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If I build up a brand new frame with well used six year old parts, does that count as a rat bike?
What if, like Trigger’s broom, as components wear out, I upgrade the equivalent components on my fancy bike, and move the slightly used ones over to the rat bike?
At what point does my rat or pub bike become too good to still be a rat bike?
Is it about how I’d feel if it got stolen or broke? Do I need to be “meh” about it for it to qualify as a rat bike?
I had a 90 quid frame that i brought brand new, specifically to build a rat bike, as i had all the other parts in various piles and boxes around the workshop. Some were 15+ years old (9 speed).
Following this summers upgrade i'd be a little annoyed if it went. Prior to that i'd STILL have been upset as it's 40+ quid to get a taxi home.
(The "brand new" frame that i bought is now 10+ years old).
I do have a pub bike and the total value of it wouldn't be much but it's an old frame to which I'm emotionally attached. I'd be pretty gutted if it went missing, so I'm definitely doing it wrong 🤪
Extra points for having an old dynamo hub light with the excess cable length cable tied in a loop to the fork instead of being trimmed to the correct length.
I don't have any bike I'd be happy leaving outside a shop/pub, even with big locks on it.
I had to fit a new rear brake to a mate's bike, at his place, so I didn't have the tools to shorten the hose. Every time he mentions popping the bike round for me to finish the job I tell him the looped hose is an anti-theft device, nobody would be seen dead riding such a bodge.
My '90's Kona Lava Dome is my pub bike, but I still wouldn't want it nicking. And it doesn't look like an old knacker, so probably would go if the wrong smackhead walked past.
Worth sod all in monetary value, but priceless in sentimental value
My current "Rat Bike"
Gets used for everything from riding to the pub to our local hand cut trails.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53322655694_2c8835f85d_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53322655694_2c8835f85d_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2peWxNE ]Autumn Dust[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/ ]StuartBrettle[/url], on Flickr
Frame- free due to minor **** up by builder ( also have an identical frame that's perfect but I can't be arsed to swap everything over)
Wheels - spare carbon rims on Chris King hubs. Maybe ten years old.
Drivetrain - all part worn stuff that i didn't want on any of my other bikes. Mix of XTR/XT/SlX/Sunline.
Cockpit- again all stuff that was cluttering up my proper spares.
RevGrips- eyewateringly expensive for grips but the first thing to hand when i was building it.
Dropper- BikeYoke Revive. Again out of the spare spares pile.
Fork- Originally came on a Santacruz Hightower i had 8 years ago but worked on a fair bit by my self. Damper re shimmed and Luftkappe fitted.
So some nice kit but didn't really cost me anything to build.
Though i would be pissed off if it got nicked as I've just fitted some brand new tyres to it.
Crank arms a different length on each side. 😛
I just bought a cheap single speed for popping to the shops on c2w. On reflection however it’s a lovely looking thing, no way I’d probably leave it outside a busy pub for hrs on end
So I’m definitely doing it wrong..
My ’90’s Kona Lava Dome is my pub bike, but I still wouldn’t want it nicking. And it doesn’t look like an old knacker, so probably would go if the wrong smackhead walked past.
Worth sod all in monetary value, but priceless in sentimental value
Indeed. I think given that they're now all but worthless, anything with 26" wheels, a 1 1/8" steerer and a triple chainring qualifies.
Mine has all the above. Worth next to nothing but I bloody love my pub/commuter/hack bike. It actually gets ridden more than the more expensive, pampered ones
For me … If it is sufficiently undesirable to another that you can leave it with basic locks in your local city/town centre for a few hours and not be concerned that you might be walking home.
Ditto, the goal is to make a functional but undesirable bike (IMO) so a shiny frame from a well regarded brand is pretty much out, I suppose blingy parts could be used but they need to be unobtrusive and ideally look as knackered as possible. a bike that is actually harder to ride than standard (for example a fixie) is another good Rat/Pub bike feature to have as it will help deter scrotes.
Ideally you don't want it to be something you'd actually miss too much if it got stolen so no huge sums invested and no sentimental value if possible.
a Pannier rack can be a nice touch as they 'ugly up' a bike and add a bit of utility.
I don’t have any bike I’d be happy leaving outside a shop/pub, even with big locks on it.
That's actually quite a sad thing to admit don't you think?
