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I have one - the gravel bike - that could do it all, with different tyres. Well, except track, they disapprove of things like brakes, gears and freewheels for some reason.
Obviously I still have a road bike and a hardtail as well
but my Genesis Vagabond – genuinely this can handle anything you want.
It is a very versatile (and comfortable) bike. I miss mine tbh. Would happily take a 29er Longitude or a Vagabond as a doitall bike. Such bikes are IMO much like the more decent of those 90s ATBs (except now with discs, bigger wheels, better tyres and more standover)
Jacks of all trades. Masters of bikepacking.
In terms of off road riding the likes of a vagabond clearly cannot handle 'anything you want' btw, try taking it down even the tamest of munros, or the Lakeland passes, it ain't happening. Sure, it'll be a few mph quicker on a fire road than a MTB, but for any kind of techy riding, there's no way that type of bike is a do it all.
Unless your Akrigg, and none of us are! 🙂
I have a singlespeed rigid 26" MTB (Inbred) and a 2x9 Cyclocross bike with 40mm tyres (Cotic X) and have ridden the same rides on both of them - from local road loops to long days out.
I have niggles with both bikes and keep looking for one bike to replace them both. I'd like to keep the option for bigger tyres of the MTB and the gears of my cross bike so am tempted by something like a 650b Planet-X Bootzipper running Geoff bars plus an extra set of 700c wheels with biggish road/gravel tyres.
Edit: Or an old Genesis Longitude. Oooh, or a TD-1.
As my riding includes: road / gravel / trail / bike parks there is clearly no bike that will do it all well. I have a few bikes because they fit a need rather than just me being a bike tart ;-/
If i had to have only one it would be my hightower as that covers the fun trail / bike park side.
I'd then cheat and bring back the road bike for sunny solo days.
And the tandem for sunny days with the missus.
So no, it cant be done.
I have 3 bikes:
Commuter - old On One Scandal mtb
MTB - Santa Cruz Tallboy 2
Road - Volagi Liscio
I just chose one of those depending on what I am doing.
I'm hoping my new 29er scandal will fit everything I want to do after I get one last big alpine road ride out of the way. Should be fine for pub, commuting, bike packing and Swinley /Surrey Hills mtb.
My old Scandal mkII was probably the closest to a new be bike deal. Hardtail with lockout, commuted, xc rides from the house, trail centres and some races. The only reason I got rid of it was because I had loads of other bikes more appropriate to each task.
I have many bikes, the one that could come closest to doing it all is the Jeffsy CF Pro - with maybe a tyre swap between 2.4s and 2.1s depending on the gnar. But if you said I had to choose just one, it would probably be the Sanderson Soloist rigid SS and I'd just redefine what "it all" meant.
If I could only keep 1 of my three bikes it would be the Arkose X even though its the cheapest. I also have a 140mm hardtail and a fatbike.
The Arkose can do most things from 100km mixed loops and fairly steep singletrack to bimbling with the family and touring. The hardtail (26er) is not ideal for anything other than singletrack and I wouldn't want to ride the fatbike on the road much.
If I had to have only one bike, I'd sell all three and get a titanium short travel 29er - I reckon that could do almost everything I need a bike for. I'd have to walk to the pub though if they ever open again.
Only bike I have is a Santa Cruz Nomad 2. Want to replace it with a Transition scout now through.
Closest thing to a "do it all" mountain bike in my mind is a Five. the "porsche" school of design helps.
i consolidated my 100mm Trance that was great uphill, but hard work on "proper" descents, and my Patriot66, which was a great little Sled, but a push on the ups into one easy payment of "never going to win any races, but will handle downhill tracks and big XC days."
Nicolai Helius, 2009 model. It's just great.
Yeah my giant reign. I ride everything and everywhere on it
I have 1 bike that could theoretically do it all for my trail riding needs, I just choose to have 3 others to do certain things better.
If I had to just have one bike, it would be the burliest I could find (for trips to The Peak, Lakes, Wales, etc.) that would still be bearable round my local woods' singletrack and on bridleway 'gravel' rides. That would probably be my recently retired Rocket (which I rode everywhere on) or soon to be christened RocketMAX. That's a heart decision though, head would say my Sonder Transmitter is actually a way better all round bike, capable of everything from full gnar (albeit a bit slower than either Rocket) to a bit of bikepacking or touring, especially with a set or two of alternative wheels.
Well i have two bikes to do it all..
My giant contend sl road bike is great. With a nice set of wheels on it it's good for big sunday rides and is inconspicuous enough to commute and leave locked up at work. It also has full rack and mudguard mounts for winter duty.
On the mountain bike side, my Whyte S-150 is about as close as you can get to a do it all mtb in my opinion. I've done the dyfi winter warm up on, raced ard rock and made it down the Champery world cup track on it. Of course it's not as fast as an XC or DH bike for those applications it can genuinley do it all. 130-150mm travel 29er is the sweet spot imo.
That's like asking who has one pair of shoes that can do all. No. One for the mud, one for work, one for the dancin etc
Yep.... only own one bike.... Spesh Enduro.
Does everything I need it to do.
