Thinking of turning my Speedvagen Road into more of a City / Touring Bike.....

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by KarlC

Well crap thats a bad start to this thread, I had NOT planed to sell it, what wrong with it as a city / light touring bike ?

I like the geo, and clearances are really good

Sure why not use it as a go-fast roadie for a city / touring bike ? (What does this dumb roadie not know)

I have no desire for disc brakes

Why alloy clinchers ? It will not be a rain bike.


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Nothing, it would be fine..gear it right and it'll work. Seatpost rack, bag, maybe a handlebar bag, maybe a under top tube bag. ..Probably not fenders but like you said, SoCal..if it rains, wear rain gear..NOTHING wrong with tubies either..all things being equal, you'll get less flats than a clincher..put some sealant in the tubes...

This 'sell it and buy' wears me out. All you need for any bike ride..is a bike..with the only real exceptions for like bouncing over baby head rocks and giganto tree roots..probably need a 'purpose driven bike'..but the SV? Great idea..PLUS you get to ride it more.

road bike, cross bike, light gravel bike, heavy gravel bike, mountain bike, light touring bike, loaded touring bike, city bike, rain bike..yeegads..

[rallizes]

i don't really see 'nice' bikes as lock up bikes but to each his own

and after spending a certain amount of time and money making it into a nice road ride i would keep it as is

or sell it

[weisan]

From my experience, the only truly "grab and go" bike I have ever owned is my Brompton, everything else I had requires some level of fuss and pre-flight preparations and I have experimented with quite a few in the past several years.

Brompton = Fun + Freedom + Mobility/Versatility

[XXtwindad]

Have you checked the Speedvagen "bylaws?" Can you actually do this?

[Black Dog]

You can certainly put on a rear rack without braze-ons. There are P clips for the seat stays and neat adaptors that go over the quick release or even a second set of p clips for the lower part of the seat stays. The clips are coated and will not damage the paint. As long as you are not carrying a heavy load this will work just fine. There are also rack that mount to the brake bridge and do not touch the frame tubes at all. Using a rack keeps the load low and makes the bike way more ridable and usable than a huge seat post bag and frame bags. You can hang a small bag off the handle bars for small items. Don't over think this. Like old spud said, it is a bike and will go where you point it and be just fine. I would recommend clinchers and the widest rubber you can fit on the bike to keep things comfy for a tour and the ease of a tube change over a tire change if you flat and will not be heading home the same day. Here are some ways to make this happen:

https://www.axiomgear.com

[Doug Fattic]

I think the definition of what makes a city bike is different than the design philosophy of your Speedvagen. Riding in the city means looking up the road for sudden adjustments instead of down at the back tire in front of you. It is more comfortable to sit a bit more upright when looking ahead and that means a higher handlebar position combined with more saddle setback (read a bigger frame with a slacker seat angle). It is likely that city trips involve errands so racks and bags integrated into the bike design to carry stuff more conveniently makes sense. And on those trips, you will want to lock up your bike sometime so something integrated into the frame design is nicer than a cable or chain wrapped around the seatpost with the lock banging on a nice paint job. I love my ring lock attached to braze-ons on the seat stays which works fine to avoid an impulse steal in the area where I live. Of course roads in the city are usually worse so fatter tires smooth out the bumps. I like a lot fatter tires with reflective side stripes. You are unlikely to want to be riding as fast as you can (unless you like to time yourself between stop lights) so the emphasis shifts from speed to function. For those of us that don’t live in sunny SoCal we might want to go somewhere on our bike when the roads are still wet and fenders solve that problem.

What some of us are saying is that there are things that can improve a go-fast bike for city riding purposes and you might want to take advantage of them. If the situation was reversed and someone said I want to race my tourer you would probably want to tell them why your Speedvagen is a better choice.

[Drmojo]

Originally Posted by huck*this

I understand the grab and go theory and when that phrase comes to mind only one thing can solve and do it easily. Try out a belt drive single speed? Dead quiet and easily a grab and go. Flat bar if that suits you. Some shiny bits. Bar, pedals. Styling and profiling in So Cal!

Cheers Karl!

I would never try converting my SV, or my Moots to an urban warrior
For all reasons mentioned above
Different horses for different courses. Belt drive just makes sense-
no ugly grease marks
low maintenance
quiet and smooth

[pdonk]

Having dinged the top tube of my SV, by leaning it against something and having it slip, I would definitely say they are not lock up bikes.

