Forum menu
Local midweek club rides in the woods in winter or muddy conditions = Hardtail (Pace RC129)
Weekends in the peak/lakes/wales or midweek club rides in summer months = FS (SC Hightower)
Solo local rides involving road and the local woods or rides with the Mrs = Gravel (Sonder Camino Ti)
It's rare i break out from this pattern.
Different bikes for different things. Cannondale commuter for well, commuting.. Scandal for doing trad-ish XC along the TPT that goes past the house, Spesh Enduro as proper MTB, and a roadie for the rollers. They all have different contact points and are all different shapes, it's never been a thing that's ever bothered me really.
I dislike having bikes which overlap in end use. I'm down to...
Summer road bike - For summer road riding
Winter road bike - Full guards for winter road riding
Cheapo gravel bike - For commuting and turbo (actual gravel riding bores me to tears)
29er hardtail - For all MTB duties
Had more bikes than this in the past, but there would always be one or two sat around unused. So I've reduced to the above.
Currently only the bikes that are rideable. A street trials bike and an old steel road bike. Couldn't be much more different. Other two bikes are MTB, hardtail and rigid both 27.5, both with broken wheels. Also have scrapped 26" frames - a 120mm FS and a hardtail and various bits to go with them.
Probably 95% on a fatbike and 5% on my Geometron
I live near Swinley, so no local riding warrants the 160mm+ travel
The fatbike is perfect for the local trails and i've started to commute on it
I need to ride the Geometron more because i'm finding it difficult to just jump on it and be 'at one' with it
Depends on mood, conditions, planned route and which one is less f***ed.
In the past couple of years, riding has been mostly out the back door stuff. Riding similar stuff on different bikes brings welcome variety as they all have different strengths and weaknesses.
I ride whichever one is not currently broken. If both are broken then I spend my riding time fixing the one that has been broken the longest.
edit: If they are both in working order (unlikely) then it's normally whichever one has my single dropper post currently attached
Usually I ride my full suss From October till March and for bigger days out in winter on more rocky stuff.
But I’ve just got a New one a Giant Trance 29 2 so I’ve been riding that on short local rides round canal etc as it’s just so nice.
Probably gonna put it away after Christmas and bring it back out in spring.
Hardtail is for going along the canal, country road riding and winter slop. Also found a local pump track so been using it on there.
I've got three mountain bikes which I've tried to make different enough in setup and spec so they all have a specific purpose, but there's still quite a bit of overlap so it can be hard deciding which to take for a given ride.
The big bike is a full suss 140/160 29er trail/all mountain bike. This usually gets used all year round but mainly on 'proper' rides that aren't local where I drive somewhere to ride.
The 'fun' bike is a 27.5 aggro steel hardtail with 150 travel which is used for messing about in the local woods, and going to the local bike park/pump track. I sometimes take this for 'proper' rides too when the big bike needs fixing or I just fancy it.
The final bike is an old 120mm 29er hard tail that I sometimes run rigid also. This gets used for pedally local loops, commuting, Dad duties, and canal path stuff. This one has got cheaper components but is still fairly capable on 'proper' rides too.
In N+1 style I also have a gravel bike for commuting and longer gravel/road rides but this doesn't get a lot of use at the moment.
Got the 4 bikes. one all mountain, one FS XC, one HT XC and the 'workhorse' HT XC.
Use the workhorse for training commuting and when the weather is foul. No point wearing out them all at the same time. And the workhorses bits are cheaper.
When the weather is better, then use them as required, but the 27.5 HT XC is the favorite.
Interesting thread. I currently have a trail full sus, trail hardtail and an xc hardtail. I tend to ride whichever is most dirty.
Considering selling the lot of them when I get my new bike (transition spur) as upkeep and servicing is quite a chunk of money/time. One bike to rule them all!
What I do is get one bike out, set it carefully, check tyre pressures etc, lube chain, then change my mind, put it away, get out another one and repeat. Then five minutes before I'm due to leave, I invariably change my mind again and swap them over. Or sometimes opt for a different bike altogether. There must be a better way.
I've 3 bikes I use (plus a few older and/or kids ones).
FS - used for Enduro-type stuff and any riding off-piste
HT - used for just riding trails and/or lunch loops
Gravel - anything that doesn't need an MTB, including local lanes
I'm lucky that where I live (Tweed Valley) there's riding for all 3 bikes, and I usually ride each once per week.
I don't differentiate between winter/summer etc, life is too short to ride a 5h1t bike, so yesterday the carbon Gravel was used, which runs Force 1, in seriously crap conditions (50 miles & 3000 ft and at least 30 miles offroad).
I have 3 bikes.
Trek Boone. Barely gets ridden, but it’s my road bike, gravel bike, stupidity CX bike etc. I should probably just sell it and buy a nice hard tail instead.
The two main bikes get pretty much equal use, either a Forbidden Dreadnought or Kenevo SL.
Choice is driven by who I’m riding with, what we’re doing & how much energy I have.
Life is too short to ride a sh*t bike on sh*t trails for months because I’m worried I’ll wear some parts out 🤦♂️
I just ride it regardless. If I need a new bit because it’s worn out, then so be it.
Glad to see peeps find my question interesting 😊 took the Krampus for a longish jaunt yesterday. Was fun 👍 as all (most?) rides are.
I do occasionally think I should rationalise the herd - 3 rigid singlespeeds are probably too many - but they're all so nice to ride!
I have 2 bikes,..
a 150/160 high pivot coil F& R Deviate Highlander which is used for my preferred tweed valley/ off piste/ endurooo type mountain biking.
I've just sold my short travel FS and gone back to hardtail(Ti Switch9er) for my local riding(not very exciting stuff around Glasgow) exactly for the reasons mentioned above about upkeep/servicing cost etc the simplicity of a hardtail over winter, but also a change and to challenge myself again as the Highlander can just plow over things and is completely ridiculous for my local riding, also felt I was getting lazy.
They are both 29'er, have the same parts mostly across both bikes so can switch things out...and geometry wise arent' all that dissimilar but they certainly ride very differently. I feel they are distinctly different enough to have.
I do wonder if in future I should just get one sensible bike...?Nah
160mm enduro bike for pissing about on in the Summer when the weather's good and there's no mud to go in the pivots, and a steel hardtail for the rest of the time. I like having two bikes that ride really differently.