indyfabz

As has been the case in the past, it's the latter.

Happy Feet

It's just a matter of perception. A Hybrid is nothing more than a 29'r with smaller tires. One can make it as fast or slow as they want. Here's my 1991-91 Trek Multitrack (early Hybrid) with drops and Gatorskins on. I use it for commuting to work but wouldn't hesitate to take it on a light fast tour.

Is it expensive? No. Is it quality? Well, that depends on what you think quality is. All I know is that at over 25 years of age it has performed flawlessly as a winter commuter and runs pretty fast metric centuries.. Wish I could say the same about its over 50 year old owner...

The best bike is the one you actually ride.

edthesped

The blue bike is the wife's. I'd agree it's not the ideal touring bike but it's the only bike she says is comfortable. As can be seen I carry all of our stuff but it's worth it to have her with me...

Happy Feet

I'd say it's mostly the bars and suspension, which could be changed but if it works it works

It's funny, I just rode the BC ferries with about 50 other cyclists off on long weekend jaunts and the selection of bikes was wild. There was no rhyme or reason to anything. In reality people just ride what they ride and are happy regardless.

edthesped

Being upright is critical for the wife so the bars are kind of important, the suspension truly sucks and I'm actively seeking a better replacement.

mtn_cyclist

Let me end my time on this forum reading your drivel forever. You're a ****ing idiot.

Happy Feet

Yep. Bars do not make a bike good or bad for an activity. People take flats and swap out trekking bars, some add drops. Some add moustache or jones bars and others add aero's - it's a personal thing.

As to the suspension. At least she is riding. Far better than owning an expensive bike that sits in a garage.

jefnvk

Yep. I was on a 51 mile mass ride this past weekend. Amazing how many Wal-Marts successfully finished, including many ahead of me. Even watched a couple folks on new-Schwinn road bikes blow by lots of folks on much more expensive LBS offerings

I don't see how that is. Hybrids aren't that functionally different than a non-/front- suspension mountain bike, which are regularly used for touring. Maybe they are marketed a bit differently, but that doesn't change their functionality at all.

Even if 50% of the bikes were $2k, that would make a $2k bike MID-RANGE. Which, coincidentally, is close enough to the range that I would define as a mid-range.

With all due respect, I think you need a lesson in statistics. I'd start with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution

To be completely fair, I have little doubt that most bikes leaving the LBS don't get ridden much before being hung up and never used again, too, or only being used to tool around town. The only difference is how big of a bank account the person who is never really going to get into cycling has to begin with.

Don't you also think there may be more to your ex not riding the bike than the fact that it was a hybrid? I'd be willing to bet even if it were a fancy $10k carbon road dealie, it'd have been used just as little.

Happy Feet

I would even argue that an expensive high end carbon bike would be ridden less than my cheap HiTen hybrid for the following personally observed reason.

Winter

The amount of fancy bikes on the road after sanding and salting begins drops dramatically. In Canada that's 6-7 months.

jefnvk

Odd. I'd much rather ride a carbon than a steel bike in the salty winter streets, seems like a place where the benefits are obvious!

saddlesores

goldangit! i wish you woulda tole me afore i put 60,000 miles on that
stupid made-for-inexperienced bigginers inferior hybrid. shoot...i thought
a full deore setup with suntour thumbshifters was good quality.

seems i wasted my time commuting through rain and sleet and dark
of night (midnight shift in northern germany) for 5 years, and all those
stupid wasted centuries. all that time i was doing it wrong!

There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in
Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you.
Fool me — you can't get fooled again.

Happy Feet

I understand your point about corrosion except no one wants to tempt ruining a $5000 bike that way and (not to be stereotypical) sometimes people who only ride "the best" also only ride in the the best conditions.

Bikes are funny things in that high end materials can sometimes limit use depending on conditions. Around town and winter bikes are usually beaters for that reason. It's not the material itself but the way people react to concerns about theft and damage.

jefnvk

Hmm. Guess I just don't see how winter would "ruin" a CF bike, and I personally don't advocate for owning things that can't be used. People ridiculed me for driving my Mustang in the winter when I also had a Blazer, but I sure wasn't paying for a car that I'd only drive half the year!

Now, if you told me the CF bike could only take 25mm tires and the ride was mostly ice, I'd understand the problem with functionality, just don't understand a frame material argument!

indyfabz

My guess is that the $5K CF bikes usually have higher-end components, and it's the fear of those getting damaged by salt that results in beaters being used in winter. I don't ride my custom ti frame when the roads are salty for that reason.

tyrion

Back to the original topic - doesn't a CF frame have the potential to be the absolute easiest field reparable material ever?

