Who Rides the Cheapest Bike?

[The Cumbrian]

I'll set the ball rolling with my Specialized Sirrus that I bought off Ebay for about £70 six or seven years ago. I changed the crank, pedals and seat, made it tubeless and fitted a riser stem and a set of Jones riser bars (that cost more than the bike) and I'm happy with it for pootling around country lanes and easy off road.
The only thing that annoys me is the lack of clearance with 40mm tyres, and the V Brakes clog up with mud very easily.

[Lazarus]

pretty confident you are going to win

My cheapest is parts bin SS - though the frame was new at £130 i think cheap as everyone was switching from 26 to 29 etc. It was described as a reto classic at SSUk when it was THREE years old

Hard to price as everything was just stuff i had lying around pretty much £200-£250?
i i was to sell it now I am not sure i would get any buyers and the 26" reba forks are probably the only thing on it that has any real value

[The Cumbrian]

I've started to realise that my bike is a bit like Trigger's broom, as I've changed the brake levers and shifters too.

[PaulB2]

I rode a 60 quid bike for commuting for 18 months after my previous commuter was nicked. I did double the value of the bike by putting new brake pads and tyres on it though.

[sean_iow]

I've started to realise that my bike is a bit like Trigger's broom, as I've changed the brake levers and shifters too.

If that's how we're playing then I win. I have a 1990s Rockhopper which I bought at an auto-jumble for £30, I've upgraded all of it apart from the bell, so it does now look like a ti Salsa

I have thought about using the Rockhopper for a trip, just to see what bikepacking would have been like in the 1990s, I'm guessing pretty much the same as now but with narrower bars.

[slarge]

I have a 1950's butchers bike with a basket on the front that I got for nowt from FiL's shed.

Haven't used it for bikepacking yet though, although I have ridden it

[RIP]

I've upgraded all of it apart from the bell, so it does now look like a ti Salsa

loon!

[techno]

I rode a 60 quid bike for commuting for 18 months after my previous commuter was nicked. I did double the value of the bike by putting new brake pads and tyres on it though.

My commuter is a £10 s/h rockhopper. Only thing added is 1 tyre and a chain. So £35 max.
My stooge however.......

[redefined_cycles]

My first road bike was a Condor (sp old that even they didn't know the model of but confirmed it as theirs) for about £205. Steel 531 or 631 tubing. Twas lovely..

[Charliecres]

My cheapest is a Ridley x-bow bought from eBay for £200 with Ultegra shifters and a virtually brand new 105 drive train, super light wheels, carbon seat post, etc.

It started off as a commuter and experiment to see if I’d actually use a “gravel” bike. The answer was yes, so I bought a Pickenflick to fill that niche and now use the X-bow mainly as a winter road bike (although it gets used year round for short rides too). I would also be commuting on it if that was still a thing.

It’s just really nice to ride on the road or smoothish off-road. The only minor downsides are cantis not discs and a bit of toe overlap.

[jameso]

I've spent some good weekends out and about on my Genesis Day One SS CX. Was a £499 bike when new and it's ~13 years old. Not cheap by most people's standards granted, but there's my entry : )
It's had no upgrades over the basic spec apart from some DX pedals and it's now got a different swept/M bar and suitable brake levers. It's basically my town runabout bike that from time to time I take on lazy summer overnighters where the aim is to not think about anything in particular inc routes, bike or kit.

Simpler bikes are better bikes, I think.



^ in slightly posher spec experiment times. 100 miles on road there and 100 back, didn't do a lot of SS road riding after that

[BigdummySteve]

I've started to realise that my bike is a bit like Trigger's broom, as I've changed the brake levers and shifters too.

Same here, all that's left of my ECR is the bottom bracket, I've changed the frame for one from a salsa Fargo, wheels, gears and bars etc

[AlexGold]

Depending on definition of what you 'paid' for it, I bought my commuter/now fixed bike for £20.

I have spent a fair bit on it though, have done:

• New saddle

• New seat post

• New bars

• New stem

• New brakes

• New bottom bracket

• New headset

• New pedals

• New crankset x 3 (bent 2 trying to climb a rather steep road, which I thought was a good achievement!)

• New brake levers (and cross top levers)

• Built 3 x wheels for it (started off as Sturmey Archer 3 speed then I bought a track wheel and re rimmed it with a brake track)

• Stripped to frame and professionally powder coated

^^ That lot cost a fair bit more than £20, but it's my favourite bike now......albeit it still has a mystery click from time to time (cured by hammering GT85 down the seat tube until it drips out of the drain hole under the BB

[Borderer]

My first bikepacking bike was a Dawes ali hardtail that cost me £71.89 on eBay. I rode it many thousands of miles. It fitted me really well and was a pleasure to ride. When we give talks I often refer to this as proof that you don't need to spend a lot of money to get started.



I only replaced it as it was quite heavy - about 20kg laden which was a bit of a struggle for me to haul about. I now have a carbon fibre hardtail which started as a £75 eBay frame and was built up as cheaply as possible, but probably still came to around £350. It's a lot lighter though and has really made a difference.

[The Cumbrian]

That's an vaguely exciting colour scheme on that frame.

[Richpips]

On my 1st HT550 the bike I rode was an Iro Mia which cost me under £150

[frogatthefarriers]

4 years ago I was having a clear out and took some stuff to the "Civic Amenity Site", AKA the dump. Propped up just outside the gate was this :-


It even had a label stuck to the top tube :-


Now once something has been dumped in the skip, you can't then get it out. I guess the owner thought that it was too good to be scrapped and left it out of the site for (me) someone to make use of.

So I guess it must be the cheapest on here, but only if you discount the cost of a seatpost. The seat came out of the shed.
I rode that bike for a couple of years before fitting new wheels and tyres, and am still riding it now for running about. It's had a new cassette and chain since then too, but I've done lots of miles on it. Done two bivvies on it too.