What kind of bike for Brighton

[Hustle_]

What do you buy if you want to tool around a city a few miles this way and that. Up and down the cycle lanes. Locked up to a lamp post whilst I have a hair cut. Left at the train station. How st does a bike need to be for crims to not want to wreck it or nick bits?

I consider the Dutch approach of something truly frumpy and as basic as possible but there are hills here…

I’ve got a 15+ year old mountain bike which when I sit on it now feels intensely uncomfortable.

[Scabutz]

Hustle_ said:

Left at the train station. How st does a bike need to be for crims to not want to wreck it or nick bits?

Pre covid I worked in London. I bought a fifty quid second hand snotter to leave at Euston and pedal to the office daily.

Then covid came and we all WFH. When we went back all that was left was the frame locked to the railings. Every other single bit had been nicked.

So there is no low bar.

[irc]

Something cheap second hand. Hybrid. If it has a 2x or 3x chainset consider a 1x conversion. Fine for local riding with hills. A scruffy looking bike with a well maintained driveline and decent tyres will still ride well whilst not bring hugely attractive to thieves and won't break the bank if it does get stolen.

For example m local gumtree throws up this. A bit too nice looking but great value. Unfashionable V brakes might hel redce the theft risk. For £150 I'd risk parking it anywhere with a good lock for longer periods.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/specialized-hyb...

[dontlookdown]

There is quite a big difference between locking it to a lamp post for half an hour and leaving it at the station all day.

If you really do need to leave it at the station, then an old, cheap second hand hybrid is your best bet. With a few gears as there are hills in Brighton.

But as above, there is no such thing as a bike that absolutely no-one will want to nick.

[johnpsanderson]

I have a decent but tatty looking Dutch bike I picked up second hand for £125 which I use for this sort of thing. I do use a decent lock but never had trouble.

A Brompton could be the other way to go, maybe less of a financial pain if you have a ‘bike2work’ scheme you can buy it on?

[Zio Di Roma]

Hustle_ said:

What do you buy if you want to tool around a city a few miles this way and that. Up and down the cycle lanes. Locked up to a lamp post whilst I have a hair cut. Left at the train station. How st does a bike need to be for crims to not want to wreck it or nick bits?

I consider the Dutch approach of something truly frumpy and as basic as possible but there are hills here…

I’ve got a 15+ year old mountain bike which when I sit on it now feels intensely uncomfortable.

A Dutch would be my choice.

I bought this for my son to use at Uni. It’s now rusty and scratched and consequently, I suspect, theft-proof. But it it a great thing to ride and can go surprisingly fast. He initially wanted something "cool", but now loves it.

[dontlookdown]

Zio Di Roma said:

A Dutch would be my choice.

I bought this for my son to use at Uni. It’s now rusty and scratched and consequently, I suspect, theft-proof. But it it a great thing to ride and can go surprisingly fast. He initially wanted something "cool", but now loves it.

That fits the build of being fairly unattractive to thieves, but those things are heavy and only have 3 speed hubs. There are not many hills in The Netherlands, unlike Brighton...

[Zio Di Roma]

dontlookdown said:

Zio Di Roma said:

A Dutch would be my choice.

I bought this for my son to use at Uni. It’s now rusty and scratched and consequently, I suspect, theft-proof. But it it a great thing to ride and can go surprisingly fast. He initially wanted something "cool", but now loves it.

That fits the build of being fairly unattractive to thieves, but those things are heavy and only have 3 speed hubs. There are not many hills in The Netherlands, unlike Brighton...

Bloody hell, we’ve become soft in this country.

My grandfather won the 1938 Tour De France with Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gears, before going on to singlehandedly defeat the Germans in several major conflicts, whilst only having to adjust the little chain thingy on the gear shift cable once per day. Admittedly the entire war effort was paused for nearly a fortnight, when he had to repair a rear puncture, but otherwise 3-speed hub gears were no barrier to his multiple successes.

So don’t tell me about hills in Brighton.

[Siao]

Zio Di Roma said:

dontlookdown said:

Zio Di Roma said:

A Dutch would be my choice.

