Weight Weenies

Someone was telling me how "fun" it is to drive this car (a mini) even though it's not a high performance racing car. At the back of my mind, "fun" is pretty vague and how does this apply to riding our bicycles without all the gizmo numbers?

The only things I can start with are handling & sprinting responsiveness and comfortable fitting. What else will you add?

It will be nice if there should be a similar program, Top Gear, for bicycles.

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Descends like a bullet, comfortable, always feels safe and just makes you smile. I have an R1 addict that I'll put under 4kg this year....it's an absolute weapon.... but my fun bike????....it's a cheap as chips fm028 Dengfu with all the OLD gear from my addict on it. It makes me smile and you can back it around a ridiculously tight corner by feel alone. He who has the most fun wins. iT DOESN'T SPRINT SUPER WELL......it descends mind bogglingly well (surely it shouldn't!!).

Simple, you find yourself rolling into the garage after a ride smiling.... Doesnt matter if the bike cost you $100 or $10,000, its yours, and no one can take away the adventures you'll have with it.

I have the most fun on bikes that feel reliable.

I love my BMC, but I'm building up a cheap chinese frame too that I'm sure will become my most ridden bike.

Three wheels, one of them Big.

Either that, or use this highly refined mathematical model: % fluo green - (red%+white%+black%) = Fun Factor.

-Tim

I think it is hard to directly relate the idea of a "fun" car to a bicycle simply because so much of the bike ride is determined by you the rider.

I think something like the Surley Pugsley or Moonlander ( http://surlybikes.com/bikes/) are probably the best description of a "fun" bikes for your purposes, and that's due to the ridiculously sized tires.

Sounds like it is when you want the bike to perform to your expectation. Engine aside, I will like it to perform the following:

Late braking into a corner with great confident braking (disc?)
Early acceleration (tight cornering and move according to the corner line I visualized)
Do not whine when I stomped on the pedals. Effortless acceleration or climbing.
Do not cobble me like the roubaix yet firm on the road.
Auto shift gear within a range of torque.
Great sound from deep disc or campy shifting. (like revving engine and clutch sound?)
Bling (retro racing design)

Now how do I built such a bike?

Frankly, all my bikes are fun bikes. My commuter is a subway train, so I guess that wasn't too hard to decide.

I love my road bike but I would have to say my SS Trek Sawyer 29er is fun. I don't ride it much but it's my cruise around town bike.

I have a cold/flu right now so riding my bike is not so much fun . When your in good shape and can ride and climb easy .Put the power down at will then riding is fun .Staying in shape is not always easy and I don't enjoy the first few weeks it takes to feel strong on my bike again after a bout of ill health .
Having said that, it's nice to ride a cool light bike .

For me my TT bike is fun - flying down the road makes me happy - I like the reward of speed for pain. Also I like being intimidating with P5/1080/disc.

And my road bike is fun and my MTB too...

In the sense of having a bike just for fun - my classic steel (Merckx MXL) is a pure indulgence and I think there needs to be an element of that in a 'fun' bike.

In my opinion, a "fun" bike not only should perform well -- it should look uber cool as well.

Almost all of my bikes are really fun to ride, and I look forward to riding them even when I glance over to them from my desk.

With one exception. My "lockable" (aka my commuter bike). It looks gorgeous. Operates perfectly fine ("it's like Dura-Ace 4 years ago!"), and totally lockable of a bike... but god almighty is it a tank. 25lbs of meh. To be honest: I don't look forward to riding it, but I ride it because I know I can lock it up and it is most likely never going to get stolen when I go out for commutes/social/errands/cross-training and if it does, it won't hurt me as much because it only cost $350US shipped. Looks gorgeous though.

Anything but a stationary trainer.
They all have their charms but comfortable, light, responsive, stops well, steers well, are important attributes.
Stiffness not at all, well, to a point.
I've never tried any trick riding but trials bikes look like fun.

Or maybe one with a seat that you can ride down the road.

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My most fun bike was a piece of crap steel bike with the rear derailleur all out of whack, and half working brakes...

It was fun because me and my friends use to ride around our house trying to knock each other off, leaning against someone til you shoved them into a bush, or flinging an elbow and showing them that locked elbows are very bad, or smashing into their rear gears with your front wheel and hopefully riding off their rear wheel without falling off, or just 'going for the corner' with no regard for actually making the corner...

It was called the cain game And it was friggen awesome fun

Nothing better for learning bike control.

,
Ian