I'm riding a Triban RC120 Disc , swapped the 50/34 for a 46/30 and still had change from £500 . Shame more cycling channels are not promoting riding on a budget . Great content .
Thanks Rick. I found that lots of budget focused cycling content lacks perspective/voice of actually having limited resources. It's more often treated as a novelty or sometimes even a joke. Coming from a low income background, I could never relate. I won't always focus on budget cycling content, but when I do, I will aim to do it with dignity and earnestness.
I have the Triban RC120 rim brake, and it’s an excellent endurance bike. It’s already done 22,000km in 4 years, and has become my commuter and rando bike in one (same demands).
I use a $110 folding bike to ride these trails in Korea, but I've spent maybe $300 upgrading the components. For example, it has a Brooks saddle which cost almost as much as the bike. I can afford a nicer bike but I need something that can carry a couple panniers and that I don't mind throwing in the cargo hold of a bus to get back home. I just recently put some Vittoria tires on it so it has to be the most absurdly upgraded folding bike in Korea.
Those are really popular here. Each brevet I've done this year has had several folding bikes in attendance. You can take your Brooks to another bike, so it's a fine investment, especially if it lets you ride more.
Lots of wisdom therein! Thanks for taking the time to make this. From my own very practical endurance perspective, even many of your recommendations are a bit over the top, much. In my lifetime, I've spent enough on bikes to build a house, probably. But I see where you are coming from. I got here to Korea and commited myself to ride long every day and on a cheap bike. Bought a used 150,000 won CELLO XLR from yore but not ridden much. Changed the wheels, tires (great point in the video about this!), a saddle and I'm set except for packs about 350,000 won all in. Might need to change the handlebars (width) and maybe get aerobars (after watching your video!). Enjoying my long rides lost here in Haenam.
Thank you for the kind words. It sounds like you got a great deal on the Cello. That's a near perfect budget friendly bike. Haenam is a lovely area to ride too. The 600k course last year went from Gwangju down to Jindo and Wando before returning. That area was a real treat to explore, but has a lot of lumpy climbs that I didn't expect. Do you plan to join any brevets out of Gwangju?
@@overbikedrandonneuring I will have to check out that course/ride. Haenam definitely is "hilly/rolling" not flat as expected. My 11-28 not the best cassette for that. But I like the farm highways, almost empty for miles and miles. I come from an ultrarunning background, so lots to learn from you about riding long. Hope to go round the world next year. This year, just been circling Korea, Jeju, Taiwan. Testing waters. Go up the Yeongsangang often.
This is a timely topic, after updating my very basic MTB with TT bars, tpu tubes and a aerodynamic luggage system, tried to do a 200km local randonneur route to see how many km I could do under the 13.5 hours limit. Only 170km when the timer run out. Learned a lot, stopped for too long, didn't push hard enough, need a new saddle to accommodate the TT position, will need to finally give in to padded shorts, and will need more than 15.000mha powerbanks if I want to listen to podcasts on the way. Last upgrade I can do on this bike would be some fast thinner tires. But at this point a more suitable bike is in the cards, preferably on a low budget. So thank you for the content. PS. Some very positive lessons too, your fueling strategy worked wonderfully and I ALMOST made the 200k in a 17kg MTB bike, so there is hope with better hardware :)
So close Paulo! Better luck next ride. A heart rate monitor is a great budget pacing tool, but road tires will go a long way. What size wheels are you running? You may find my video "Brevet Pacing: Don't Blow Up" useful. For what it's worth, your experience getting started is very similar to mine. Stay with it!
