Have you considered a bronson

Stupid name.

Wrecker – there may be more than one out there, that is kind of my point (and how many bikes that do the same thing do you want to have to “invest” in the wheel size?). Writing off every 29er because you don’t like the few that you have tried is a bit like saying that you will never buy a Japanese car because you once drove a Corolla, a Jazz and a Qashqai and didn’t like them. The fact that they are Japanese (or even Toyota, Honda or Nissan) is largely irrelevant.

I’ve ridden trail/allmtn/enduro/whatever bikes in all 3 wheel sizes and found dogs and wunderbikes in all 3. With a few caveats this says to me that the wheel size doesn’t make the (trail)bike any more than what you ride makes the wheel size matter. All I’m suggesting is try each and every bike on it’s own merits in the terrain it was designed for rather than prejudging based on a particular wheelsize.

But this is turning into a hijack so I’m going to shut up now.

It’s a mountain biking website. If you asked a similar question on road cc, do you think they’d be recommending hybrids?

Of course not. I understand the thinking. It just tickles me that for many folks on here ‘one bike for everything’ means a 140mm travel full suspension mountainbike. Don’t get me wrong, I have such a machine and it’s a hoot but in the big scheme of things that’s a really specialised and deeply unversatile piece of kit. It’s indicative of how many niches the sport has split into that such a bike is considered versatile.

Between finances,space and not racing any more the ‘fleet’ is getting culled from.
29 carbon race xc bike
29 rigid steel ss
29 140mm fs (anyone want a Codeine cheep?)
26 4x bike
26 dh bike
To (I reckon… although I’ll probably change my mind whilst waiting till May)
A Solaris with 120mm forks and a -1 angleset.
Should be fast enough to semi race (forks at 100mm and skinny wheels) on and tough enough to huck (forks at 120mm and fatter wheels).
That’s the theory 😯

Another innocent “which bike” thread turning into a “which wheel” thread….

Your do-it-all bike is the one you enjoy riding the most, or at least enough to ignore its shortcomings and compromises.

for me it’s a relative behemoth of an Alpine 160 (26).

YMMV.

deeply unversatile piece of kit

Today’s 140mm – 160mm full sus bikes are so capable that they’ll handle pretty much everything from full on DH, to big mountain rides to trail centre bimbles. Sure they probably won’t be winning any races at either end of the mtb spectrum but to class them as unversatile is a bit silly imo. Go back, say, 5 years and you’d struggle to find bikes that were as affordable, as light, that pedal up and descend as well as the ones we have now.

Don’t mess about get a Capra. It’s amazing at everything and it is great value for money. Better performance than bikes at twice the price.

amazing at everything

‘Everything’?

Been riding a Mach6 for the last year and very happy with it as my one and only (wife doesn’t understand n+1) but I would say based on riding a friends, the Giant Trance, its a great value bike that in SX form should cover you for most riding.

Orange Five 650b.
Nice and long and with a CCDB Air it is fantastic. It makes up for the single pivot platform.

Very individual this one bike thing.
Trying to work this out at the moment.
Certainly anything 140 to 160 mm travel is to much for me.
Mainly a xc rider.
I have a light alloy hardtail 29 for racing.
A quick swap to rigid forks turns it into my winter rider.
I also have a 29 fs for endurance riding and summer evening group rides.
A 100mm travel bike but with 120mm fork and dropper makes it quite capable.
Currently think of going to a Kinesis Sync to do both jobs (with a rigid fork fork for winter)
Think I would miss the fs though!
At the moment I reckon a hardtail and fs suits me well!
Then there’s the road bike and cross bike I also have!
Thanks,
Max

Yes everything that I have tried on it. Xc to DH, Up, down, along, round corners, over stuff and jumps. Fast and fun on everything.it’s amazing.

170mm travel bike, fast, fun & amazing on everything, including XC in owner claiming new bike is “best bike evar” shocker!

Great.

I tried to go down the do it all do it all bike with a new Bronson carbon late 2013, XTR spec, I prefer the lakes & found I was pushing the front end hard & the standard ctd shock had it’s limits, answer for me, new build Bronson CCDB Air Cs shock & Fox 36 RC2’s and 1×11, the VPP climbs well no bobbing & overall a harder hitting bike, it seems the market is going longer & slacker however I choose to build ride what suits me, I tired a Capra & very good but maybe a bit too far for a every day do it all, also rode a Spesh Enduro Carbon 29er, very fast & eats anything but at very high speed I couldn’t get it to flick / change direction & it had a nice set of Crossmax’s fitted to reduce the rolling inertia of the wheels, it’s all down to personal choice & feel and importantly where you ride and ultimately what works for you.

