Mangizmo
Raleigh Fan
Fistly I must say that I have no desire to start arguments or bickering with this thread, its light hearted and tongue in cheek and aimed at prompting discussion, this is after all "Retrobike", but I just see so many trends in modern cycling that are pure expensive marketing gimmicks and new riders can be forgiven for being sucked in by the hype, after all when you start out in a new sport, you have nothing to reference and will be easily influenced by what appears to be the latest and greatest, it must be better because its new right ?
So my background is that I started cycling way back with the North Birmingham section of the Cyclists Touring Club way back in the 1980s (I am 61 now). We were all pretty skint but all covered vast distances on a regular basis, youth hosteling, camping, touring, events like "the 240" where we would cycle 240 miles non stop throughout a whole day and night, mudguards and a carrier were mandatory as it was a "touring event" and I have ridden a bike ever since, just recently I have more time on my hands and have become very enthusiastic again and so after a long period of ignoring what was on the market, I have been looking at whats "new and cool", and I am not impressed.
Today I will start with "Gravel bikes" , I visited my local bike shop yesterday and had my first chance to take a proper look at a £9000 "gravel bike", there were others that were over £11,000 and I am staggered that there is even a market for such bikes. All I saw was multiple reasons why I wouldnt want one, they include the following.
1. I have never ever bought a bike off the peg that I didnt need to "tweak", either change the width of the bars, change the length of the stem, change the seatpost for maybe a suspension post, maybe later on fit some suspension forks for a while, fit some top mounted "cyclo cross style levers etc, its all part of the fun for me and I like to do it as inexpensively as possible. I just saw bikes that would be a nightmare to customise or personalise, what you see is what you get and I anticipate alot of "buyers remorse" when it turns out to be not quite right, also everything is propitiatory so you cant mix and match components, you cant even see any cables.....what a nightmare, a very boring bike to own is what I could see
2. Electronic group set !!!!!! well my problems with this "advance" are so numerous that I will save it for another rant
3. No fixing points for Carriers or mudguards which remove an option that you may wish to have at some point in the future, they add no weight, they do not detract aesthetically from the bike, so why omit them ?
4. 1X transmission, so I have never thought to myself "I really wish I had fewer rings on the front", I have recently changed both my 8 speed freewheel and chain for £26 and it works perfectly, I asked what the cost of replacing a 1x 11 (or is it 12 ??) setup and was told it is upwards of £150 and maybe as much as £250 and given that the chain is narrower, you are possibly riding in mud and you are forced to run the chain at extreme angles, I cant imagine it will last very long
5. Damage to frame, if I had paid £9000 for a bike, I would be terrified to use it off road.....one tends to fall off occasionally !!
6. If I break something on my bikes, I can rummage through my box of bits and mix a 40 year old Suntour bar end shifter with a 2023 Shimano Deore rear mech, components 40+ years apart and it will work....perfectly, I can mix Suntour with Sram with Shimano etc, you cant do that with these machines
7. Cost....we are being persuaded that £1500 is "entry level", but its a con, I actually applaud Halfords in this regard because that sell plenty of pretty decent bikes below £500, I hammered the life out of a "Carrera Crossfire" hybrid that I rode off road for 20 years without so much as breaking a spoke, and that cost £200 back then with a carrier, mudguards and a lockout front suspension, it was great
I could go on, but you get the picture, so thats todays "Rant of the day", I am now off on a 50 mile ride on my newly aquired Dawes Super galaxy that I picked up for £150
chuckling all the way at all the money I have saved
So my background is that I started cycling way back with the North Birmingham section of the Cyclists Touring Club way back in the 1980s (I am 61 now). We were all pretty skint but all covered vast distances on a regular basis, youth hosteling, camping, touring, events like "the 240" where we would cycle 240 miles non stop throughout a whole day and night, mudguards and a carrier were mandatory as it was a "touring event" and I have ridden a bike ever since, just recently I have more time on my hands and have become very enthusiastic again and so after a long period of ignoring what was on the market, I have been looking at whats "new and cool", and I am not impressed.
Today I will start with "Gravel bikes" , I visited my local bike shop yesterday and had my first chance to take a proper look at a £9000 "gravel bike", there were others that were over £11,000 and I am staggered that there is even a market for such bikes. All I saw was multiple reasons why I wouldnt want one, they include the following.
1. I have never ever bought a bike off the peg that I didnt need to "tweak", either change the width of the bars, change the length of the stem, change the seatpost for maybe a suspension post, maybe later on fit some suspension forks for a while, fit some top mounted "cyclo cross style levers etc, its all part of the fun for me and I like to do it as inexpensively as possible. I just saw bikes that would be a nightmare to customise or personalise, what you see is what you get and I anticipate alot of "buyers remorse" when it turns out to be not quite right, also everything is propitiatory so you cant mix and match components, you cant even see any cables.....what a nightmare, a very boring bike to own is what I could see
2. Electronic group set !!!!!! well my problems with this "advance" are so numerous that I will save it for another rant
3. No fixing points for Carriers or mudguards which remove an option that you may wish to have at some point in the future, they add no weight, they do not detract aesthetically from the bike, so why omit them ?
4. 1X transmission, so I have never thought to myself "I really wish I had fewer rings on the front", I have recently changed both my 8 speed freewheel and chain for £26 and it works perfectly, I asked what the cost of replacing a 1x 11 (or is it 12 ??) setup and was told it is upwards of £150 and maybe as much as £250 and given that the chain is narrower, you are possibly riding in mud and you are forced to run the chain at extreme angles, I cant imagine it will last very long
5. Damage to frame, if I had paid £9000 for a bike, I would be terrified to use it off road.....one tends to fall off occasionally !!
6. If I break something on my bikes, I can rummage through my box of bits and mix a 40 year old Suntour bar end shifter with a 2023 Shimano Deore rear mech, components 40+ years apart and it will work....perfectly, I can mix Suntour with Sram with Shimano etc, you cant do that with these machines
7. Cost....we are being persuaded that £1500 is "entry level", but its a con, I actually applaud Halfords in this regard because that sell plenty of pretty decent bikes below £500, I hammered the life out of a "Carrera Crossfire" hybrid that I rode off road for 20 years without so much as breaking a spoke, and that cost £200 back then with a carrier, mudguards and a lockout front suspension, it was great
I could go on, but you get the picture, so thats todays "Rant of the day", I am now off on a 50 mile ride on my newly aquired Dawes Super galaxy that I picked up for £150
chuckling all the way at all the money I have saved 
I am sure someone will take offence but it's only a bit of fun
