Functional bikes. Not Porn not Anti

Great potential, just the saddle, seat post and stem!

Great potential, just the saddle, seat post and stem!

That white brooks is quite naff in a ruched white leather sofa type-way.

Yeah, the white guards look a bit shit too, or rather they would within 10 minutes of riding in the rain.

Ooops, just thought they were shiny stainless ones.

It's like Kanye built a bike for his dad.

The build description doesn't mention painting the fenders, the colour looks metallic to me.

I disagree. I think coloured 'guards often look good. My dad has white ones on his old Philips.

On balance though I think it's a good eg of how to tip a modern bike with vintage styling cues over the edge. Too many cutesy bits, coupled with too much bling in the wrong place.

Lose the rack & bag, fit a slightly racier-shaped Brooks, and it's ace.
Could also use a stem logo delete.

ENVE rims on an all weather bike? Kanye has to be paying.

Very functional, i got those Basil bags for sub £20, keeps my back dry on those morning commutes!

DSC04468 by oliverkirman, on Flickr

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

some black cranks would finish that off perfectly :)

and some mudguards

Jb did you ever buy the Bertrand ones?

Na never bothered with guards in the end.

Ok, so I'm thinking of buying a croix de fer frame and building it up with 8 speed MTB parts. Are all 8 speed parts really shitty quality nowadays? It will need to be a square taper BB.

Ok, so I'm thinking of buying a croix de fer frame and building it up with 8 speed MTB parts. Are all 8 speed parts really shitty quality nowadays? It will need to be a square taper BB.

Shitty components are shitty, speed/what bike it's aimed doesn't have much to do with it.

Shimano 8 speed cassettes are cheap and reliable, most standard "9" and "10" speed mechs work set up for 8 speed, it's just a spring after all...

I can only comment on bar end and down tube shifters, both are mechanically simple and generally very reliable. The friction versions of either make set up and riding even easier.

Not sure why square taper matters. Cranks are just cranks, I'm running 9 or 10 speed rings and they work fine with an 8 speed chain.

I reckon this thread has morphed a bit from what it was originally about.
My idea of a fbnpna is something that is adapted so it's fit for purpose, the purpose being whatever causes the bike to be used regularly and out of necessity.
This thread is filled with pretty nice bikes and I think saying that it's not 'porn' is not entirely accurate any more. If it was truly fbnpna then you could just walk up to some racks in central london and take photos of all the bikes that are used day in, day out for commuting as they're the epitome of fbnpna.

I don't know what I'm getting at really.

tl/dr

^ the forum needs a "non-functional bikes npna" thread for some recent bikes to be moved to?

trollface.jpg

^^ Spacers are allowed in this thread, that's the main difference.

Spacers shmacers.

Ok, so I'm thinking of buying a croix de fer frame and building it up with 8 speed MTB parts. Are all 8 speed parts really shitty quality nowadays? It will need to be a square taper BB.

My new Elephant 650b bike will have Claris derailleur, down tube shifter and Sora crankset (46/34 external bb), it's hard to tell any difference in performance with down tube/bar end shifter as Andy pointed out, I have the advantage that if something break, it's easy to replace with start that a LBS will definitely have without ordering it in.

The majority of new derailleur will happily go up to 32t so less need for an MTB derailleur.

My "best" bike, the Oak 650b, have Simplex down tube friction shifter, a modified Campagnolo Veloce derailleur (jockey wheel is spaced out for the wider chain), and a 13-26 8 speed cassette.

It's mechanically perfect, shift exactly when I want it, excellent feedback from the Simplex shifter and the range of the 13-26 is idea (how often do you use the 11t cog on a day-to-day basis?).

I'd go with new Altus 9sp (or new Alivio 9sp when it hits the shops for a bit more). The 9sp mtb stuff still uses the same cable pull ratio as the 9sp road so it'll allow you to mix-n-match as you see fit and as the budget determines (STI, barcon, etc). Should be loads of 9sp stuff for cheapz on t'bay too and will give you a few more options in terms of choice (vs. 8sp).

Rivendell did a good blog piece about the Altus too. While it looks a bit funny, the larger wheels and bargin price make a lot of sense. I'll either go for that if/when my rear mech goes (Deore so unlikely to happen any time soon) or whatever the bike shop have in their spares bin at the time.

Blog blog blog

Similar to Ed, I'm running square taper cranks with 42/32 rings* to an 11-28 8 speed cassette with Simplex shifters. The bike does everything - road, cross**, commuting, audax, mountains, supermarket runs without any complaints.

*admittedly they're Middleburn cranks/rings but they were crazy cheap!
**not racing, why the hell would you want to get off and run with your bike...