I bought and old steel Trek as a hack bike for £15 as I was fed up having my previously only (and ‘good’) bike getting abused by people who didn’t care in the bike shed at work. I’ve set it up as singlespeed and assured myself I wouldn’t get silly with it………..so now I’ve replaced virtually all of it I’m now thinking about a respray. Defeating the purpose completely. Gibbon.

I ended up with a ‘hack bike’ running full XTR, Magura Marta’s and Hope Wheels.

Even I was embarrassed.

Yes I bought a fixie off eBay for £200 for work and then upgraded everything but the bottom bracket cus I couldn’t get it out and it still ran ok.

So what. Next.

Saw a chap at the lights today commuting on what looked like a Chinese carbon hack bike frame. With FRM cranks! 😯

yeah my commuter is now running hope brakes, fox floats and easton carbon bars and post

Saw a chap at the lights today commuting on what looked like a Chinese carbon hack bike frame. With FRM cranks!

I bought an eBay carbon hardtail as a cheap winter bike. It ended up with full XTR, Roval Controle SLs, SIDs etc. Just can’t do it.

Tempted to replace my Allez frame with a Chinese carbon thing for winter, the Allez is just horrible to ride.

My “hack” bike has XTR bits and a top of the line (10 years ago) fork on it. Mind you identical frames were also being raced in WCs 20 years ago!

My commuter was a cheap Fisher singlespeed bought off here. Frame was just a little small, so after changing bars, stem, wheels, forks, etc, I finally got round to buying a new frame.

I’m now commuting on a Cotic X.

it’s only a hack bike if you make no adjustments and even then if you ride it alot you’ll soon become attached. Soon as you adjust stuff to fit, fettle, oil the chain or replace a part it’s no longer a hack. So in reality there’s no such thing as a hack bike.

Nope my hack bike was shit so I did not care it if it got stolen
Road bike with down tube shifters for the win

Don’t respray it, get some scothlite tape in a colour of your choice and wrap it in that. Good mix of smart and shoddy, and a lot cheaper than a strip and respray.

Unless you were going rattle-can, in which case, crack on! I recommend a Neopolitan – pink, yellow and brown stripes across the whole bike and all components.

Yup. Bought a 2nd hand Genesis Day One at the turn of the year for commuting and didn’t intend to spend much on it.

It has now been properly resprayed and about the only original parts are the handlebars and crank arms. New (used) carbon forks have been fitted, along with a Thomson stem and seatpost from another bike, new brake levers and some Avid Shorty Ultimates. I do have the original wheels set up for commuting, but I also now have a set of Alpha 400 wheels set up for cyclocross so I can use it as a pit bike over winter. Oops.

nedrapier – I have just emptied a mouthful of coffee over the keyboard 😆

Do any of you with bling bikes actually lock them up anywhere outside?

Junkyard describes what a hack bike actually is. As long as it goes, has working brakes and lights, is all that matters. Lock it up near a bike with bling parts, and it’l hopefully be ignored. With thieves now stripping locked bikes for parts, it’s not worth having anything flash, as it will inevitably get nicked.

Fairly standard I’d say.

Similar to Pixelmix, I bought a Day One Alfine 11 after telling myself it was the perfect commuter/DIA bike….

New bars, stem, saddle, headset, bottom bracket, crank arms, front hub, rims, spokes, rotors, seat tube clamp, tyres, tubes, cables (in and out) and bar tape later….I’m broadly happy with it.

It’s still heavy too…which is mildly vexing!

The only bike I’ve ever bought and NOT modified is a 2010 Kona Bandwagon…

EDIT – Mine’s locked outside of our building…in Bristol of all places.

I’ve got a warm glow now having read all these little tales of profligacy…

I’d say I’ve been pretty disciplined in terms of pissing money away on my cheap bikes, Commuter and Winter SS have had new Bars/grips tape but not a lot else… seems a bit self defeating to buy a cheap bike, simply because it’s cheap and saves a nicer bike from wear and tear, and then spend much more than the bare minimum to keep it rolling.

Do any of you with bling bikes actually lock them up anywhere outside?

No.

Junkyard describes what a hack bike actually is. As long as it goes, has working brakes and lights, is all that matters. Lock it up near a bike with bling parts, and it’l hopefully be ignored. With thieves now stripping locked bikes for parts, it’s not worth having anything flash, as it will inevitably get nicked.

Trouble is they’re also not very nice to ride, as far too much of my riding is commuting I’d rather have a nice bike to do it on!

Actually I just described my “hack” MTB – largely built up for kiddy seat duties as at the time I only had a carbon susser MTB. My proper hack for leaving around places is a Ribble winter frame, which is actually fairly decent, but the stickers look gash and built up with all my old bits including DT levers or if new with Sora or similar. Still has nice wheels and is fine to ride, but doesn’t look very desirable.

If kiddy seat is the definition, can I register an Alpine 160?

Was it built up as a second bike specifically for kiddy seat use?

So not so much hack bikes as ‘trigger’s broom’ bikes then chaps

My hack bike has Easton carbon bars ,bolted to a 1990s Carrera. Haters gonna hate.

So not so much hack bikes as ‘trigger’s broom’ bikes then chaps

In my case I bought it with the full intention of being a hack bike, but then just didn’t do it!

I do ride a mid-range Spesh Allez for winter on the road, that’s as close as I’ll get, and as I was reminded this morning on my first ride on it… it’s horrible.

