What do you guys who race XC do bike wise. Do you have a dedicated best bike for race day only?

Does anyone have one do it all bike?

Is there mileage in having the one training/racing bike but a set of race day wheels to keep costs and space requirements down.

This is for a rider having a first season go. (Probably nutcracker and brownbacks series)

Posted in wrong section. …oops

One bike, was 26″ FS, now 29er hardtail. Same components all the time.

If you can have two then great, but I’d rather have one awesome bike than two less-awesome ones.

Run what you brung though frankly.

This is for a rider having a first season go. (Probably nutcracker and brownbacks series)

Race what you have unless your planning to podium.

The missus has a Tallboy for XC stuff and racing which means here Blur LTc can be dedicated to more fun riding. I just did a 4 day 200km race on my LTc with 160mm forks and did resonably well considering that and my lack of training. With training I could have gone a lot faster than shaving 200g off a bike.

A mate who’s other half owns a bike shop has one main bike and 2 sets of wheels everything else is the same.

The missus has a Tallboy for XC stuff and racing which means here Blur LTc can be dedicated to more fun riding. I just did a 4 day 200km race on my LTc with 160mm forks and did resonably well considering that and my lack of training. With training I could have gone a lot faster than shaving 200g off a bike.

Yes, but 2kg will make a difference.

In fairness my fitness and race planning would still have been the limiting factor.

I use the same xc bike for training and racing. Reckon it’s good to train and race on the same bike and know the bike well. Have other bikes for more “fun” riding though 🙂

I have one XC bike, 120mm 26″ hardtail, same components all the time, ride it at races and train on it. Also use my cross bike (a lot) for casual riding because of the skills boost and sketchyness, but can’t race that in XC events!

I have one bike for racing and training, and I’m racing in the Elites. Not much need for more than one bike unless you’re riding 20+ hours a week.

Always nice to have a spare set of wheels though, if you’ve got the dosh.

One bike for racing (XC, done a couple of ‘crosses and a stage race on it too), pootling, woods, trail centres, bridleway cruising, the lot. 29er HT with 80 mm forks. Just swap the wheels depending on whether I’m racing or doing anything else.

I have two XC bikes, a 120 HT and a 120 FS. The bike choice depends on the course but I tend to train and race on the HT, only using FS if its a marathon or super techy course.

I do have the wheels interchangeable though so I can take two sets of wheels with different tyres on.

I have two bikes but they are quite different, and Enduro bike and a XC race bike. If I was only interested in XC then I’d probably just have the one xc race bike. I would probably consider another set of wheels though, as light XC race tyres are too puncture prone for where I normally ride.

I’ve always believed in riding and enjoying the best kit you can afford, but that’s probably because I’ve never really trained enough to worry about wearing my kit out in less than a year. I suspect the race day kit or bike is kind of borrowed from the roadie perspective, which tends to occur when your old race bike turns into your spare/winter bike, although I do remember there was more concern about wheel wear when we ran V brakes. With discs you’re possibly more likely to want 2 pairs of the same wheels to be able to switch tyres without having to redo your tubeless set up or rotor alignment.