CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

I heart my bike

(24 posts)

No tags yet.


  1. Min
    Member

    Wasn't sure where to put this but thought it could provoke debate but I was wondering how people feel about their bikes?

    I have an, er, friend who has just come back from slinking shamefully into the bike shop with her very battered and elderly MTB which needs some repairs. She should probably just give in and get a new one but apparently it is still a very useful bike because:-

    a) It is still a decent bike even if it is beaten up.
    b) No worries about damaging it because no-one would notice anyway.
    c) No worries about it getting stolen.
    d) When she does go mountain biking on it people think she is really hard.

    But I think this is mostly just a front and the real reason is that she has had it for so long now, she can't bear to part with it. Do other people get attached to their bikes? Or is my, er, friend just weird?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  2. SRD
    Moderator

    I'm sure you your friend isn't alone. A guy I knew in high school/uni recently started blogging about his attempt to cycle across Iran. Unfortunately, his much-loved bike didn't make it. Here he reflects on this, and his current nameless bike, and the original post is here

    Posted 14 years ago #

  3. wee folding bike
    Member

    The mid 1950s Claud Butler I used all through school and university in Glasgow and London is sitting in my dad's loft. It's a 531 frame but a lot of the bits bolted onto it are not of such high quality because the original parts had often taken a beating from my dad and uncle and I had to scavenge parts in those days. There is a dent in the top tube and some of the paint is missing. I haven't used it since 1993. It needs some new wheels and transmission. It would be nice to refit it with period parts but in any case I can't think of any reason to part with it. Eventually one of my boys can have it.

    Up until last July I still had every car I'd ever bought... obviously I haven't had a lot of cars. With bikes it's a lot simpler to hang on to them. I don't have the fixed wheel solid tyre Tri-ang I learned on, my auntie threw out my purple 1975 primary school Puch mini-sprint when it was too wee for my cousins. I abandoned a 1978 Sun when I moved house because I didn't have room for it. Other than that I've still got them all.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  4. Min
    Member

    SRD-Aw that is rather sad. Poor bike. I am glad he is okay though and that there is a possibility of a new life for the bike.

    Wee foldy-Unfortunately we don't really have space to do that but I admire your determined bike-keeping. :-)The Claud Butler sounds well worth reviving.

    I felt rather sad when Wheels, my first "grown-up" bike was turfed out of my parents shed. I just told them to get rid of it when they asked, I didn't go to look at it or anything. Other than Wheels, I also still have all my other bikes since I got the MTB and road bike years ago and have just kept them.

    The bike I had as a kid I hated since I had it from the age of 5 up till the age of 12, it had only one gear (tiny) and you were forced to pedal continuously. The only way to go downhill was to hold your legs out to the side. Meanwhile, at all other times, elderly men on three-speeds and a cadence of about five would go flying past me. Grr.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  5. chdot
    Admin

    "The only way to go downhill was to hold your legs out to the side."

    But riding fixed is so fashionable these days. Imagine how much you would impress (some) people if you still had that bike...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  6. Min
    Member

    LOL, I don't think those sort of people would be impressed with that sort of bike. ;-)

    I had a google for it but couldn't find one which suggests that no-one is nostalgic about it which means it must have really been bad..

    Posted 14 years ago #

  7. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    wee folding bike - your steadfast attachment to your bike collection does you credit. I'm much more fickle. I loved my red steel EBC Continental until I tried group riding and realised it was a 28lb anchor. So after five years I got a new frame built up with Ultegra. Suddenly the Continental was a steel classic. I even took it back to EBC for some fettling (they were surprised to see one still being used). I said I could never part with it. Six weeks later I got a cheap alu frame on Ebay, swapped all the components from the Continental onto the new frame and chucked the Continental into the scrap metal recycling.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  8. recombodna
    Member

    LOL, I don't think those sort of people would be impressed with that sort of bike. ;-)
    I'd be Impressed if ye turned up at an Alleycat on it!! ;-)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  9. Min
    Member

    The MTB died.

    :'-(

    Posted 14 years ago #

  10. Dave
    Member

    I have to admit, I'm not even slightly sentimental about my bikes. I think they're great, but I can't think of a reason why I wouldn't like a new one more ;-)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  11. Min
    Member

    Hehe. Well I am trying to console myself with the thought of a nice new bike!

    Posted 14 years ago #

  12. SRD
    Moderator

    Sorry to hear that, but glad you can find consolation! Am sure the new bike will, in time, find its way into your heart.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  13. Kim
    Member

    Can this be taken too far?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  14. wee folding bike
    Member

    WD-40 smells better.

    I like Green OIl products too. They give a nice fruity smell to your chain.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  15. Arellcat
    Moderator

    Dave, don't tell your Rapto, it'll be heartbroken. Recumbents are like that.

    Wee Folding, Kim, there be now't better than t'smell of Castrol R, so my brother tells me. :-)

    Posted 14 years ago #

  16. Kim
    Member

    Do you dab it behind your ears Arellcat?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  17. Arellcat
    Moderator

    No, I prefer the muskiness of Eau de Sueur.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  18. Min
    Member

    Don't want to lower the tone but this is reminding me of the people who ah, love their cars a bit too much...

    "Sorry to hear that, but glad you can find consolation! Am sure the new bike will, in time, find its way into your heart. "

    Thank you. I am going to stop going on about it now!

    Posted 14 years ago #

  19. chdot
    Admin

    "Don't want to lower the tone"

    Difficult...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  20. gembo
    Member

    Wee Folding - oh not the mid 1950s Claud Butler in the attic again. You need to stop holding that bike to ransom, it has been held prisoner since 1993.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  21. wee folding bike
    Member

    Well when you cough up... or I find an excuse to sort it out... it goes free. It has long rear drop outs which you need for a fixed wheel so I could almost see an S3X on there but they sound spendy.

    It's only been in the loft since about '97. Before that it was in a garage in Cumbernauld.

    I've got a couple of more recent bikes in the play house in my parent's garden. I should liberate them too. One of them lacks a back wheel because I got a branch caught in it near Blairgowrie and Alistair Gow said he couldn't get the bits to mend a 1990 Campag Centaur hub. No good for a S2C because the drop outs are short and vertical. I'd need a tensioner and I've got an unused Campag Centaur rear mech for it in my parts store anyway. All I need now is to decided what kind of rear wheel to put on it. I have a 1990 Campag CdA hub with a tub rim hanging on the wall of my dad's garage It has the right OLN but you never know, I might feel the need to run on tubs again some day when they come back into fashion.

    BTW, I was at a meeting on the changes coming up in Higher biology and remembered my CSYS chemistry project. It may have had a strong similarity to Iain Hood's project a year before.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  22. gembo
    Member

    Smart move swapping the hostage locations before the authorities closed in..

    Hood went on to become an immunologist so maybe good project to resemble.

    I did a vast amount of Sixth Year Studies Maths (Papers1,2 and 4? Gaussian Iteration what a waste of time, but try telling Cheesy Bowman (the teacher)). This proved I was more a carpenter's wife than a mathematician.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  23. chdot
    Admin

    @Gembo

    Someone on another thread was talking about the (cycling) forum losing control...

    Posted 14 years ago #

  24. gembo
    Member

    Touche Turtle

    Posted 14 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

Reply

You must log in to post.


Video embedded using Easy Video Embed plugin