One bike to ride them all

BenGr
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby BenGr » Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:25 pm

I guess it comes down to if you could only have one bike, it can work. If however its feasible (and your budget seems to allow it), multiple bikes of decent quality would be able to perform much better. How you'd split that up would depend on the preference of activities.

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baabaa
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby baabaa » Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:58 pm

HORSES FOR COURSES… Probably an adage seen across many Nokia head office white boards.
Anyway, I do swap forks and wheelsets on and off and back on again depending on the need and it does work. New forks and wheels are much cheaper and easier to store than buying a new bike.

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RonK
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby RonK » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:42 pm

baabaa wrote:Anyway, I do swap forks and wheelsets on and off and back on again depending on the need and it does work.
Jeez, that must be bucketload of fun.

I'll pass, thanks all the same...
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Chris249
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby Chris249 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:47 pm

tmac100 wrote:
baabaa wrote:Stefan and Max are on to it....
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/8b ... -road-bike" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Oh yawn! Anythng to make money and entertain themselves! Reversible plastic surgery - on a bicycle!

Pardon my traditional way of thinking, but I DO LIKE the way individual things are: I like to ride an Indian-made "old" bicycle based on the Raleighs/Rudges from the 1930s. I like riding my Arvon1 tourer while touring Australia. I like my "city" bike (actually a Chinese 18 speed). I like them for what they are and do not want to switch them in any way for a different "purpose"

Similarly, I like my custom made cotton shirts. I like my t-shirts from Lands End. They all have their places and I do not want to think of using one of them in place of the other.

Nah! waste of money in my opinion. However others will be "captivated" with the novel (?) idea of one bike having many uses. Now how could these guys "make" a Rolls (or even a Camry :roll: ) do the same "thing" as my Pajero when I go out camping in the Qatari or UAE desert? Nope- won't work. But that is just my opinion.

Onions are onions and potatoes are potatoes - even though both grow underground.
But the kickstarter guys didn't denigrate YOUR personal choice for YOUR tastes and YOUR situation in any way...... they just presented a different way of doing things that could suit many people, including those who are minimalists or live in small apartments.

As you say, onions are different from potatoes - and the specialist bikes you like are a different breed to all-rounders and therefore surely shouldn't be denigrated just because you (and I) happen to like specialist bikes.

If you had two wheelsets the convertible bike could be a nice way of going.
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Chris249
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby Chris249 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:55 pm

RonK wrote:
baabaa wrote:Anyway, I do swap forks and wheelsets on and off and back on again depending on the need and it does work.
Jeez, that must be bucketload of fun.

I'll pass, thanks all the same...
Swapping between (say) a wheelset with 28mm slicks and a wheelset with 35mm CX tyres on the CX bike is quick and easy and means you don't need to run a separate bike for shopping/road touring and CX.
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby Chris249 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 5:57 pm

il padrone wrote:Yes. But that is the whole point being made. Horses for courses.
Some of are looking for an all-rounder horse for an all-rounder course.
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RonK
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One bike to ride them all

Postby RonK » Thu Mar 24, 2016 6:04 pm

Chris249 wrote:
RonK wrote:
baabaa wrote:Anyway, I do swap forks and wheelsets on and off and back on again depending on the need and it does work.
Jeez, that must be bucketload of fun.

I'll pass, thanks all the same...
Swapping between (say) a wheelset with 28mm slicks and a wheelset with 35mm CX tyres on the CX bike is quick and easy and means you don't need to run a separate bike for shopping/road touring and CX.
Oh yes - the post talks about swapping forks - now try to tell me swapping forks as well is convenient.

I don't need advice about swapping wheels thanks.

As I said previously - I'll pass, thanks all the same.
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby il padrone » Thu Mar 24, 2016 6:27 pm

baabaa wrote:HORSES FOR COURSES… Probably an adage seen across many Nokia head office white boards.
Anyway, I do swap forks and wheelsets on and off and back on again depending on the need and it does work. New forks and wheels are much cheaper and easier to store than buying a new bike.
You seem to have forgotten the most basic rule - N+1 :shock:
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il padrone
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby il padrone » Thu Mar 24, 2016 6:29 pm

Chris249 wrote:
RonK wrote:
baabaa wrote:Anyway, I do swap forks and wheelsets on and off and back on again depending on the need and it does work.
Jeez, that must be bucketload of fun.

