What do we ride?
 

For the car free or car light people what is our most common choice of bicycle?

I have two road bikes a Hybrid and a Mountain bike. I put on between 6000 and 8000 miles combined.

I also ride a touring bike, which I consider to be pretty near the ultimate bike style for longer commutes. Very comfortable, lighter than a hybrid but sturdier than a road bike. Good for groceries or anything else you would put in bags. My hybrid has been modified quite a bit, new handlebars so that it is no longer as upright as a hybrid. My road bike is almost 30 years old.

For most of the year, I'm on a touring bike. In winter, I'm on an old mountain bike, stripped down to a single speed.

The touring bike makes a lot of sense as a general duty bike because it can handle a lot of weight as well as rough roads. Also, I do touring and longer rides in summer, so I'm on a bike that meets my needs very well.

I use the winter bike because I don't want to get a lot of salt and sand into the bearings and drivetrain of my good bike. Also, the wide, knobby tires work on snowy roads, which I can often face from December to February.

Most of the touring bikes used to look so much like a road bike I didn't think to include them. I also forgot to add utility bike but that was because all of the ones I have seen were designed off of one of the other types of bike. I have a friend that has a Xtracycle and it is build off of a MTB 29er to get the bigger wheels.

OT question: I hear a lot of people rave about single speeds in winter. But how do you handle hills (since you live in BC...)? I personally love my gears in winter. Any reason I should think about a single speed?

Where is the choice for three-speeds in this poll? Add "three-speed" or at least "Other" to get a more comprehensive picture of what we're all riding.

My preference is to ride my recumbent. However, I can not use it when I am taking the bike on the bus. So, for those trips I ride a roadbike.

non suspension mountain bike. it gets used and abused year round. baught it used off of CL and was told it was 4 years old at time of purchase, though i believe its a fair bit older. regardless of such, it takes its wear beautifully.

2007 Trek 520 touring bike which I bought in 2008 & cycled across the USA on, the old workhorse is still going strong. I also have a 2010 Jamis Sputnik fixie for summer work commutes and weekend fun rides.

Good question.

The idea for going to single speed wasn't something I had planned. Instead, the rear derailleur was giving me a lot of trouble. It was often stuck in the smallest sprocket in the back and I'd leave the chain on the middle chainring. I didn't want to spring for a replacement. The bike simply didn't seem to be worth that much. I ripped out the front and rear derailleurs and set the bike on the middle ring in front and somewhere close to the middle in the back. This was meant as a temporary measure until I either broke down and replaced the derailleur or found a better winter bike.

As soon as I started riding this bike as a single speed, I was impressed. The bike was in a comfortable enough gear to allow me to climb the hills I normally ride and it felt much more sure-footed. It was fun to ride now.

As a bonus, climbing the hills on a single speed does wonders for the legs and this year, I've been faster on my good bike than I was last year.

Unless I choose to spend a lot of time and money reworking this bike, it will not be more than a winter beater. But it's now remarkably good at what it does.

What makes car free possible for me is my Big Dummy. You need to add cargo bike as a choice.

You didn't put upright trikes nor folding bikes in the poll. I ride an upright trike now, as I've often mentioned.

No way I can vote in the poll and I'm not putting myself in the recumbent trike category either (stumps tiny foot on ground).

Now my feelings are hurt.:cry:

If you had simply put "trikes (recumbent or upright)", I would have been able to vote.

The same holds true for folder riders. That's a category of bikes in it self it seems.

"Others":innocent::roflmao2:

However I usually ride my Raleigh Twenty or my Redline R530 the most.

Aaron :)

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Sorry, it was my first attempt at a poll and it seems as if once you post it that is the poll you are stuck with. Big Dummies must be rare birds at least in my area. Everytime I see what I think might be one turns out it is an Xtracycle.

I realized my mistake on the folders as soon as I saw the poll after hitting the post button.

You know I do see upright Trikes all the time and you even see them at garage sales. But they almost seem like the Rodney dangerfield of bikes because they simply get no respect from most of the cycling community. I guess I fell into the same trap of not giving them credit.

I am not sure what I would call my most used bike - it has 21 gears. Does that make it an montain bike? It has almost road tyres, and I have added a strenthened rack for shopping and for my daughter to sit on.
I would love a new perpose made utility bike, but I dont see any where I live in Yorkshire.

Yeah, great topic/lousy poll. If you want, you could start a new thread with a better poll, and merge the responses from this thread into it.

Or start a new poll, and ask people to copy their posts into it.

If you decide to do either one, you can ask a moderator for help and advice. The easiest way to do this is to click on the little triangle at the bottom of your original post to "Report This Post."

Also, you can allow multiple responses on a poll for people who have more than one bike.

Or you can leave it like it is and we'll muddle through!

:)

I generally ride my Downtube FSVIII (singlespeed) for commutes, errands, etc. For more gruelling or bad-weather/environment rides I'm building up a utility ATB out of an old 18-speed.


Also, my "real" MTB is a toy/trainer, so it's not relavent.

I have a road bike that I ride on the road. I have a mountain bike that I ride on the mountain.



That is all.

Both of my main rides are hybrids.

I built up a fixie last winter when I was living in TO because of the salt they traditionally dump there. Turned out to be a very mild winter.

We moved back to BC this summer and I'm wondering if I will be able to ride it at all here - at least without changing the gearing. The island we're on only has two climbs worth mentioning, but there are good ones. Coming out of the ferry there's a 15% beast that's over a half km; and going across the main road of the island there is a 13% that's under a half km.

Both of these roads I inevitably am hauling stuff up them. The only way I might be able to use it on Vancouver Island, is to walk along the beach to the ferry (low tide only methinks), and then cycle into Courtenay (~23km). But that would probably be for work only. And though that's where I'm focusing my search, I haven't landed a job there yet - so who knows what may happen.

My partner and I are going to try and remain c/f as long as possible, but it's going to be tuff. It will take all that we've learned (living in large urban centres) to continue c/f here.

I think one of the main challenges here, is the timing of the ferry. If you miss it, it could be an hour; an hour and a half; or the next morning - depending what time you're coming back.

For the most part, my main bike is my touring bike. It is equipped with super low gearing so those daunting hills are manageable - even with a trailer and a full load. Then there is my actual road bike that hasn't seen much use as of late.

My go-to bike is an entry level Haro MTB w/ skinny tires, fenders, and low bars that give me a pretty good aero posture. I also have a traditional MTB w/ fat tires and a traditional road bike for their respective functions.