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I get where you are coming from.
I'd like a do it all bike really but enjoy my ridged steel MTB as much as my full suss, but not sure I could do away with one - I'd like to ride the ridged steel all the time, but living next to some good trail centre type stuff and downhill tracks means the full sus is a good bike to own.
The full sus is actually faster even on the road because it's pretty light, but servicing shocks/forks/bearings really annoys me. I took the dropper off it because I couldn't be arsed to pay £100+ to service it!
In the end I just decided to keep them both and not care about new stuff, too many choices!
I think I'm going to get a second hand 26" Cotic Soul frame to keep in the shed - bit odd isn't it that the bike I currently want the most is one I've had before and only sold in the name of 'progress'.....
I'm interested in new bikes from a curiosity perspective, but new and shiny does little for me. I'll always be on the lookout for something to perform better for my chosen riding, but I'm not rabidly consuming the latest greatest thing anymore, and haven't since about 2009.
Like someone once said, it's about the ride.
Yep, I think I'm feeling fairly similar - at least about MTB.
My 7 year old Boardman is totally obsolete (26"/satraight Steerer/9-Speed) which has annoyed me immensely. The constant changing of standards almost feels like 'designed-in obsolescence' which has turned me off.
I also think there are less good looking bikes in the £1k category (my usual hunting ground due to C2W limits)
As for road/everything else - I've got a 2013 Giant Defy which I love, despite the 10-Speed 105 and press-fit BB.
Have no interest in changing it as not seen anything I like in my budget.
Also got a 2016 Arkose 1 - great bike but I don't love it. I see it as a tool to get some wet winter miles in. I'm not convinced it was the right bike to buy, as I've never explored its off-road/adventure capabilities, and the Hydro disc brakes are temperamental.
It is the bike I'm most likely to replace next, despite being the newest.
Not seen anything else that inspires me though.
These days I'm so much more interested in comfort/reliability than cutting edge bling.
butcher - Member
However, if there's a bike I want: a niche I feel I'm missing out on: something broken or missing from the toolbox. Then I'll get excited about that. Because I get excited about the prospect of using it and the places it will take me. I don't really get excited about the bike itself. Unless, I think, if I were to build it. In which case it partly becomes the creation process (the journey to get there) that I get excited about.
The above - in a nutshell. Which is why I've ended up, over the last few years, with two fairly niche bikes, I suppose. Namely a Singular Hummingbird rigid singlespeed and a Liteville 301 Mk10. Now, I'm beginning to think that the Liteville is wasted on the Isle of Man and it should maybe go to live in Greece, where it can be carried up and ridden down big(ish) mountains, where probably no bike has ever been.
But I'll be 65 in July, God willing, and I suppose my days of doing that sort of thing are pretty much over, especially being out there on my own.
To be honest, I'm finding this really hard to come to terms with, for some reason.
But I'll be 65 in July, God willing, and I suppose my days of doing that sort of thing are pretty much over, especially being out there on my own.
To be honest, I'm finding this really hard to come to terms with, for some reason.
offroad touring/rough stuff fellowship. a natural progression for aging mountain bikers.
the bikes I have now are with this in mind.
Blimey ton the enduro wasn't that long ago!! 😉
Blimey ton the enduro wasn't that long ago!!
hence my reason for selling it. I was kidding myself that mountain tops and gnarr were still achievable to me. more surgery has curtailed such dreams....... 😆
I know, I'm sorry about that - and excuse the gentle tease - all meant in good spirit.
I am not far behing - one reason for buying a new bike two years ago was the realisation that there was a limited time left for certain types of riding. Trying to max those know before the bottle/mind and body gives up!
I'm done with bikes mostly too. Genuinely new (to me) concepts like fat bikes and plus have excited me, but the needless changes in bikes (tapered steerers, axle standards, etc) are mostly marketing BS, and improvements like 1 by and 11 speed cost too much to upgrade to for th amount of riding I do.
The main thing that caches my eye these days are bikes from my youth
Def with 'butcher' on this:
'...the creation process (the journey to get there) that I get excited about'
But bike's are too addictive...now lusting after a new cross (type) bike, those Niner RLT's do not help.