Thanks, will check out the video. Wheel is a 26 inch 2.2 inch knobbly tyre, will try to figure out if a fast 32mm or 35mm will fit the current rims. A full tarmac 28mm would look a bit silly on a mtb. Ended up doing 270km that day, but with all the disasters, including recharging powerbanks in a closed gas station (they were nice enough to leave a plugged extension cord outside) took 22h for the full monty. 😂
Hiya, nice video but I wanted to let you know that the audio is coming from your camera not your microphone :D at least thats what it sounds like to me
A thing about bike fitting that I don't agree is getting a bike fit before buying anything. Plus your girl's crank length could be off, her hip rocks but in terms of saddle height, it seems fine, and she doesn't have a belly, so that to me is like a hip-impingement, and since it's a budget bike, it's very unlikely there's a power meter on the crankset, so just change it for something smaller!😜 Back to the fitting thing. For an unexperienced person, their position changes, and there's a lot of learning about just "how to seat on a bike". For such person, a "proper" bike fitting before purchase is just a waste of money -- unless it's cheaper than that UNO handlebar, or you better just put your money else where. Even for an already fit cyclist like me, the first day I put that -6 110 stem from -10 90, it's like "oh this is so roomy", just few days, I feel "yeah, long is so comfortable". Then I got -17 110 from that -6 110, I feel "oh this is low" but just few days I feel "oh can't believe this is not low anymore and I want lower". If I were to do a $200 or even more dynamic fitting when I was on -10 90, I may never come out with a -17 120mm stem like now. They will say your mobility sucks and you should ride 90 forever. What surprised me the most is just how fast your body can adapt and that adaptation needs 1) you have to put yourself into that position, 2) you have to give it some time so your body could settle down. So I'll say for someone who is not a cyclist or not super seriously already, just go for some cycling friends and let them give you some rudimentary reference so you don't ended up buying a L frame for some one who should be on S or XS. Then just ride a lot, tinkering a lot, change things a lot see what it goes. IMO the best advantage of cheap bike is you will be more than happy to just change things and experiment, plus peace of mind to use it as a transportation tool. That also means in urban or semi-urban area, you won't need to picnic all the time crouching on the sidewalk like a homeless... You can just lock your inexpensive bike, and get into that mall, and have a decent meal!
Any decent bike shop should offer a free basic 'eyeball' fit for prospective customers just to start off with the correct sized bike. Even if it is just putting a potential bike onto a trainer, setting saddle height, and checking that other fit factors are not way off can help new cyclists a lot. I did swap my wife's crank arms from 170mm to 152mm. Huge difference and less hip impingement! No clue why such long cranks were on an XS size bike. Luckily the bike she got to replace this one came with somewhat short cranks as new.
A used bike with rim brakes and mechanical shifting could be the cheapest and the lightest choice. Up to your budget it can be around 6kg for 3000$ (which still is money, but only a fraction of a 15000$ bike which won't perform better).
The prices on used rim brake bikes and wheels is incredibly low these days. Even Ultegra level. That said, many of them are looking quite rough too. I think I would target a metal cyclocross bike personally.
I just found your channel and it’s extremely informative. I’m interested in putting together a bike for this purpose but am a relatively newer rider. You mentioned you are heavier. If I may ask, approximately what do you weigh and what mm tires are you running? Thank you.
Hi Alan, happy to hear you are enjoying the channel. I am 92kg, so disc brakes are useful for tire clearance in my case. I typically run 28c tires that inflate to 30mm wide at 60-65 PSI. If I were on a bike without the kind of pricey Redshift Shockstop system for comfort, I would run 32c tires that would inflate to 34mm on my wide rims at ~55 PSI. What choices are you leaning towards for you build?
@@overbikedrandonneuring I’m looking in a couple of directions. First, a good friend of mine just gifted me a nice aluminum/ carbon Bianchi road bike but it’s a bit racy geometry and only 25 mm tires. I’m around 84 kg so that requires really high pressure and the ride is pretty stiff and jolting. Also, I have a friend who finds and refurbishes older vintage steel bikes and I have him looking for something for me. Prior to seeing your video on aluminum bikes I was reluctantly considering carbon but am not 100% sold on the material nor the price of carbon. After watching your video I may give aluminum another look. I’m happy to see that at least some bike prices are beginning to come down. Thanks again for answering me and for the effort you put into your videos.
@@AlanJohnsonSunbird That's a lot of options. The Bianchi may not be best for long endurance riding, but it is well worth keeping around, kind of like a classic sports car for sunny weekends. As long as you get a well fitting setup that accommodates appropriate tires, and is designed for your purpose, you will be able to get started smoothly and make any needed component changes as you go. There is too much ruckus made about frame materials, both positive and negative, so don't worry too much about it. They will tend to have differences in character due to tubing diameter, butting, and wall thickness norms for various metals, or shaping and layup for carbon. But, frame design and manufacturing quality are more important variables than the materials themselves when the goal is to be happy with a bike. Hopefully you can find a bike that speaks to you, whatever that material may be.
They may be originally for junior bikes, but were also somewhat popular in recumbent circles where square taper BBs are still quite common. I had some many years ago on a recumbent, and even at 6'1", they felt quite normal.
![fellow fellow - PROUD feat. INK WARUNTORN [STRING QUARTET]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BQrVkMPTdHE/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm riding a Triban RC120 Disc , swapped the 50/34 for a 46/30 and still had change from £500 . Shame more cycling channels are not promoting riding on a budget . Great content .
Thanks Rick. I found that lots of budget focused cycling content lacks perspective/voice of actually having limited resources. It's more often treated as a novelty or sometimes even a joke. Coming from a low income background, I could never relate. I won't always focus on budget cycling content, but when I do, I will aim to do it with dignity and earnestness.
