Best general bike advice for average beginner?

[Chris James]

Andy in Sig, I salute your efforts not to rise to Bonj’s comedy aggressive posting style.

It is funny that Bonj insists upon listening to other’s opinions, but then dogmatically clings to his own prejudices (eg mudguards and now touring bikes).

As regards your assertion that there is nothing that a touring bike could do that your ‘road’ bike couldn’t, well that is clearly a nonsense. For a start you probably can’t fit full mudguards to your road bike

Bought your Dura Ace wheels yet? How do you think they’ll get on carrying a tent, sleeping bag, spare clothes, stove etc on a two week tour? That is if you can get a rack to stay on your frame using P clips etc.

 

[jimboalee]

I'll throw in my tuppencewth.

In the old days, there were Touring bikes, road race bikes and Dutch uprights.
My Mum's first 'New' bike was a Hurcules Ladies 531 Mixte with a Sturmey Archer AW3 hub. 'Touring bends', full mudguards and a big saddlebag. That was a Tourer.
My first 'Road bike' (still got it) was a Peugeot 531 Recorde du Monde PX10LE. Incidentally, this frame was the 'off the peg' version of the PY. The PY was made to measure and Team issue. The Pug PY full 531 Team frame, as ridden by Eddy, had MUDGUARD EYES and clearances to fit mudguards. It was a Road race bike????

Times have changed since the sixties, and IMHO, manufacturers are giving it large on 'sales hype' most of the time, attempting to rake in more profit on cheap-to-build, 'Trendy' bikes like the 'Flat bar roadbike'.

As I said, Evans Cycles have piccies and spec's on most bikes available in the country. Look, choose, haggle, deal.

Rant over.

 

[snorri]

The main problem with newbies coming along to ask "which bike?" is that they often do not really know what they will use the bike for.
The best advice to complete newbies could be to buy a second hand hybrid and use it for a few months until a pattern of use develops. Then they could come back with some actual cycling experience and get more information from our more experienced posters before buying a machine to better match their requirements.

 

[jimboalee]

+1 snorri. Well said.

 

[bonj2]

Andy in Sig, I salute your efforts not to rise to Bonj’s comedy aggressive posting style.

It is funny that Bonj insists upon listening to other’s opinions, but then dogmatically clings to his own prejudices (eg mudguards and now touring bikes).

do I? when?

As regards your assertion that there is nothing that a touring bike could do that your ‘road’ bike couldn’t, well that is clearly a nonsense. For a start you probably can’t fit full mudguards to your road bike

Not being able to fit full mudguards to it doesn't prevent it from doing anything that a touring bike could.
Neither does it make it an any worse bike.

Bought your Dura Ace wheels yet? How do you think they’ll get on carrying a tent, sleeping bag, spare clothes, stove etc on a two week tour?

Well I am going to keep my old wheels, so I'd just whack them on, duh!

That is if you can get a rack to stay on your frame using P clips etc.

Yes you can fit a rack to it, as i have done before.

 

[bonj2]

The main problem with newbies coming along to ask "which bike?" is that they often do not really know what they will use the bike for.

exactly and that's where I come in. They need to be taught why cycling is fun, and thrashing along down a bumpy duck path isn't as fun as going fast down a nice smooth road, or mountain biking down some nice technical singletrack. IT's easy, yes, but it's quite a thankless task.

 

[Chris James]

do I? when?

In the other thread when you said that people were asking for advice on buying road bikes but that people kept advising them to buy hybrids.

 

[palinurus]

Bikes do tend to lead you in unexpected directions.

Bought an Airnimal Joey. Found it was pretty fast, entered a TT, joined a club and bought a road bike, sold Airnimal, got faster, bought TT bike, got faster still, wanted to race but too rubbish to enter a crit, built 'cross bike instead.

All because I wanted to take a bike on the train.

it's a similar story with my commute bikes.

I do think that if- for some reason- I had to have one bike, it would be the sportiest tourer I could find that'd take canti or v-brakes. With a spare set of wheels I could do a lot with something like that.

 

[Fab Foodie]

nope - wrong again. hybrid can have suspension.

nope bonj, wrong again, I never said hybrids couldn't have suspension...

 

[Fab Foodie]

Nobody's being dogmatic about this.

Apart from bonj

 

[Fab Foodie]

exactly and that's where I come in. They need to be taught why cycling is fun, and thrashing along down a bumpy duck path isn't as fun as going fast down a nice smooth road, or mountain biking down some nice technical singletrack. IT's easy, yes, but it's quite a thankless task.

Why do they need to be taught cycling is fun?
Why isn't thrashing along a bumpy duck path as fun as a smooth downhill?
Where is the fun of a nice bumpy single-track?

You aren't half a funny arse bonj, but good value it has to be said.

As it happens, I like 1 and 2 but singletrack has no appeal, I'd take the duck path. Am I wrong?

 

[bonj2]

Why do they need to be taught cycling is fun?
Why isn't thrashing along a bumpy duck path as fun as a smooth downhill?
Where is the fun of a nice bumpy single-track?

You aren't half a funny arse bonj, but good value it has to be said.

As it happens, I like 1 and 2 but singletrack has no appeal, I'd take the duck path. Am I wrong?

because if they follow your advice and all they do is bumble along a trekking path then they wont' see it for themselves. If they knew that there is more to cycling than twatting along a maroon path then they might be more inspired.

 

[Abitrary]

Well said bonj. I always get a frisson when I see you've made the last post in the beginner's section BTW.

 

[Fab Foodie]

because if they follow your advice and all they do is bumble along a trekking path then they wont' see it for themselves. If they knew that there is more to cycling than twatting along a maroon path then they might be more inspired.

Cycling Nirvana the bonj way...

Chapter 1
Unicycling up Kilimanjaro on slicks.

There's nothing wrong with bumbling along a trekking path bonj, your style is more likely to put people off rather than inspire. It doesn't matter what, why or how people ride as long as they get out there and do it. Some will strive for more, others will enjoy the maroon path.

 

[Andy in Sig]

You're making sense and being reasonable, FF which means leading him into uncharted territory.

Lest we forget, I started this thread with the suggestion that the tourer is perhaps the best default bike for a beginner who doesn't have very specific wishes. It's only a suggestion and I'm not claiming it's 100% correct. Contenders are emerging in the form of audax style bikes and, for city use, Dutch style bikes.