A basic pub/utility bike that serves a purpose is a fantastic tool, people keep asserting that every E-bike is one more car off the road (I am sceptical), but ratty old Hybrids and knackered MTBs with mismatched tyres had already been doing that for decades...
Does anyone claiming to have a pub bike actually regularly use it to go to the pub?
When i go to the pub i'm on a 3 or 4 pint minimum and the idea of then navigating traffic after that seems a bad idea.
Does anyone claiming to have a pub bike actually regularly use it to go to the pub?
Me. But then I often end up at the pub after a regular ride too. Your definition of "traffic" might be very different from mine though 🙂
Does anyone claiming to have a pub bike actually regularly use it to go to the pub?
When i go to the pub i’m on a 3 or 4 pint minimum and the idea of then navigating traffic after that seems a bad idea.
Yes, but my ride home is through a park.
I tend to only ride the steps after I've had a couple though and wearing my helmet, not 4 and sans helmet, and usually on the FS, not the rat bike
Does anyone claiming to have a pub bike actually regularly use it to go to the pub?
Abso-bloody-lutely! Mines regularly locked up outside my local. I'll tend to meander there via a bridleway or three, a couple of pints (or possibly more) and take the direct room home staying well away from any main roads
Does anyone claiming to have a pub bike actually regularly use it to go to the pub?
Yup, pub and shopping bike. Very comfortable if a little heavy. Enough surface rust to scare off even the keenest bolt-cutterist. Seatpost and saddle will never be adjusted again, mudguards rattle like a biscuit tin.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53327532763_a6e2c626b2_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53327532763_a6e2c626b2_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2pfnxA4 ]Huge Ride...[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/ ]StuartBrettle[/url], on Flickr
Sometimes go to the local brewery straight after a proper ride too.
They let me take my bike inside though just to be safe.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53015448739_7058fb1909_c.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53015448739_7058fb1909_c.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2oLN2T2 ]2023-07-01_07-08-13[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/ ]StuartBrettle[/url], on Flickr
Does anyone claiming to have a pub bike actually regularly use it to go to the pub?
Pre kids we did, in the summer anyway. About 6-7 km ride through the forest then pick up a couple of backstreets then along the canal path. Less than 10km total.
Less fun when the weather turns, or in the dark, it gets *really* dark. And lots of wild animals.
What defines a rat/pub bike?
Gears and brakes are both <2
https://flic.kr/p/LFRUP
This was the only time it was clean before it went to London and was left every night at Marylebone station. I don't have a picture of when I left it there unlocked for the last time (as I was moving away and wanted someone else to have it!).
But i do remember it being covered in black tape, absolutely filthy as it had not been cleaned in three years and random stickers everywhere that tape wasn't.
It did have brakes. Well one, as if I remember rightly, the rear pads had perished/fallen out. But no gears.
@singlespeedstu don't you feel a little overbiked down the pub on a Geometron?
The balance I struggle with it having a rat/pub bike that looks shit enough not to attract attention, but is actually nice enough that I enjoy don't mind riding it.
My current 'commuter' is no longer viable for leaving locked up anywhere, so I borrow Mrs a11y's commuter when I pop into town. A 12yr old Roadrat with 1x10 Deore, discs, full guards and Marathon Pluses - problem is it's still quite nice looking. I'm planning to 'stealth' it by covering all logos but it's still one we'd be gutted to lose.
After one too many of their multiple 10% + beers the LLS geometry really helps me ride home safely.😉
Some of you have a strange idea of what a rat bike is by the looks of it!
A rat bike can be a pub bike but a pub bike doesn't necessarily class as a rat bike IMO. Pub bike = simple, cheap, minimal maintenance, probably cheap but doesn't have to look like a bag of shit. Binners P7 for example, good pub bike, still looks nice. Rat bike on the other hand should look like it's just been dragged out of the canal, regardless of how well it actually works. It also should look like a parts bin special, with no effort put in to coordinating parts.
During covid and after my mate had bought the first gravel bike in our group, I built up a 1992 Clockwork from what I had spare in the retro draw. The frame was solid but had plenty of worming + rust spots bubbling up. It had tatty, functional parts (thumb shifters, obvs), some old slick tyres, a mammoth seat post and looked terrible. That was a rat bike.
