At What Point Does a Bike Become a 'New' Bike?

So here's an interesting question for you to ponder:

When, in the course of modifying and changing your bike, does it cease to be the same bike?  Where does the soul of a bike live?  At what point does it become a 'new' bike? 

 

Case in point my commuter bike, I think it is still the same bike even after changing out almost every part on it.

 

I rescued it from a basement clean out in 2009.  It was a German made commuter bike from, probably, the 70's.  It was a 1x5 with cottered cranks and mustache bars.

 

A bit of work, a basket and some new tires turned it into a pretty decent commuter bike.

 

 

After a pretty bad wreck I had to do some rebuilding to correct a bent fork and destroyed wheel.  Alex at WTB built a set of wheels for me and with the addition of a new fork I was back on the road.  At the same time I upgraded the crank, brakes, added a double in the front and a derailleur.  I also upgraded to some better bars and revised my baskets. 

 

I rode it like that for quite a while; it was a really practical bike and really helped me to start using a bike for everything.  After about a year like that I decided to change it over to drum brakes and a three speed partially to make it more weather proof but also because I wanted indestructible wheels.  I built wheels myself to 29er rims, revised some baskets and had pretty great bike unlike any thing out there.

 

As awesome as the bike was at this point I was really missing the wider range of gears.  After a few months like this I started to miss the wider range of gearing.  I also managed to break the rear rack and crack the brake bridge on it carrying 60 pounds of cat litter in the basket.  Only solution was a new frame which is also a better fit to me, as well as a better rack; while I was at it I decided to add a two speed crank in order to get back a wider range of gearing.  Everything was switched over but the fork which would not work with the new frame.  At this point the only part left over from the original bike is the stem. The completed bike is an amazing commuter and grocery bike.  I could not be happier with the end result.

 

Os is it still the same bike or is it a new one? 

 

I still think of it as the same bike.  When I started this whole thing I set out to build my ideal commuter and grocery bike and I am still on that path.  The bike itself, while now completely different from the start has reached that through a series of smaller changes over the last 3 years. Plus it's still a shitty gray bike so there's that...

 

What do all of you think?  Is it the same bike or not?

 

 

 

 

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joel on November 2, 2011 at 4:13pm
My first thought when seeing the topic.

Luke Hannafin said:
Permalink Reply by Gort 12-mile Pinklegneep on November 2, 2011 at 4:40pm
There is no soul and continuity is an illusion. A persistent pattern creates the impression of a discrete object even when all the component elements of that object have been replaced. Bicycles and people shake up so much in proximity with one another that they exchange tiny particles until a man may find he needs to walk forward constantly or lean against something but never stand upright, and a bicycle may imperceptibly glower with a quiet menace of unspoken desires and intended deeds.
Permalink Reply by Zoetrope on November 2, 2011 at 4:48pm
Exactly.
Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on November 2, 2011 at 5:44pm

I am only caught up on the single bike obsession thing with this bike,  mostly because I never would have replaced the frame had I not broken it.  This is the bike that I decided to move from a car to a bike on; it is the bike I built to move away from from cars and towards bikes as my daily, practical, transportation.  For me this bike is the one that represents me taking bikes seriously and having a solid idea of what a 'practical' bike is.  Even though now I would want a slightly different bike as a utility bike I want this one to be a constant because it works so well and is the start of my path.

 

On the other hand I am gravitating to a certain kind of bike I seem to build over and over; my newest frame is just going to be a fancier version of something I already own...


Bikefreeek said:

I think it's interesting to be obsessed with one single bike (and whether it's the same bike after a certain amount of work). Dug, I think you're well on your way to where I find myself, continually building the same few bikes (or really style of) over and over again.
Permalink Reply by Dan Korn on November 3, 2011 at 3:31am
When you weld another one on top of it to make a tall bike.
Permalink Reply by Adam "Cezar" Jenkins on November 3, 2011 at 3:51pm

Interesting topic. Somewhat related is the Buddhist idea of emptiness, which encompases that idea that we perceve many things as having an inherint "existence". A chair is not a chair. If you broke it apart what would you call it then, wood? If you broke the wood down into it's base chemicals, to the atom, quark, string, etc?

 

 

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