Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 92 total)
  • Just one MTB?
  • I would never choose a HT as a do it all bike. Why, when the platform damping on rear shocks is so good these days?

    ali69er – you just called your bike a trusty steed. Your onion no longer counts!

    ali69er
    Free Member

    My onion? Have I missed something? Maybe I am losing my marbles, only one bike on here is almost sacrilege

    iainc
    Full Member

    Went through this process recently and now just one MTB also. Nicely specced Soul, and not yet missing the others 🙂

    I do have a cross bike and a road bike too though !

    TiRed
    Full Member

    I have one bike that is four bikes; Genesis io id

    26″ Hardtail with Alfine hub
    26″ Hardtail SS
    69er rigid with Alfine hub
    69er rigid SS

    pick whichever you fancy. A carbon seatpost takes away a lot of the HT sting. I have ridden my son’s FS, but I found it pretty dull (fast though). Prior to this I had a Kona Unit 29er SS. I can honestly say, that since the geometry is very similar, there isn’t a lot of difference between them.

    cookeaa
    Full Member

    I would never choose a HT as a do it all bike. Why, when the platform damping on rear shocks is so good these days?

    Horses for courses, not everyone needs a full bouncer or the extra servicing/maintenance that one brings.

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR – Member

    matt – no offence intended pal, but that seems like an awful lot of effort you are putting in there for a 10″ drop old chap
    Not when you are mincecorelite. That’s just the way I roll. 😉

    br
    Free Member

    I would never choose a HT as a do it all bike. Why, when the platform damping on rear shocks is so good these days?

    More weight, less mud room, more complexity, more expensive, higher BB – I’m sure there are other things too that let them down.

    chiefgrooveguru
    Full Member

    I was thinking about getting a full-sus, some kind of slack 6″ beast, for the local DH tracks and races, and enduro races. Then my LBS pointed out that I’d be better off with a real DH bike for the DH races or just sticking in hardtail class. So that saved me some money…

    gonetothehills
    Free Member

    Same as iainc here – first time I’ve had only one mountain bike for donkey’s years and it’s a Lynskey Ti456 with 150mm on the front. I’m enjoying mountain biking more than I have for ages. It’s simple, fun, reminds why I got into the sport twenty-something years ago.

    I’ve currently only got the one road bike too – the Tripster’s gone and the new Tripster ATR frame isn’t even in the country yet. Still – there’s a box of bits waiting on…

    The garage has never felt so big.

    mboy
    Free Member

    Went through this process recently and now just one MTB also. Nicely specced Soul, and not yet missing the others

    I do have a cross bike and a road bike too though !

    Thinking along similar lines, though erring towards the Cotic Solaris actually. Current HT is very similar in function/design to a Soul, really like it, just fancy a 29er again. Will be keeping the road bike, and like I say, looking at getting a crosser too.

    I would never choose a HT as a do it all bike. Why, when the platform damping on rear shocks is so good these days?

    I love FS, but when most of my trails still resemble a swamp in the middle of June, and I don’t ride trail centres very often at all, I very rarely notice a benefit from full sus, but the extra care and attention (and less mud room) that a full sus requires is a detractor to me most of the time.

    The biggest problem with only owning one bike is when something wears out or breaks on it,you don’t have a bike to ride until it’s working again…..
    Now the problem I have with having more than one bike is when something wears out or breaks I use another one,then when something happens to that one I use another & so it goes on…………Until it gets to the day I have no usable bikes & then I fix a couple or 3,& so it starts again………………..

    Yeah, likewise… And it breeds laziness! If I only had one bike, it would be fixed immediately every time it broke, rather than being put in the shed and forgotten about whilst I rode another one til that broke too.

    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    Been there, doing it.

    Emigrated to NZ with one bike – a 160 mm Norco. Heavy and inefficient but gets me around.

