30th birthday past some playing fields and a football landing right under the front wheel.......I came off of course luckily onto a grass verge.........unluckily my face went straight into some dog sh*t. A birthday surprise of sorts. Still in good old British cycling fashion, I wiped my face and pushed on.

The BB shell finally warped due to straining against the gales and sadly it went to skip.

Never forgot that bike.....and although I have 2 other multi geared bikes, I have bought a 2010 Marin Inverness single speed(as new on Ebay for £290) with flip flop wheel. I have shod it with drops and some psychedelic cork ribbon, It has SS toe clips and brown leather straps and is very light and minimilist. Already, I love it to bits and (once again sadly) I am looking at other bikes out and about, and thinking look at that..........it's got gears!!

Not tried fixed yet.......I am a bit frit.

Hope I ain't bored anyone ( or offended geared bicycle riders)

Thanks

Tim

 

[fossyant]

I ride both, but fixed mainly on the commute - a thoroughly modern fixed though, not trendy at all. Great training, no worrying about gears, easy maintenance. Wouldn't think of anything else for the commute.

 

[Ibbots]

As we are on the subject of favourite bikes (or frame anyway), mine has to be the Kinesis KiC2 frame now currently used as my geared road bike - Dura Ace 10spd, Fulcrum Racing 1 wheels and some other nice carbon/lightweight bits and weighing about 17lbs. I don't know what it is, but I just love riding on that frame. It started out as a cheapish base around which I built a fast single speed for commuting. When it came to funding my current crop of fixed commuter bikes I sold the very nice Pinarello FP5 frame I was using to that point and transferred the bits to the Kinesis. Not the lightest or most expensve frame I have had but the one I have enjoyed riding the most and, maybe for that reason, seems to be the fastest.

For off road, and a little more on topic for this board, my favourite so far has to be the On-One Inbred single speed. Steel frame and rigid carbon forks with Shimano SLX drive and brakes, XT wheels and fat tubeless tyres (essential to avoid pinch puncture as I run at low pressures for traction on the cobbly stuff round here). I seem to be able to climb better than on the nice and better equipped geared hard tail with sus forks I also have, unless it gets too steep and by then it's as quick and less tiring to get off and push. My offroad skills are not great but have improved considerably since I started riding this and there's not much I could do on the hardtail that I can't now do on the single speed. Mostly, however, it's just great fun to ride. There's also a deal of pleasure to be had overtaking some of the boys spinning away on their nice full sus XC bikes, me out of the saddle and grinding a big gear, balancing weight between front and back wheels for maximum traction, getting round the bend and throwing up a lung when out of sight - the joys of single speed!

On balance, the Kinesis is probably the favourite of the two but I do a lot more on road than off.

Didn't mean to waffle on but that's entertained me during lunch, if not you.

Keep it up

Ibbots