Comparing bikes to car...

Surf-Matt

Yep, I'm a sad sad little man but I took our Rockhopper Disk for a blast (pedal bust on Stumpjumper) and the ride got me thinking.

My 2007 Stumpy is a bit like a Lotus Elise - light, fast but twitchy and needs working to get the best out of it.
2008 Rockhopper Disk - Hot hatch(say mk5 Gti)- quite fast, smooth, easy to ride, bit heavy, very accessible.

And others I thought of...

New S Works Stumpy (I don't have one though) - Aston Marin DB9 - fast, smooth, but a bit fragile.

Merida Insane £7500 loon bike - full race spec Ferrari 430 Scuderia - very fast, very hi tech, very fragile.

Anyone else sad enough to add their own...?!

BlackSpur

I would say that the Merida is more of an Ariel Atom - insanely light and fast but impractical and little protection from damage.

Can't think of anything for my GT Avalanche 1.0 though...

Surf-Matt

Partially agree - although the Atom is not quite expensive enough!

Your GT is a Ford Focus ST - pretty quick, handles well, good value.

miss notax

Good thread

Not sure what my Superlight compares to - but I agree with the Elise description. Does your stumpy also have rubbish brakes, cost a fortune to service and get a little frisky in the rain?!!

ride_whenever

my 456 is deffinately a defender, goes anywhere, tough as old boots, not too fast but bloody good fun

Cps

Orange - John Deere

Surf-Matt

sarah75 wrote:

Good thread

Not sure what my Superlight compares to - but I agree with the Elise description. Does your stumpy also have rubbish brakes, cost a fortune to service and get a little frisky in the rain?!!

Brakes are pretty good but definitely temperamental!
Less frisky in the rain with the new tyres but it was a pain with the OEM ones...

Superlight would be some kind of seriously light HT - maybe a high end Scott Scale?

Miffy

Love it!
A couple of years ago BC (before children) me and the bloke spent a happy evening over too much wine doing a similar comparison. He took it a little far and wrote down his list, and alphabeticalised it by bike manufactureers (bless) which I have managed to find

Bontranger (part of Trek) = Seat (part of the VW group)
Bianchi, maker of favoured Italian road bikes, that have since branched out to mtb. Often come with a dodgy green paint job. Riders often seen astride the more exotic road models during the Tour de France, but the brand does not have quite the same cache as say Colnago. So Something different for the masses then. = Lancia, the mafia’s favourite (remember the Delta HF Integrale? Awesome! Wspecially with the Martini paint job).
Cannondale = BMW Both innovative companies that pitch themselves as a `premium manufacturer and charge people accordingly. And some would say riders/driver have similar attitude?
Cove = Aston Martin
Cube (rare German manufacturer) = Irmscher (German tuner of Opel’s/Vauxhalls)
Commecal (obscure French bike manufacturer bikes bought mostly by French people) = Citroen
Dawes = Hyundai (Prepare to want one!)
DeKerf = Alpine (German tuning company of BMW’s)
Ellsworth = Lamborghini
Gary Fisher = Renault
Giant = Ford
GT = MG Rover
Klein (Treks premium brand) = Audi (VW’s premium brand)
Kona = Mazda (is the Explosif the MX5?)
Litespeed = Koingneseggggggggggggg
Marin = Volvo (I know they are now owned by Ford, but with the C70 and TWR, Marin and Jon Whyte just seemed to fit)
Merlin (as in titanium exotica) = Lexus (part of Toyota) ((Specialized)) but Japanese perfection, a gangster rap following and Alan Partridges it just about works).
Mountain Cycles = Hummer
Muddy Fox = Tata
Orange = TVR
Pace = OZ
Raleigh = Kia
Richey = Jaguar (feel the heritage)
Roberts = Morgan
Rocky Mountain = Land Rover
Saracen = Proton
Santa Cruz = Porsche (the 911)
Scott (interesting suspension designs, they also do motocross gear)= Suzuki (the Rhino, a classic 4wd that rolled over in the uk, but remains bombproof transport for many developing second world nations, and they also make fine motorcycles)
Serrotta = Pagini (Italian exotica the Zonda)
Specialized = Toyota
Trek = VW
Turner (the 5 spot) = Saab (900 turbo, in black, with three spokealloys anyone?)
Whyte = Lotus
Yeti = Jeep
(Tomac and Harbold used to ride Yetis before anyone ever thought of rear suspension on mtb bikes, remember Tomacs Tioga carbon rear disc for downhilling?) to see the resemblance of the following, visit www.yetifan.com (Is the Yeti ARC the WW1 Willis jeep of mtb. biking?)

miss notax

Cool

Not sure my Superlight is like a Porsche 911 - but to be fair it could have been worse (and I quite like 911's actually :oops: )!

