Just a bike

Over the years, I've owned and ridden a bunch of bikes, from ultra tight track and crit bikes to some of the earliest mountain bikes with super slack angles and extra long wheelbases.  And I've come to realize that the highest compliment I can pay to a bike is that it is "just a bike".
Regardless of intent, the best bikes all share some common characteristics.
- They do what you expect
- No quirky handling
- Anyone used to riding the type/purpose of bike should be able to ride it

It really doesn't matter if you are riding a cargo bike, crit bike, fat bike or climber, the rules still apply.  It should be fit for purpose - a crit bike should be able to sprint and corner; a cargo bike should be able to haul a load around town without popping wheelies or twitching when crossing cracks, a basic hardtail mountain bike should handle most singletrack and jeep roads with reasonable aplomb.
On the other hand, there have been bikes...  The Trek 770, which I rode thousands of miles, raced a season or two, eventually converted to a fixie and then gave to my son had toe-clip overlap, and a horrid tendency to go straight ahead in a corner (race car drivers would call it 'push').  I loved/hated that bike.  And 30 years later, that monster is back in my garage.
A Colnago track bike that had bottom bracket flex. (not good on the track)
A crit bike of questionable origin that was so twitchy you didn't dare take your hands off the bars to remove a jacket.  Darn fast, but no way would I ever want to ride that more than an hour at a time.

But by and large, I've sought out bikes that were fairly neutral, again - just a bike.
There was the 2nd generation mountain bike I had in the mid-80s.  The chainstays were a mile long, seatpost and fork rake were probably sub-70 degrees and it weighed about two tons.  It creaked, groaned, climbed like a pig, and I rode it for at least two years over every available trail in Seattle and the Cascades before finally trading up to an REI Ponderosa, which weighed significantly less, had a UBrake, and much better handling overall.

But the ultimate 'just a bike' was my long departed Raleigh 531 racing frame.  The only bike I ever regret parting with.  Fairly light, totally neutral, and trustworthy.  I rode 30,000 miles and then some in 3 years on that bike, raced innumerable crits, local road races, a handful of stage races, around Mt Rainier, a State Time Trial Championship.  This was a bike I could throw into a crit corner and *know* it would come out the other side like I planned, or rocket down Washington Pass at 50 plus and enjoy the ride.  And damn -I was foolish enough to 'factory swap' it for a newer frame when a braze let go on the rear triangle.  Stupid. Especially Stupid when I knew some of the best framebuilders in the business who could've fixed it for a couple of beers.

Since then, my wife and I have owned several 'just a bike' bikes.  In the late 80s, Huffy (of all people) sponsored the National Team.  We are fortunate to have one of the appliance black and white 'Huffy' bikes from that era.  It doesn't get ridden a lot and at some point, I'd like to put it back to the de rigueur Suntour Superbe Pro that I think was on it as a team ride.  But we had a box of Campy parts, so that's what's on it now.  And when my wife would let me ride it (usually after giving it a bath/tune) I'd go do a couple of 'test laps' in the neighborhood.  Like the Raleigh above, I felt like the Huffy would do exactly what I expected it to, when I expected it to, and climb or sprint pretty well on command.  And yes, if you look under the bottom bracket, it does say 'Serotta', but who cares?  When at RAGBRAI, it's a Huffy.  Just look - it says so right there on the frame!

When it came time to move to a more current bike, my wife spent weeks test riding all of the bikes in her chosen price range before riding the Scott CR-1.  Not the most expensive bike, not the lightest, but when you get on a bike and it goes 'Ommmmm' you should listen.  No bad habits, it climbs by itself, corners and descends as hard as you want, and doesn't beat you to death on Iowa and Wisconsin pavement.






It really doesn't matter if your bike costs 1,000 or 10,000. If you don't ride it, it's wall furniture, and until you ride it enough to be completely comfortable with it, you just own it - it's not really yours.  And if you don't ride it because it handles badly, dump it.  At the end of the day, the best ride you can find is "just a bike".

~marsh