The joy of a pub bike

The trick is making a bike that looks shit but is functionally spot on. Old alu mtb frame, rigid forks, gears and brakes all well adjusted. My latest iteration has an old silent rear hub and it's great, chilled commuting.

I used to live in the middle of nowhere, everything was walking distance (corner shop, pub etc)

I'm going to have to take issue with your definition of 'middle of nowhere'  - went to visit my pal last year at his new gaff - his nearest shop is almost a 4hr round trip drive 🙂

Not an alu mtb, but certainly rigid. And looks terrible but rides like a dream (until you reach a hill).

Probably around 4000km on this bike, core components still haven't skipped a beat.

I'm looking at a 90s MTB as a pub beater bike but already I'm dreaming up ways to mod it, powdercoat, drop bar conversion, canti's to Vbrakes....

Not sure it'll be a beater for long! 😁

Now't wrong with V brakes or canti's - just need the right pads. Got a 90's MTB but it's not a pub bike - I don't leave it anywhere other than locked up in a secure bike parking at work, or my garage. My son left it in the side garden at weekend - I was 75 miles away - saw it in the garden on CCTV - phoned him, he'd forgot he'd moved it out the garage, but was 50 miles away by then. Fortunately he got a mate to come round and put it in the back garden. I'd be livid if it got knicked - had it over 30 years and done Snowdon on it. It's my 'work' bike.

Not so sure a 'pub' bike would sit with me as I'd be tarting it up !

I don't buy into the "i won't be bothered if it gets nicked" thing. Sure, it's probably less likely to get stolen if there are other options available but on its own they'll 'ave away. With any bike there's going to emotional attachment, getting it just right, curing all those squeaks and rattles, the wheel might be crap but you've you've spent a couple housr regreasing and replacing the wheel bearings and perfecting the cup and cone "tension" etc etc. The more you ride it the more attached you become.

If my pub/commute bike got nicked I'd be annoyed. Probably because of the cost of a bus ticket home and then the scramble to assemble another hack bike out of worn out bits i've kept hold of.

I can’t wait for pub bike season 2023
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My pub bike is nearly rusted out of commission sadly, every nip to the shops could be frame-fatal. I have its replacement but it's almost too nice to use for pub duties.

Now also has front porter and rear pannier racks since that photo. Started off as a £100 beater but as klunk said, you fix things, fit your prefered contact points, build wheels, fit mudguards that don't rattle, wire in a dynamo, do thousands of miles. I'd be gutted if it got nicked!

V brakes are fine, just not as maintenance free as discs. Decent pads definitely help.

I had a 1990 ish Muddy Fox hybrid for many years for this purpose. My eldest adopted it as his school bike and totalled it at the start of the school summer holidays.

Thanks to his grandad the replacement is a flat bar converted Dawes super galaxy from the back of his shed that looks tatty as flip but is actually a really nice bike but ultra uncool.

I no longer have a pub bike but there is an old Schwinn in the shed and a dmr single speed kit in a box...

Now’t wrong with V brakes or canti’s

In a box no, on a bike very much yes.

Cantis are a pain, good v brakes (like CC direct curve) are fine in most situations.

Pub bike.

My old Ti 26er, now running singlespeed.

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49501992407_18b7dfebc1_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49501992407_18b7dfebc1_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2iqjDHH ]1060341[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/druidh2000/ ]Colin Cadden[/url], on Flickr

Are shoppers allowed in this thread? Not actually used it yet.

Are shoppers allowed in this thread? Not actually used it yet.

There'll likely be a pub near/on the way to/from the shops so I think you're good. Nice looking functional bike by the way. How did you do the front mudguard stays?

The joy of a pub where you can safely leave your bike

Are shoppers allowed in this thread? Not actually used it yet.

Truth be told, I've not actually used the pub bike to go to a pub yet. It's for shopping/commuting/nipping round to see people etc.

I'd be annoyed if it got nicked, but not nearly as annoyed compared to my nice bikes.