I'm another one who's accidentally-on-purpose built a too nice a pub bike (see other threads for details). I'm happy locking it up outside most of the pubs I go to, but there's definitely some I won't. I've seriously considered a proper rat bike - the cheapest single speed I can find on Marketplace. It'll have to live outside at home too though.
Mostly I'm happy having a much nicer bike for commuting and most pub trips/errands, and working round the problem on the odd occasion I don't want to lock it up, than riding a s**t bike all the time.
Heres my old rat bike that I used for commuting into Manchester from Chorlton every day for years. Old GT Timberline frame (bought for a tenner off ebay), which I lavished a matt black powder coat on (£35 IIRC) then built up with parts that were knocking about and a couple of new odds and sods - headset, chainset, chain, chain tensioner. Total build, including powder coat was under a hundred quid
This was when I'd just built it. I don't think I ever cleaned it from this point onwards. Used daily and left locked up in town. No bike thief gave it a second glance
The bottom of the food chain bike gets better with age - it's a natural law. The Chris King/HOPE/XT/Thomson (all well campaigned) on mine makes it not for leaving outside town pubs.
This ticked all the boxes for me. 1991 Bontrager OR skip find. The build used hacksaws and hammers and incorporated zip ties, wine bottle corks, parts bin and bargain basement bits. Painted with leftover paint to match the front door - with a brush to maximise accumulation of crap and micro-organisms. Looked like shit, everything worked really well and it was a ton of fun to ride.
It did start to creak a bit after a year or so:
I’ve come to the conclusion having read this thread that I thought I own a rat bike but in fact at best I own a pub bike (or as a minimum a bike I can ride to a pub). My latest incarnation for commuting is far too nice to leave outside anywhere and to my own admission I’ve lavished far too much money on it.
mine spends the night locked outside Euston, and occasionally a pub if I go for a drink after work, the Euston bike sheds being a combo of junky shooting gallery, late night urinal and graveyard of semi-dismantled bikes
theres a fine line between a bike thats undesireable to thieves and something thats actually rideable, especially across the potholed roads of london town
Ive got a very battered kona dew dl- ebay £60 had lived in a garden for several years after the back wheel was nicked so was seized solid when I got it, was able to revive the headset & front hub, but needed a new BB
battered old saddle, cable discs, mismatched cranks, a 44t Snail n/w chainring and the back wheel I found in a skip.
It's funny how the march of MTB standards have pushed pretty nice bikes into the pub category.
My pub/utility bike is a 2008 Cotic Soul, built with a Reba, lightish wheels (Stans Crest on Scott-branded-but-I'm-told-they're-DT-Swiss hubs), Thompson seatpost, Hope headset and QR skewers, M780 XT cranks, and some fairly recent XT brakes. Back in 200x it would have been well good 😀
Double post
I always figured that a pub bike is something cheap and cheerful or old that you’ll happily ride to the pub/shops/train station and not stress about someone nicking it for the few hours you’re there. Obviously a lock is usually needed, but not the Fort Knox required to secure your favourite bikes.
mind still be upset if it got stolen, but the risk of it actually being nicked is quite low.
@tomparkin - Exactly! That was the point a few of us have made about our hack/pub bikes. My P7, which is a decent frame to start with, has Exotic carbon forks (got rid of the Magura suspension forks due to cost/weight/need to be serviced), decent Fulcrum Wheelset, XT drivchain and brakes, Ritchy carbon bars and seatpost, so BITD (I bought it 13 years ago) it was a really nice bit of kit. Due to the march of technology marketing its now worth what? A couple of hundred quid, tops? Its still nice to ride though, but I'm not bothered about leaving it locked up outside the pub. The perfect bike in a lot of ways really
Indeed. But I doubt someone's going to go to to much trouble to try and have it off. A decent lock will do the trick.
My 'proper' bikes would justify nipping home for an angle grinder, which is why they don't get ridden to the pub. The P7 doesn't really. Given that most thieves are just opportunists I'm sure their are richer pickings to be had for little effort
Talking of Roadrat's
This was the other end of my london commute. 5 miles from home to sleepy Haddenham station in Bucks. It was a lovely thing, spent way too much on it, but was always happy when it was still in the bike shed when I got home!
I'd ride to the pub now (on my Vibe eBike) but I can't believe I used to commute into London every day!
I had an old kona singlespeed at work for running lunchtime errands on, leaky old fox forks, orange plastic pedals and carrier bag covered seat, but when they had a clear out of abandoned bikes on the sheds they took mine as well cos it looked so shit! Will never forgive site and facilities, barbarians.
