What makes an ideal hack bike?

If you had to build up a crappy everyday bike to tool around on without worrying about it getting nicked, how would you do it?

I reckon the ideal pub/town bike would have to have:

Old MTB frame, for durability, handling and easy raiding of friends' parts bins.

7-speed drivetrain. Easy to set up, cheap and low maintenance, but not as restrictive as singlespeed or hub gears.

Chain guard.

Flat bars, for meerkat style alertness in traffic.

Drum brakes? Vs are messy and high maintenance, discs are attrative to thieves.

Puncture resistant tyres. I have Schwalbe Marathons, which weigh a tonne, but merrily plough through snowdrifts of broken glass unscathed.

Wheelbrows and rack.

Light mounts – dynamo hub could be good, but would add weight and could be nicked.

Pitlocks or similar for the wheels and seat.

Flat pedals, plastic BMX ones seem really good.

Nice enough to look at, but no brand names anywhere.

Has anyone built up their ideal hack?

An old ladies Raleigh. Maroon, with white wall tyres and a basket. Full mudguards, full chainguard and dynamo lights. Oh, and a big bell.

My latest town-worthy project! Great for just popping around town in a leisurely way and never going to get pinched!

A man needs to be assured of his manliness if he is to ride through a conurbation on a purple ladies' step-through. Good luck though, and be sure to grace us with some pics. 🙂

as its on the clip board from posting it on the rigid bikes thread…

What makes an ideal hack bike?

You love it, everyone else hates it.

It'll never get stolen.

whats a wheelbrow?

Just replaced my last hack bike (old one was stolen/recycled outside my local after a couple of years of use)

This a Raliegh Maverick dating back to 1985(i think) with a 5 speed automatic random selection gear system, cost me £5 from a local second hand shop, the owner was fed up inflating the two flats it had all the time.

Taken home and checked, frame and forks straight, wheels true and smooth running, gear system treated to a new cable, now selecting less randomly and crank stripped greased and reassembled to remove wobble, brakes work, well not when its raining ;-)!

Looks totally original too!

Ride can only be described as relaxed, great for track stands, carting shopping and general speedway, tail swinging sliding round corners, mucking about. Passed the no lock don't nick me test too outside my local – sorted.

Might even SS it for ssuk next year 😉

Drop bars. Both because everyone knows thieves nick flat bar bikes first, and also way better in traffic both from a safety and speed point of view. Unless you want to ride it down mountains that is.

I had an old ladies Raleigh. It was okay, but even with slick tyres it was dead slow.

Right now I have two bikes used about town, because of where we live though, about town tends to be either a couple of miles at most, or more like 10. The second one is also my commuter.

a)Mountain unicycle – good for popping down the shops & very short trips. Most of the time, if I'm local, there's no need to lock it up. Even if someone did nick it, I'm guessing it'd get back to me pretty quick, everyone knows who it belongs to, and it isn't like anyone could ride off on it.

b)Trek 1200 with a big Carradice seatpost bag. Always has a lock on it, dynamo hub & f+r lights, so no worries about darkness, can carry a decent amount of luggage, mudguards so it doesn't suck in the rain. 23mm (puncture resistant but not heavy) tyres, cos it's worth the compromise of looking where you're going if you get there 10 minutes earlier.

Joe

This is my hack.

umming and ahhing about mudguards/fenders/wheelbrows currently.

When I've destroy those tyres, Schwalbe marathons are definitely on the shopping list.

i had an old gt mtb (last steel tequesta '96) rigid, short stem wide bars, single speed. v brakes. did have flats but i preferred spds. slicks.

felt a bit like a big bmx (not that much i admit) was ace – cracked across the dropout though!

Oops think I got carried away with my hack bike I'm building.

Friday ads might be worth a look for a cheap hack.