I bought this for my son to use at Uni. It’s now rusty and scratched and consequently, I suspect, theft-proof. But it it a great thing to ride and can go surprisingly fast. He initially wanted something "cool", but now loves it.

That fits the build of being fairly unattractive to thieves, but those things are heavy and only have 3 speed hubs. There are not many hills in The Netherlands, unlike Brighton...

Bloody hell, we’ve become soft in this country.

My grandfather won the 1938 Tour De France with Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gears, before going on to singlehandedly defeat the Germans in several major conflicts, whilst only having to adjust the little chain thingy on the gear shift cable once per day. Admittedly the entire war effort was paused for nearly a fortnight, when he had to repair a rear puncture, but otherwise 3-speed hub gears were no barrier to his multiple successes.

So don’t tell me about hills in Brighton.

What on earth are you blagging about? Shall we go backwards because this is how they did it 80 years ago? Should we man up because we've become softies? I think you just wanted to brag that your grandfather was famous, there's no other context on whatever that was that I just read...

So yeah, get off it, I'm pretty sure that the OP won't be fighting any Germans any time soon, nor ride the TdF. Dutch bikes are heavy and Brighton is hilly in places, the train station (depending which way you are riding from) can be a challenge. No one wants to commute in a sweaty shirt.

To the OP; anything and everything (bike related) gets stolen in Brighton. While not exactly London, bike theft is high. A cheap pub-bike with no emotional connection is the best bet if you want to throw it around. I'd get a good lock if I were you, they'll go for the next cheap thing that is easier to steal.



PS Total respect to Bartali for what he achieved, mainly during the war. He rode a 4-speed Legnano for the '38 TdF.

[Zio Di Roma]

Siao said:

Zio Di Roma said:

dontlookdown said:

Zio Di Roma said:

A Dutch would be my choice.

I bought this for my son to use at Uni. It’s now rusty and scratched and consequently, I suspect, theft-proof. But it it a great thing to ride and can go surprisingly fast. He initially wanted something "cool", but now loves it.

That fits the build of being fairly unattractive to thieves, but those things are heavy and only have 3 speed hubs. There are not many hills in The Netherlands, unlike Brighton...

Bloody hell, we’ve become soft in this country.

My grandfather won the 1938 Tour De France with Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gears, before going on to singlehandedly defeat the Germans in several major conflicts, whilst only having to adjust the little chain thingy on the gear shift cable once per day. Admittedly the entire war effort was paused for nearly a fortnight, when he had to repair a rear puncture, but otherwise 3-speed hub gears were no barrier to his multiple successes.

So don’t tell me about hills in Brighton.

What on earth are you blagging about? Shall we go backwards because this is how they did it 80 years ago? Should we man up because we've become softies? I think you just wanted to brag that your grandfather was famous, there's no other context on whatever that was that I just read...

So yeah, get off it, I'm pretty sure that the OP won't be fighting any Germans any time soon, nor ride the TdF. Dutch bikes are heavy and Brighton is hilly in places, the train station (depending which way you are riding from) can be a challenge. No one wants to commute in a sweaty shirt.

To the OP; anything and everything (bike related) gets stolen in Brighton. While not exactly London, bike theft is high. A cheap pub-bike with no emotional connection is the best bet if you want to throw it around. I'd get a good lock if I were you, they'll go for the next cheap thing that is easier to steal.



PS Total respect to Bartali for what he achieved, mainly during the war. He rode a 4-speed Legnano for the '38 TdF.

Were you aware that Bartali was dismounted mid-race by an enormous parrot, which felled him with a single whoosh?

[Siao]

Zio Di Roma said:

Siao said:

Zio Di Roma said:

dontlookdown said:

Zio Di Roma said:

A Dutch would be my choice.

I bought this for my son to use at Uni. It’s now rusty and scratched and consequently, I suspect, theft-proof. But it it a great thing to ride and can go surprisingly fast. He initially wanted something "cool", but now loves it.

That fits the build of being fairly unattractive to thieves, but those things are heavy and only have 3 speed hubs. There are not many hills in The Netherlands, unlike Brighton...

Bloody hell, we’ve become soft in this country.

