Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

I like this one

Yup that's real nice

Rock Lobstah above makes me think I should post this Reader's in here.

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Awesome!

Very nice

fuck yes

Why’s the front rack so high though?

I ordered the contact urban... They cost more so they must be better... Right?

Lovely

No doubt, hope they work well.
I think they’ll be a bit slick for me after all, I need a bit of tread and volume but less than a double fighter

That Rock Lobster is amazing.

https://conti-tyres.co.uk/commuting-touring

The image on this page helped me quite a lot in working out wtf was up with the continental range

rad!

That is helpful thanks!

I want a functional bike - where do I start?

At the moment I have road bike (1980's steel frame SS) and a late 80's steel 'compact bike' (a Eastern Germany folder, including guards, racks etc - a mini-cargo so to say).

What I want is basically the best of both worlds; so basically a bike that's faster than the mini-cargo, has guards, options to carry stuff.. but does not need to be as skinny tyred and light as roadbike currently is.
Could probably still do without gears (will mostly be used in the flatter parts of Berlin, and on asphalt 95% of the time).

Can somebody please put me in the right directions?
I got a lot of impressions from this thread (following it for a while just because I appreciate the aesthetics of "funtional bikes") but I get the hunch that most of what I see here would be overkill for my needs (yes I would need to carry some things but not tour the whole world with the bike several times a year).

How much money do I need to put aside until next spring?
Is buying used (at least frame / fork) a good idea?
I don't even know what to precisely search for to be honest but what I see in German shops is usually ugly as fuck and expensive.

Any help appreciated.
Thanks!

How much money do I need to put aside until next spring?

Memes thread is here.

I think used would be fine for a functional bike, especially in the city - you don't want to tempt people with some gorgeous M.A.P., you want something that flies under the radar.
I would look for something in steel, possibly step through as long as it's pretty rigid. Wheel size is up to you, an old touring or mountain bike frame would generally have lots of braze-ons for racks/fenders.
Upright (3 speed, north road stylee) handlebars, maybe a hub gear.
http://www.torpedo-coasterbrake.com/ and https://velo-classic.de/oxid2/ have a good selection of old F&S hubs that build into terrific virtually zero maintenance wheels, though you may have to get the frame respaced as these hubs are usually in the 110 OLD range.

Rock Lobstah above makes me think I should post this Reader's in here.

I use one of those titanium spokes as a bowl-pick.

Thank you for your feedback!

Yea, used steel tourer frame was what I had in mind, any particular brands to recommend?

You mentioning F&S hubs actually reminded me that I did plan to add at least a 2-speed "automatic" (kickback) hub to that mini-cargo I have, totally forgot about that.

Actually now that I think about it maybe I could just upgrade this little thing with maybe a 3-speed, a proper saddle, and think of something to fit some panniers and that might give me what I want basically without building a whole new bike..
🤔

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No, build a whole new bike. That is always the answer.

Na but for real, you said you want something faster.

I think the list of decent old steel touring brands to recommend is too long but something made out of 531 would probably be a decent start. There's so many on ebay.

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+1 for a 531 tourer, I've had a raleigh randonneur 531st for years and done bits of touring but mainly pootling around in cities not slowly but not too quickly. Braze on's for f+r racks and guards and clearence for ~35mm tyres which is all you really need.

Dawes Galaxy's were very popular and many are still about and running about, same with claud butler touring thingies. Most of these can be a nice stem and saddle away from looking pretty nice IMHO and aren't exactly expensive (mine was ~£275 with nice enough parts if I remember).