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right, sorry to bring this up again, I have decided to stick with a single bike.
to A. tour on and off road on, and B. having to odd day mountainbiking.
so thinking a nice lightish hardtail 29er with lockable forks.
with the above riding planned, what would you choose?
Something like the Transition Vanquish (if budget allows), it can be built up to sub 25lbs and with the right tyre choice I think it would be pretty quick on road.
I currently have a Genesis Tarn setup as a 29er with rigid forks and a 36T chainring which is pretty quick on road but still fun offroad, my tyres are biased more towards offroad, but it could easily be made much faster on road if they were changed.
Karate Monkey?
You must have them all by now surely??
I have a mk 2 Solaris and think it'd be perfect for what you want. but they only do gnar geo ones now. Stanton Sherpa?
Me, i'd pick my T-130. Sure it will be slower and less apprpriate for touring, but who cares....
Salsa Fargo or if you're feeling flush a Cutthroat, both are suspension ready so will accept 100mm travel forks.
Perhaps one of the new Singular Swifts planned for Summer; they're mean to take a tapered fork which opens up suspension options and presumably there'll still be a rigid touring fork. If you're really flush there's a Pegasus too!
Then again, the [url= https://www.alpkit.com/sonder/sonder-broken-road ]Sonder Broken Road[/url] looks like it'd work too.
Keep ECR, put some skinnier wheels on it for commute if needs. Wait for new Swift, maybe get something in between. Get swift. Still keep ECR.
Brother Cycles Big Bro seems like it would be ideal.
with the above riding planned, what would you choose?
Two bikes 😉
I wouldn't ordinarily advise you on the bike to ride as we have very different requirements, but you do seem to be asking the which-bike question a lot.
From the other thread you already have a touring/bike-packing bike, just keep that. Why the arbitrary limit to a single bike? Does the HT need to be an expensive bling bike if only for odd days here and there? Just get a entry-level/budget HT perhaps?
Technically I have one bike for all fun activities - a rigid mk1 solaris. This does my fun rides, my mountain biking, my bikepacking etc. Which sort of ticks your boxes
My arkose is for commuting only and my brompton is for very specific purposes (typically commuting involving public transport)
I'd plan 2 bikes.
Guarantee you'll agree in time.
Sonder Broken Road for sure.
if you’re feeling flush a Cutthroat
I was looking at bike packing set ups the other day and a Tour Divide page came up in the search ,a lot of people using Cutthroats. No idea what they would be like on single track or with fast road wheels on.
Or you could go for some 29er plus and have 4 sets of wheels 🙂
In answer to the thread title....
Focus E-sam.
Tony, I reckon your'e asking too much from one bike, & there's not a cat in hells chance of you sticking to one bike for long.
Saying that, If I could only have ONE bike it would be my old Trusty Rusty HT which is probably an old version of Yaks Karate Monkey by the looks of it.
Sonder broken road and two sets of wheels?
In an ideal world I would have two for that requirement.
A gravel/adventure bike (have been eyeing these up today...) that was my better bike spec wise.
A relatively cheaper 29r hardtail with good tyres.
Caveat I don't own either of these bikes but I love my 29r FS and always think my road bike is much too limited.
two wheel sets is definitely a starting point.
but I suspect two bikes at least is really what you're after.
although my Swift gets good use in two guises - mountain biking at local scale with 27.7+, and longer days on 29r setup. Or - as it's been for last few months - plus at front, 29r at rear... too much choice.
... Pegasus ...
A. tour on and off road on, and B. having to odd day mountainbiking.
As a compromise a 29er HT with either ability to switch tyres, but ideally a second pair of wheels with narrow run and slicks on.
If I had to stretch the the money, I'd go a gravel/CX and 29er shor to mid travel FS.
+1 Salsa cut throat or fargo (Ti?)
Canyon Grand Canyon.
If this was me, and I kinda wanted to do more touring based off road.. then this choice would be my first option.. then I’d look at a custom frame maybe from Singular or someone like them.
Salsa Fargo or if you’re feeling flush a Cutthroat, both are suspension ready so will accept 100mm travel forks.
