one bicycle

[Ferrij]

Back in 2002 when I returned to cycling, I bought a Carrera Vulcan which was marketed by Halfords as an all terrain bike I.e. 26” wheels, 2.1” light tread tyres, fixed fork, durable alloy frame and comfy saddle. After 2 years, the marketing gurus persuaded me to buy a new Kona hardtail with front suspension, before moving on to Giant and Whyte full suspension.
Twenty plus years on I’m older and hopefully wiser, recognising that FS is total overkill on the blue routes I now ride and this and the other 3 bikes I’ve got are not only time consuming but expensive to keep maintained.
Like others have mentioned, the ideal bike is very subjective and personal to individual users needs but I’ve found myself migrating back to a single bike which can do 95% of what I require which minimises maintenance and cost, yet still fun to ride…... ironically something simple like that 2002 Carrera …..

[cycle tramp]

My Cannondale Topstone comes pretty close and is the bike I use by far the most. It's one of the early aluminium ones and the only thing it really lacks is mounts on the front fork. It's great on the road, can handle the current potholeageddon better than my roadbike and can do light touring and carry some shopping.

I genuinely think that bikes like the Topstone would be called hybrid bikes if the term hybrid wasn't already in use. I refer to it as my day-ride bike. I love the damn thing.

The more the bike industry comes up with new styles of bikes, the less chance of having one that does everything.

Ten years ago we had never heard of gravel bikes. Now there's a whole new genre to make only one bike even less likely.

,......assuming if course you follow the trends.

See above. It's a whole new term and design features but is it a new mode of riding? Gravel bikes are what the Roughstuff would have ridden 60 years ago if they'd had them. Another way of looking at it is that gravel bikes have been with us since Starley, they've just got a bit better at it and gained a name.

They've always been with us, in one way or another...
Whether its a 1950's path finder, 1960's roadster 1970's touring bike with wider tyres, a 1980's mountain bike with slick or mixed use tyres, to the 1990's hybrid (which is what they were called back then, as they crossed features of both mountain and road bikes)..

[Carlton green]

They've always been with us, in one way or another...
Whether its a 1950's path finder, 1960's roadster 1970's touring bike with wider tyres, a 1980's mountain bike with slick or mixed use tyres, to the 1990's hybrid (which is what they were called back then, as they crossed features of both mountain and road bikes)..

The Rudge Pathfinder, with drop handlebars, is surely a classic. Braking on steel rims is poor, but they can build into very tough wheels and steel rims are what they had at the time - steel in 26 x 1&1/4” form worked adequately for them. If they’re available then imho conversion to alloy rims would be a worthwhile ‘modern’ change and I’d like to run on 26 x 1&3/8” tyres too.

“They’ve always been with us”. Yes, folk seek out bikes - or parts to make them - that give them a bike that they can use for nearly all their adventures and needs.

[jimlews]

They've always been with us, in one way or another...
Whether its a 1950's path finder, 1960's roadster 1970's touring bike with wider tyres, a 1980's mountain bike with slick or mixed use tyres, to the 1990's hybrid (which is what they were called back then, as they crossed features of both mountain and road bikes)..

The Rudge Pathfinder, with drop handlebars, is surely a classic. Braking on steel rims is poor, but they can build into very tough wheels and steel rims are what they had at the time - steel in 26 x 1&1/4” form worked adequately for them. If they’re available then imho conversion to alloy rims would be a worthwhile ‘modern’ change and I’d like to run on 26 x 1&3/8” tyres too.

“They’ve always been with us”. Yes, folk seek out bikes - or parts to make them - that give them a bike that they can use for nearly all their adventures and needs.

If you are prepared to check out the cycle jumbles (a most enjoyable enterprise) Alloy rims in 26x1&1/4 size can be found. Dunlop, Constrictor and subsequently Weinman made them. The old weinman dimpled rim is particularly long lasting as compared to modern rims. I've got alloy 26x1&1/4 Weinmans on my '51 Stokes of London. Still plenty of meat on the side walls even after 60 odd years of use. I have 27x1&1/4 Weimans that I built up in the 1990's and they are still good after 30 yrs hard use-rough-stuff etc.
Compare that to a modern rim with a "machined braking surface". I'm presently replacing a pair of MAVIC 521 rims that have worn to such an extent that the side wall has completely detached - and that after only about 5years use.

[alastairwb]

Instead we have a bunch of designers some of whom don't even ride bikes,

And your evidence for this is?

[freiston]

Instead we have a bunch of designers some of whom don't even ride bikes,

And your evidence for this is?

On balance of probability, I don't think it's an unfair or even unlikely assumption. Same as spaceships and astronauts, trains and train drivers etc. Even RJ Mitchell had designed several aircraft before he had a pilots licence. And going by the design of some bikes and components thereof, I'd say it's highly likely.