My “utility” bike now has Thomson post and stem, CK headset, XT brakes and I have recently found myself trying to find some XTR cranks for it… It’s a curse!

Junkyard describes what a hack bike actually is. As long as it goes, has working brakes and lights, is all that matters

aye that’s the plan. unfortunately when you look at it a little more you realise (well John Snow mentioned it in an interview and I thought “oh yeah”) you spend most of your time on your commuter bike (due to another thread I did some reckoning, 3:1 ratio of commute:fun mileage so far this year), why would you want to do most of your miles on a crap bike?

but yeah I guess bike shed and leaving it locked outside is a factor.

I will gladly swap my hack for some of the above 🙂

Mine was pulled from a bramble bush, where it had sat for many years.

The wheels had rotted, so a new wheelset and SS set up, found some old EA50 slightly bent bars and old deoreXT brake levers.
New brake blocks and brake cables.
It still looks shite, but has become a pedigree racer and hack….and if i get more than a passing interest in CX racing, tempted to weld some canti studs on and repaint it, but painting it would loose all it’s charm as a shite hack bike. 🙂

Had some ace fun with it, and it’s got a few more races left in it.

As much as possible has remained of the 1982 Raleigh Tempest

My winter Hack Bike is a Boardman Team Pro Carbon roadie, it’s bloomin brilliant I tell yas, it’s one of the best bikes I’ve owned. I’ve fully stealthed it, stripped off all the graphics and blacked everything out.

Looks Ace.

Stays Ace.

😉

My old hack bike

Singlespeed-tastic /Hack bike by binlidski, on Flickr

Old GT Timberline frame bought for the princely sum of £10, powder coated, then built up with parts found kicking about in the shed or bartered for. I emphasised its not-worth-nicking credentials by never, ever cleaning it, ever!

You lot building bling hacks need to have a word with yourselves. Surely the whole point is that its a competition – to spend the least yet get something that straddles that fine line of not-actually-nickable, but quite-pleasant-to-ride

stripped off all the graphics and blacked everything out.

I flirted with the idea of one of these as a commuter/’hack’:

No one would nick that, just looks boring!

I’ve ridden mine around that Lonjon and no one has taken a second glance at it..

Yet.. 😆

Eeek I’ve let the world know it’s worth a small fortune now haven’t I, s’pose I’ll have to lock it up… 😯

Mebbies 😉

I got pissed off with riding crap bikes for commuting. So I bought a Kona Dr Dew. Then as bit would wear out I’d replace with slightly nicer bits. Well that’s what I told myself.

It’s now too nice to leave anywhere dodgy. Hope Hoops, Mono Minis, Race Face Cadence cranks, Thomson, XT, Ti bits. The only original parts are the frame and forks. I’d quite like to swap those for a Cotic X.

Now on the look out for a hack track bike. But that will end up going the same way.

In the ‘not wanting to ride a crap bike’ vain I do my dry London commuting on my Dura Ace equipped Madone, I’d never ride it otherwise! Gets left in our office bike store place.

Hack Track Bike…?

Dolan FTW.. only 4oo odd quid.. 😀

I picked up an inbred frame & some forks off here for cheap, plus sold my old forks off my good bike, so felt ok about the cost of it, then instead of buying cheap/crap/second hand parts for the inbred started replacing bits on my genesis and off loading the other bits onto the hack.

So I now have hope stem, wheels, seat clamp & rear qr, renthal bars, thomson post, ice tec rotors, and the inbred has all the leftovers.

Plus a charge spoon & matching brown grips…..

Epic fail

Mine was also for kiddie seat duties originally, the only way the purchase was ‘authorised’. In my defence, it did start out at £15! I’m also looking at a brown spoon and grips match……

I’ll put a pic up somewhere tomorrow, last couple of bits should have arrived so I can finally ride it, minus brakes…..

Bought an inbred frame on here having had a little too much ale, decided to swap all the kit over from my jump bike and just use it as a cheap commuter/hack/beater

8 months later the spec is
Inbred frame
Reba team fork w20mm maxle
Pro 2 hubs on singletrack rims, nobby nicks
Easton carbon bars
Hope tech x2 brakes
XTR cranks
Renthal ring
Bling slink chain
Xt trail pedals
Thomson stem w ti bolts
King headset
Thomson masterpiece post
Bel air ti saddle

I really shouldn’t kid myself I’m going to keep things cheap on build projects 😳

binners – Member

My old hack bike100% bike porn gold ti ni coated pace forks? even if you picked em up for £20 that’s still not proper hack bike territory is it? Just as bad as the rest of us 😉

I flirted with the idea of one of these as a commuter/’hack’:

no discs, or guard mounts so I’m out, I am sorely tempted to go belt drive, would need to get someone to do a cut n shut on my frame tho 🙁

maybe get that guy off ebay to do it, he seems to do good work.

Here’s mine.

rear guard was to stop my daughter on the trailer bike getting a face full off of road spray when it rained.

Yep…bought an Orange Pure 7 frame as a winter bike a couple of years ago with the intention of building it up with Deore kit and no bling whatsoever.

It’s now wearing full SLX, has a Hope Pro II/Mavic 717 wheelset, Easton bars and I’m going to repaint the rather battered Pikes up front. Very soon it’s also slated to get Hope brakes too.

An epic budget fail.