Bikes that just feel right.

[sinnerman]

My TBG Explosif...., doesnt matter what i build and ride, i seem to grab that bike, when I have to have some wheels at hand to ride.
Owned since my teens, and its just spot on.

Next in line would be my Rocky Mountain Blizzard, just hits the spot.

But to be fair, i seriously recommend owning more than one bike, and make them all different....

Runners have learned that nothing improves a run as much as a new pair of shoes, or shorts, or socks, or something. Bikes, unfortunately, cost a lot more, but the effect is the same. Make your bicycles so different that your experience on one is unlike the other – a mountain bike and a road bike, a multispeed and a single speed, or a clunker, or a recumbent. For some people even different handlebars are enough of a change. It's worth a try.

Grant Peterson. A wiser man than me.

and its so true, my rocky has just recieved its yearly upgrades, and it has transformed the bike again, owned for 12 years and yet every time i change it, its like a brand new bike. ( it helps its steel though.....lol)

Refresh it, revive it, ride it..........RIDE RETRO BABY..............

 

[slinky182]

For me the bike I'll always remember was my custom built RSP 853. From what I can remember the build was:

Electric blue 853 frame
Pace RC36 Pro Class
Chris King headset
Control Tech stem, post and bars
Flight saddle
Hope/Mavic 217 CD's
Magura Racelines
Conti Cross Country tyres

Saved all my money from working nights at Asda to pay for it. Absolutely loved. Then some shitbag nicked it from my garage the night before the NPS at Sherwood

 

[clockworkgazz]

Early 90's stumpy or a fat chance wicked from the same era

 

[firedfromthecircus]

I have found out that a bike (the same bike) can feel very right at one time, then very wrong, and then back to right again over a period of time. :?
I think it depends on what you need from the bike.

I can still remember the first ride on my M2 stumpy. It felt perfect. I loved the stiffness. I was riding a lot at the time and didn't like to hang about and the directness of the frame felt fantastic.

Fast forward 14 years and I hadn't been on a mountain bike for a few years and I had let my fitness slip quite badly. Out on the stumpy and it felt awful. So stiff and jarring. Every little bump felt like I was being hit with a hammer. Horrible. I bought another bike and retired the stumpy.

Fast forward nine months of regular cycling and dieting, feeling a lot fitter and the Stumpy comes back out as a SS to help improve my fitness further. It felt perfect. I loved the stiffness. I wasn't hanging about and the directness of the frame felt fantastic.

I completely agree with sinnermans comment (or quote?) about making bikes feel different. I shall aim to follow that advice (
and use it as an excuse to pacify my wife)

 

[velomaniac]

Earlier posted this:

2 bike frames arrived, one looked wrong, one looked right. Built the wrong looking one first, 22" 1990 Giant Escaper, it felt right
Hoping like hell the right looking one, Bridgstone MB3 1988 22", feels right or I will really start believing in sods law

The Bridgestone is now built and is excellent, I love it

 

[Rich Aitch]

Surprisingly considering the love for them on here, I'm not really getting it with the Stumpy at the moment. Whether it's that the frame is too small I don't know but it's a bit strange.

Yeah mine is the same year as yours- 1994- and it's lovely on the road and on fairly soft surfaces but on a fairly rocky descent say like Stockdale Lane down towards Settle it's a pig, I can go far faster on that route on my Marin Muirwoods and I don't get a headache either. THE bike that fitted and worked right from the beginning is my Marin Bear Valley, a lovely machine that just does everything.