There's some surprisingly nice bikes here, disappointing lack of rattle-can specials

I built a sort of pub bike with the added bonus of it being a fixie so harder to ride away, also harder to ride away after I'd had a few pints of cider 😮

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My old pub bike is very similar to Mr Overshoot's but with the addition of rust, rack, tatty pannier and mudguards. It reached it's peak when I was looking it up in town and a dodgy looking geezer walked past and said "why are you locking that up? No-one is going to nick that". It actually rides like a dream - if I come back from a long ride on another bike and need something from the shops I'll hop on it and it feels so much more comfortable.
Best thing is leaving it unlocked outside a shop if I can still see it, just in case some scrote tries to ride away with it, but comes a cropper because it's fixed wheel.

@garage-dweller..
It’s one of these…..11690 Stays VELOFLEXX 65.
I melted holes in the mudguard and cable tied it on. No rattles or rubs. Quality stuff.
If you see them cheap they are the bolt on version rather than the ones with rubber bands.

In the process of building this as a pub/shopping bike. I'd be gutted if it was stolen.

I had one when i graduated, used to use it for getting around for about 5 years, an Emmelle MTB/hybrid in flouro pink that cost me 20-25 quid to buy and saved me thousands in taxis and buses.
Used to sometimes get too drunk to ride home, so i'd leave it locked up in town and come back and collect it in the morning, err, at lunchtime.

Then it got stolen. So i bought another similar piece of junk.

Then spotted the stolen one a couple of weeks later in the very early hours of a saturday morning, and rode it home.

Then spent two days looking for my D lock before i realised i'd left it with the new beater, locked to a railing in the city centre.

My current beater is an inbred, possibly the worst bike i've ever had the misfortune to own. But it's 10km or forest tracks and darkness to the nearest pub, so it rarely gets used for that.

My son has the right idea. His commuter/pub bike has dodgy tandem adaptation. Taxi!...

I hate to say it, but some of those bikes look too good to be left out where a scrote could take a shine to them. My commuter looks a bit tatty (the old shit tape on the fram to stop rubs gives it a certain something, as do the cableties holding on the bordged mudguards), but it's functionally perfect and I would be gutted if some little shit took it.

I like Matt's lads bike. I can't see any issues with that WHATSOEVER after a few pints 🙂

My pub bike is far too nice really. But our local (5 miles away from me) pub has been our night riding venue for years and years, we have a chunky lock stationed out the back, attached to an old mill wheel. Riding back is always fun, there's definitely a limit on how many beers you can have even going home on all the back roads!

I don’t buy into the “i won’t be bothered if it gets nicked” thing. Sure, it’s probably less likely to get stolen if there are other options available but on its own they’ll ‘ave away. With any bike there’s going to emotional

100% my old commuter / pub bike was a bike from the tip, built a fixed rear wheel a saddle from spares box, added full guards new tape asome old spds. Cost ~£250 in total I recall 14 year ago. I put over 20k miles (~25kmiles but I stopped counting) on that bike and when the frame finally died I was upset. Kept it for nostalgia!

I'm not seeing any proper 'pub' bikes here, all are far too nice.

Genuine shitter all parts from spares box. Tell a lie I had to buy cranks £19.99 off eBay.

Such a comfy frame(work commuter/pub/errand bike

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Here’s mine, a slightly rusty Kona Paddywagon, it’s got a new drivetrain and the drops have been swapped for some sunline risers from the spares pile

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I paid £62.25 for the bike, I’ve spent around £50 on parts for it (not including the bars, grips and pedals from the spares box) so not super cheap but also not overly expensive. I’d still be gutted if it was stolen though as I’ve really fallen for it!

I’m not seeing any proper ‘pub’ bikes here, all are far too nice.

That's the thing, however they start out the normal trickle-down* of tidy parts from the "proper" bikes means they end up being something quite different. My '94 rigid runaround had now got an XT disc brake on a Fox Fork, in a CK headset, HOPE, Thomson, RF Turbines...