An old ladies Raleigh. check

Maroon that's brown, right?

with white wall tyres would be good

a basket I have a shelf

Full mudguards check

full chainguard yeah, that's an idea

dynamo lights check

Oh, and a big bell check

AND it's got a three speed hub. Tasty

Cheers for the pics everyone. I like ctzsmith's faux-fakenger, but surely it's gone full circle from trash to nickable again? 🙂

everyone knows thieves nick flat bar bikes first

Used to be a truism that thieves would pass over any bike with drops, but I'm not so sure any more. On the bike theft blog[/url] I maintain, there's a fair smattering of road bikes, and I'm sure that road bikes are getting more fashionable again and thus more thievable.

and also way better in traffic both from a safety and speed point of view

Speed's much of a muchness in town, riding on the hoods means you can't brake as well (unless you have 6" long fingers) and I find I tend not to look as far ahead. If you're riding 10 or 15 miles on open roads as opposed to 3 or 5 through town, then drop bars are probably a good idea.

Sam, I rode one of those back from the station once and was openly jeered at. 🙂

Was given this for free.A size too big,looks minging,nicely scraped,battered paint,secondhand wheels,horrible aheadset adaptor,out of place flats,but actually rides pretty well……

Sam, I rode one of those back from the station once and was openly jeered at.

I was pointed at last time I was out on it! Just wait, they'll be retro cool before long…

Tried to get hold of a decent condition Raleigh 2wenty on the 'bay this time last year. The market for them was lively, to say the least.

BD, old Raleighs is where it's at this year…

BD, didn't you get one for free from somewhere? They are fun things to ride but a bit impractical for everyday transport. The brakes are death on a stick!

BD I know where there is one going, not sure of the condition,, same place where I picked up the Maverick from, if you are near Worcester, let us know 😉

You seem to see loads of them still about though on the road.

on-one inbreds

In practice of course, I tool around on the Big Dummy. It's expensive, and may therefore be nickable. But it is heavy, ugly, mud-guarded, chain-guarded, schwalbe marathon-shod, bell-equipped, plastic-pedalled, covered in reflectors, racked up and periodically dynamo'ed, AND it can carry a passenger. 😀

I got one on ebay, and gave it away 'cause I wasn't doing anything with it. But I also got one for my wife who wanted it for a friend of hers. The second one was much nicer condition. 🙂

Now with full length mudguards and rack.

Nicest components are the wheels (XT and 719) It's indestructable, low maintenance and cheap.

It's a singleseed inbred.

I wish I had a photo of the state of my old kona mtb now used as a hack.

It was bright orange, but now has a coat of crapp all over it, the graphics blew off during a jet wash years back, but the stickyness stayed so the dirt stuck extra to that. P2's replace the ols rst 'suspension' fork, single speed with a naff dmr conversion kit on it, nowt really branded on it and someone still tried to have the wheels off it at the station!

steel frame Larkspur. Racked, mudguarded, belled, stickered and muddy. rides really sweet, look like a heap.
Currently in my futility room dripping, blige the weather's been shite today.

Mine was my first ever MTB-like thing, a hi-ten steel frame that was way too big for me. It had horizontal dropouts though and was free (in that it was still sitting in my parents shed).

Ground off unnecessary cable guides, stripped it with nitromors and sprayed it with direct-to-metal hammerite. Built it up with bits I mostly had lying around. Found a nice bolted singlespeed rear hub on ebay from a spesh dirtjump bike for a few quid, and got some new rims and spokes to build the wheels. It got an anti-rust KMC chain too which has stayed good to description despite living outside a lot of the time.

This was shortly after building:

(before pic, mocked up with parts, here)

It got mudguards (decathlon do reasonable ones for a few quid) and a rack as I was commuting on it. These days it mostly languishes under the fire escape behind my flat (and used for the odd trip to the post office), but a mate might be taking it off my hands and using it as a commuter again. I wouldn't say Vs are high maintenance, I replaced pads once and that plus some chain lubing was all the maintenance I bothered doing.

I've left it parked in all sorts of dodgy places in London, never with more than a £25 cable lock, and no-one's tried to take it yet.