[Closed] 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?

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

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

[i]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]

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

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...

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.

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.

Been there, doing it.

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

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

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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.

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.
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The answer to this thread is...

ASR5

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.

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.

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'.

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.

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...

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

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.

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.

I've only got one MTB - Santa Cruz Chameleon.

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.

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 ) .

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...

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.

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.

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.

n+1 its the law.......

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

Singular Buzzard

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! 😉

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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%.

I'd say 90% of my riding buddies only have one bike - and that would be a 150mm'ish FS.

Personally I don't get the 'winter bike' thing - yeah, I know FS don't like winter so much, but I ride exactly the same terrain - so, if my summer riding justifies a FS, then so does my winter riding!

Cotic Solaris. That is all.

I have managed to do this finally - although it took a break-in and gifting my road bike to a friend before arriving at the fabled one bike.

And here it is!

[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronwarwick/8414152046/ ]http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronwarwick/8414152046/[/url]

This has always been my favorite - managing to beat off an Intense Carbine, a Blur XC and several Cannondale's (hardtails mostly) over the years. The Maverick is still my all time favorite of the bunch as it rides the best and just suits what I do best.

Have to agree with everyone about the purity of a hardtail though and would really like an Ibis Tranny at some point.

Mojo HD. Did an xc race on it last week and tonight i was throwing it down farmer johns DH tracks..

As said, these modern 140/160 trail bikes are really versatile.

The Maverick is still my all time favorite of the bunch as it rides the best and just suits what I do best.

Hahaha, awesome! Guess what my current full sus is... 😉

Incidentally won't be selling my Maverick, more retiring it from regular use, then will give it a full overhaul and maybe get it back out again one day...

As said, these modern 140/160 trail bikes are really versatile.

Whilst I agree that they are, they are also suited mainly to firm ground and trail centre riding. They don't suit natural trails so well at all, and require a heck of a lot more maintenance than a hardtail if ridden through local forest trails through the winter.

This is my only MTB.
In 'summer' trim.
Yeah I was in a Retrobike phase!
Just too confused about what to get next ❓
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I only have my Nomad for everything.

For MTB I have two for the first time. EVER. A 140mm Carbon FS and a 100mm Steel 29er HT. The best of both worlds really. I ride similar stuff on both with emphasis and more technical riding on the FS and longer distances on the HT. Plus the HT is less to worry about in all the winter slop, snow, etc.

I can't help thinking that an amalgamation of the two would be a great 'just one mtb' and something I've been considering of late. The bike in question, 2013 Stumpjumper FSR Expert Carbon EVO 29

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Road bike

I often think about this puzzler when worrying about how much money I've spent on bikes and which get used the most. The truth is at my current time/place in life I enjoy road riding more than mountain biking. If I lived in the Alps or Whistler it would be a very different answer to this question. The point is to take a good, long, honest look at the riding you do and not necessarily the riding you want to do and buy the best bike for that instead of some jack-of-all-trades compromise.