This thread could last a lifetime 🤪
If I had to go just one bike (and assuming I could resist an On-One Fatty with a carbon fork again) I'd stick with my Cannondale Trail 29. Rigid fork (that could be swapped out for 'fun days') and can be run SS thanks to the EBB or as it is currently with XT 11 speed. Fatty would be a close second.
Interestingly although I threw loads of money at my beloved Jekyll the two bikes I love most were the Fatty and the Trail. Both bought for a song on the classifieds here.
How about getting a hardtail and switching between rigid and suspension forks, and possibly different tyres, depending on what kind of riding you want to do? Means you get to stick to one bike but makes it very versatile fot relatively little money and faff.
I imagine something like that Karate Monkey posted above would work well for that.
Sure, you could spend more for something lighter and with nicer spec, but my Voodoo Wazoo does that with a second set of wheels which spend more time on the bike (FatNotFat 29ers) than the stock fat set.
With a higher budget and hindsight, I'd probably look at a Canyon Dude such as https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/mtb/dude/dude-cf-8-0.html or https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/factory-outlet/category.html#category=mtb-bikes&id=26989 , but a pair of off the shelf 29er wheels aren't going to be cheap... It would probably worth saving a kidney and learning to build your own set! 😮
Have to confess though, just from photos, I look the look of the Salsa Cutthroat.
The thing is, this is about fun and getting out. It's not about most efficient or appropriate tool for the job.
Let's remember the Rough Stuff Fellowship did this off road touring thing without modern bikes.
I took my Marin HT on a three day road tour. My son was on his CX bike. It was a hoot. Sure it could have been faster, but we had fun. In fun stakes, I'm not sure a change of bike would have made it more fun.
I do think people overthink this. My mountain bike does what YOU want. yesterday afternoon, riding Rochdale to Todmorden, almost entirely offroad:
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Couple of weeks ago, 200+km on/offroad mix, AUstwick to Appleby:
[img] 
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Only had it built for three weeks: old bits, new drivetrain and a frame bought off here for £60. But the £60 Cannondale frame bought off here, and used with the previous drivetrain for just over a year, did just as good a job.
[img] 
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It'd do what you want, with narrower tyres for a road tour. Personally, I wouldn't want to be without my second bike, a cheap road bike I use for quick local blasts, but that's not what you're asking.
Surely by now you’d be gone custom if that was the case?
More chance of your arse healing over than you sticking with one bike Tony..😂
Ton, I think what Teetosugars says is probably right.
I'm 'this' close to pulling the trigger on a custom frame, just humming and hawing over BB width.
Roughly based on a Surly ICT but fixing a bunch of issues that annoy me. This bike will be a 197mm rear, takes 29+ for the summer and full fat for winter slop.
often thought about custom.
the reason I have never chosen that option is that I am a serial bike swapper (as you know).
and the inevitable may happen......... ;o)
Yes, a fatbike with fat tyres for MTB, with a second set of 29" skinnny wheels for road touring. Would that work?
Had rigid and RS forks for my ti Stooge. Sigh I miss that bike.
Not sure if this helps, but when I've thought about going down to one bike before, I wondered if a way to do it would be having a rigid bike with three wheelsets:
A pair of 700c with fast rolling approx 40mm tyres, a rear 650b matched to a 29er front, with 2-2.3" tyres or so, and a rear 26+ and front 29+ with 3" tyres
Also a dropper (with an underseat lever) and a rigid layback post
May be Jones Loop bars or something
That way a quick wheel change and seatpost change would have you very different bikes: the 26+/29+ set up would be noticeably slacker and higher at the front than the 700c, and changing the seatpost would lengthen the bike if the dropper was inline and the rigid post laidback
And the 700c set up would have automatically slightly higher gearing than the 26+/29+ and 27/29.
Or you could have 2 chainsets set up with different chainrings
Obviously you could have one bike with various stems and bars, rigid and sus forks. But for me, I go on lots of quick 2 hours blasts and 20mins changing the cockpit around is simply not worth it
Personally I don't think swapping wheels is a good solution as the gear indexing, drive train wear and brake pad alignment will need constant adjustments. Swapping tyres is a better solution especially if not tubeless.