I have the Triban RC120 rim brake, and it’s an excellent endurance bike. It’s already done 22,000km in 4 years, and has become my commuter and rando bike in one (same demands).
I use a $110 folding bike to ride these trails in Korea, but I've spent maybe $300 upgrading the components. For example, it has a Brooks saddle which cost almost as much as the bike. I can afford a nicer bike but I need something that can carry a couple panniers and that I don't mind throwing in the cargo hold of a bus to get back home. I just recently put some Vittoria tires on it so it has to be the most absurdly upgraded folding bike in Korea.
Those are really popular here. Each brevet I've done this year has had several folding bikes in attendance. You can take your Brooks to another bike, so it's a fine investment, especially if it lets you ride more.
Lots of wisdom therein! Thanks for taking the time to make this. From my own very practical endurance perspective, even many of your recommendations are a bit over the top, much. In my lifetime, I've spent enough on bikes to build a house, probably. But I see where you are coming from. I got here to Korea and commited myself to ride long every day and on a cheap bike. Bought a used 150,000 won CELLO XLR from yore but not ridden much. Changed the wheels, tires (great point in the video about this!), a saddle and I'm set except for packs about 350,000 won all in. Might need to change the handlebars (width) and maybe get aerobars (after watching your video!). Enjoying my long rides lost here in Haenam.
Thank you for the kind words. It sounds like you got a great deal on the Cello. That's a near perfect budget friendly bike. Haenam is a lovely area to ride too. The 600k course last year went from Gwangju down to Jindo and Wando before returning. That area was a real treat to explore, but has a lot of lumpy climbs that I didn't expect. Do you plan to join any brevets out of Gwangju?
@@overbikedrandonneuring I will have to check out that course/ride. Haenam definitely is "hilly/rolling" not flat as expected. My 11-28 not the best cassette for that. But I like the farm highways, almost empty for miles and miles. I come from an ultrarunning background, so lots to learn from you about riding long. Hope to go round the world next year. This year, just been circling Korea, Jeju, Taiwan. Testing waters. Go up the Yeongsangang often.
Great video, very honest and no doubt a depth of knowledge for budget randoneurs,
Good ideas for reasonable price bike. LOVE IT ❤
I just take my fixed gear everywhere. Don't have to worry about brakes or groupsets lol. Managed to get it to 7.4 kilos and stayed below 700€ :)
My knees!!! Respect though, and glad you enjoy it.
7.4 kilos, what frame material ?
I ride a steel single speed (with rim brakes) the "breast" weighs 11 kilos & cost me.Aust$300 new.
This is a timely topic, after updating my very basic MTB with TT bars, tpu tubes and a aerodynamic luggage system, tried to do a 200km local randonneur route to see how many km I could do under the 13.5 hours limit. Only 170km when the timer run out.
Learned a lot, stopped for too long, didn't push hard enough, need a new saddle to accommodate the TT position, will need to finally give in to padded shorts, and will need more than 15.000mha powerbanks if I want to listen to podcasts on the way.
Last upgrade I can do on this bike would be some fast thinner tires.
But at this point a more suitable bike is in the cards, preferably on a low budget. So thank you for the content.
PS. Some very positive lessons too, your fueling strategy worked wonderfully and I ALMOST made the 200k in a 17kg MTB bike, so there is hope with better hardware :)
So close Paulo! Better luck next ride. A heart rate monitor is a great budget pacing tool, but road tires will go a long way. What size wheels are you running? You may find my video "Brevet Pacing: Don't Blow Up" useful. For what it's worth, your experience getting started is very similar to mine. Stay with it!
Thanks, will check out the video.
Wheel is a 26 inch 2.2 inch knobbly tyre, will try to figure out if a fast 32mm or 35mm will fit the current rims.
A full tarmac 28mm would look a bit silly on a mtb.
Ended up doing 270km that day, but with all the disasters, including recharging powerbanks in a closed gas station (they were nice enough to leave a plugged extension cord outside) took 22h for the full monty. 😂
@@pyrkol Epic ride! Those are the kinds of stories you will remember. Maybe the Conti Contact Urban 47c would be a good tire for you.
Hiya, nice video but I wanted to let you know that the audio is coming from your camera not your microphone :D at least thats what it sounds like to me
That explains a lot, thanks. I couldn't figure it out when shooting or editing. Time to tinker!
