What transforming changes have you made to your bike

[Carlton green]

As the OP I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to the thread and, of course, encourage others to add their experiences too. In the spirit of sharing I add a further experience.

I have a few bikes and experience with a second bike - which I bought second hand well over three decades ago - comes to mind. The bike frame is marginally small for me but the price was acceptable, I needed a second bike (bikes were my only means of transport) and with the saddle up I could ride it OK - it got me about. Eventually, after years of casual use and cycling education, I realised that the handlebars where far too near to the saddle and that traditional road stems couldn’t give me all of the extra length and height that I needed; I puzzled over what to do and came up with the solution of using a mountain bar type stem and it has been just right. Putting the handlebars in the right place was a game changer for that bike and it became - changed into - a joy to ride.

[Vantage]

The bike itself was a self build, right down to the wheels.
The legal electric motor however is an add on I never thought I'd have. Life changer.
Just to annoy you all though, I started upgrading it to a 48v 750w version yesterday

[Carlton green]

Just to annoy you all though, I started upgrading it to a 48v 750w version yesterday

People change bikes to e-bikes for many reasons some of them being the unwanted challenges that life throws at us; there are other threads on which the rights and wrongs of e-bikes are discussed.

Good luck with your high power conversion, but please could this thread not drift too far away from traditional bikes.

[pwa]

Finding the right saddle for you is a transformative thing. It can take years of experimentation and a lot of wasted spending to get it right, but when you do, BINGO! What works for my backside will not be the same as what works for somebody else's, but for me the answer was leather (Brooks-type) saddles, starting with a Brooks Titanium Swift and currently a Gilles Berthoud Aravis, both of which gradually softened in the sit bone area to give me a bespoke perch. Before those I had spent hundreds on high tech plastic and gel concoctions, usually from high end Italian brands, with zero comfort. I even tried the fabled Charge Spoon that provides relief for so many people, but was agony for me. Then I found what worked for me and never looked back.

[GrahamJ]

I puzzled over what to do and came up with the solution of using a mountain bar type stem and it has been just right. Putting the handlebars in the right place was a game changer for that bike and it became - changed into - a joy to ride.

Reminds me of a neighbour who has an old MTB with low bars and now needs a very upright position. She has a stem extender and drop bars mounted upside down. It certainly looks transformed!

[Jdsk]

Hub dynamos for me. My "daily driver" always has lights - like a car would.

Hub dynamos for me. My "daily driver" always has lights - like a car would.

+1 for this.

I fitted a hub dynamo on my city bike a couple of years ago. I never now worry about lights, are they charged/good batteries? The lights just work- always.

You would never fit separate lights requiring their own power source to your car. So why on a bike?

Hub dynamo and lights. They are such a game changer for transport/commute cycling as they are always available. With a sensor light they even switch on and off automatically..
...

With modern LED lights and rechargeable lithium I don't see the attraction of dynamo lighting at all......

Err, no recharging, the lights just work without you having to think about them. Very relaxing, especially around the equinox when you might need lights, you might not, but they are always there.

Dynamo lighting on the commuter/child carrier/shopping trolley/utility bike. Did this 10 years ago and have never looked back. Have them across the range and essentially they pay for themselves very quickly with regularly used bikes... Plus have certainly extended my riding seasons on the audax machine.

That's well up on my list too. It started with Chris Juden's review of modern hub systems and my then perception about the need for USB charging when touring. And I was still surprised at the power of the headlamp the first time we went out at night. I've now fitted systems to all of the family's tourers.

And the other contender is the collection of footrests, kiddy cranks and crank shorteners that has allowed the children and now the grandchildren to join us on the tandems and enjoy long days out on the road from a very early age.

Jonathan

[zenitb]

That's well up on my list too. It started with Chris Juden's review of modern hub systems and my then perception about the need for USB charging when touring. And I was still surprised at the power of the headlamp the first time we went out at night. I've now fitted systems to all of the family's tourers.....

Jonathan

Interesting backstory Jonathan. I was commuting in the 90s and was INITIALLY sold on the Soubitez bottom bracket dynamo that gave me great lighting with a 2.4w tungsten bulb. Disillusionment soon set it as the dynamo cut out in the rain as the bearing seized plunging me into darkness at the worst time.