I'll pass, thanks all the same...
Swapping between (say) a wheelset with 28mm slicks and a wheelset with 35mm CX tyres on the CX bike is quick and easy and means you don't need to run a separate bike for shopping/road touring and CX.
But the statement was swapping forks and wheelsets. Takes it to a new level - headset readjustment, brake swapping and setting. No thanks.
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il padrone
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby il padrone » Thu Mar 24, 2016 6:34 pm

Chris249 wrote:
il padrone wrote:Yes. But that is the whole point being made. Horses for courses.
Some of are looking for an all-rounder horse for an all-rounder course.
I have seen some "all-rounders" in use. In touring and MTB one variant is termed a hybrid. Probably OK for touring, but not ideal for the rougher end of expedition/bush-track touring. They are very poor as a MTB substitute. As stated by the OP.

All-rounders are often potentially capable of all sorts of things, in theory. Often in practice they are a poor substitute for most riding variants.
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby Chris249 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:15 pm

RonK wrote:
baabaa wrote:Anyway, I do swap forks and wheelsets on and off and back on again depending on the need and it does work.
Jeez, that must be bucketload of fun.
I'll pass, thanks all the same...[/quote]

Swapping between (say) a wheelset with 28mm slicks and a wheelset with 35mm CX tyres on the CX bike is quick and easy and means you don't need to run a separate bike for shopping/road touring and CX.[/quote]
Oh yes - the post talks about swapping forks - now try to tell me swapping forks as well is convenient.

I don't need advice about swapping wheels thanks.

As I said previously - I'll pass, thanks all the same.[/quote]

Well, if you didn't need "advice" about swapping wheels, why would Baabaa need "advice" about swapping wheels and forks, as you gave him?

I just don't get it with the touristas sometimes. If some people like swapping forks, or having convertible bikes, or doing their own favourite sort of touring on a CX bike, who has the right to imply that they are wrong? Surely there are so many different ways to tour that many different bikes are suitable.

The other way of "touring" I know is by sailing. I have met enormously experienced and very intelligent people who have spent years cruising and living aboard very different sorts of boats, from 19th century classics to '80s stripped out race machines and carbon catamarans. They all find their tool suits their own particular style. Surely cycling is the same. If ultralight suits this guy, ( http://ultralightcycling.blogspot.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) and ultra-heavy suits others and they all have their own brand of fun, who could deride their free choice?
Last edited by Chris249 on Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby Chris249 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:24 pm

il padrone wrote:
Chris249 wrote:
il padrone wrote:Yes. But that is the whole point being made. Horses for courses.
Some of are looking for an all-rounder horse for an all-rounder course.
I have seen some "all-rounders" in use. In touring and MTB one variant is termed a hybrid. Probably OK for touring, but not ideal for the rougher end of expedition/bush-track touring. They are very poor as a MTB substitute. As stated by the OP.

All-rounders are often potentially capable of all sorts of things, in theory. Often in practice they are a poor substitute for most riding variants.
Perhaps (although I find a CX bike quite fun to use as an MTB) but if you enjoy doing different sorts of cycling in the same trip as the OP and I do, or if you happen to like all-rounder gear, what is the alternative?

As Joe Cruz says;

"Of course you can tour on a road or cyclocross bike. Yes, even if it is a racing bike with no dedicated attachments for racks. Even (especially!) if it weighs 17 lbs. Even if it’s made of aluminum or titanium or carbon fiber, with a carbon fiber fork with a carbon fiber steerer tube with carbon bars and deep-v aero-wheels.

Of course you can tour on it because it’s a bicycle and getting places is what it is for.

Somehow this view is thought to be radical and dangerous, certainly irresponsible. Everyone is best off, so the conventional wisdom goes, with a proper touring bike with long chainstays, relaxed geometry, a low bottom bracket, heavily reinforced tubes, 36 spoke wheels (inevitably “hand laced by an experienced and reputable wheel builder”), triple crankset, and raised handlebars. Apparently a road bike, heaven forbid one suitable for racing, will simply disintegrate if ridden further than 100k from home or on consecutive days!

Here’s another take. For many of us, the one bike pedaled most often, in the greatest variety of weather conditions, over smooth or broken asphalt, on gravel or dirt roads, with hundreds of shifts every ride that have to be perfect, the one that has to have reliable braking, where being light is terrific but where it can’t be so light that it’s fragile, the one that fits well because we spend so much time on it, the one that with halfway conscientious maintenance has to perform when we are riding at the limit of our fitness: that bike is a road bike.