A thing about bike fitting that I don't agree is getting a bike fit before buying anything. Plus your girl's crank length could be off, her hip rocks but in terms of saddle height, it seems fine, and she doesn't have a belly, so that to me is like a hip-impingement, and since it's a budget bike, it's very unlikely there's a power meter on the crankset, so just change it for something smaller!😜
Back to the fitting thing. For an unexperienced person, their position changes, and there's a lot of learning about just "how to seat on a bike". For such person, a "proper" bike fitting before purchase is just a waste of money -- unless it's cheaper than that UNO handlebar, or you better just put your money else where. Even for an already fit cyclist like me, the first day I put that -6 110 stem from -10 90, it's like "oh this is so roomy", just few days, I feel "yeah, long is so comfortable". Then I got -17 110 from that -6 110, I feel "oh this is low" but just few days I feel "oh can't believe this is not low anymore and I want lower". If I were to do a $200 or even more dynamic fitting when I was on -10 90, I may never come out with a -17 120mm stem like now. They will say your mobility sucks and you should ride 90 forever. What surprised me the most is just how fast your body can adapt and that adaptation needs 1) you have to put yourself into that position, 2) you have to give it some time so your body could settle down.
So I'll say for someone who is not a cyclist or not super seriously already, just go for some cycling friends and let them give you some rudimentary reference so you don't ended up buying a L frame for some one who should be on S or XS. Then just ride a lot, tinkering a lot, change things a lot see what it goes. IMO the best advantage of cheap bike is you will be more than happy to just change things and experiment, plus peace of mind to use it as a transportation tool. That also means in urban or semi-urban area, you won't need to picnic all the time crouching on the sidewalk like a homeless... You can just lock your inexpensive bike, and get into that mall, and have a decent meal!
Any decent bike shop should offer a free basic 'eyeball' fit for prospective customers just to start off with the correct sized bike. Even if it is just putting a potential bike onto a trainer, setting saddle height, and checking that other fit factors are not way off can help new cyclists a lot. I did swap my wife's crank arms from 170mm to 152mm. Huge difference and less hip impingement! No clue why such long cranks were on an XS size bike. Luckily the bike she got to replace this one came with somewhat short cranks as new.
A used bike with rim brakes and mechanical shifting could be the cheapest and the lightest choice. Up to your budget it can be around 6kg for 3000$ (which still is money, but only a fraction of a 15000$ bike which won't perform better).
The prices on used rim brake bikes and wheels is incredibly low these days. Even Ultegra level. That said, many of them are looking quite rough too. I think I would target a metal cyclocross bike personally.
I just found your channel and it’s extremely informative.
I’m interested in putting together a bike for this purpose but am a relatively newer rider.
You mentioned you are heavier.
If I may ask, approximately what do you weigh and what mm tires are you running?
Thank you.
Hi Alan, happy to hear you are enjoying the channel. I am 92kg, so disc brakes are useful for tire clearance in my case. I typically run 28c tires that inflate to 30mm wide at 60-65 PSI. If I were on a bike without the kind of pricey Redshift Shockstop system for comfort, I would run 32c tires that would inflate to 34mm on my wide rims at ~55 PSI.
What choices are you leaning towards for you build?
@@overbikedrandonneuring I’m looking in a couple of directions.
First, a good friend of mine just gifted me a nice aluminum/ carbon Bianchi road bike but it’s a bit racy geometry and only 25 mm tires. I’m around 84 kg so that requires really high pressure and the ride is pretty stiff and jolting.
Also, I have a friend who finds and refurbishes older vintage steel bikes and I have him looking for something for me.
Prior to seeing your video on aluminum bikes I was reluctantly considering carbon but am not 100% sold on the material nor the price of carbon.
After watching your video I may give aluminum another look.
I’m happy to see that at least some bike prices are beginning to come down.
Thanks again for answering me and for the effort you put into your videos.
@@AlanJohnsonSunbird That's a lot of options. The Bianchi may not be best for long endurance riding, but it is well worth keeping around, kind of like a classic sports car for sunny weekends. As long as you get a well fitting setup that accommodates appropriate tires, and is designed for your purpose, you will be able to get started smoothly and make any needed component changes as you go. There is too much ruckus made about frame materials, both positive and negative, so don't worry too much about it. They will tend to have differences in character due to tubing diameter, butting, and wall thickness norms for various metals, or shaping and layup for carbon. But, frame design and manufacturing quality are more important variables than the materials themselves when the goal is to be happy with a bike. Hopefully you can find a bike that speaks to you, whatever that material may be.
@3:18 i didn't even know 152 mm crank arms existed
They may be originally for junior bikes, but were also somewhat popular in recumbent circles where square taper BBs are still quite common. I had some many years ago on a recumbent, and even at 6'1", they felt quite normal.
I'd like to buy that shirt. Do you have a link?
Like all my nice clothes, it was a gift from my wife. She says it was from Banana Republic but I can't find a link unfortunately.