The rewards of "always there" lighting was evident though and I extravagantly ordered a spoke dynamo, a Nordlich bottle dynamo and a SJSC Shimano Inter-L dynohub wheel to compare.

The spoke dynamo kept disconnecting from the spoke but the Shimano Inter-L dynohub was a revelation. 100% reliable lighting. At the last count I have 7 Shimano dynohubs now on various bikes..and the original is still working 25 years on.

I never got round to trying the Nordlich bottle dynamo. I still have it, brand new, in its box .

[De Sisti]

Standardising all of my bikes.
Same handlebars / gear levers / stem / saddle / chainset / pedals / cassette / sprocket sizes / rims / hubs

[GideonReade]

Standardising all of my bikes.
Same handlebars / gear levers / stem / saddle / chainset / pedals / cassette / sprocket sizes / rims / hubs

....but, but, but.... If they're all the same, why do you need more than, well, two?

Is it an edge case to prove N = N + 1, or whatever the number of bikes equation is?

[pwa]

Standardising all of my bikes.
Same handlebars / gear levers / stem / saddle / chainset / pedals / cassette / sprocket sizes / rims / hubs

....but, but, but.... If they're all the same, why do you need more than, well, two?

Is it an edge case to prove N = N + 1, or whatever the number of bikes equation is?

I only run one bike these days, but I can see why having a few might be nice. One for best, one for dirty road days, one in the process of being fettled, one just in case one of the others has an issue. And if they all have the same parts you can maintainn a stock of spares more easily.

[jois]

Standardising all of my bikes.
Same handlebars / gear levers / stem / saddle / chainset / pedals / cassette / sprocket sizes / rims / hubs

....but, but, but.... If they're all the same, why do you need more than, well, two?

Is it an edge case to prove N = N + 1, or whatever the number of bikes equation is?

Why do you need more than one is a common question .usually from the women in my life.

And the truth is I don't.. the reason my flat has a lot of bikes in it is I like owning bikes.

There is one on the stairs.one at the top of the stairs one in the bathroom, two in the bed room and a number in various stages of being assembled/ disassembled in the storage cupboard.

Asking why they have 10 coats when they only really need one just makes them cross as apparently there is no reasonable comparison to be made between fashion wear and bikes

[freiston]

Thinking about truly transforming changes (in no particular order):

Adding a Tubus Tara front rack and front panniers - enables me to take gear that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to and gives a better weight distribution too.

Hub dynamo with decent (StVZO) lights & a USB charger - the obvious about always ready, always full power & well designed lights with good beam patterns; no worries or concerns about running out of power for phone, GPS, etc.

Leather saddle - a friend gave me one (Selle Italia Epoca) that ill-health meant he would never be able to use. Combined with M&S extra long trunk style microfibre underwear, I remain comfortable for the distances that I ride whilst wearing trousers that are appropriate without the bike and without having to resort to padded cyclewear.

Lower gearing - not as transformative as the previous changes (I already had quite low gears) but makes things a lot easier. I'm not a strong cyclist and even unloaded, I find myself occasionally using the extra two lower gears that I now have.

Changing from high resistance tyres to fast-rolling tyres, whilst making the bike more efficient, hasn't been a truly transformative change - the tread pattern, grip & width are pretty much the same.

[cycle tramp]

Standardising all of my bikes.
Same handlebars / gear levers / stem / saddle / chainset / pedals / cassette / sprocket sizes / rims / hubs