Cheers

Your do-it-all bike is the one you enjoy riding the most, or at least enough to ignore its shortcomings and compromises.

Exactly.

170mm travel bike, fast, fun & amazing on everything, including XC in owner claiming new bike is “best bike evar” shocker!

😀

For me it’s full suss 140/150 travel,climbs ok and descends in a way that flatters my abilities. But I like a change every now-and-then so next bike will probably be hardtail. Go figure….,sorry just me. 😕

Ha ha, I knew I would get this. I bought the Capra to replace my lapierre Froggy. I thought that I would only want to ride it on steep stuff. it’s a comp 1 160/165 travel.
I also have a Santa Cruz suerlight, built tough but light. 24.10lb with reverb.
Over the years I have demoed many 140/ 160mm bikes. I never understood why anyone would want to pedal more than 120mm anywhere. On the vast majority of terrain the longer travel bikes just felt lazy and unnecessary . On a Specialized demo day a few years ago I rode epic, stumpjumper and enduro. The epic made more sense to me on everything. That is the sort of bike I naturally gravitate toward, light and fast.
After riding my Capra I realized things have changed. This bike has a touch of magic about it. It is unbelievably versatile. It is a true do it all bike. To change between Xc and DH all you need to do is change the tyres and flip the levers on the fork and shock.
Even on tame or pedally climb heavy trails It feels as good or better than my Superlight.
Obviously a 29er hardtail would be better for Xc. Obviously a full on DH bike would be better for World Cup DH tracks.
But still you could do both on the capra and it would still be fun and make a better job of both extremes than any bike I have tried. I have tried quite a lot.
I’m not the sort of person to big something up just because I have bought it. I bought an intense once and I hated it and told everyone that. Sold it after two months.
I bought my Capra thinking if I don’t like it I will just put the bits on a Santa Cruz frame and out it. I didn’t it’s great.
Best Eva!

*peoples definitions of what constitutes ‘xc’ and ‘dh’ may vary (wildly).

Going back to the start, I’m not sure I get how crashing your bike (repeatedly) it seems, means you need to just have the one. I’d have thought as a serial crasher you’d be better off with having a few…

Really!!! I would have thought that most people would know the difference between Xc and DH.
I consider places that Xc races are held to be Xc type riding and similar terrain to that should be considered Xc. Gorrick venues are what I would call good Xc. I realize that more boring Xc exists.
I consider places where DH races are held to be DH riding and simiar terrain to be DH

Rorschach is being a pedant, i know what you meant….i currently ride a Ragley Piglet with 140mm forks, 2 x 10 drivetrain and 26 inch wheels as my do-it-all bike, why?…because it does it all (for me!)…just this week i have taken it to BPW for an uplift day, i will be racing in the FoD Mini-DH in the next month or so and i potter about the woods on what i would call XC type territory all the time (QECP, Cesars Camp, Tunnel Hill, Surrey Hills, Swinley etc)…the bulk of the time it’s the choice of tyres not the bike that makes it suitable for one particular type of riding or not….obviously somebody else might hate my choice of bike and deem it unrideable for their needs as a do-it-all machine.

At race level DH and XC you obviously need a dedicated bike for the job in hand (if you have any kind of ambition), nobody is going to come through the XC ranks on a 170mm Capra no matter how good they are and likewise nobody is going to be breaking through on the British DH series aboard a 29er HT….but for most of us on here who ride fairly middling terrain that is neither of these extremes there are actually a multitude of bikes out there suitable for use as a do-it-all bike….ideally i’d probably have one of those Grapil frames going cheap on the other thread, 140mm forks and a 120mm frame seems about right for most of my riding most of the year, that is about as close to perfect as i’ve seen for some time (price included as that’s an attractive part of the draw in this instance).

I like being a pedant!!
Beats being a @%?*& (there’s no rule that says I can’t aspire to being both)

Looks like the Trance is a goer. £1650 for rolling chassis, including pike rct3 and a decent set of wheels…which is basically the same price as many 140+ frames tbh. Seems a no brainer.

Any one after or interested in a PYGA, there are some fantastic deals to be had at the moment!

Really!!! I would have thought that most people would know the difference between Xc and DH.
I consider places that Xc races are held to be Xc type riding and similar terrain to that should be considered Xc. Gorrick venues are what I would call good Xc. I realize that more boring Xc exists.
I consider places where DH races are held to be DH riding and simiar terrain to be DH

The Golfie trails are still XC, steep’ish XC, but XC.