Wrong Bike?

[maxglide]

ITs all a compromise, find the bike you think is perfect, ride it for a while, fancy something else.

For the record, I'm not thinking what everyone else is not thinking.

[horizon]

I do get a very uncomfortable feeling reading this thread but It's very hard to put one's logical finger on it. I'm all for getting the right equipment and developing the craft and ability of cycling. But I do sense a line is being crossed where the purchase of the equipment becomes the tail wagging the dog.

It's just a feeling, mind ...

[pwa]

I do get a very uncomfortable feeling reading this thread but It's very hard to put one's logical finger on it. I'm all for getting the right equipment and developing the craft and ability of cycling. But I do sense a line is being crossed where the purchase of the equipment becomes the tail wagging the dog.

It's just a feeling, mind ...

I understand your caution, but I think the OP does describe having a sub-optimal bike for the purpose outlined. A proper tourer, able to carry heavy loads, can be made to work for lightly loaded day rides, but an audax style bike (with guards and rack) will be more pleasurable. Given that we are talking about the main role of the bike, not something it has to stretch to once in a while, I think getting another bike could be justified if funds permit. If funds don't permit, the exising sub-optimal bike will do.

[horizon]

I was more referring to honesty's post on Audaxing where it seems like there's race to the lowest bike weight going on. Otherwise I agree - if I were the OP I would sell up and get an Audax bike.

[Bmblbzzz]

I was more referring to honesty's post on Audaxing where it seems like there's race to the lowest bike weight going on. Otherwise I agree - if I were the OP I would sell up and get an Audax bike.

So you were referring to this:

On the audax I did at the weekend there was a lot of carbon and aluminium endurance road bikes, a smattering of cyclocross bikes, and some light tourers/audax. Im guessing the relaxation of the mudguard rule has meant that what bike you ride on has pushed more towards the roadie bikes. There was what I labelled as the titanium posse. About half a dozen elder gentlemen that kept on passing me to then spend time at stops having more tea and cake. I know which group I aspire to be in

I'm not honestly sure which group Honesty aspires to be in, but it seems like it's the group which spends more time over tea and cake. I think that's actually a worthwhile aim: being able to ride faster allows you to spend more time enjoying other things within the ride, whether that's tea, cake and chat, or visiting stuff on tour, or sleeping on a longer audax, or relaxing at a campsite, or... whatever it is you enjoy. Of course, the best way to get faster is to get fitter and ride harder, but for any level of fitness and effort, a bike that's designed more for speed will allow you to get that bit more speed out of it. It's up to you where you draw the compromise between speed, comfort, effort, cost, aesthetics, etc.

[roubaixtuesday]

But I do sense a line is being crossed where the purchase of the equipment becomes the tail wagging the dog.

There's no indication that it's so but even if it were, why would it be a problem if the OP liked shiny new bikes?

Bike collecting seems a pretty harmless vice to me. Only wish I had the space and money to indulge in it myself.

[horizon]

But I do sense a line is being crossed where the purchase of the equipment becomes the tail wagging the dog.

why would it be a problem if the OP liked shiny new bikes?

It wouldn't - there's no logical place to draw a line here. You could argue (till the cows came home) that there's a point at which a bike is adequate for the job of Audaxing and that further purchasing is distorting the values of Audax but you would be at it for a long time. As I said, it's just a feeling, not an argument that I can defend. I'm passionate about getting the right bike for the job (I'm not an "any bike will do" person at all).

And yet ....

[honesty]

I was more referring to honesty's post on Audaxing where it seems like there's race to the lowest bike weight going on. Otherwise I agree - if I were the OP I would sell up and get an Audax bike.

So you were referring to this:

On the audax I did at the weekend there was a lot of carbon and aluminium endurance road bikes, a smattering of cyclocross bikes, and some light tourers/audax. Im guessing the relaxation of the mudguard rule has meant that what bike you ride on has pushed more towards the roadie bikes. There was what I labelled as the titanium posse. About half a dozen elder gentlemen that kept on passing me to then spend time at stops having more tea and cake. I know which group I aspire to be in

I'm not honestly sure which group Honesty aspires to be in, but it seems like it's the group which spends more time over tea and cake. I think that's actually a worthwhile aim: being able to ride faster allows you to spend more time enjoying other things within the ride, whether that's tea, cake and chat, or visiting stuff on tour, or sleeping on a longer audax, or relaxing at a campsite, or... whatever it is you enjoy. Of course, the best way to get faster is to get fitter and ride harder, but for any level of fitness and effort, a bike that's designed more for speed will allow you to get that bit more speed out of it. It's up to you where you draw the compromise between speed, comfort, effort, cost, aesthetics, etc.

