Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it?

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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molzor
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Joined: 21 Dec 2014, 12:34pm

Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it?

Post by molzor »

There's always discussions on here about the best bike/parts for this and that... but has anyone had just a really cheap bike and made a crazy journey on it?

Life is easier with all the best gear, but lets face it you can tour on pretty much anything

Id be interested to hear a few tales.
simonhill
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Location: Essex

Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by simonhill »

I got fed up with the local transport Mafia when on a long non cycling trip to Madagascar. Bought a cheap new $50 (£30) Chinese MTB.

They were shipped in unassembled and put together on the pavement outside the shop by sub contractors. It was rubbish! Chain broke in first hour. None of the bearings were greased and bb seized after a few days. It required regular maintenance each day to tighten everything up. Rear derailleur jockey wheel fell off and I had to get lift to next town.

Had a full service where I oversaw the mechanic and instructed him to strip and grease all bearings. He couldn't understand why I would spend money before it was broken or needed fixing.

Steel wheels and hard bake blocks made fast downhills a nightmare.

I rode it over 500 kms through the mountains and up the coast and then used it for local transport and sightseeing. Better than the minibuses and a great experience, but I prefer my LHT!
pwa
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by pwa »

In 1987 I did LEJOG on a cheap Raleigh tourer style thing with crap everything. The heavy frame, rubbish gears and lacklustre brakes I could live with, but the cheap, nasty wheels with galv spokes and chrome plated steel rims were bad news. Every second day I broke a spoke in the rear wheel, and as I was a mechanical numptie at the time I had to find cycle shops and beg them to do an on the spot repair. When I got home I bought some better wheels and I learned how to change spokes.
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fossala
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by fossala »

I had an apollo hybrid 5 years ago that cost around £180 IIRC. I broke the bottom bracket in less than a week, cassette, chain and tyres all worn out within 2/3 weeks. Gears never stayed indexed, brakes and the wheel was back every few days to get trued by there "mechanics". I got my money back as it was not fit for purpose (riding).
iviehoff
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by iviehoff »

Legendary Swedish cycle tourist Janne Corax lists some interesting records on his website http://www3.utsidan.se/corax-e/ including

◾Most desperate for legend status: Norwegian biker one a one-gear post bicycle from Venezuela, dressed in the Venezuelan postal workers uniform, with post panniers for his gear.

I once met a Uruguayan cyclist in northern Chile, who had cycled there all the way from Uruguay on a tandem he had modified into a kind of recumbent - he was pedalling the front pedals while sitting somewhere below where the stoker would normally sit. He had welded on shelves onto the sides of the bike he could put ordinary travel luggage on, and the bicycle also had a sound system. It was all very heavy and mechanically poor, and comparison of his rate of progress as against mine in relation to some similar route segments we had ridden suggested he was going at about 60% of my speed.
ambodach
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by ambodach »

In my late teens many years ago a pal and myself toured around most of Scotland. I had an old bike with dropped handlebars and single speed. His bike however was an ex police bike with a double crossbar and 28 inch wheels with wide tyres. When he got a puncture it took both of us to turn it over to get the tyre off. Weight unknown but it was not light for sure. We mostly lived "rough" with some hostels. Had a great time :D
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freiston
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by freiston »

In my teens, a distant friend joined me and my pal for a cycle-camping trip, assuring us of his experience and equipment. His bike turned out to be a bog standard five speed affair that was very common in those days. Nothing wrong with that per se, but with poor maintenance, the condition left a lot to be desired.

There were alloy wing nuts on both wheels - with wings snapped off and most of the thread stripped. The rear carrier was one of those with a spring clamp for a bag on top and not really designed to take panniers. The carrier clamped to the seat stays and attached via large holes over the rear axle, held 'secure' by the next to useless wing nuts. The panniers were tartan vinyl with a couple of straps and buckles and the wheel kept shifting in the dropouts causing the tyre to rub against the chainstays. Very worn tyres and about three punctures on the first day.

Our progress was so slow that we could not make our intended campsite and had to change our itinerary drastically. We still managed over a week of 'base camping' with day trips within a 20 mile radius, so not a complete disaster. His bike was a lot more fit for purpose at the end of the trip than it was at the beginning but our wallets and collection of spares took a serious beating.
Disclaimer: Treat what I say with caution and if possible, wait for someone with more knowledge and experience to contribute. ;)
iviehoff
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by iviehoff »

That reminds me of a pair of Argentinean cycle tourists I met in the Argentinean lake district. The two bikes had one working brake between them, requiring care on descents. One of them had a rack, but of the kind not suitable for panniers as mentioned above, so he had fitted a wooden plank on top of it, and bungied a hold-all to said plank. I think the other had a rucksack.