If you already own a road bike, and if you’re intending to tour mostly on developed roads in North America, Europe or Japan, and if you are assiduously dedicated to traveling light, then the bike you have is fine.....a road bike will be perfectly capable for four days or three weeks or two months in Italy and Switzerland, down the west coast of the USA, or a circuit of Ireland or Nova Scotia or the South Island of New Zealand."


My emphasis. And yes he does say that tourers have their place, of course.
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RonK
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby RonK » Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:45 pm

Chris249 wrote:Well, if you didn't need "advice" about swapping wheels, why would Baabaa need "advice" about swapping wheels and forks, as you gave him?
You do seem rather defensive about this but I guess reading comprehension is not one of your strengths - I offered BaaBaa no advice about swapping forks, I simply said no thanks, I'll pass.

You may imagine that swapping wheels is some kind of a mystery to other than yourself, but let me tell you some of us have been doing it for many years.

If you and BaaBaa want to swap wheels and forks that is your choice. You are also free to choose you own mode of touring. Good luck!

I use several different modes from credit card through ultralight and loaded to expedition. I choose the best bike for the mode to do it.
Last edited by RonK on Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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baabaa
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby baabaa » Thu Mar 24, 2016 7:48 pm

and here you go, same bike as above (and one page back) but with a fork running a low rider rack.
Image
Both forks have the same crown race so it takes less than 1/2 and hour to swap over. Way quicker than taking the front rack on and off. I can do the same with a rear rack by using one of the seatpost rack mounts which just stays with the rack. With different wheels you are ready to go which ever way you want plus you can change your cluster combo at the same time.
Well sorry but this one bike stuff can be done*, it may also help peoples think about buying the correct frame that really fits them first up. Mine is a keeper. My wheelsets are also keepers and I can go back and forth from touring to commuting to ss (with a bmx freewheel) with little fuss and bother. I guess I am lucky that I can afford the stuff I have but I do make it work hard in return for what I have paid.
* I do have more than one bike....

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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby tmac100 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 9:42 pm

baabaa wrote:Tmac, sounds like you should do a tour of the Hero Bicycle factory in Amritsar. They build bikes with frames so solid you can lug 75 kilos of rice in sacks on racks and hanging off top tube and handlebars.
I just don’t do that and really don’t know anyone here in Oz that does or wants to. The factory is fantastic, the wheel building room being my favourite. Anyway a hero bike would be nice to have but I doubt I would ever ride it so that would be just wasteful consumption.
Actually, KW Industries makes a stronger bicycle - IMHO :D They even have one with 5 tubes to haul extra weights. Granted, they are all strong. Where I live, the preferred ones are the Hercules and the Atlas. Mind you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Hero that you mention. I have hoped to get to Ludhiana to tour the KWI factory, but can "just" get by walking through Indian bike shops in Kolkata or Delhi and drool :roll:

FWIW, I am currently waiting for an old 28" rear wheel with a Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub to "upgrade" one of these bicycles. Second choice is to get an old AW hub from a friend in Canada and get one built up here - even if I have to build it myself.

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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby Trevtassie » Thu Mar 24, 2016 10:29 pm

Dunno, for the cost of that frame I'd get three used bikes to do all the jobs you want to do. Used MTB with trekking bars for the Touring MTB thing, replace the front hub with a dynamo hub. A reasonable road bike for the bunch rides. A cyclocross bike if that floats your boat.

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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby Chris249 » Thu Mar 24, 2016 10:59 pm

RonK wrote:
Chris249 wrote:Well, if you didn't need "advice" about swapping wheels, why would Baabaa need "advice" about swapping wheels and forks, as you gave him?
You do seem rather defensive about this but I guess reading comprehension is not one of your strengths -.
Better defensive than offensive, as you are.
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RonK
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One bike to ride them all

Postby RonK » Thu Mar 24, 2016 11:08 pm

Chris249 wrote:
RonK wrote:
Chris249 wrote:Well, if you didn't need "advice" about swapping wheels, why would Baabaa need "advice" about swapping wheels and forks, as you gave him?
You do seem rather defensive about this but I guess reading comprehension is not one of your strengths -.
And not being insulting and rude is obviously not a strength of yours, either. Your post can very easily be read as sniping at the earlier poster.
There are none more insulting and rude than those who don't properly read what was posted and then make false accusations as to what was said.

If you read "I'll pass, thanks all the same" as sniping then you are plainly looking for an argument. As witnessed by your lengthy defensive post that followed, and your crude potshot at the "touristas".

