Cycling UK Forum

Sometimes I browse ebay to see what's about and just occasionally I see a bike that think is an abomination of the bicycle. So, with this in mind, ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Raleigh Spirit S260 huh???

Anything by Schwinn apart from a few of there road bikes. They make those horrendous choppers and American Cruisers.
Raliegh Choppers (sorry Mick)
Cheapf full sus Moutain bikes for the masses.
Any childs bike with suspension

CREPELLO wrote:just occasionally I see a bike that think is an abomination of the bicycle.

those that aren't lugged steel and hubgeared must be less common around your parts that here

hubgearfreak wrote:

CREPELLO wrote:just occasionally I see a bike that think is an abomination of the bicycle.

those that aren't lugged steel and hubgeared must be less common around your parts that here

I don't own a lugged steel frame (both Tig welded) or a Hubgeared bike,so where do that leave me in the ugly bike stakes

reohn2 wrote:so where do that leave me in the ugly bike stakes

riding abominations

your sig should be mine tonight

hubgearfreak wrote:

reohn2 wrote:so where do that leave me in the ugly bike stakes

riding abominations

your sig should be mine tonight

Repent,repent and be forgiven my son,see there error of your misguided ways

I love weird bikes.



(http://www.bikeforest.com/homebuild11.php, etc)

snibgo wrote:I love weird bikes.



(http://www.bikeforest.com/homebuild11.php, etc)

Difference is that that is a celebration of weirdness, wheras the ebay bike linked is supposed to appeal to some people as emminently practical, or something I presume.

Sometimes you also see bikes that are supposed to be 'individual' or beautiful, that utterly fall at the first hurdle. Remeber that Mercian up for sale about 6 months ago at £2699 IIRC. It was on here and ebay. It was there for months; I wonder if it actually sold??. It had half the Mercian colour pallette thrown at it and looked about as attractive as a Dulux colour chart.

My father rode a glass-fibre Itera for several years. Possibly my fault as I thought it looked cool.

The funniest thing about that ebay bike is they call it a "tourer". They commonly call 10-speed racers "mountain bikes", so perhaps it balances out.

I think a lot of casual cyclists would be happier if mountain bikes had never been invented. Especially with fat knobbly tyres. Great for mountains, doubtless, but I see huge numbers on the streets in a highly un-mountainous part of Cambridgeshire.

snibgo wrote:I think a lot of casual cyclists would be happier if mountain bikes had never been invented. Especially with fat knobbly tyres. Great for mountains, doubtless, but I see huge numbers on the streets in a highly un-mountainous part of Cambridgeshire.

But, mountain bike tyres do come in to their own in the winter months. I would never of made it to work on a hybrid tyre esq after the last winter of snow.

NUKe wrote: .....Raliegh Choppers (sorry Mick)

That's ok!

As much as I agree that Choppers shouldn't have been invented, they gave kids of the 70s a great deal of pleasure and fun. They were a toy, good fun to ride and play with, but not very good as a bicycle.

I never owned one as a kid - I'm too old. Our girls never had one - too young! You have to be of a "certain age" to have had one - born somewhere between 1961 and 1968 or so. During my JOGLE, I had no end of folk coming up to me and telling me stories of when they were kids with one, or how their children had one. I heard stories of as many as three kids riding on one, stories of scars and cuts and bruises they had, stories of how fast they could ride one, or how much they loved theirs, and how they always wished they could have had one of their own but they used to ride their friend's one.

Endless stories, and always happy with a smile. One chap was almost in tears of joy.

snibgo wrote:.........I think a lot of casual cyclists would be happier if mountain bikes had never been invented. Especially with fat knobbly tyres. Great for mountains, doubtless, but I see huge numbers on the streets in a highly un-mountainous part of Cambridgeshire.

I can understand that statement,(though they've done great things for touring bikes,) its fashion thats the problem where MTB's are concerned,I many being used for commuting where a sensible roadster would be much better suited,I can only think these people feel it makes them,somehow better as fashion dictates that MTB's are cool
Fashion is a terrible animal that can't be tamed.

NUKe wrote:Anything by Schwinn apart from a few of there road bikes. They make those horrendous choppers and American Cruisers.
Raliegh Choppers (sorry Mick)
Cheapf full sus Moutain bikes for the masses.
Any childs bike with suspension

Surprises me, I remember Schwinn MTBs being quite good back in the day - have they been taken over and had production shifted to the East like GT?

In the course of my work I run bike clinics at schools, so may I wish that any bike whose components are made of a combination of cheese and tinfoil have never been invented? They are the worst things in the world to work on.