What the hell happened to "normal" bicycles?

YeehaaMcgee

A friend at work recently asked me about buying a bicycle. He wasn't after a mountain bike, or a road bike, nothing that specialist, just a decent bike to cycle along the coast with his wife in the evening.
That got me thinking, and having a look around.
Where the hell do you go to buy just a "normal" bicycle, at a decent price?

I mean, take for example, the bike my father currently rides. He's using my ancient Saracen hardtail, and it's still a pretty decent bicycle. It's no featherweight, but it's light enough, with an aluminium frame, it's roughly 27/28lbs, at a guess.
It was originally bought back in around 1995, for £450, and has a 9/8" headset, Shimano LX cranks, Avid V-brakes (I think, the lettering has long worn down), shimano rapidfire shifters, an 8-speed cassette on shimano hubs, with Sun rims.
Decent little bicycle.
Now, why the hell is that kind of bike, 17 years on, not available with a rigid fork at decent prices, for people who just want a "normal bicycle"?
Surely they can be manufactured and shipped for under £200, so why must newbies put up with 20Kg pieces of crap?


(I've put this here, because the CC is obviously the right place to rant about this stuff, and has the highest intelligence posters within a 3 foot radius)

VWsurfbum

what pikey's ride bikes?

97th choice

Carrera subway is the closest "budget" bike I can think of.

Now feck off victor meldrew.

YeehaaMcgee

97th choice wrote:

Carrera subway is the closest "budget" bike I can think of.

But that's allegedly a £400 bike.

97th choice

Probably 'worth' closer to £300, and I assume you picked your £200 budget out of thin air.

97th choice

That said, decathlon can build the triban3 road bike for £300, which shows what can be done on a budget.

schmako

I got the subway ltd for 200 (reduced from 300, it says it was 400 online for some reason) its a nice rigid (oo err). Can pedal it out a little easy on the road though, with some other tires i'm sure it would be fine for some light off road. Can keep up with unfit roadies no bother too. Perfect for leaving outside shops/pubs etc and not being too worried about either (locked obviously).

But yeah a very good bike for 200!

YeehaaMcgee

97th choice wrote:

I assume you picked your £200 budget out of thin air.

Well, yeah, based on what I'd expect a bike that was £450 in 1995, would be worth now.

Clank

What the hell happened to "normal" bicycles?

We changed.

.........problem was, the f****n' world changed with us!

I'm thinking the closest now to a 'normal' bike is likely the hybrid, and how many folk around here don't 'get' them? How many times do read from someone that they can't see the point in a bike that actually does a number of things quite well.

Here's a question - define 'normal'. 'Cos it's not a word that often applies 'round here!

I need more caffeine.....

YeehaaMcgee

Clank wrote:

I'm thinking the closest now to a 'normal' bike is likely the hybrid, and how many folk around here don't 'get' them? How many times do read from someone that they can't see the point in a bike that actually does a number of things quite well.

like, say, (cough)Nicklouse?

Clank wrote:

Here's a question - define 'normal'. 'Cos it's not a word that often applies 'round here!

Well, my mate's definition seems quite fitting. He doesn't need or want a mountain bike, and he doesn't want or need a "racer". If you take those two as extreme ends of a spectrum, then I guess "normal" would indeed be a hybrid.

Clank

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

like, say, (cough)Nicklouse?

(cough cough) couldn't possibly say (cough cough)

cooldad

I believe we call them Dutch bikes and they are quite popular in Dutchland.
Which is quite similar to Wales without the mountains and the Welsh.
They speak funny anyway.

supersonic

Truth is they just don't sell to the masses. The manufacturers need to put useless forks, cable discs and a silly paint job to shift to the average non forumite. Back in the 90s there wasn't much choice, that's the way they were for this money.

Best bet is Decathlon's Rockrider 5.2: sell the fork on ebay, buy a nice Kona P2, or some Exotic job.

supersonic

Anyway, here is a giraffe:

Alitogata

97th choice wrote:

That said, decathlon can build the triban3 road bike for £300, which shows what can be done on a budget.