And your lecture about the ease of swapping wheels is about as insulting and rude as it gets.
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby il padrone » Fri Mar 25, 2016 12:17 am

Chris249 wrote:They all find their tool suits their own particular style.
I think that IS what RonK and I have been saying :? :roll:

I have yet to see a 17th century galleon made convertible for skiff racing. Some 'convertible rigs' are just a tad too ambitious about how comfortable/performance oriented they may be.
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby silentbutdeadly » Fri Mar 25, 2016 12:31 am

So perhaps the answer remains 'yes' provided you aren't too precious about it?
Ours is not to reason why...merely to point and giggle

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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby baabaa » Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:51 am

Silent, Yup that about it and just could be the trend will grow as modern bikes and gear is really pretty good. Anyway, to the future!!

Quite right Tmac, the factory is in Ludhiana and not Amritsar major whoops especially since I have spent so much time in both towns.
Amritsar is a fine town to visit and stay, Ludhiana well not so much. Would like to ride the whole GT road (which the factory is on) from Amritsar to Calcutta one day. May just do it on a Hero as well?

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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby Chris249 » Fri Mar 25, 2016 8:47 am

Ron, can we just accept that there has been a mutual misunderstanding?

I read your stuff and respect your expertise. I was not intending to patronise you about swapping wheels, but merely to point out that not everyone finds it to be an issue (just like some of us do 90% of the work required to swap forks and don't find that an issue, either). The topic has come up before on BNA without creating division.

If I did not read your post as you intended I'm sorry. The fact is that some people DO use that phrase in a derogatory way, as Googling the term confirms. My kids are among them and I took it that you were using it in that way, as that in the connotation it can hold for them.

Can we just put this down to one of the unfortunate communication errors that the internet is prone to create?
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby Chris249 » Fri Mar 25, 2016 9:07 am

il padrone wrote:
Chris249 wrote:They all find their tool suits their own particular style.
I think that IS what RonK and I have been saying :? :roll:

I have yet to see a 17th century galleon made convertible for skiff racing. Some 'convertible rigs' are just a tad too ambitious about how comfortable/performance oriented they may be.
When you write things such as saying that allrounders are "often in practice a poor substitute for most riding variants" it appears to overlook the fact that for this particular riding variant, this particular type of allrounder (a CX bike) can be an excellent tool. What are the alternatives? Doing the MTB trails on a dedicated tourer? Sticking with a hybrid which (as you say) doesn't work all that well? Touring on an MTB with knobblies?

There are many more points of difference between a galleon and a skiff than there is between a touring bike and a CX bike. Touring bikes are rarely 150' long with the capacity to sleep 100 people, for example. :D There are very definitely boats that can and are used for racing and for cruising or living aboard, and in the same way there are CX bikes and road bikes that are excellent for a certain style of touring.
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RonK
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One bike to ride them all

Postby RonK » Fri Mar 25, 2016 12:49 pm

Chris249 wrote:Ron, can we just accept that there has been a mutual misunderstanding?

I read your stuff and respect your expertise. I was not intending to patronise you about swapping wheels, but merely to point out that not everyone finds it to be an issue (just like some of us do 90% of the work required to swap forks and don't find that an issue, either). The topic has come up before on BNA without creating division.

If I did not read your post as you intended I'm sorry. The fact is that some people DO use that phrase in a derogatory way, as Googling the term confirms. My kids are among them and I took it that you were using it in that way, as that in the connotation it can hold for them.

Can we just put this down to one of the unfortunate communication errors that the internet is prone to create?
Chris, yes, agreed.

I'm none to familiar with the expressions used by generations x,y,z, so what I say tends to be pretty much what I mean.
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Re: One bike to ride them all

Postby tmac100 » Fri Mar 25, 2016 7:46 pm

tmac100 wrote:
baabaa wrote:Stefan and Max are on to it....
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/8b ... -road-bike" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
.... Pardon my traditional way of thinking, but I DO LIKE the way individual things are: ...... snip .....

Nah! waste of money in my opinion. However others will be "captivated" with the novel (?) idea of one bike having many uses. Now how could these guys "make" a Rolls (or even a Camry :roll: ) do the same "thing" as my Pajero when I go out camping in the Qatari or UAE desert? Nope- won't work. But that is just my opinion......
The fellows at Bentley are hell-bent on making me eat my words! A few thousand units a year, but the price of one of them!! Ouch.

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