More cake. Always more cake

To answer Horizon though, I think what I saw was probably a shift in those that are cycling audax, rather than a shift in what bike audax riders use. There seemed to be more road clubs type riders and if you only have one bike you would use that one. If that bike was bought primarily to ride in a road club it's going to be a road bike. Hope that makes sense. Anyway, that's just my thoughts on it.

[horizon]

I thought this was a good run-through of the facts and as you can see it comes down mainly in favour of a lighter bike:

https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=32509.0

I know the OP wasn't asking specifically about Audax but the rides he described are similar and have raised the same issues for him.

[mercalia]

maybe just get another set of wheels, lighter, narrower rims, & tyres?

[531colin]

OP doesn't want narrow tyres

Much food for thought here.

What tyres are you using?

Continental contact 32. I wouldn't want to go thinner as many lanes are pretty atrocious. The tourer is a keeper so it'll probably have to adjust to sharing the garage with another bike in the near future. Any suggestions for a decent audax catering to the more relaxed comfortable persuasion?

[PH]

I would not dream of pushing the extra weight of my tourer's frameset, even with lighter wheels, around a 300km audax ride. So for me the two bikes complement each other.

It's good that you've useful differences between your bikes, but depending of many factors (Not least the rider) that isn't always the case. How much is that extra frame weight? Mine is less than 400g, both steel frames with steel forks, tourer is a 1" steerer compared 1 1/8th on the Audax, tourer 2mm larger down tube and longer chain stays. They're not identical to ride, but the difference isn't significant enough to stop me using either on 300km Audaxes* without feeling any disadvantage. It wasn't planned to have two such similar frames and I've built them up to be considerably different bikes.

* I've also done one flat 300km Audax on my considerably heavier, flat bar, Rohloff hub, hybrid/Trekking bike. It felt slower all the way round, but without realising it I spent less time off the bike and finished in the same sort of time.

[pwa]

I would not dream of pushing the extra weight of my tourer's frameset, even with lighter wheels, around a 300km audax ride. So for me the two bikes complement each other.

It's good that you've useful differences between your bikes, but depending of many factors (Not least the rider) that isn't always the case. How much is that extra frame weight? Mine is less than 400g, both steel frames with steel forks, tourer is a 1" steerer compared 1 1/8th on the Audax, tourer 2mm larger down tube and longer chain stays. They're not identical to ride, but the difference isn't significant enough to stop me using either on 300km Audaxes* without feeling any disadvantage. It wasn't planned to have two such similar frames and I've built them up to be considerably different bikes.

* I've also done one flat 300km Audax on my considerably heavier, flat bar, Rohloff hub, hybrid/Trekking bike. It felt slower all the way round, but without realising it I spent less time off the bike and finished in the same sort of time.

I reckon my audax bike weighs about 23lb (in old money) with guards and rack. My tourer is probably nearer to 30lb with guards and rack. 7lb would be quite a bit of extra weight to push around a 300km audax route, especially one with plenty of hills. I'm sure I could do it if I had to, but I'd prefer not to have to. And the lighter bike is also the more comfy. The tourer is probably stiffer to cope with heavy loads. All in all the audax bike is a nicer ride. Both bikes are set up to give me the same position.

[maxglide]

@pwa

I reckon my audax bike weighs about 23lb (in old money) with guards and rack.

You mentioned you've a Spa Titanium Audax. I was looking at those a few months ago. Nice. Did you
try it out before buying? I bought my tourer off the Web, total blind-date, in 'my recommended size' and it's worked out well, very comfy. Not sure I'd want to do that for the best part of two grand.

[old_windbag]

Not sure I'd want to do that for the best part of two grand.

Thats very understandable. Practically it is sometimes difficult to travel around to see all the bikes you'd like to try, in a specific size, and as a demonstrator too. I know I couldn't do that so when I've built up a bike I used RattleCad to enter the frame geometry, then component sizes to choice. It's let me compare dimensions to bikes I already have and know I fit, yet on a virtual build. I've built 2 framesets( one very expensive ) this way and its been spot on to a few mm, and spot on for critical areas like toe-overlap.

http://rattlecad.sourceforge.net/

It's seriously useful for the 15mins it takes to understand using it, and fun to boot .