For what you describe (except the light touring bit), I would consider an older high quality 26 inch wheeled rigid mountain bike, one from the late 90's would be a good choice. Stout enough to ride around on the streets and lock up, good position, most have fender or rack mounts, cheap enough and not special enough to be too upset if it is stolen.

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

This 'sell it and buy' wears me out. All you need for any bike ride..is a bike..with the only real exceptions for like bouncing over baby head rocks and giganto tree roots..probably need a 'purpose driven bike'..but the SV? Great idea..PLUS you get to ride it more.

road bike, cross bike, light gravel bike, heavy gravel bike, mountain bike, light touring bike, loaded touring bike, city bike, rain bike..yeegads..

The issue here is that converting the SV into a city bike is a value-destroying proposition. He could sell his SV, buy a complete purpose-designed city bike that would do the job better than his converted SV, and have several thousand dollars left over.

[KarlC]

So much great input here, and it now looks like we have opinions on both sides of the fence.

For those that are thinking this is not the best plan, keep in mind my Speedvagen is not being used at all right now, maybe some simple changes would get it back on the road being used a few times a month ?

.

[weiwentg]

Originally Posted by Doug Fattic

... If the situation was reversed and someone said I want to race my tourer you would probably want to tell them why your Speedvagen is a better choice.

Nah, just race it. I mean, obviously take off the racks and definitely the panniers, but at the amateur level, it's all about the legs.

[jtbadge]

Originally Posted by prototoast

The issue here is that converting the SV into a city bike is a value-destroying proposition. He could sell his SV, buy a complete purpose-designed city bike that would do the job better than his converted SV, and have several thousand dollars left over.

+1. Start over. It will work out better for you to have something purpose-built, and someone else can enjoy the SV as intended.

[Rusty Luggs]

So, looking at photo of Speedvagen, basically a race bike.

Would I do a credit card tour for a couple of days on it with light weight saddle or bar bag – yes, only thing I wouldn’t use is tubular wheels. (PITA when you need to be self sufficient for multiple days away from home)

Would I convert it to do a tour with rack and panniers – no. Would not handle well with any kind of load, maybe have heal clearance issues with rear panniers with short chainstays, no space for a more substantial tire. It would be turning a fine road bike into a well below average touring bike.

City bike? Well, never made much of a use case for such a thing for myself. What, want to ride in jeans with flat bars, flat pedals? So, the plan is to turn a fine race bike into the equivalent of a beater bike worth a few hundred bucks? If you want to do that to the bike, you must not really like it much, what a waste IMO.

What would I do? Ride the thing more, as a racer maybe I’d make it my rest day bike.

[seanile]

Originally Posted by KarlC

So much great input here, and it now looks like we have opinions on both sides of the fence.

For those that are thinking this is not the best plan, keep in mind my Speedvagen is not being used at all right now, maybe some simple changes would get it back on the road being used a few times a month ?

.

i've tried the conversion thing. i've gone so far as to have the road dropouts traded out for track ends. all to make a road bike more city-bike friendly. i just sold that this week after years of building, tearing down, letting it sit, rebuilding, tearing down, letting sit. in the interim, i have acquired a purpose-built city-bike that i love dearly and have enjoyed many miles on.

if you are into the idea of the journey of making the SV work, awesome, go have fun. but if your end goal is to have a functional/useful city-bike, sell and start over. you need to be honest about what kind of journey and what kind of end-goal you're interested in, and seeing if you can accomplish both or only one with the SV.

[NHAero]

I like the grab and go approach, so at this point only my Firefly pure road bike has clipless pedals, all the others have flat pedals (fave is Race Face Atlas). I have a Rixen & Kaul handlebar bar that uses the KlickFix mount, and have that mount on four of my bikes, so the bag moves quickly bike to bike.

I like the idea of upright bars for a city bike but when I go to Montreal I take the Litespeed MTB dropbar conversion and it's fine. So I wouldn't change the bars yet.

Flat pedals
Handlebar bag
Seat bag and/or seatpost rack with bag

There are some nifty superlight rack/bag combos designed just for racing style bikes, I forgot the brand I last saw. Pricey but less $ than changing your bars and controls!