    Amos
    Free Member

    After having tons of bikes including foes, 575’s, souls, PA cannondales and a BfE I’m now down to just one bike…
    A Cervelo S1! really missing a mountain bike but kids and wife off on maternity and trying to save for a house has put having another on the back burner for the foreseeable future

    Olly
    Free Member

    built this from all my best parts to consolidate down to one proper bike.

    do have a surly LHT turer/commuter as well though, and a cotic simple as a weekday bike. simple is to keep the giant in good condition for the weekends rather than dragging it around local mud fest bridlepaths in the week.

    stewartc
    Free Member

    Managed to live in a monogamous relationship with one bike for the last 3 years but that is just down to a lack of storage space.
    If pushed I would like to get a HT for some light XC and hill climbing duties but the SB66 does OK covering a lot of bases, this recent generation of 150/160 travel bikes really are very versatile.

    Kryton57
    Full Member

    The answer to this thread is…

    ASR5

    NormalMan
    Full Member

    I recently sold my steel ht as it got no use over winter (due to me being injured) and a mate made a decent offer for it. To be truthful about it, since getting my fs (26er 120mm Camber Expert) I hadn’t ridden it as it weighed 5 lb more!

    I still have an old retro mtb singlespeed but it is stripped and needs a rebuild.

    Mintman
    Free Member

    I’ve ridden a Pace 405 full suss for the last 4 years which has been my only bike – its done everything that i’ve got the bottle to do so I love it to bits.

    That said i’ve just bought a Carbon 456 which should be perfectly suited to the riding that I do so once the honeymoon period has worn off i’m wondering which one will be the “default” choice.

    z1ppy
    Full Member

    if you HAD to have only one bike for the next 12 months at least (for whatever reason), then what would it be?

    You’ve seemingly taken a proposition & made it a reality… why would you need to only have 1 MTB, if you’ve got no real reason to cull the other(s)?
    Starting to sound like you want/need a reason to buy a new bike, just do it, s’not like you have a garage full already 😉

    My own personal take on it is, yes FS-ers are flawed, but I wouldn’t be without one. Yet that flaw means I have reason enough to have a winter HT now. So 2 is the minimum in my ‘world’.

    fudge9202
    Free Member

    Went from three to one (1 stolen) now I just have a 2013 Bandit, with a spare set of wheels and tyres and some necessary spares in the event of breakages, it does everything amazingly well! Still does not stop me desiring another hardtail but with the indecision over wheel size and the lack of tyres for 650b, I have for the moment decided the 1 bike I have is fine.

    richardk
    Free Member

    2004 Spesh Stumpy, full sus (100mm travel?). Only MTB that I’ve had for years. Spare set of narrow tyres for gloop, and that’s it. Use it for riding everything, but I’m not an Alps/downhilly person…

    There is a road bike for, well, road riding, and a TT bike for racing as well though, so it’s not one bike for everything…

    kelvin
    Full Member

    I’m going to say Hemlock as well, but with far lighter wheels and forks. The two sets of wheels plan seems wise.

    andeh
    Full Member

    Burly hardtail with lengthy, adjustable travel forks.

    XC- check!
    DH- check!
    DJ- check!
    pump/BMX tracks- check!
    PUB- check!

    It’s always a compromise, but if I had to have one bike (which I do), then it would be a hardtail (which it is!)

    Though, if I lived in North Wales, Lake District or the Highlands etc, I’d probably have something bouncy.

    HermanShake
    Free Member

    Wot he sed ^

    150/120 in the front, good steel in the middle and an uppy downy thing on top.

    It’s half scalpel, half mallet.

    HoratioHufnagel
    Free Member

    I’ve only got one MTB – Santa Cruz Chameleon.

    scandal42
    Free Member

    Due to the type of riding I enjoy most I would go with my awesome Scandal 26er, fast as I could want, light and obliterates hills. I had it round the Marin and Penmachno in one weekend and it didn’t miss a beat, I was even hammering the downhill sections as far as my ability allows.

    When it come to the Mtb marathons she is perfect.

    sbd16v
    Free Member

    Specialized epic for me with 120mm forks and a dropper post has made a good all round bike for me last 3 years, it’s riden various trail centers, Dartmoor all rear round where it hardly ever dries out and I used it for comuting for 18 months, also entered a few xc races.

