Custom bikes ?

MackDeToaster

Hi, I haven't had a bike in about a decade and want to get back into them but don't know much about what's out there.

My main priority is a quick bike for fitness training, I won't be commuting (yet) or racing (ever!).

However, I don't want a pure roadbike as I have serious doubts as to whether they'd be able to take the roads that I'd be training on, plus I'd like to be able to do a bit of light offroading.

This seems to be pointing me towards a cyclocross bike. I really like the idea that they're reasonably fast, they're tough enough to be abused on bad roads/offroad, and that I can swap in and out tyres and wheels to suit.

But just to expand upon the jack-of-all-trades idea, I'd definitely like to be able to put on mudguards for winter riding and, just to really mess things up, racks for touring and possible future commuting/shopping/rtw. Also, for some unfathomable reason (maybe being a biker), I really fancy having disc brakes!

However I'm finding it very difficult to find an off-the-rack bike that can do all of these and suspect none actually do exist. For example...

The Specialized Tricross Sport is possibly the best compromise I've found so far as it can take mudguards and racks, but no disk brakes.

The Cube X-Race Comp is also really nice, can fit mudguards but no racks and no disc brakes.

The Focus Mares Disc has the disc brakes, and eyelets on the front but can't take panniers or mudguards on the rear.

So what to do. Currently I'm on the verge of simply getting one of the first two bikes I listed, just to do the fitness job, but before I splash out, I'm wondering would it be possible to custom build a bike to my specs, e.g. find a Tricross Sport frame (or whatever), find forks that can take both a front rack and discs, and so on, and go from there ?

As I said, I'm new to bicycles and don't know what's possible and not, so any pointers would be most appreciated. Ideally I'd like to have one basic bike to do it all, and whether thats by swapping in and out wheels, forks, etc, makes no difference to me, so maybe I just need a frame and a wall of parts :-) Are there any books or info out there where I can find this stuff out, any info or tips would be most appreciated.

Chips Lovell

The easiest solution to your problem is just ditch the idea of getting disc brakes. If you want to try and cusomise a bike to do everything, do your sums first. You might just be better off buying two bikes, i.e. road bike and mountain bike.

'68 Fastback

Hey,

If you are hoping to run road tyres at road tyre preassures, you dont want discs. Discs have phenomenal power and as such require a larger contact area between the tyre and the road. Also, the area around the head tube on a disc equipped bike will usualy be beefed up or gusseted to withstand the braking forces.
I'm a fairly recent convert from mountain to road bikes and I was surprised by the amount of braking power that road calipers produce. I also commute on my road bike which has Mavic Aksium wheels which have been badly abused, bunny hopped on and off kerbs and bashed into things, never been in for a service and after 7500km they're pretty much prefect.
I think an all out road or touring bike might be more resiliant than you think.

Hope this helps.

Lumen

I want what you want - a disc-braked cyclocross bike with big clearances and eyelets for everything. Rim brakes are the achilles heel of cross bikes.

My enthusiasm for this "one bike to rule them all" idea is barely dented by everyone telling me it's a stupid idea.

A Van Nicholas Amazon comes close, but no discs.

If I had the budget, I'd get Enigma to build me one.

Let me know when you've found one.

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

A Van Nicholas Amazon comes close, but no discs.

The Van Nicholas Amazon does have disc mounts, I have one myself. I am considering adding discs myself TBH as the other wide-tyre STI-compatible options all seem to be somewhat compromised.

Built up correctly it will do everything you want but it is not a cheap bike. If you could only have one bike though this would probably be it.

By the time you get your two sets of wheels for on and off road etc. though you might well be better off just getting a road and a mountain bike.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

The Van Nicholas Amazon does have disc mounts, I have one myself. I am considering adding discs myself TBH as the other wide-tyre STI-compatible options all seem to be somewhat compromised

Ah yes, buried in the specs is a mention of disc compatibility on the non-cross version, although you can't seem to build a disc-equipped one using their wizard.

One for the wishlist.

MackDeToaster

Great to hear I'm not classed as completely crazy anyway. Lumen, you managed to put that more succinctly than I could, thanks!

I've had a look at that Amazon and I think I'm in love, wow It's way over what I had budgeted, but it's still very, very tempting as I've been in a few bike shops in the past week and been shocked to see lots and lots of bicycles at over 3k ranging up as far as 7k. I could hardly believe it as you could buy a motorbike for that.

As a possible alternative I've just found the Surly site and the Long Haul Trucker and Cross-Check frames which seem to accommodate lots of tyre and wheel sizes. Their LHT forks come with mudguard and rack eyelets, while they have several other forks with both mudguard and disk brake mounts, interesting! http://www.surlybikes.com/main.html

Lumen

MackDeToaster wrote: »

Great to hear I'm not classed as completely crazy anyway.

I didn't say that.

Just bear in mind that disc brakes and wide tyres are completely unnecessary for the road.

If you want to keep it fast and practical just get an audax-y bike with caliper brakes.

MackDeToaster

Oh yes, those would be more for the trail-riding bits and heavy-duty touring, I'd be on skinnies on the road most of the time.