You could carry a lightweight repair kit of CF fabric, epoxy, sand paper, and plastic wrap - the village smithies will be out of work.

The frame would be engineered with field patching in mind, maybe reinforce all the joints to make the straight section of tubing the weak points (so things like a cracked bottom bracket would be very unlikely). It could be designed so any standard hardware store epoxy would work, so you'd only have to carry a small amount.

CF is generally valued for it's high strength/weight, but for touring its field repairability might be the bigger selling point.

manapua_man

I never really got that. I've always viewed the entire drive train as being consumable/disposable so harsher conditions have never stopped me from running whatever bike I just feel like riding. I think the only thing I *might* be a little paranoid about is running carbon rims and grinding the crap out of them with whatever junk is on the road, but almost all my bikes are running discs now.

mstateglfr 

Ha, bringing out something thats gotta be 15 years old at this point! An old saying indeed.

Squeezebox

The few pictures of CF crashed bicycles I've seen were broken mid tube. A splint and a fiberglass fix might get you somewhere to deal with the problem further. Metal bicycles seem to break at the joints, therefore the village smithy. In my personal opinion, I'll worry about the repairability of a metal frame about as much as staying in bed or getting up because either way I might get hit by a meteor today. Not much chance it's gonna happen. If you're concerned about the repairability of a metal frame buy a frame made of better steel and with better craftmanship. (See previous comments about higher quality and therefore more expensive bicycles) I get the impression most non-crash failures do give some warning. So check for cracks every now-and -then, particularly if the bicycle is acting or sounding funny. My bicycle was making a funny noise, it was the rack bolts. I use my beater bike for bad weather if possible.
Gotta go walk the dog!

indyfabz

More power to you if you can afford to view Dura Ace as disposable.

CliffordK

I ride my titanium Litespeed as a winter beater. Not much salt here, but quite a bit of liquid sunshine.

A rather unique build that brings the entire bike to less that 1/10 that value above though.

I do wonder a bit about the expensive bikes. My Colnago has mostly Carbon, Titanium, Stainless, & aluminum. Almost nothing on it will rust. Those few carbon steel parts get lots of lube. The only shortfall is that some of the seals, such as on the bottom bracket may have sacrificed durability for rolling resistance. Hopefully I can clean the bearings, but one might consider cheaper bearings with better seals.

Anyway, with the used market, there are a lot of relatively cheap used Carbon and Titanium frames on the market that could make the basis for a commuter, and perhaps even a touring bike.

Happy Feet

That's kinda what I was getting at.

If someone said: "Here is a $200 beater and here is a $200 carbon bike.. choose between the two" - I'd probably go for the carbon one too; but that doesn't reflect what I see around here. Absolutely true that there are some hard core roadies that get out regardless of conditions but mainly there is a big surge in late spring and great ebb in late fall. Of those seasonal high end bike riders I often see very clean machines and I have no doubt they get thoroughly cleaned each time they go out.

I don't see people with $5K carbon bikes doing this all winter, even though the frames could probably withstand it.

manapua_man

I probably spend way more on coffee in a year

CliffordK

I compare the capital cost of my full Campy Colnago Super to about 2 cups of coffee per year of ownership..

TimothyH

It won't help with a catastrophic failure but self healing composites are a reality today.
Someday your bike frame will fix itself before you even know there is damage.


-Tim-

saddlesores

think of it like harleys and japanese bikes....

inferior beater "japcrap" (as my daddy calls 'em) bikes are out there every day, rain or shine.
they gets their annual maintenance and an occasional spritz with the garden hose to wash off
the dirt and grime and salt and assorted road debris. they's just bikes (think '79 CB550).

harleys on the another hand live in air-con garages of the suburban mcmansions, only coming
out on friday nights for the dusting off of one week's dust and the 1-mile cruise to hooters,
driven (ridden? ha!) by dentists and accountants in shiny leather chaps and faux torn denim.
and of course on sunny sundays, they'll be out there lovingly washed and polished and then left
at the end of the driveway for a few hours for the neighbors to admire.

a beater bicycle is out in the rain and snow cause it's just a bike. the whole thing is consumable.
but lots of folks with $3000+ bikes are too heavily invested in the statusy-symbolyism of bright
and shiny expensive stuff to get water spots or road salt (egads! a scratch!) on their precious.