It never ends....68 in 3weeks 🙂
Somewhat ironically I found that my increased interest in actual bikes (minutiae, frame materials, kit, even fashion) was often inversely proportionate to my interest in actual active cycling. I've enjoyed times when periods of fitness/health + a simple bike enabled me to go places by bicycle and just keep riding because I was almost obsessed and always exhilarated with the enjoyment of cycling per se.
Then I started looking around..magazines, LBC loitering, Ebay, etc etc ...BOOM, over 25 bikes in a decade and very little actual cycling compared to the prior decade on just a couple of cheap bikes.
Have now shifted all the clutter and bought a simple rigid bike, just waiting/working at my physical health to catch up with this internalised tornado of repressed cycling-ism that now eats me up daily! All I dream about is cycling just for the enjoyment of cycling.
I blame your Jones. I was the same when I had mine, albeit the original one. Would like a Plus but terrified that if I did then that would be all I would ride. Same trails, slower speed but same level of enjoyment. However as my riding is also about catching up with mates, chasing them on a Jones when they're on 150mm full suspension bikes is not so much fun. Marked one down for my 'settling down' bike though.
But that's what bikes should be, tools.
Totally.
But they should look good too. No excuses for mixing tyre brands, or not matching your bottle cages. And as for mix-and-match anodising - go and stand in the corner.
have a road bike (Giant TCR SL) and 29'er (Giant XTC), both are tools for the job
road bike getting to work (30km round trip) and Sunday's out with the missus
mtb for escaping into the woods when the mood takes
working as a bike mechanic, you never see bikes the same way again
with my own bikes its the constant war against entropy / wear, its just more servicing work I have to get through in my own time, set against all the servicing work I get paid to do professionally
I blame your Jones
I think you could be right, it seems to do everything ok rather than excelling at one thing.
with a spare set of narrower wheels, no other bike would be needed.
I like riding bikes but the maintenance side is hell all I see is hassle and expensive bills.
I'm with Ton, time was I'd actually drive around bike shops to look at the shiny stuff on offer, nowadays I can't be arsed, they could remove all the MTBs and replace them with Road Bikes and I'm sure I wouldn't notice for a year.
I hate to say it, but I've become a cynic, I don't see faster, options, better - I see change, obsolescence and expense.
I haven't reached Nirvana yet, but one day I do hope I stop caring about having a 'current' bike and buying speed, it never works, not well anyway – you might buy a few tenths here or there, but it’s daft when you can train a bit, take a course or just think about it rather than cruise and get much faster – even if you want to – I guess as some point, you stop caring about improving if you’re happy, doing what you’re doing.
I wish I understood half the stuff that people debate about bikes - instead it just passes me by and I just get on with riding
Have only ever changed tires once and often forget to change my CTD forks after a climb but before the decent 😳
Ignorance can be bliss
Andy R - Member
...But I'll be 65 in July, God willing, and I suppose my days of doing that sort of thing are pretty much over, especially being out there on my own.
To be honest, I'm finding this really hard to come to terms with, for some reason.
Your days are not over until you're incapacitated, so you should get as much riding in before that happens as you can.
Trust me I'm much older. My wife hates that I prefer being out on my own in the middle of nowhere following non-existent tracks or looking for the likely paths between neolithic settlements in the mountains.
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You just get slower, which means you get to spend longer out on your bike for a given ride. That's a bonus. 🙂
Historically a serial bike swapper I've become disillusioned due to the changes in recent years, mainly wheel sizes and drivetrain changes and not had the chance to keep up so don't bother now.
Part of my problem is the older spec bits are worth nothing so I'm assuming this will be the same for most normal bikers. Wonder if it will ever settle down again ??
I'm surprised you'd be bothered about this in the slightest OP.
I was amazed when I first found singletrackworld that it was a forum dedicated to bikes rather than riding. At first I assumed people were taking the piss when they asked what tyres for this and whether a particular bike looked good. I just couldn't understand it. How could a bike look anything, it's just a bike.