Mrs BigJohn and I rode our pub bikes into town one Saturday evening in the summer. I was locking them up when a disreputable type walked past, looked at what I was doing and said "why are you bothering locking them up?"
I guess they serve their purpose spot on.
Yes they look crap (mines a 1960s rusty road bike with bullhorns and fixed wheel and mudguards, hers is an odd 1980s German ladies bike) but they both ride beautifully.
Talking of Roadrat’s
@Alex, that's the same year model as Mrs a11y's although hers has discs rather than V-brakes. I'm covering over or removing all decals/branding to make it as anonymous as possible. ST decal is under the lacquer so I've got a roll of black vinyl to cover it up (keeping it all reversible rather than simply painting over it). Can't bring myself to prise off the headbadge though as I love the original Cotic one!
I'd love another like that as a hack/town bike.
@ally - good plan. I really liked mine, it was so flexy at the back in a good way! I think you could have run 130/135/142 by just bending the stays 🙂 I ran mine V as those wheels were a bargain, but it was the last bike I've owned not to have discs.
It's still trundling round Bucks somewhere as a mate had it off me, and he's still using it to commute to work occasionally 15 years later!
Oh and agree the old head badge/decals were way better than the new ones.
it was so flexy at the back in a good way!
@Alex not as 'flexy' as mine ended up (after a car drove over it...):
Mrs a11y's Roadrat's actually my first one after I bought a larger size (the dead one above). That was then replaced with a newer turquoise one for a while before my 'commuter' evolved somewhat.
If anyone has a large Roadrat frame to sell let me know.
I call mine the shoestring bike, because I can tie it up with a shoestring and it'll still be there when I'm back.
I've since swapped the seat out for something less old-ladyish, done a horrendous singlespeed bodge that works a charm, and added some garish homemade mudguards. I can take it to my gym or the pub and leave it unlocked and absolutely nobody will pinch it, because... well, look at it!
@ally 😳 - I hope you weren't on it at the time!
My pub bike is a Spa Steel Tourer. In better nick than my Surly tourer. Bought because I couldn't stand my Surly being stolen in Glasgow after everwhere it has been.
But not being a mtb it is probably less desirable. I did once see a thief eying it up while I was in the pub at the window. He pulled the lock - 6mm chain and padlock, realised it wasn't getting broken without tools then stole my front light. I was out the pub like Usain Bolt and got my light back
a local scumbag once stole my singlespeed onone pompetamine from the front garden, was gutted, later that day I’m walking to the shops and spot it leaning unlocked against a lampost - proper toe-rag/junky idiocy - even after they’ve nicked it they don’t want it - that’s my definition of a pub bike right there
This is mine. Frame found by the bins. Build from the spares pile
Theft =
zero to low financial loss
zero to low emotional loss
Basically if you get so hammered you forget it's there one night and it's gone the next day / week .. the story should have more value than the bike.
I have a P7 but it's definitely not a pub bike.
Actually have a mininging old FC Parkes that may actually be a rebadged Raleigh that is an ideal rat bike candidate. Just needs a spare SA 3 speed built onto a rim and some deep drop brakes and it'll be sorted. Maybe. It might also fall to pieces like the original steel rims did.
Anything that costs more than a few rental rides is not a rat bike.
For me, a proper rat bike should be an organic thing that just ends up that way over time.
Having said that, the only rat bike I own I built specially to be like that. Took ages to make something look crappy. More a parallel to the custom car rat look thing than an actual rat bike.
the story should have more value than the bike.
I like that.
I sold my pub bike when I moved somewhere close enough to walk to a pub 😂
It was the only bike I'd feel okay locking up anywhere, even then I'd still always use 2 locks. Was a Genesis fixed.
Can a rat bike start life as a BSO? Or does it have to be something that started off as decent quality and just looks like shite now?
zero to low emotional loss
hmm I’m torn on this - when my oo up there was taken I was annoyed - I liked the bike even though it was battered and worth £30 say - but if I replaced it with something out of a skip I’ve changed my ‘pub bike’ for a ‘piece of junk’ that I literally don’t care about so in a way it ceases to be a ‘pub bike’
Any bike can be a pub bike 😉
This is as far as it goes today, still got a stinking cold 😭
