[Closed] One bike only? for UK MTB, Commuting, Touring

Hardtail for the win.

I dare say if most people were brutally honest they only need one bike.
Butt sshhhh! Don't tell anyone.

Kona Jake the Snake.

I think you're spot on. If I had to go back to one bike, I'd keep the Ti hardtail and the two sets of forks/wheels/tyres just like you are.

I'm really committed to getting my bike collection down to one

Commendable, but why...?

Is a large female thumb causing the slimming down of this bike collection?

You back in the UK Plum?

If I was doing that then yes agree with you Plummer, but it would be a 29er hardtail.

But then I'm not going to go down to 1 bike! 😛

Can the Inbred take a rack and rear disc brake?

Other than that it sounds perfect

I'd definitely go with the HT

ampthill - Premier Member
Can the Inbred take a rack and rear disc brake?

It can

Lorne - i am now down to 4 bikes 🙁 may need to get a SS again, feeling sad that i sold it :'(

Why would sell a bike you love.

you should keep you SS but get shut of the bike you dont use 😉

you back in the UK mate? when are we going riding again 🙂

id have a thorn raven enduro - but with 29 inch wheels (add 1000 quid to the book price btw if you think about it 😉 )

my commute is off road when i want it to be - its no longer distance wise off road mind .. when im touring id want a treaded tire so i could go off road anyway.

id probably fit a set of lock out rebas up front.

have a couple of stems so i could change position for racing etc

i went down to one, but unfortunately someone stole it. Since then i've had two so the commuter can be rubbish and avoid getting nicked.

'm really committed to getting my bike collection down to one

And of course buy a new crosser that I really don't need

That sounds like real committment to me 😉

Singular gryphon-700c commute tyre-able,ss-able,drops,cx-able.All bases covered.Simples.

My one bike is the OS Bikes Blackbuck. Normally set up single speed but now has a 6sp custom cassette (8sp one - the 11 and 30t!) it will do for road / touring duty. Rigid because I can run a 29 x 2.55 tyres in the front and back and thats enough squish for me.

SSP

Bananaworld - I have the feeling I just have too much 'stuff' so aiming to offload as much as poss

Angryratio - A woman has never had any effect on any decision I have made. Most people I know would attest to that 🙂

Nasher - Back in the UK for a while.

Nezbo - I think I can get exactly the same feel out of my geared inbred as my SS - with the necessary conversion kit and a little work. Up for a ride after the snow is gone 🙂

Barry Bethel - I should be committed 😉

Thank you for all your comments I appreciate your time

Plum

If you love the SS, and need a geared bike (HT) slim it down to two!

I believe that if you hate to go a week without biking then you need two, one as a reserve when mechanicals hit (which they will).

[b]plumber[/b] - Let me know if you are selling you SS 😉 i might be intrested 🙂

mmmmm, not so sure, yes for UK only maybe, I had a Ti hardtail and a 5 in travel full sus, pefect a bike for all occasions, I nealry always rode the hardtail locally & then it got knicked leaving me with the full sus wich I rekindled a love afair with, but was doing a bit of racing in the summer and bought another hardtail frame swapped all my bits over and thats it just running the 1 bike. (susser frame sold on here), fast forward 4 months & THEN, I got a pass to go to Morzine for a long weekend in the summer and now that 1 bike theory is all messed up, the 5 inch susser would have been fine, was also OK for local riding, and trailcentre stuff, but I dont want to take my hardtail to Morzine and am now stuffed.

So if you have any big mountain trips in your head then its a lot more difficult to choose what your 1 bike should be.

im currently on 1 bike- a BMX

but i do have a nomad in bits and a hand made frame on its way.

can i be in the 1 bike club

Ti-29er for most of my riding locally and training.
Turner Flux (4 inch FS) for trail centers and tech' stuff.
🙂

plumber -

Am I missing something obvious?

yes, it is impossible for a man to have too many toys in his shed.

I'm loving my 2002 cannondale F500, weighs in at 23.5lb as standard with mud tres and cheep tubes, cheep as chips to buy secondhand.

The worst bit is trying to resist the temptation to upgrade it, either with lightweight wheels to replace the shimano/mavic OEM ones, pimpy v-brakes, or disks, or bettwe shifters, or carbon bars/post, or a better fork, ..................

Frankly for a bike built from OEM parts (spec highlights include a deore shifters and an XT mech, everything else is so OEM it doesnt even have a sticker on most of it) to come in under 24lb and still work is phenomenal!

One bike with spare wheels for commuting/touring -- sooner or later the mismatch between chain and cassette wear will result in one of the rears becomng unusable long before you'd normally replace the transmission.

Ever heard the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none"?

I've five bikes including a roadie and a 5in full sus, both of which don't see a lot of use but I'd have to be really skint before I'd sell any of them.

I used to have 6 bikes, now down to 3, feel I only need one really, its not a money thing or a space thing or an under the thumb thing, just want to divest myself of stuff. Don't really feel the need to thrash big mountains anymore unless its with rivierabike 🙂

Neal - you're first in line for the SS

Plum

I admire this, and sympathise with your thinking. I've got two intractable problems in doing similar.

First, my collection includes a Brompton and the Big Dummy, which are both pretty important to my mobility as a non-driver. So I have 2 extra bikes that part of me thinks ought to count in the total.

Second, I've not managed to commit to just doing either road riding or mountainbiking. However you cut it, a bike that works on a 75-mile road club run is not much use for anything that looks like mountainbiking, even if only in the South of England.

So I can't actually get below 4 machines...

I think this is an awesome thing to do. I have a Cotic Simple, a bmx and a thing for riding and locking up around town, carrying loads and cargo as I don't drive.

The whole jack of all trades/master of none expression is a really interesting one. I recently rode the West Highland Way on a hybrid about 2 sizes too big for me with slick tyres. It was fine. I mean, my mountain bike would have been a much better bike to use, and it would have been faster. But I still had loads of fun, it was just a different sort of fun. I can't imagine thinking I couldn't ride my Simple in Morzine. It wouldn't be the fastest, most efficient, [i]best[/i] bike to use. But hey, I'm not racing (not even my mates) and it's just fun isn't it? The Rivendell folks have got some interesting ideas about this. They're all bikes, we're the ones who constrain them.