Loads of people on here aren't really into cycling, they're just tremendous gear freaks. Coming from a rock climbing background, it's amazing how much people obsess about mountain bike kit. It's just weird, like stamp collecting, but more expensive.
The fact that the bike industry has got away with such bullshit in the last few years reflects amazingly poorly on MTBers in general. It's amazing what crap people obsess with in terms of kit. Will this 27.5" wheel run faster/better that this 26" wheel.
I'm with Grannyjone and TeamHurtMore. The rear shock on my Ibis has three settings and I guess that something changes when you switch it. Every now and again I fiddle with it, but have no idea what has changed if anything. likewise the front fork appears to have seized up again so it's only got half a suspension. I'll have to fix it at some point if I go to the alps in summer, but apart from that I couldn't really care.
And I genuinely find it tricky to understand why anyone else would (unless they're competing against people with better kit)
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with my bikes. I enjoy riding them all but I am lucky if I have one of them fully functional at any one time. Many components are way over priced, often don't perform as advertised and I find myself getting a kind of 'maintenance fear'. I'm capable of doing my own maintenance but everything is designed to make this as difficult and as expensive as possible. I think I have had an unlucky year with my bikes though. Lots of things have broken.
Think i ve gone full circle too from latching onto every new developement, discovering it doesnt really make you any better, i m now getting back into cycle touring which is where i started 30 years ago. I now look at my touring bike, atlas and smile.
im about as far from that as it's possible to get. I love my bikes as much as the riding, I love the technology involved and the juxtaposition against the simplicity of the bicycle. I've had budget bikes in the past and can definitely say it's much easier to swing a leg over the nicest bike I can get to go for a ride on a wet cold miserable day, than one I'm decidedly 'meh' about.
That said, I'm not a serial bike swapper. When I buy a bike, I buy the best I can that's available. If then a new standard comes out the day after, I know my best bike yesterday is still amazing and that a 6mm wider hub isn't going to change that, so I'm not going to go straight out and upgrade just so I have the latest whizzbang. When I come to replace the bike (when it becomes uneconomical to repair/catastrophic frame failure out of warranty) then again I'll go for whatever the latest thing is that day, and marvel at how much better it is than the old one.
Apart from my 5010. I'll be buried with that.
Ignorance can be bliss
TBH I deliberately spec'd non-'on the fly'-adjustable fork and shock on my latest suss bike. Less to think about, which suits me.
epicyclo - Member
Andy R - Member
Your days are not over until you're incapacitated, so you should get as much riding in before that happens as you can.Trust me I'm much older. My wife hates that I prefer being out on my own in the middle of nowhere following non-existent tracks or looking for the likely paths between neolithic settlements in the mountains.
You're right, of course, epicyclo and that's what I try to do - I always feel more negative at this time of year, it's bad enough having to work in wet, shitty weather without riding in it too.
I'm longing for the warm, dry Greek summer and rocky, technical singletrack in big mountains. I've had enough of claggy, sloppy northness.
I think it's a testament to freemarket capitalism that something so essentially simple and affordable can be made into something so wearyingly complex and expensive.
I always felt I was missing out somehow by not getting excited about bikes, even as a young'un.
I bought a bike, nursed it along until it completely failed, then bought another (usually 2nd hand) bike.
These days, like a few others in the thread, I mostly ride one bike - a modified, fully rigid, 26" wheeled Kona with cantis brakes. I do have other bikes but use them only when necessary.
Gotama you're right to worry. Loved my Spaceframe but the Plus really is the one bike for all seasons. You might not be able to stay on the tails of the 150mn guys and gals but youll be a lot closer than they expect and be having as much fun with less maintenance
I'm the opposite, I have 12 built up bikes and a few more in the process of being built up. I love mucking about with "old tat" or riding inappropriate bikes. I rode the old Bikefest course yesterday on a fixed gear 26" wheeled old Kona and despite the comedy rain / wind and mud, I had a hoot....it's nice to either choose a bike and then make up a ride or know where I want to go and choose whatever bike I fancy riding depending on weather, mud or road and solo or with peeps....
to my mind it's only a phase. i had something of the kind with fishing. but in a year or so it all came back to normal