Ugly your bikes?

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Comments

  • davmaggs
    davmaggs Posts: 1,008
    It seems a little mad to set out to buy a beautiful machine and then to set about destroying the aesthetic, which is after all a fair proportion of the purchase price.

    It makes more sense to ride a hack or to get some decent security, especially if commuting to the same place where you can leave a beast of a lock behind each day.

    I also slightly suspect the idea of uglifying is a little inverse snobbery for people so that they can say I bought this bike for its components or quality and I didn't go for the looks or brand. Again,that is part of the price.
  • Kiblams
    Kiblams Posts: 2,423
    fossyant wrote:
    You spend alot of time on the commute bike, so mine has to be nice, well specced and more than up for the job. Just up your security a few notches.

    The idea is that the bike is "well specced and more than up for the job" but has less chance of being stolen... :roll: The thread isn't about 'hack bikes'

    Oh and I prefer the charge too :P as someone hasd already stated on here, the new carbon road bikes look rediculously like a 'My Little Pony' :lol:
    HandsomeDog - OrangeCommuter
  • Skippy2309
    Skippy2309 Posts: 426
    I prefer the charge although the puke green wheels and white chain would have to go lol the dogma just looks wrong too much crap on it imho
    FCN: 5/6 Fixed Gear (quite rapid) in normal clothes and clips :D

    Cannondale CAAD9 / Mongoose Maurice (heavily modified)
  • _Brun_
    _Brun_ Posts: 1,740
    biondino wrote:
    God, can you imagine the carnage of Campy electronic shifting? You wouldn't trust an Italian to rewire a plug, let alone your bike...
    XENOPHOBE!
  • kelsen
    kelsen Posts: 2,003
    biondino wrote:
    God, can you imagine the carnage of Campy electronic shifting? You wouldn't trust an Italian to rewire a plug, let alone your bike...
    RACIST!
  • biondino
    biondino Posts: 5,990
    Brun, you're not allowed to use sock puppets, it's against BR rules :)
    My Focus / My Bob Jackson
    Blog (incl. bikes)
  • kelsen
    kelsen Posts: 2,003
    biondino wrote:
    Brun, you're not allowed to use sock puppets, it's against BR rules :)

    Guess you took my last comment the wrong way so I apologise. What's the official rule on post count and making (intended) lighthearted comments?
  • lost_in_thought
    lost_in_thought Posts: 10,563
    Bassjunkieuk wrote:
    roger merriman wrote:
    lost_in_thought wrote:
    *sneaks in and says, very, very quietly*

    I prefer the look of the charge to the Dogma

    *sneaks out*

    Is it the labels as well?

    No, she just needs to go to Specsavers! I prefer the Dogma, looks really nice in the "flesh" especially after having a good gander at the one in GB Cycles :-)

    It's actually the frame, I don't like the monocoque look (although I believe it is genuinely a monocoque), and the curvy tubes. I do agree, though, that it's a tad garish, but the maxima's no better and I like that.

    The charge isn't a pretty bike, per se, but it looks a lot cleaner and simpler than the dogma. If I had to put one on my wall, it'd be the Charge. If I had to ride it, it'd be the Dogma.
    FCN 7/1
    Viner Maxima, Tifosi CK7, Giant Bowery, Old commuter.
  • Bassjunkieuk
    Bassjunkieuk Posts: 4,232
    @LiT - I suppose in the purist sense the Charge is all you'd need in a bike, but if I was going to hang a SS on my wall I think I'd go for the Specialized Langster "London" edition they did a while back!

    As for the Dogma I just love the frame and whilst the styling is a little garish I do remember seeing a Prince on Pinarello's site that was glossy black with matt black decals, superbly understated and looked like a fecking stealth fighter! Personally if I'd just blown my wad on a Dogma I wouldn't be commuting on it so the garishness would only serve to show everyone what bike I'm riding :-D
    Who's the daddy?
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  • Kiblams
    Kiblams Posts: 2,423
    I have found a great example online with a guide on how it was done:

    bike%20ugly.JPG
    Obviously the top picture is a before and the bottom is after.

