The thing which distinguishes most of my bikes is my terrible mechanic skills and my willingness to bodge.
One of my favourite bikes of all time is my beater, a 52cm square Carlton frame which I bought testing the thing about smaller bikes being good for polo. Turns out bikes 8cm too small really don't work for polo. So I got a 15cm stem, some bullhorns and ignore the massive toe overlap. Wheels are 27 inch which means that the only brake I have for it is only slightly less than useless. Oh and my bullhorns and the stem are different sizes, so they have a shim, although they still sometimes shift. Essentially I can be safe in the knowledge that if someone steals it they will die.
The only other thing I can think of that I had on my bike that I don't think many others had was two brakes operated by two levers on the same side, whilst fixed. This was for my polo bike, as I commute as much as play poll on my polo bike being able to modulate being front or rear brake heavy depending on road or polo just by moving my hand was pretty useful.
As you can tell, although my beater is essentially fixed brakeless, I do think more brakes is good. My polo bikes have all been fixed when not in polo gear (I flip the wheel) and for the last couple of years I've also had two brakes. This extra redundancy isn't about being able to stop any quicker, it means I can put off repairing my brakes for a bit longer!
Oh and soon my polo bike will have a fourth brake for the road! (fixed, 2 vbrakes and a front disk) the idea is that I want to have a brake for my left hand as I worry about not having my hand on a brake when signally right.
Oh but if you are looking for things that make bikes individual, you could probably get a whole dissertation out of stickers.
The thing which distinguishes most of my bikes is my terrible mechanic skills and my willingness to bodge.
One of my favourite bikes of all time is my beater, a 52cm square Carlton frame which I bought testing the thing about smaller bikes being good for polo. Turns out bikes 8cm too small really don't work for polo. So I got a 15cm stem, some bullhorns and ignore the massive toe overlap. Wheels are 27 inch which means that the only brake I have for it is only slightly less than useless. Oh and my bullhorns and the stem are different sizes, so they have a shim, although they still sometimes shift. Essentially I can be safe in the knowledge that if someone steals it they will die.
The only other thing I can think of that I had on my bike that I don't think many others had was two brakes operated by two levers on the same side, whilst fixed. This was for my polo bike, as I commute as much as play poll on my polo bike being able to modulate being front or rear brake heavy depending on road or polo just by moving my hand was pretty useful.
As you can tell, although my beater is essentially fixed brakeless, I do think more brakes is good. My polo bikes have all been fixed when not in polo gear (I flip the wheel) and for the last couple of years I've also had two brakes. This extra redundancy isn't about being able to stop any quicker, it means I can put off repairing my brakes for a bit longer!
Oh and soon my polo bike will have a fourth brake for the road! (fixed, 2 vbrakes and a front disk) the idea is that I want to have a brake for my left hand as I worry about not having my hand on a brake when signally right.
Oh but if you are looking for things that make bikes individual, you could probably get a whole dissertation out of stickers.