Should I get rid of my modern bike?

[troje]

Here's a recent personal experience. Two days ago I pulled my modern bike out of the shed for a ride on the road. Here in the western part of Holland, off road is no option at all after the massive amounts of rain we had to enjoy over the last 4 weeks. These days, even the most dry tracks in the coastal dune area look like they've just survived a 3 day pop festival...

As I was changing the tires to slicks, I noticed my rear wheel could barely run free... It wasn't seized completely, but the amount of friction was just too much to ride... You have to know this is a modern Hope Pro 2 hub that is less than two years old, has not suffered from any abuse whatsoever... so why does it stop functioning?? I mean, I have Shimano DX M650 hubs that have seen half the world without ever failing on me! Maintenance? Just some grease every 10K miles and done! Back then they cost a fraction of these expensive Hope products, but to me they are superior to the Hope product.. And they are a mere 19 years older as well!

Anyway. Modern bike back in the shed, out I took my '92 Blizzard. No suspension, no disc brakes, no 30 gears, no thumbshifters, no ergonomic saddle, no fancy wheels. Just a plain bike, beautiful frame, less is more.

So I went on the road for a nice 50 km ride... I have to admit that I was forgotten how good it rides. Even on the road with slicks. I like the spirit of this steel frameset, a good mixture of spartan comfort, just what you need and nothing more. It challenged me to go harder and faster. Back home I felt satisfied.

Should I get rid of my modern bike?

 

[cce]

You will not get a balanced answer here.

Wait until offroad is back in season in your area before deciding

 

[tintin40]

no. does as a spare bike.

 

[Johnsqual]

Sell your modern bike and use the money to buy a spare retro. Or two

 

[drystonepaul]

I like riding modern bikes and I like riding old bikes. Variety being the spice of life and all that.

I repair enough modern bikes for other people to realise that the more complex the bike is the more there is to go wrong.
My modern bikes are all built with a firm nod towards reliability rather than lightweight or bling.

All bikes though, whether old or new, need regular maintenance to stop them failing. Regular maintenance is a relative term. Some components can go for 10,000 miles whereas others need spannering every 100 miles.

 

[swinger76]

hard to say as all my bikes are road/hybrid MTB come in handy for where road bikes cant go i would keep it until the weather gets better always good to have a spare bike you never know oh btw pics pics plz

 

[gtRTSdh]

Hope seem to stig out on the hardware. The bolts on their stems are the nastiest horribleist ones I've ever seen.

It's a reasonable bet that it would be easy to upgrade the cartrisge bearings in their hubs without too much thinking, ceramic etc.

It should also be noted that shimano's cup and cone bearing system that uses a full race of ball bearings has double, yes double the load capacity than that of the cartridge bearings used in hope hubs. . . and that the bearing posisitioning of the bearings in the rear hubs is akin to that of the old screw on freewheel system * i.e. outdated and pants.

Gotta love the hope's though.

* the bearings in the hope freehubs do not support the wheel, just the freehub itself.

 

[tintin40]

. No suspension, no disc brakes, no 30 gears, no thumbshifters, no ergonomic saddle, no fancy wheels. Just a plain bike, beautiful frame, less is more.

My modern is that as well. But is does have thumb shifters.

Rethink your modern.

 

[Raging_Bulls]

You simply bought a bike with rubbish hubs. No need to blame modern bikes, blame Hope ... or yourself.

 

[Tazio]

A lot of people diss Shimano hubs as they are so common. The real fact is that they work great and just keep on going. This thread isn't really a critique of Hope but praise of Shimano.