Surf-Matt

Sarah - I thought you had a Superlight car (a Caterham or similar) - DOH!!

Superb list there Miffy!!

miss notax

Surf-Matt wrote:

Sarah - I thought you had a Superlight car (a Caterham or similar) - DOH!!

Superb list there Miffy!!

No way - one expensive and hugely impractical Lotus Elise is enough for me!!

ride_whenever

caterhams are cheap, but i'll give you impractical, however the spares are easier to find...

Surf-Matt

Cheap?! They start at around £15k and a R500 is over £40k - for a motorbike on wheels!

Westies and the like are much much cheaper.

Some comedy rivalry between Caterham and Westie owners though - worse than road bikes vs MTBs!

ride_whenever

okay so in absolute terms not cheap, but for the fun?

nicklouse

Surf-Matt wrote:

Cheap?! They start at around £15k and a R500 is over £40k - for a motorbike on wheels!

Westies and the like are much much cheaper.

Some comedy rivalry between Caterham and Westie owners though - worse than road bikes vs MTBs!

Pfft they are still not a Lotus

Surf-Matt

I thought Lotus did some sort of licensing deal with Caterham?
That's why they are allowed to call it the "Seven"

I may be wrong though.

Ride - huge huge fun but still a lot for a very basic car with an oldish Ford engine!

Mind you the £30+++K Lotus Elise 111R (tested one extensively) has the same engine as....

....a Toyota Corrolla... (albeit the fastish one)

ride_whenever

I'm pretty sure there is a link between lotus and caterham

miss notax

I just can't resist the oportunity to show off my baby



And now i'll shut up and let you back to the real topic!!

Surf-Matt

Sarah - well worth showing off. Lovely car!

Standard engine or something more evil (think I have asked before but forgotten!)?

robmanic1

I take it that picture was taken during last year's drought? Why was your top not down??

miss notax

Thank you

That was in May :shock: The car is a standard k series engine (plenty enough power for me!), so no head gasket failure jokes please :?

Cps

Sarah

did you accelerate and soak the photographer? that would be real funny!

Nice car by the way !

miss notax

Ha ha

I should have done! I took pity on Chris standing there in the rain though, whilst I drove backwards and forwards!!

nicklouse

sarah75
so how do you move bikes with that?

miss notax

nicklouse wrote:

sarah75
so how do you move bikes with that?

It's a bugger - they get all tangled up with the roof

tjm

I reckon my car and bike are pretty well matched.

The bike is a bit of a mongrel hardtail with a tatty unknown frame but has reasonable forks wheels and brakes. Its looks will not impress many people but it is still hoot to ride.

The car is bits of an old ford escort with a live rear axle and held together with a slightly rusty steel tube chassis and covered in tatty fiberglass. Again some might look down their nose at it (particularly if they own a caterham :-P ) but it is more fun to drive than an Elise (Sorry Sarah...)

in case the caterham reference didn't give it away it is a Westfield

miss notax

Yay - very cool TJM 8)

tjm

ride_whenever wrote:

I'm pretty sure there is a link between lotus and caterham

yes, Lotus sold the rights to Caterham so the caterham is a pretty close evolution of the 7.
Westfield made their own copy using more modern methods but Caterham didn't like it as it looked too much like their car. So Caterham sued Westfield who then had to change the styling so it looked a bit different. Mine pictured above is a post litigation car.

Then Ron Champion came along and published a book called "build your own sportscar for £250" and now every man and his dog is making a car that looks like the 7 but is much cheaper (locost).
So caterham owners look down their noses at us Westfield owners and we look down our noses at Locost owners......
In reality the make of car makes very little difference - they are all just kit cars that can be customised and made to go very nicely if spec'd and built properly. The difference with the Caterham is that is it a much more complete kit so is easier to make to a decent standard (but at a cost)

But don't tell a caterham owner that his car is a kit car - he will get very upset. Which is strange as the original Lotus 7 was also a kit car. :roll:

Surf-Matt

tjm - looks hugely fun but - live rear axle?!

Yikes!! :shock:

Sarah - it's a good engine though. A shame it went with Rover. Very tuneable too.

tjm

Surf-Matt wrote:

tjm - looks hugely fun but - live rear axle?!

Yikes!! :shock:

.

You would be surprised, on a race track my live axle car is just as fast as IRS (all other things being equal). Its lighter weight and easy setup (not much you can do to them) tends to balance the theoretical advantages of a IRS rear end. Simple is sometimes best!

On a bumpy road it can be a bit of a handful but it has also got an LSD which makes is very controllable as long as you are not scared of a little sideways action 8)

supersonic

GT Zaskar - Ford GT40. Classic superbike, fast, needs a good rider to get the best from up, and wins everything ;-)