For the last year or so, I’ve had two rigid SS bikes. My Inbred is a 26″ geared bike, converted using a Doofer. My Solitude is a SS-specific drop-bar 29er.
I’ve been using these two bikes for all my riding, including getting to/from work, so they’ve both been in various states of disrepair as commuting + no maintenance = a hard life for a bike.
Now that I’ve got my Yuba Mundo for commuting duties, I’ve been able to get my Inbred sorted out.
It’s had disks fitted and a general repair, and is looking much happier.
My Solitude will soon be going back to smaller tyres, and will be my dirt-roadie/monstercross bike.
So, I’ll have a commute/lug-stuff-about bike, a road/distance bike and an everything else bike.
This is where n=n+1 starts to have its wicked way with my brain…
I recently had a brief go on my brother’s Stinky, down the Skills Loop at Hamsterley and rode a drop that I bottle on my Inbred and Solitude. I don’t want a FS/DH bike, and I’ll always be a little bit jey (my Gnarl Factor maxes out at 3), but it got me a little suspension curious (thinking about Gnarl Factor 4). I’ve even been watching the videos of the Ragley Bikes, like the Blue Pig and thinking how great it would be for the ‘secret’ stuff at Hamsterley.
Then I heard the phrase “superlight rigid only 29er“… Damn it, Brant! 😉
The New Plan
* Yuba Mundo left as it is, for commuting and buying big bags of dog and chicken food;
* Solitude as dirt roadie/monstercross for longer on-road and easy-off-road rides;
* Inbred made a bit more burly, with the addition of either a cheap-ish or second hand suspension fork or a 29er front wheel, and maybe running 1×9 gears, for shorter/group off-road rides where I’ll be riding bumpier stuff;
* Superlight rigid-only 29er for all day/epic rides.
No real point to this post, but whaddaya think?