Platy

A beater bike is one you ride in everyday situations to avoid wear & tear on a nicer bike. Or maybe you don't want to put a nicer bike at risk for theft. Or maybe your only bike happens to be a beater.

Got one?

chephy

Of course I do! A venerable 90's Miyata. Rear gears don't shift well any more no matter what you do, the thing is banged up and scratched up.... but I'm used to it. It's been kind of a pain in the ass lately because of various repairs, but I think a beater bike should always be a little bit of a pain in the ass, so that if it gets stolen, you feel not only grief but also a little bit of relief.

gerv 

Yes. I bought a Bianchi hybrid in 2005 and added fenders, rack, lights, better tires, seat. I even swapped out the handlebars with a Nitto English 3-speed bar. It has slightly wider tires for less than ideal weather conditions and I don't mind locking it up at bike racks. My other bike is a Bianchi cyclocross bike which is much nicer and I use it for longer rides on the weekend or as a backup to the hybrid.

One thing about my beater is that I'm always up for repairing or upgrading it. As long as the frame holds up, I think I'll hang on to it.

scattered73

My beater is a miyata seven21, the seat on mine is falling apart. The day I got it I noticed the RD cable is about rusted about half way through but has yet to break on me, shifts like a dream only had adjust the rd when I first got it. Eveything spins like no there's tomorow. I have a 2nd hand rack in it which is busted but only affecting it cosmeticly. At the end of the year if she makes it (which I have no doubts) I am giving her a full overhaul at the bike shop and new seat and rack to boot. Mine is pretty scratched up but it's an aliminum frame and both rims have a dent in them but they hold true and hold tires.

oldfool

All my bikes are beaters

wahoonc

Ditto

Actually the only bike I don't want to ride in bad weather or somwhere I can't keep an eye on it is my 1972 Raleigh Superbe. I would guess if I had to select a beater from my fleet it would be my 1971 Raleigh Sports Standard. That was my only commuter for years and has not had a gentle life. It is rusty, ragged, has mis matched tires, the wrong fork and mis matched pedals too...a real shaggy dog if you will. I used to use my Giant Iguana as my all weather commuter and just swap the wheels out in the winter for a bit more aggressive tire. But that bike it being reincarnated as an expedition tour bike.

Aaron

MyBikeGotStolen

I actually just got my first non-beater bike about a month ago. I never ride it though because I dont want to get the yellow bar tape dirty. So the bike at this point is about useless to me.

I much prefer my beater with the milk crate on the back

gwd

I get a sense of satisfaction from pulling a bike out of someones trash and making it rideable. I don't ride my junker bike to avoid wear and tear on the "nicer" bikes. The bikes I bought new are now all worn and torn from riding. I ride the junker when I'll park in high theft areas and but also just to ride it.

Blue Order

I've got a beater that is so beaten that it's unrideable.

But that's how it was when I bought it. Underneath all the crappy and worn out components is a pretty cool bombprooof frame. And I've got a nice set of extra Deore copmponents laying around, so the beater will soon rise again.

Sammyboy

My Raleigh Royal doesn't look much, but it's a great bike. My Falcon Westminster is more of a beater though - it's the one I can leave locked up anywhere for days. My Raleigh 20 also has no attraction whatever for thieves .

Allen

I have a thing against beater bikes (not for others, for myself). I've spent way too many miles on rusty, rickety, creaking machines to live in a low crime area. My last beater is covered in dust and cobwebs in the back of the barn. If I were still in college or in a high crime area, different story.

niknak

I have a '83 Sakai steel lugged bike with 27" wheels that I converted into a singlespeed on a whim. The original paint was peeling so I did a quick, sh*tty rattle can paint job in white. The chainline is way off. The handlebars have remnants of old bar tape and the brake calipers barely stop me because the pads are probably originals. The headset is loose b/c I just don't want to bother adjusting it. Still though, it's fun to ride to the grocery store or a friend's place.

Everest

I have a crappy old X-Mart mountain bike with garbage components, rear fendeer off some cruiser and beat up rack off an old schwinn frame is covered in stickers. Everything runs smoothly and it gets me around. Wouldn't dare riding one of my nice bikes around Campus (nor leaving them out in all weather).

bragi

Unlike most people, I only have one bike. It looks like a beater, but it's not; I changed out a few components (tires, rear cassette, crank, pedals) and keep the bike in perfect operating condition at all times. It performs very well, actually, though I'm pretty sure most lycra guys on $3000 road bikes have little to fear from me. (I bet I can haul way more beer than they can, though.)

davidmcowan

How is a 2005 Bianchi a beater?

cerewa

I was thinking the same thing, and then I noticed that he bought it in 2005 but he didn't say it was new in '05.

I have two bikes, and neither one cost me much. I avoid buying expensive bikes because all of my riding is point A to point B riding that puts a lot of wear on the bikes. If I bought an expensive bike it would become a beater, so I just start out with beaters and they stay that way. My bikes are locked outside basically all the time, except when I ride them.

Tude 

Not yet - had planned on other mtb to be my winterbeater - but that was stolen.

Probably Nov I'll go looking for a mtb that I can commute on - and go beat up in the snow. I spent too much money (on stolen bike) fixing stuff that the snow/salt got too. So new bike isn't going to be ruined like that.

ModoVincere

1980 (best guess) Puch Pathfinder. Has original Suntour components and looks like crap. Rides like a dream, shifts well, and gets me to work on most days. Its the beater that keeps my Univega out of the weather and away from thieves.

Artkansas 

Yup, an 80s vintage Free Spirit Brittany, womens model. It's in good shape with a good paint job, stock fenders and a springy seat. Ironically, I paid $10.00 more for it than I paid for my main bike, an early '90s Specialized Hard Rock. The Hard Rock was free.

acroy

nah. All my bikes are nice and I use the heck out of em

Roody

Any bike will be a beater bike if you ride it as much as you should. I don't try to prevent wear and tear, just deal with them when they happen.

Currently I have a Trek hardtail MTB that's probably 3 or 4 years old. I also have a Fuji 10-speed that's probably 30 years old, but it probably has fewer miles on it (so far) than the Trek. The Fuji was a "trade-in" left by the thief that stole another bike. I also have enough pieces and parts lying around to make at least one other bike.

Dahon.Steve

I like the beater instead of the folding bike route for 90% of uses that don't involve multimode transit. Unlike a folder which has to carried everywhere, a beater can be left outside (hidden) without too much worry. Unfortunately, I sold my beater but I'm in the process of building a new one. A three speed with the new Sturmey Archer hub!

gwd

Whats this? I thought they went out of business years ago. They were
really reliable.

wahoonc

They got sold off to Sunrace and they're baaaack. And have done away with the neutral issue that was supposedly such a problem with the old style AW

www.sturmey-archer.com and don't drool too much, a lot of that stuff isn't available in the US or any place else I have looked either.

I would really like to get my hands on one of the X-FDD and a X-RD5

Aaron

Dahon.Steve

Sun Race upgraded the Sturmey Archer AW-3 and now calls it SRF - 3.

The new hub does not fall in between gears or lose it's transmission.