Choosing a new bike

Seems that my bike is ready for being scraped. I bought it used 3,5 year ago and as I, to recover from some illness, have biked many thousands of kilometres on it the stem of the front fork and the rear wheel is worn out. Also need some new tires. The prize of the repair is as much as a new bike.

It was never a beauty and I bought it already used, but it is with some wistfulness that I have to retire it.

It is hard to choose a new bike. So many things to consider. The other times where I needed a new bicycle was when the old one was stolen and I had to get one fast (and preferably cheap as the economy was not as good then as it is today).

Now that my old bike still works. I can really think about what I need - even aesthetics have played a role this time!

My favourite bike ever was a black Everton with a flat handle bar and 7 external gears, and I have fond memories of my wife at the age of 19-20 on her black Centurion classic racing bike. So I almost bought this SCO (both Everton and SCO are old Danish brands) as I do find the old styles the most beautiful. The sort where you have a high placed, horizontal top tube on the frame that can really hurt your private parts if you fall on it.

But it is a bit like when you have to choose between the 1969 Shelby GT500 and a brand new Toyota (Yes, that is as close as I ever will get to buying a car… by analogy). Biking is mostly a practical thing, and all those small modern inventions are nice.

I need fenders, Copenhagen is wet and messy and I never in my life changed cloth to bike. I also need a rear rack for things that can’t be in my sling bag, I want a handle bar that is not a drop bar, so the next question is if a classic gentleman’s bike with 3-7 hub gears would be the right thing. My father in law always had a Raleight. This is a modern version, but it still have the chainset and the chain encapsulated which is really annoying when you have to fix it (both my daughter’s bikes have this).

It is also heavy, but a beautiful bike I think. And it would go well with jacket and tie which I wear when going to the inner city.

BUT… I also would like external gears and disk brakes. All my girls have pedal brakes and they are very common in Denmark, but I never really liked pedal brakes that much, and after having disk breaks on my old bike I want that again.

So this brings us to the modern hybrid bike.

Ugly as hell (just like modern cars), but also very cheap (Polish aluminium frame). Shimano gears and brakes. I can fit the fenders, the magnetic light and the rear rack from my bike and yes… it is the rational choice…

Thing is that I never really thought much about what bike I was riding. Recently I helped an American tourist with directions and we talked a bit: She said that she had expected to see a parade of gorgeous bikes, but it seemed that the Copenhageners are riding strange, scruffy, old bikes - just the bare necessity of what will bring you from A to B. I never thought of it, but she had a point. My instinct is just to buy the ugly hybrid bike because it is cheap and has the functionality I need :)