how to find the perfect bike...
 

while looking for something else I came across this article: Frame and Wheel: Fashion Week and the Bicycle Industry

what caught my eye was the voting questions on the right hand side. they seem to be trying to spec out a bicycle based on votes.

obviously there is no perfect bike. but it might be interesting (in a bar sense) to find out what the ideal bike would look like, based on what people here think ? maybe even as an active/on-going thing to keep people interested and coming back to the site. I could see it working as a poll-a-week, culminating in 'the ideal bike is....'

it might give the people that ask the question something to start with. rather than 'what bike please' being answered by BMW/KTM/990/1200GS/DR350, etc, and the usual brand loyalty nonsense... it's 'why a 650', or, 'why 21" front'. which are much better questions, in my view, which demand much better answers.

the questions would need to be well thought out, and too abstract to relate to any real model of motorbike or brand. some examples could be :

- front wheel size : 19, 21, 10
- engine capacity: 250, 350, 650, 750, 1000+
- condition: showroom, rat, faithful-friend, tatty, paris-dakar wannabe
- luggage: hard, soft, none
- sound: loud, soft

my thinking is that the questions should not just be purely technical, because the bike needs soul too. I'm also thinking the questions would be better individually, once per week, because otherwise people would just describe their own bike rather than think about individual aspects. but every 6 months or so we could have a rough idea of what the people here think are the important aspects of a bike for travelling.

obviously I am far too lazy to implement such a thing, anyone else ? :-)

Very interesting indeed,that. Rob Penn's T.V. programme and book are excellent.

I think the first questions need to be about the owner and what they use the bike for?

There is little point restarting the endless debate, but one owner will love a shaft drive, 1200cc, electric everything bike because it makes them feel like the actors special friend while 2 miles from home, another will love these features because they own an OBD2 device, know how to use it and couldn't clean a chain properly if they went on a month long training course at DID, while a third guy will know all about carbs and chains and would think OBD was a old bloke in the first Star Wars Film, or a female wrestler. What you want is based on what you know, or at least think you know and what compromises (chain for five minutes a day, or shaft for hours and hours every X years) you think work best.

One size does not fit all.

Andy

P.S. The sticker on the frame say's it all.

Style over speed.