Another cheap beater enters the fray
by Steve ~ August 27th, 2007. Filed under: Other people's bikes.Contributed by Glenn, Hamilton, Ontario
Hey Steve,
I like your site. My compliments.
In fact, I liked it so much that I allowed it to inspire me to purchase my own cheapo bike a couple of days ago — a shiny black $99 Arashi Nottingham from SportChek
As you can see, like your ruggedly crappy SuperCycle-1800, this Arashi clunker is actually quite fetching in appearance. I debated between this mean black machine and the SC-1800, making a couple of trips to SportChek and Canadian Tire, before choosing the former for the lone reason that it somehow felt lighter. I am not sure how this is so, since as far as I can tell, the two bikes are virtually identical in every aspect, except the Arashi has grip gear shifters as opposed to the SC-1800’s thumb shifters.
A shiny black $99 Arashi Nottingham from SportChek
In addition to weekend recreational use, I plan to primarily use this bike (instead of driving as I’ve done up to now) to commute to work daily, which is less than 4 km from my apartment. This concept of using a beater bike to commute — brilliant. In fact, so much so, after watching me ride an inaugural lap around the SportChek parking lot without the Arashi disintegrating under me, my girlfriend was so impressed that the result can be seen in the next picture:
Two… count ‘em… shiny black $99 Arashi Nottinghams from SportChek
Oh, the madness! She and I have just returned tonight from taking those twin Arashi’s on a 20km ride; not the most efficient machines, but each still in one piece!
So Steve…… thus enters another cheap beater bike into the fray. I will keep you updated as to how this black beast stands the test of time.
Cheers from Hamilton, Ontario,
Glenn
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A week of bottom bracket silence
Another Budget Bicycling experiment
August 27th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
The horror, the horror! (Like Kurtz, I said it twice, so I must mean it.)
As much as I’m flattered that you were “inspired” to buy a crappy bike by my blog, I’d advise you to also buy the tools you’ll need to keep the Nottingham maintained, roadworthy and safe. (See the SC1800 Toolbox link in the left sidebar.) These beaters begin to fail quickly, and without a few bike tools (and a lot of elbow grease) I wouldn’t expect to get more than a few months (about 1,000 Km) use out of it.
That said, I like the look of the Nottingham. The black paint makes it look lean and efficient.