To do road work on a mountain bike i'd want a 2x and to ride off road i'd want flat bars.
One bike will always be a compromise. A calibre dark peak for £450 would take care of road and faster off road tours and the ECR takes care of slower off road and mtb.
Genesis Longitude??? Got my eye on one, hypothetically.
Coppice
I have been swapping wheels for the last few years on my Graveladventuretouringcxsoftgnarr bike.
Each rear wheel has a chain and fast link that stays with it and I have found that I hardly ever need to adjust the indexing.It's usually just a quick reposition of the calipers and off I go.
Ok,I did need to buy a few chains and cassettes,but with going more and more tubeless it works for me.
Personally I don’t think swapping wheels is a good solution as the gear indexing, drive train wear and brake pad alignment will need constant adjustments.
I have the same hubs and switch the cassette over when I change wheels, so no indexing or brake alignment issues.
I used to have a cassette on each wheel and changed the chain instead to keep drivechain wear even, but found that to be more faffy.
Agree with you on the rest though, gotta be flat bars if doing techy offroad stuff, and it's always going to be a compromise
The thing is, this is about fun and getting out. It’s not about most efficient or appropriate tool for the job.
Exactly. I am a one bike person and most importantly have the mentality to suit having one bike, i.e. pick the type of bike I like to ride (very light at <7kg, no gears etc,.) and then ride that everywhere. It is probably not the best bike for the situation 80% of the time but I don't care, I just love riding it.
However, if you don't have the mentality for it then you won't enjoy it and should have more than one bike.
Personally I don’t think swapping wheels is a good solution as the gear indexing, drive train wear and brake pad alignment will need constant adjustments.
Been doing this for 2-3 years between gravel wheels and road wheels on one bike with no issue. Same hubs and rotors helps.
Ton....be honest with yourself.. you've had them all over the years and just keep going round in circles as I suspect you ,like me you enjoy thinking about,researching and buying stuff as it gives us a buzz but never really satisfies in the long run. That's the issue Imho .No new fancy name,frame material or gimmick is going to relieve the issue or not for long! I know you won't take any notice but there's a lot to be said for being satisfied with something that's "good enough" and it'll keep a lot of cash in your pocket.It's an expensive addiction albeit less harmful than many.cheers
Bill
Bill
I think you are probably right mate. I just love bikes and riding em. and I still have a long list of bikes that I want to try.
but for the time being I am going to try and stick with one bike, the ecr. I ordered some schwalbe big apples earlier, for road based touring. so we will see how I get on.
Tony, can I ask why one bike ? for practical reasons (space to store them for example ?) or some kind of penance/weido thing 😉
this week so far I’ve ridden a straggler, a fargo, an ecr and a vaya, and pretty much all on the same trails, I enjoyed riding each one for its differences from the previous one, none of them are the perfect bike apart from when I’m riding them, then it’s the perfect bike for that day ....
It strikes me that you’ve ridden virtually every big blokes bike thats out there from the mainstream manufacturers and most from the not so main stream as well, the one thing I’ve never known you ride is a full custom build from someone who really knows their onions, maybe time to rectify that and put that question to bed ?
Steve, a few reasons i want to try and stick with one bike. i always feel like i am on the wrong bike, if i only have one i will just have to get on with it.
i also feel i have spent far too much money on bikes over the years. if i had spent the same amount on drugs or beer i would have been long dead.
i also can no longer be bothered with cleaning and keeping bikes running. one bike easier to keep going.
and as i said earlier, i feel that if i go with a custom bike, and i dont gel with it, the risk of selling it at a great loss may be the out come. for now i am comfy on the ecr. it is steady like me. i managed a 100 miler on it last year. i wont ever be riding any further than that i a day. it feels good offroad, and with a slick should be good for touring.
rhings may change, but hopefully they wont
I have a Marin Pine Mountain 2
With two sets of wheels: 27.5+“ 2.8 tyres for mountain biking, 29” 2.4 tyres for zipping around fast. Makes a great bikepacking bike too.
I wouldn’t want to be without a full suspension bike though.