I can understand that - the bicycle industry would love us all to own a utility bike, a folder, a road bike, a mountain bike, a gravel bike, and a touring bike.. each one with a different wheel size, transmission and braking system from the others. But you'd either go broke or go mad trying to keep the basics in your shed (spare chain, inner tyres, cables and brake fluid) for maintenance...
...if you have a bike set up which works and that you enjoy, why would you choose something completely different? Surely it makes more sense to have 'variances on a theme'. So while all bikes share the same basic components, one bike might have sensible tyres, racks and a lighting system for general duties, another may have nothing except the most minimal of mudguards and off road tyres for track and byway exploration and a third bike might have road tyres, and a saddle bar for those days where its sunny and you just want a quick spin...
The flip side of this, is that should there be an incident which results in frame damage to one bike, its not a complete financial loss as the non-damaged components can be used on all your other bikes.
..whilst I have always enjoyed the 'I've built my ultimate commuting bicycle' type threads.. when the finished produt costs 2 or 3 grand, part of my brain asks.. would it have not been better to have built two moderately good or even simply adequate commuting bikes? That way you have a spare should you develop any mechanical issues or when maintenance takes longer than you thought it might, or even those mornings when you pull the bike from the garage only to find its got a front flat...

[jois]

Standardising all of my bikes.
Same handlebars / gear levers / stem / saddle / chainset / pedals / cassette / sprocket sizes / rims / hubs

I can understand that - the bicycle industry would love us all to own a utility bike, a folder, a road bike, a mountain bike, a gravel bike, and a touring bike.. each one with a different wheel size, transmission and braking system from the others. But you'd either go broke or go mad trying to keep the basics in your shed (spare chain, inner tyres, cables and brake fluid) for maintenance...
...if you have a bike set up which works and that you enjoy, why would you choose something completely different? Surely it makes more sense to have 'variances on a theme'. So while all bikes share the same basic components, one bike might have sensible tyres, racks and a lighting system for general duties, another may have nothing except the most minimal of mudguards and off road tyres for track and byway exploration and a third bike might have road tyres, and a saddle bar for those days where its sunny and you just want a quick spin...
The flip side of this, is that should there be an incident which results in frame damage to one bike, its not a complete financial loss as the non-damaged components can be used on all your other bikes.
..whilst I have always enjoyed the 'I've built my ultimate commuting bicycle' type threads.. when the finished produt costs 2 or 3 grand, part of my brain asks.. would it have not been better to have built two moderately good or even simply adequate commuting bikes? That way you have a spare should you develop any mechanical issues or when maintenance takes longer than you thought it might, or even those mornings when you pull the bike from the garage only to find its got a front flat...

The thing with having more than one available bicycle is you don't need to stock many if any spares. Just use the other bike and pick up what ever you need. Bikes don't tend to break in my exsperiance, rather wear out at predictable rate that ussualy allows replacement before failure. A few cables and a spare inner tube or two is more than sufficient. Though I've never managed to snap a cable so I'm not sure if they are strictly necessary

[cycle tramp]

The thing with having more than one available bicycle is you don't need to stock many if any spares. Just use the other bike and pick up what ever you need. Bikes don't tend to break in my exsperiance, rather wear out at predictable rate that ussualy allows replacement before failure. A few cables and a spare inner tube or two is more than sufficient. Though I've never managed to snap a cable so I'm not sure if they are strictly necessary

I think pre-covid, I would have agreed with you. During covid things like even freewheels and sprockets were hard to get. Post covid, I'm making sure that i've got one new chain, one new freewheel and a spare set of wheels in the shed. The thing is covid demonstrated just how fragile our supply chains are. The recent events in Ukraine demonstrated how weak our global food chain is. Even more recently commercial shipping was held up for 4 to 6 days as China held military tests in the South seas. This had knock on effects. There is nothing to prevent China from taking the same sort of military action that Russia took against the Ukraine. China could easily storm both Japan and Taiwan and then wait and see what the western world would do...
Certainly if that event happened we wouldn't be seeing any new bicycle parts being shipped from either country until the situation stabilised. Secondly the western world may freeze all imports from China, so we wouldn't necessarily get any new parts from there either.
The trouble is with modern day living it's given us a very short term view of the world, and also of the supply chains; we have to remember food doesn't come from shops, it come from farms, energy doesn't come from our wall sockets, it's got to be generated, water doesn't come from taps, it comes from reservoirs.. and like wise, bicycle parts don't magically appear in the warehouse, they are made miles away and have to be shipped or flown to us. And the infrastructure of manufacture and delivery isn't has strong as we'd like it to be. And we take it for granted at our own personal cost..