[Nearholmer]

It would be weird in the extreme if astronauts designed spaceships, or train drivers trains, because the skill-sets required to design and to operate these things are so hugely different. What you would expect, and what does actually happen, is that the engineers spend an age working with operators to optimise the design from the perspective of the operator, including lots of mock-up and simulator testing in the latter stages of the process.

Bikes are a bit different, because riding a bike is hardly a specialist task, so you would expect most bike designers to spend plenty of time riding bikes.

[Morzedec]

A design aberration, or a practical touring bike?

[cyclop]

As has been said,horses for courses but here,s a stab at it anyhow.It must have clearance for 40mm tyres with guards,be robust enough to tow a trailer down to my local tip,be light enough for faster summer/dry roads ,flat bars and crucially,be fun .I,ve got 4 bikes to cover my current rides which includes a full suspn. off roader which we,ll have to discount for this choice.So....Planet X Uncle John,triple butted alloy with fittings for a rear disc brake,picked up for £ 200-00 off ebay.This is basically a cyclocross budget race frame,with stable steering and reinforced in the right areas.Cantilevers,flat bars,3x9 with thumbshifter for front mech i.e. zero chain rub issues.Wheels ? 2xsets,some 1500gm Scribe luminium and 2000gm shimano ultegra though if I was limited to just one it would be shimano.None of these have been carefully considered choices,merely what,s come up over the years.

[freiston]

It would be weird in the extreme if astronauts designed spaceships, or train drivers trains, because the skill-sets required to design and to operate these things are so hugely different . . .

. . . Bikes are a bit different, because riding a bike is hardly a specialist task, so you would expect most bike designers to spend plenty of time riding bikes.

I was thinking, when I said that, not so much of your enthusiast (I suspect that most bicycle designers do ride bikes) as the mass produced item where function and performance are very low down on the brief, like Apollo [space pun not intended], or of some designers of some components such as bike lights and possibly low end suspension forks.

[jimlews]

There was a time when I had only one bike; a Harry Hall 'Italian'.
It was pretty close clearance with no provision for mudguards
and high geared. 5x2. I started to become aware of touring and
cycle-camping and fancied having a go. That HH gradually became
festooned with P clips, racks, mudguards and other assorted touristique
paraphernalia. Then I acquired a three speed Norman. Having two bikes
I felt tremendously decadent. Two bikes,(count them) two bikes!
How extravagant !

[Nearholmer]

I was thinking, when I said that, not so much of your enthusiast

There is definitely a segment of the market where there seem to be only two criteria:

- it must look good in the shop to the untrained eye; and,

- it must be cheap as chips to produce.

One of our LBS stocks almost entirely Cycle King and Hawk, plus a huge array of the cheapest conceivable accessories, and TBH it does all look pretty good in the shop, and the prices make Halfords look expensive (actually, Halfords IS overpriced for some things) but I reckon that a lot of their customers must experience at least mild disappointment and frustration with what they buy there. I don’t want to insult the shop too much though, because the people who run it are genuinely decent sorts, and it’s outlived several other LBS, including two which were very silly and short-lived, trying to make a living only from very, very top-end road bikes.

[mister_ed]

Has anyone on here found the one bicycle that does everything?
I'll rephrase that a little bit, only one bicycle for everything. just one , not N+1, or spare wheels/2nd wheelsets/tyres or any other combination of excuses for more than 1,one, eins, uno. ONE.

Yeah...but I don't do everything from downhill to track racing.

One bike does my daily commute, shopping, the occasional longer ride. Based on bikes I've taken on light off road before it would be fine.

[cycle tramp]

Instead we have a bunch of designers some of whom don't even ride bikes,

And your evidence for this is?

Clearly frame builders, bespoked engineers like Mike Burrows, the people behind brompton, birdy bridy, and every smaller bike company do. Riding other people's bikes and thinking 'this would be better if I changed this, or altered that....' is a time trusted way to come up with a new product...

The larger manufacturers, especially those in the segment of sports bikes less so.. And that's especially so, now bicycle firms become a conglomerate with other companies, all of which are owned by a further umbrella company....its unlikely that the board, the members, and shareholders even know about hydraulic vs cable pulled disc brakes discussion long as 'the units' sell.... the marketing team have already come up with a design, played the sales numbers, and have told the designers this is the frame geometry, these are the parts, this is the material it needs to be built from, this is the colour scheme.. its the reason why on a modern bike frame there is so little clearerance between the front tyre and carbon fork crown.... no one who has ever ridden a bike would design a feature like that, and it's probably the reason behind internal cabling as well... most engineers caring more about ease of repair and placement rather than aesthetics.. and in the case of brompton, birdy, and any smaller bike company where the designers do ride their bikes and often.... these bikes will be designed with practical features like rack, lights and mudguards in mind, unless they are specifically building for track or race events.

[toontra]

The features you mention (internal cabling, shallow clearances, etc) were developed for pro riders as they were proven in tests to give a speed advantage. As has always happened, they have trickled down to consumer bikes where the advantage to mere mortals is negligible.