*Not in the Truss-o-nomics sense.

Um, well this is the bike I ride to the pub on, I realise a pub bike should be rubbish, but frankly why spoil the pleasure of riding to the pub by riding something shit?

Also my commuter, shopper and will happily put in a shift as a low-gnar gravel bike, (tyres a bit slick and mudguards are too close to the wheels for actual mud really).

I love my pub bike! I bought the frame and forks from the classifieds a few years ago. It's an old Genesis Day One with scorch marks around at the bottom of the seat tube where someone has used a blowtorch to remove a seized BB, and similar marks at the rear dropouts, as well as loads of dings. Most of the rest is from the parts bin, apart from the On One Geoffs and Ergon grips. It's a lovely bike to ride, and the Pizza rack is great. I've had a hand operation recently which makes it hard to use the left brake, so had my SRAM Automatix with a coaster brake built up into a wheel. It helps me to stop, but I'll probably go back to the original SS wheel once my hand is working properly again.

If anyone has one of these frames knocking around in a medium please let me know - I'd love to build up an Alfine version for more distant pubs 🙂

My son has the right idea. His commuter/pub bike has dodgy tandem adaptation. Taxi!…

Fairly often see someone riding around Göteborg with an old butchers bike where the large low front loadspace has the one of those orange school chairs trimmed down and bolted/welded to it. Usually has a mate sat on it carrying beer or pizza. Or both.

If you want really dodgy, a mate fell off their pub bike once (v.v.v.v. drunk) and dumped it behind the house for several months while a) hand healed b) winter happened.
Came back to it to find the stem had been knocked off centre by a handful of degrees and was now impossible to move as it'd spent 6 months being rained on.

So we got a 6 foot piece of scaffolding pipe and bent the handlebars to where they needed to be, while leaving the stem crooked.
That was early noughties. The bike is still being used today, only thing that's been changed since then is the tubes.

@zippykona

interested to know what headset you used on that frame? looks like we got the same bargain from eBay...

If anyone has one of these frames knocking around in a medium please let me know – I’d love to build up an Alfine version for more distant pubs 🙂

Damn, the bike that my nice Trek up there replaced was a medium DayOne. I even had it set up with flat bars and a 3 speed/coaster Nexus wheel.

If you want really dodgy, a mate fell off their pub bike once (v.v.v.v. drunk)

I once tried to give a mate in a similar state a pub bike lift home. He couldn't even manage to sit on the child's trailer bike I attempted to carry him on!

godzilla
Free Member
I can’t wait for pub bike season 2023

That Pinnacle is hot. MTB GRAVEL GEO DH!

This is mine. My dad won it when he bought a washing machine, he's about 4 inches shorter than me so it's a bit small, I added the rack and shopping basket. Also has crappy panniers most of the time.

I've spent zero on it. And would be annoyed if it got nicked.

https://postimg.cc/1V1CynXQ

Oh FFS - why won't it post the sodding image?!

Anyway - rattle-can, matt black Pinnacle. Was my station bike.

@gdj001 it was one of these..

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/brand-x-semi-integrated-44iiss-sealed-headset/rp-prod208220?utm_source=CRM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=OrderDispatch&utm_content=error

I've not had a 'beater' for a while but I do have a 6 year old Stooge singlespeed that never gets washed. Perfect for any local trips to the leisure centre, Tesco and anything upto a couple of hours ride.

Oh FFS – why won’t it post the sodding image?!

Looks like you used the link tool rather than the image one, that looks like a picture of the sun over some mountains.

It's worth sod all, but had it 25 years from new, so I'd be gutted if it went.

Probably more likely to get nicked out of the shed than outside the local pubs to be fair

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52054112438_c626bf6051_4k.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52054112438_c626bf6051_4k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://www.flickr.com/gp/85252658@N05/165VYDC8H5 ]DSC00402[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/85252658@N05/ ]davetheblade[/url], on Flickr

That's an absolute beauty. 😍