My grandfather won the 1938 Tour De France with Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gears, before going on to singlehandedly defeat the Germans in several major conflicts, whilst only having to adjust the little chain thingy on the gear shift cable once per day. Admittedly the entire war effort was paused for nearly a fortnight, when he had to repair a rear puncture, but otherwise 3-speed hub gears were no barrier to his multiple successes.

So don’t tell me about hills in Brighton.

What on earth are you blagging about? Shall we go backwards because this is how they did it 80 years ago? Should we man up because we've become softies? I think you just wanted to brag that your grandfather was famous, there's no other context on whatever that was that I just read...

So yeah, get off it, I'm pretty sure that the OP won't be fighting any Germans any time soon, nor ride the TdF. Dutch bikes are heavy and Brighton is hilly in places, the train station (depending which way you are riding from) can be a challenge. No one wants to commute in a sweaty shirt.

To the OP; anything and everything (bike related) gets stolen in Brighton. While not exactly London, bike theft is high. A cheap pub-bike with no emotional connection is the best bet if you want to throw it around. I'd get a good lock if I were you, they'll go for the next cheap thing that is easier to steal.



PS Total respect to Bartali for what he achieved, mainly during the war. He rode a 4-speed Legnano for the '38 TdF.

Were you aware that Bartali was dismounted mid-race by an enormous parrot, which felled him with a single whoosh?

I see

[dontlookdown]

Zio Di Roma said:

dontlookdown said:

Zio Di Roma said:

A Dutch would be my choice.

I bought this for my son to use at Uni. It’s now rusty and scratched and consequently, I suspect, theft-proof. But it it a great thing to ride and can go surprisingly fast. He initially wanted something "cool", but now loves it.

That fits the build of being fairly unattractive to thieves, but those things are heavy and only have 3 speed hubs. There are not many hills in The Netherlands, unlike Brighton...

Bloody hell, we’ve become soft in this country.

My grandfather won the 1938 Tour De France with Sturmey-Archer 3-speed gears, before going on to singlehandedly defeat the Germans in several major conflicts, whilst only having to adjust the little chain thingy on the gear shift cable once per day. Admittedly the entire war effort was paused for nearly a fortnight, when he had to repair a rear puncture, but otherwise 3-speed hub gears were no barrier to his multiple successes.

So don’t tell me about hills in Brighton.

If he'd had tubeless tyres and run out of dynaplugs, we'd probably have lost the war;)

[troc]

Yeah, two options are a brompton (expensive, especially for one with 6 or more gears) which you take wherever you go or something cheap - ie the Dutch model.

The cheap Dutch bike doesn’t have to have 3 gears, there are plenty with Shimano 7 or 8 speed hubs these days which will winch you up and down the hills - we don’t have hills but we do have wind so gears are appreciated here all the same.

Go for something steel and a little rusty, especially all the bolts, they need to be rusty and seized. The bike needs a rack and should have 2-4 small led front and rear lights dangling from various parts of the bike. Only one if them should work. Sporadically.

The saddle should be torn and preferably wearing a plastic bag to keep the rain off.


The bell should be either insanely loud or make a supremely dull ‘clunk’ sound when used.

Tyres should be either brand new or totally worn down, preferably one of each.

To be really authentic, the whole bike, including tyres and chain should be badly spray painted using a rattle can in a nasty colour of your choice.

[Hustle_]

Thanks for the responses all, I am reading.

I missed an option actually, the Beryl bikes at the bottom of my road. Going to start using those and figure out what I need off the back of that.

[Hustle_]

Beryl bike quite good! Wish it had been 18p cheaper than the bus rather than 18p more though

[S600BSB]

Brompton.

[Zio Di Roma]

S600BSB said:

Brompton.

Why?

[Hustle_]

I remembered earlier how much I like steel framed 90s racing bikes but I’m guessing the lack of mudguards and luggage is probably the problem there.

Also why does nobody put the bike size in the ads? Maddening.

[Hustle_]

I saw this but I wish it was standard (and cheaper!)

Thoughts about ancient stuff?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/raleigh-royal-t...

[Zio Di Roma]

Hustle_ said:

I saw this but I wish it was standard (and cheaper!)

Thoughts about ancient stuff?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/raleigh-royal-t...

Expensive bitzer.