    I go though a set of frame bearings every 12 months but they take me a couple of hours to change and cost 30 quid a set, Its just another consumable and in the grand scheme of bikes quite a cheap one ( spend he’ll of a lot more on brake pads in a year ) .

    harryparabolics
    Free Member

    Been grappling with this recently, and I’d go for a Transition Bandit 29er I think. Or a Blur LT – perfect for all trails round ‘ere…

    Garry_Lager
    Full Member

    Going FS I wouldn’t look past my jekyll tbh – the dual travel rear shock (150 / 90) is pretty impressive. Done enough miles on it now to be convinced. An upgrade to the wheels would make for a great all round bike (running a set of old pro2s / 819s).

    Saying that, if I really did need to whittle em down I think it would be a hardtail.

    chrismac
    Full Member

    I rationalised down from 3 bikes to 1 as I decided that 1 really nice bike was better than 3 ok bikes.

    I have an orange 5 but with 2 sets of forks, some 140s for most of the time and 160s for DH and alpine duties.

    Hob-Nob
    Free Member

    I’m down to one, having sold my DH bike, due to a complete lack of use, I’ve been racing the trail bike instead recently & on the shorter stuff it’s debatable if I’m any slower.

    I use my 150mm bike for everything now. I did have a reasonable road bike which I sold, and I’m kicking myself for, as I replaced it with a clunky old Allez. I’m toying with selling it an building something a bit nicer again to go alongside the MTB.

    teamslug
    Free Member

    n+1 its the law…….

    Cheezpleez
    Full Member

    These days I have the same answer for every ‘what bike?’ thread:

    Singular Buzzard

    mboy
    Free Member

    You’ve seemingly taken a proposition & made it a reality… why would you need to only have 1 MTB, if you’ve got no real reason to cull the other(s)?
    Starting to sound like you want/need a reason to buy a new bike, just do it, s’not like you have a garage full already

    There’s method in the madness, trust me! And yes it would be more self imposed than anything else…

    n+1 its the law…….

    I don’t disagree. Sadly N-1 is usually the number of bikes I can actually afford (to run), or the number that will fit in the garage/shed. Road bike won’t be going anywhere, and I want a CX bike. Something has to give rationally, and I think for the first time in ages, for the type of MTB riding I do these days, I’d be happy doing it all on the same bike. Gone are the days of buggering off to the Alps for a couple of weeks (though hopefully they may return), and I’m no race whippet or anything. I just enjoy riding bikes, and mostly on trails local to me these days. And often they’re more than rideable on a CX bike too, so actually wouldn’t really be limiting my choice that much after all! 😉

    NormalMan
    Full Member

    I should have added earlier when I spoke about just using my Camber, tha also came partly to acknowleging it would cope with anything I’m going to do / attempt on an mtb these days (too many injuries) but at the same time didn’t mention my road bikes! 😉

    @ mboy – the camber is ‘wearing’ the charge spoon, which is the third mtb it’s been on, since you recommended it to me all those years ago on a certain car forum!

    futonrivercrossing
    Free Member

    Happy with my Jones as my only bike- I don’t lust after anything else at all.

    gee
    Free Member

    I think 4 is reasonable. Race hardtail, full sus, training hardtail and winter bike.

    That said, I have 8 so I can’t even follow my own rules.

    GB

    _tom_
    Free Member

    This video has made me really reconsider my full sus choice – http://www.pinkbike.com/video/317410/

    Love the Voltage downhill but to be able to climb easier would be nice as well.

    deviant
    Free Member

    Just the one for me currently.

    A 456-evo seems to be fine for most of what i ride at the moment, if i go back to racing (Mini-DH and Gravity-Enduro) then i will probably get another FS but i’d sell the hardtail to fund it…i genuinely cant stand having bikes around that i dont ride.

    I have a road bike too and it annoys me that it sits under the stairs for most of the year until sunny days when i feel like cranking out some miles.

    I’m just not a hoarder, if i dont need or use something it gets thrown away, its just stuff anyway.

    chiefgrooveguru
    Full Member

    This video has made me really reconsider my full sus choice

    Nice riding.

    I was thinking about my regular riding posse and apart from weirdos like me on a 140mm HT and FRC above on his Jones Spaceframe, plus some 100-120mm 26 and 29 HTs, 140-150mm FS bikes dominate amongst fellow single MTB owners. Quite a lot of us are in the n=1 camp, definitely over 50%.

Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 92 total)

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