Autechre Bikes

autechre

after 4 years of unbearable bikelessness i'm ready to hit the trails again. my previous bike was a $150 mongoose, and this was acceptable. i'd like to get one a little nicer, but stay well under $500 if possible.

looking for a hartail ATB, lightweight if possible, as this will probably only be offroad 30-40% of the time. used is fine, i don't mind waiting a bit for a good deal.

what do you guys ride? how far? hilly/flat? off/on road?

Got my first road bike a month ago, a second hand one. There was something slightly wrong with the rear mech and I ignored it, intending to get the whole thing serviced eventually, but I managed to cause quite a lot of damage by not getting that fixed straight away which was very stupid and annoying.

I also managed to get 4 punctures in my rear tube before I'd got around to buying a pump that fits the smaller valve type. Is riding on gravel tracks a no-no with slick tyres? I'm assuming it was just an underinflated tyre that did it because they looked like pinch flats and I think I might have ridden on it flat for a bit longer than I'd first realised.

I ride in Paris everyday (mainly going to work/university), usually as little as 20 km per day, but I didn't had the occasion to bike more yet. I started just a month ago, and I plan to bike more seriously as soon as I can.

I use a racing bicycle, an old one that was remade and that I bought for 280 euros (that's a lot but since racing bicycles are very fashionnables in Paris those days, it's the price). It's a Talbot (former french car firm), and it's very very fast. It looks like this one, except mine has a blue tube and a yellow handlebar (and is a lot cleaner):

hell yes! another bike thread.

i ride a cheap target hybrid 28" flatbar bike.

its surprisingly awesome and i don't have to worry about someone stealing my piece of shit.

i can't seem to break the bike either, mountain biking or not.

investing in a proper road bike soon.

i was going to say, for thesuns' price range it would probably have to be used. at least around here bikes are 500+

im just looking for some decent benchmark models that i can compare a little to see what i'm getting for the money.

i want this to be a decent investment and i don't live in the city anymore, so no fear of theft really.

  On 7/19/2011 at 5:15 PM, theSun said:

im just looking for some decent benchmark models that i can compare a little to see what i'm getting for the money.

 

i want this to be a decent investment and i don't live in the city anymore, so no fear of theft really.

I found looking for second hand bikes is a bit tricky, there is generally nothing listed from the manufacturers if you google an old model name from an ebay listing. The more you know about what you really want the better, but I think the biggest issue is going to be how much you know about the wear & tear its been through. Some people say good condition and they mean its been fully dismantled and cleaned every weekend and kissed goodnight, other think good condition is if the wheels go round but everything is bent and rusty.

I got this mountain bike thing now but it's a rather cheap Japanese one (The one I broke the front wheel of on my first ride while Listening to VHS Head), it was some kind of special offer for 127 bucks. Apart from its tendency to easily break, it looks very nice (which isn't really a good thing, like fiznuthian pointed out) but it gets me where I want to go, plus allows me to ride off-road which I like to do. It's alright.

Now I can't get those opening "Bike" plinkles out of me head.

Peugeot Manhattan

A very reliable bike for road and dirt, very fast and relatively light.

  On 7/19/2011 at 6:41 PM, Rubin Farr said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unLHmYyAw5g

this video still lingers in the back of my mind on my every commute.

  On 7/19/2011 at 7:02 PM, Salvatorin said:

Peugeot Manhattan

A very reliable bike for road and dirt, very fast and relatively light.

sick commuter bike!

took forever to find the company that makes these but for those of you trying to do a lot of commuting, look at this!

http://www.xtracycle.com/

their bikes look awesome and hold a LOT.

anywhere from 500-1000 gets a good one that could easily replace a car for 90% or more of family needs.

I bought my bike for $70. It's a 1970s Schwinn single speed (not a fixed gear).

I recently did a 40 mile bike ride on it so it's done right by me.

Dig the child seat.

you hauling a kid in the seat?

car broke down today, walked home with dog food.

lesson learned.

bike always.

the older specialized rockhoppers are pretty awesome. duno about new ones, but if you can find one of these used, they're great.

reasonably light, aluminum frame, handles winter riding with ease...

That would make a perfect bike for theSun.

SRAM equipped too, awesome!

A friend (who also reads here) has one, we hit the trails recently.

Nice bike! Though we had a catastrophic tuning problem on the trail, it still performed and made it home with ease.

Yeah Specialized frames are pretty solid, Rockhoppers and stumpjumpers could probably be picked up fairly cheep off eBay now. depends what you're after though. for an mtb frame, definately specialized, GT, Trek, are worth having a look for. they've all done reasonably priced, well specd aluminium bikes for years. Bound to find a bargain online if you look. nearly always come with XC rims, so you'd be able to fit some skinny tires on there for road riding.

used to be well into biking a few years ago. big crash and a shattered hand put me off for quite a long time however. lost my bottle completely. getting back into it now though. will be moving up north in a few months and there pleanty of riding to be had there!

just picked up a second hand GT, got it for £100 coz it was well shonkey. stripped it down and fixed it up, good as new now. well happy! have always rated their frames, geometry just feels about right. pretty vesatile also. get some aggressive risers and a stubby stem on em and you're sorted for some trails! Have some plans to upgrade it when I have the cash, it's enough to have given me the bug again though!

One cool thing we have in Brighton, I guess you get in other cities too. there's a kinda bike shop run by this guy who's scavenged a load of working bike components, frames, wheels everything really. everything gets checked over and safety tested. he then sells you all the bits you need to build your own bike, and helps you build it. works out a little bit more than buying a second hand thing. But you get the assurance that it will be in perfect condition, and you've also learned how to take care of it, fix it and in the end save yourself a lot of money. Really cool idea.

I used to have a twentyfourseven dark angel frame, 24" wheels, hope discs front n back, solid DMR cruiser forks and riser bars. 3 piece chainset and single speed cassette on the back. man that was such an awesome bike. Sold what was left after I wrapped it round a tree.. :(

Really miss it sometimes.

  On 7/19/2011 at 8:22 PM, fiznuthian said:

you hauling a kid in the seat?

I was hauling my son around everywhere on that, but now he's gotten too big.

My daughter will be next, once she's old enough to wear a helmet.

I have a Torker U-District.

It's a single speed, and I changed out the handlebars from straight to bullhorn style.

It's my main mode of transportation. I've been getting sick recently, so I haven't been riding as much as usual, but I ride it quite a lot.

Specialized for me.