I checked in to a very simple B&B in the Chilean town, Coihaique, generally reckoned to be the southern end of the main section of the Carretera Austral, which at that time was mostly untarred. Later in the day a pick-up truck unloaded two cyclists with utterly trashed bicycles/luggage. They just hadn't appreciated you need bikes and luggage carrying arrangements of a certain quality to survive a 10-day cycle camping trip on unmade roads.
PJ520
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by PJ520 »

I met a bloke in Virginia who had rode there from Los Angeles, about 2500 miles, on a Schwinn he'd found in a ditch. Strange fellow: I told him there were hills coming up, he said "Good. I'm tired of going downhill" I kid you not. I pointed out a bulge on his front tyre, he said it had been like that for a month.
You only live once, which is enough if you do it right. - Mae West
tempsperdu
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by tempsperdu »

I want to cycle to Santiago in Spain sometime in the future and wondered about one of those bikes you see in French super markets.
I could travel on foot to France buy a new bike for not a lot cycle to Spain and give it to someone.
I wonder what the reality would be?
bohrsatom
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by bohrsatom »

Last year we met a guy riding from Finland to Morocco on a 3 speed bike (sturmey archer type). It looked to be the perfect pub bike - rickety and beaten up - so I was amazed that he'd ridden so far (we met in Southern France). There was so much luggage strapped to the back; he told us he had thrown away a load of cold weather gear after leaving Northern Europe! Never got his contact details but I've got every confidence he made it.

In general, hanging around on forums tends to make you feel you need lots of expensive equipment in order to tour. But we are really a niche-within-a-niche - my experience on the road is that people tour on anything. The kinds of bikes that people post on here about, asking if they are suitable, are of a much higher quality and spec than the average, but sometimes you need the justification to buy something new :P
iviehoff
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by iviehoff »

bohrsatom wrote:Last year we met a guy riding from Finland to Morocco on a 3 speed bike (sturmey archer type). It looked to be the perfect pub bike - rickety and beaten up - so I was amazed that he'd ridden so far (we met in Southern France). There was so much luggage strapped to the back; he told us he had thrown away a load of cold weather gear after leaving Northern Europe! Never got his contact details but I've got every confidence he made it.

In general, hanging around on forums tends to make you feel you need lots of expensive equipment in order to tour. But we are really a niche-within-a-niche - my experience on the road is that people tour on anything. The kinds of bikes that people post on here about, asking if they are suitable, are of a much higher quality and spec than the average, but sometimes you need the justification to buy something new :P

The 3-speed Sturmey probably had a very strong, heavy frame which is pretty bullet proof. It probably also had steel rims. These are very strong too, and barely wear from braking. I met a guy in S Am cycling on steel rims as a cheap solution to the strength/wear issue of alloy rims, but it is a step in the direction of slow cycling and poor braking that many are not willing to take - fortunately for him he was mostly cycling in places/seasons where rain was uncommon. We also have to remember that cycling from Finland to Morocco is entirely on tarmac roads. Once you get onto gravel and dirt roads, your bike needs a whole lot of new strengths that really finds out the strength of your equipment, especially your luggage carrying arrangements. Much of Africa is pretty flat so you may get away with a small number of gears, provided your lowest gear is low enough for heavy bike on rough road, even if not steep. But I really wouldn't want a 3-speed in hilly country.
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mjr
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by mjr »

bohrsatom wrote:Last year we met a guy riding from Finland to Morocco on a 3 speed bike (sturmey archer type). It looked to be the perfect pub bike - rickety and beaten up - so I was amazed that he'd ridden so far (we met in Southern France). There was so much luggage strapped to the back; he told us he had thrown away a load of cold weather gear after leaving Northern Europe! Never got his contact details but I've got every confidence he made it.

Yeah... naw</kiwi>. I was going to suggest my SA 3-speed refurbished bike on which the front wheel bearings collapsed shortly after I got it, but has since done a medium-hilly 60-miler to/from the coast... but I'm rather outclassed by some of the examples in this topic. Really, the only thing that makes me doubt that bike's touring suitability is the flimsy chrome wire rack.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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pwa
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by pwa »

bohrsatom wrote:Last year we met a guy riding from Finland to Morocco on a 3 speed bike (sturmey archer type). It looked to be the perfect pub bike - rickety and beaten up - so I was amazed that he'd ridden so far (we met in Southern France). There was so much luggage strapped to the back; he told us he had thrown away a load of cold weather gear after leaving Northern Europe! Never got his contact details but I've got every confidence he made it.

In general, hanging around on forums tends to make you feel you need lots of expensive equipment in order to tour. But we are really a niche-within-a-niche - my experience on the road is that people tour on anything. The kinds of bikes that people post on here about, asking if they are suitable, are of a much higher quality and spec than the average, but sometimes you need the justification to buy something new :P


Yes, you can tour on fairly modest bikes. I could live with excess weight and poor gear range. A truly bad touring bike would be one with rubbish wheels that keep having spoke failures, and with poor bearings. I think bad brakes would also make a bike "rubbish" for me.
dubscratcher
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Re: Who's got the worst bike, and how far have you ridden it

Post by dubscratcher »

My son rode my old Diamondback mountain bike of 88/89 vintage across the USA from west to east and the following year, north to south down the Pacific coast about 6500 miles all told. It's still going strong.
I rode a 16" wheeled folding bike 140 miles across England.
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