Prompted by Christian Alshus,

This is my next bike. A Pashley Sovreign:



http://www.pashley.co.uk/products/roadster-sovereign.html

I would happily exchange a motor for this! George

George, my own bike (yes, I have one!) looks similar to this, but is a Peugeot, which was the only traditional-style bike around when I was looking for one 20 years ago. (It replaced a pre-War Raleigh which finally gave up the ghost.) Mine had a whicker basket on the front.

I really struggle to understand why someone would choose to buy a Pashley today. Its like paying £70,000 for a Morris Minor instead of a Porsche 911 especially since you are the engine!!

The engine is therefore at least as good as Porsche!

Other people struggle to understand why people buy Naim Audio! Small output amps, very expensive Pre-amps, and speakers which even some Naimees can't stand!

The best of British Production always was fantastic, and in some cases still is! I would rather have three nice things than fifty common-place pieces of second rank stuff!

George

PS: The Morris Minor is an infinitely more useful and better car than any Porsche, if not as powerful or fast. Better on fuel too!

Plus I like a good hub gear-set. The five speed Sturmey Archer is a classic, though the three speed has the fault of a false neutral between second and third, which I found to my painful cost many years ago [and two bike previuosly] on an Elswick Hopper, when I was really standing on it in third and the gear slipped into neutral ... Aaaagh, that hurt!

George

quote:

Originally posted by JWM:

quote:

Originally posted by fatcat:
Nice to see a photo of a proper metal bike. Non of this carbon fibre bollocks.

Some early footage of Fatcat in action - on a REAL bike...

LOL

That bike is even more proper than my bike. A good job too.


This is the result of combining cobbles, a hill and carbon fibres.

Ouch

GFFJ,

I couldn't agree more - I'm constantly amazed by people buying into so many foreign goods when much of the British stuff is better. Just bought a Jag XJ8 - best car I have ever bought by a million miles - grace, pace, space in abundance.

Jonathan

Because you truly can NEVER have too much carbon (except where it is replaced by titanium).

My "around town" bike was stolen this year so I am looking for a new one. I am thinking about this one:

Small enough to fit in my hallway but comfortable enought to ride around town.
For sport and the ocasional trip to work (35km one way) I use my Giant.

Here's one of my bikes - Gary Fisher Utopia - hybrid bike and I love it

(stock photo)
As well as owning a Naim amp and CD player, I also now have one of the other things I most coverted as a teenager - a Dawes Galaxy Tour bike.

I have tried riding mountain bikes, and I know for modern city streets they make a lot of sense, pot holes, broken glass in the road, etc, but I have always cycled on the old fashioned drop handle bar racer/tourer bikes and find the upright sitting position of the mountain bikes uncomfortable.

I think this is about my fifth Dawes bike over the last twenty five years, all but one of the others were stolen.

Jamie

My baby, Carbon rear end, forks, seat pillar, brakes, bars, brake levers and a Carbon chainset to follow when Ive finished paying for my speakers!

Here's another Gary Fisher 29'er taken from my favorite 10 mile loop.

Seems to be a Gary Fisher theme going on here! : )

Picture taken yesterday of my 1996 'Aquila', urban street version with ridged folks, light fittings, floppy mudguards and tarmac tyres...

...not my no.1 bike but a good solid hack-bike for cruzing around on.

I haven't posted photos for a while - wish I'd written down the instructions, but here goes:

My trusty carbon steed bought April '07 and still going strong (if not quite as clean as it maybe should be!)



A close up when new!



Peter

quote:

Originally posted by northpole:
I haven't posted photos for a while - wish I'd written down the instructions, but here goes:

My trusty carbon steed bought April '07 and still going strong (if not quite as clean as it maybe should be!)




Peter

I really like those Specialized bikes (Roubaix and Tarmac) but I don't know about those "Zertz". I'd like to see a double blind test, with and without the urethane bits in place. Do you you think the inserts actually do anything? The tube shapes that accommodate them look like the would allow for some flex and shock absorbtion (good), but I have difficulty in understanding how a few grams of urethane stuck in the holes can remove significant vibration from a system that contains 70kg + of fleshy bits.

I am one of the world's leading cynics and find it hard to believe zertz inserts provide a significant benefit. My main reason for going Roubaix Pro was the frame geometry which is much more sympathetic towards people with lower back ailments - basically you sit slightly higher than a more aggressive road bike such as the Tarmac.

In fairness to Spesh, when I was looking for a bike I called in at one of the best known bike shops in London (Condor Cycles) and they volunteered that they regarded Spesh as the 'Toyota of the cycle world' - very conservative and not likely to add features which they hadn't proven to themselves worked. (Condor sell their own line of bikes so there was no reason for bias on their part).

Having said all that, I'm still not convinced - if you go over a pothole, it doesn't feel any different than my last bike! That aside, I do rate it for comfort generally and I was really chuffed to get it with dura-ace throughout including wheels.

Peter

This is my mode of transport for getting all around my fair market town!...



The main advantage for me is near zero maintenance. Amazing how much you can get on it with a pannier either side and a couple of bungees on the back rack ; I've even been able to take advantage of an 18-pack toilet roll offer at the supermarket!

Apparently it won some award in a Dutch magazine back in 2002 - but of course they don't have any hills! It's only ever used on-road ; I always say I don't have any blind faith but I'm not sure that's true cycling around Northampton! I seldom feel the need to take the car out for local journeys in any case.

Steeve

quote:

Originally posted by Steeve:
This is my mode of transport for getting all around my fair market town!...


The main advantage for me is near zero maintenance. Amazing how much you can get on it with a pannier either side and a couple of bungees on the back rack ; I've even been able to take advantage of an 18-pack toilet roll offer at the supermarket!

Apparently it won some award in a Dutch magazine back in 2002 - but of course they don't have any hills! It's only ever used on-road ; I always say I don't have any blind faith but I'm not sure that's true cycling around Northampton! I seldom feel the need to take the car out for local journeys in any case.

Steeve

Sell the car and buy more kit. It's the only logical path. I love the bike.

Dear Steeve,

Please would you be so kind as post some details of that very practical and fine looking bike? Make, supplier, ball-park price?

It looks very similar to my late Norwegian grandfather's machine which had a rear brake worked by back-pedalling, and a hub front brake with integral lighting dynamo. Altogether that was a very robust, long lived and usable machine. What more could you ask.

I like the strong looking panier carrier at the back of your machine. Fetching grocery is a proper pain without a good pair of nicely mounted panier bags!

George