    The guide

    Clever or a travesty?
    HandsomeDog - OrangeCommuter
  • il_principe
    il_principe Posts: 9,155
    To be fair, the bottom version is actually less ugly.
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 29,420
    Il Principe wrote:
    It's funny really, in my non cycling life I wouldn't dream of wearing anything covered in logos, but for cycling I tend to be covered head to toe in 'em as does the bike... prob true for a lot of us, esp those who like team kit!

    A while back now, but I once saw a programme about Grayson Perry (he of the Turner Prize pots and dresses). One part of the programme was him explaining the whole dress thing, with reference to his other interest (when not being an artist) in motorbikes. His theory was that bikers getting all done up in often garishly logo-ed leathers and mirror-vizored helmets was all about taking on an alternative persona to escape from their everyday lives. Basically no-one knows you when you're out on your bike (motor or otherwise) in 'disguise', so you can really be yourself. I suspect a lot of this applies to 'us' although I'm sure I will be met by furious denials.
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • Eau Rouge
    Eau Rouge Posts: 1,118
    Kiblams wrote:
    Clever or a travesty?

    or pointless.
    If it's got a crap lock and the scum wants to nick a bike, it's getting nicked either way.

    If I had to ride it, I'd take the bottom version though. The shame of having a Celeste coloured Bianchi that wasn't a road bike would be too much to bear.
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 29,420
    Eau Rouge wrote:
    If it's got a crap lock and the scum wants to nick a bike, it's getting nicked either way.

    Certainly will. My brother had a rusty, bottom-of-the-range Peugeot MTB with twisted frame, poorly functioning gears and buckled wheels (his London hack bike) stolen from Lancaster Gate. They actually went to the trouble of cutting through a D-lock for it when the lock was probably worth more than the bike.
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • lost_in_thought
    lost_in_thought Posts: 10,563
    re. that Bianchi - what's the point of buying a bike you like because you think it's pretty (and why else would you buy that?) and then making it brown?
    FCN 7/1
    Viner Maxima, Tifosi CK7, Giant Bowery, Old commuter.
  • TommyEss
    TommyEss Posts: 1,855
    And after all that he's still got the seat pin on a quick release... Muppet!

    *Edit* (Inadvertent QR release = quick-release-release!!)
    Cannondale Synapse 105, Giant Defy 3, Giant Omnium, Giant Trance X2, EMC R1.0, Ridgeback Platinum, On One Il Pompino...
  • fossyant
    fossyant Posts: 2,549
    Kiblams wrote:
    fossyant wrote:
    You spend alot of time on the commute bike, so mine has to be nice, well specced and more than up for the job. Just up your security a few notches.

    The idea is that the bike is "well specced and more than up for the job" but has less chance of being stolen... :roll: The thread isn't about 'hack bikes'

    I ain't riding something that looks a bit of junk, and TBH, walking past the racks outside the local Uni, I can spot the disguised bikes real easy. Pretty sure a proper theif could also, and the fact that there is a decent lock on it.
  • merkin
    merkin Posts: 452
    Surely though if you uglify a bike, even if a thief sees through the disguise, you have made it far less sellable and therefore less desirable to steal just by painting it which is pretty ireversable short of going to a lot of work. :?
  • rolf_f
    rolf_f Posts: 16,015
    I'd have thought it would be cheaper, and no more time consuming, to get a nice but shabby bike off ebay and give it a service. Would be more convincing than that Bianchi (which is hardly convincing at all) and potentially a better bike as well.
    Faster than a tent.......
  • jedster
    jedster Posts: 1,717
    I'm know this is a bit provocative but doesn't the dogma look like a ribble sportive racing just a good deal less attractive what with the wibbly wobbly jelly bits?

    http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/bikebuild ... type=RIBMO
  • il_principe
    il_principe Posts: 9,155
    jedster wrote:
    I'm know this is a bit provocative but doesn't the dogma look like a ribble sportive racing just a good deal less attractive what with the wibbly wobbly jelly bits?

    http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/bikebuild ... type=RIBMO

    Looks more like a Spesh to me. Mind you as much as I love the look of my Pinarello, it was bough mainly because of all the bikes I tested it was quite simply the best all round.

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