And Decathlon can build this bike ( Triban 3) with better characteristics that my Trek Lexa has, and sell it in half of Lexa's price. This shows how greedy can manufactures be and why is not easy to find normal bikes on normal prices anymore.. ( they call them budget prices now :roll: ).
Is not that there are no normal bikes out there, it is that bikes have become over hyped and over priced..

The Rookie

I would say the Voodoo Marasa would be close to a normal bike, OK it has hydro disc brakes but it has
1/ 700c/29er rims for easier rolling
2/ Flat bars
3/ Wider tyres for comfort and multi surface useability
4/ Rigid forks so no heavy clunky cheap 'suspension.

Would be a bit better as a 'normal' bike with V-brakes I guess, but they are decent brakes and give better braking for commuters/pedal across parsk with a wet rim type of riding. I know 2 very pleased owners.

I use my old 1997 rigid MTB as a hack, 1.5" slicks and kind of fits YHMcG normal bike description very well - and is pretty similar to a Subway!

Gazlar

Simple answer is Wolverhampton. You can get whatever kind of bike you like from my mate Dave in the pendulum pub.

I suppose though as the years have gone on trickle down tech and all of that groupsets have improved and bike prices have gone up so its probably just as astonishing that you can still get the scaffold tube and unnecessary spring bikes for 70 quid. I'm trying to think of all those decent brands back then too, not the great brands, the ones that people went for and trusted such as Raleigh, Dawes, Diamondback, Muddy Fox, Claude Butler and Peugeot

YeehaaMcgee

You know, people always have fond memories of Muddy Fox, especially people who never had one, or don't actually remember them, but have heard of them.
But I actually remember them as heavy pieces of crap.

Daz555

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Surely they can be manufactured and shipped for under £200, so why must newbies put up with 20Kg pieces of crap?

£200 is cutting it fine for a new bike. Too cheap imo.

YeehaaMcgee

Daz555 wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Surely they can be manufactured and shipped for under £200, so why must newbies put up with 20Kg pieces of crap?

£200 is cutting it fine for a new bike. Too cheap imo.

Why? All those parts on my old bike, that the old man now rides, should be readily available at that price range by now.

pesky_jones

I'm just gunna say it - inflation.

YeehaaMcgee

What, you reckon a bike is more expensive if it's got air in the tyres?
Well, ok then, I'd happily pay less for a good bike, if I had to pump the tyres up myself.

Daz555

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Daz555 wrote:

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Surely they can be manufactured and shipped for under £200, so why must newbies put up with 20Kg pieces of crap?

£200 is cutting it fine for a new bike. Too cheap imo.

Why? All those parts on my old bike, that the old man now rides, should be readily available at that price range by now.

Basic inflation, cost of raw materials, cost of energy. They all matter.

pesky_jones

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

What, you reckon a bike is more expensive if it's got air in the tyres?
Well, ok then, I'd happily pay less for a good bike, if I had to pump the tyres up myself.

Well played 8)

97th choice

I reckon that any decent sized bike company could make a fixed fork, 9 speed MTB HT around the 11 to 12kg mark for 300 quid.

FishFish

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

You know, people always have fond memories of Muddy Fox, especially people who never had one, or don't actually remember them, but have heard of them.
But I actually remember them as heavy pieces of crap.

I've still got a muddy fox adventurere - vintage 1995 g ot t. Cost £115 - which was a lot then. Not heavy, not crap, not rotted through.

YeehaaMcgee

What other 1995 bikes are you comparing it to? Stick it next to a mid nineties Kona, you wouldn't even believe the two bikes were intended for the same purpose.
Muddyfox was already a dead brand by 1995.

cooldad

I had a circa 1987/8 Muddy Fox, now sadly skipped, and it rode much better than my same era Rockhopper. Which is probably why it's the one that died.

cooldad

A trifle muddy and with Giant forks but I did love it. Skinwall tyres naturally.

Gazlar

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

You know, people always have fond memories of Muddy Fox, especially people who never had one, or don't actually remember them, but have heard of them.
But I actually remember them as heavy pieces of crap.

I never had one, I just remember them being one of the brands people seemed to want

stubs

Vitus Vee 27 for £359 is probably the closest your going to get to your fantasy machine. Pretty decent for less than a weeks wages.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=81001