I'm down to one bike at the mo (if you don't count a second hand Kona Minute shopper/ kid hauler) as I've sold a couple to pay for a new bike soon. Sold a cotic escapade and an one one fatty and am left with a 27+ genesis longitude with jones bars on it. Its a lovely ride and it could be pretty close to a do it all bike. I used to use the escapade as a road bike/ gravel bike/ pull the kids chariot/ back of the camper van bike/ rack and panniers for shopping on holiday etc but the longitude can do all that as well and it's quite nice to ride on single track as well. Surprisingly so.
I've been looking at do it all bikes and I reckon where I live and the cycling I do now a Bombtrack Hook EXT (C) is pretty much all the bike I need. A set of 700c wheels and the 650b's with decent rubber for off road and I'd be all set for most things.
Bit too nice to leave outside the pub or shops though...
I have a 2018 Fuji Cross 1.7, and as I long as I could either have two wheelsets, or at least the ability to change tyres at will, would probably serve well as a 'one bike to do it all' bike.
But this would be under duress, you understand. In truth, you would have to rip my road bike from my cold, dead hands...
I've run a trail FS and trail HT since 2003. Sometimes the HTs were single speed or fancy Ti, sometimes nice and cheap from on-one. The FS was always boutique and as fancy as I could afford - mainly a long string of Oranges and Turners.
HTs have always been the second bike, but the advent of well designed 29er HTs, dropper posts and utterly sorted modern forks have rather changed my outlook in recent years.
I don't have to have one bike, but If I did, it would be what I have now - A Pole Taival, the most competent of a string of competent 29er hardtails, or a Kingdom Vendetta. My FS is so good it dulls nearly all my local spots for most of the year, and 90% of my riding is at those spots. I don't want to be bored mtbing.
With current lifestyle a light, mildly but not too slack (probably 650b) hardtail with (ideally) a choice of rigid fork with boss mounts for anything cages etc and 120mm suspension fork. It'd have to have a BSA BB (no press fit nastiness) and double/triple ring capability for the easy bits.
What I've actually got is a mid travel 29r fs, a heavy steel 26r hardtail and a road bike. None of which are worth much and I'm trying to ride the bloody things into the ground but not easy under lockdown and too much work.
I had two bikes, all bases covered for me, Cotic Flare for all my MTB needs, and a Genesis CDA gravel bike for commuting, road rides, bimbling. Never really loved the Genesis, crap brakes, cheap drivetrain, quite heavy, so sold it.
Just building one of these new Scandals, plan to use it in winter, on tamer rides, on mixed surface rides, bikepacking, MTB marathon events, maybe an XC race or 2, and as my pop to the shops bike. The flare having a dropper and no room for a frame bag kind of kills it for bikepacking, and can't help feeling very over biked and carrying to much weight when bimbling at 130mm travel and 31lb.
My Dad's just given me a fully functioning (due to my prior donation of tyres and servicing) 90's Marin mtb, though don't know if it'll get used.
I would like another gravel bike it turns out, but would have to be a decent, light one, with hydraulic brakes and light tubeless wheels etc. Roads where I live are always in terrible condition, gravel bike just makes sense, I think, but I've thought that before.
So for several months I've only had 1 bike, now I have 2.75, and might have 4 by end of summer. Oops.
Agree with several others though, if I could only have one bike - rigid 29er with front mech capability.
In answer to op, yeah I do but it's four, but I can only ride one at a time, and they do all I want.
Singular Gryphon was probably the one I had that could get close to doing it all albeit in a slightly compromised way. Sold it though because I didn't need one 'do-it-all' compromised bike at that point. Jones is probably the one, looks weird (weirder) with skinny tyres but surprisingly nimble.
Road touring
Gravel
Trail centre (black descent, match)
Local trails
(Previous bike) Alps
https://www.flickr.com/gp/matt_outandabout/YEHxLF
If I had to have one bike, I'd change my definition of "all". Currently "all" is everything from Alps/Lakes MTB to long, hilly road rides, via CX and a bit of TTing. I could ride all of that on one bike, but I wouldn't enjoy most of it.
If I had to choose one, it'd be my winter road bike (Kinesis 4S disc) as it's the bike that I can enjoy riding from my door pretty much every day of the year.
I only ever own one bike at a time (don't know why just a hangup/mental thing) so whatever bike I have is my do it all bike. For the majority of the last 20 years that one bike has been a fixed gear bike. Sometimes get a geared bike for a few months and just last year got a modern geo hardtail but I always go back to the simplicity of a fixed gear bike.
In terms of off road riding the likes of a vagabond clearly cannot handle ‘anything you want’ btw, try taking it down even the tamest of munros, or the Lakeland passes, it ain’t happening. Sure, it’ll be a few mph quicker on a fire road than a MTB, but for any kind of techy riding, there’s no way that type of bike is a do it all.
I really beg to differ. With a change of tyres - a chunky 2.4/2.5 up front and a 2.25 at the back it'll go up and down anything. Not fast DH necessarily, but rideable, and fun.
Yeti ARCc is my do it all bike.
I use it locally in the South Downs, used it at Bike Park Wales, rode it when I did the Tuscany Trail and also used it for a week with BasqueMTB.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Think that covers it as a one bike that does it all!</span>
I really beg to differ. With a change of tyres – a chunky 2.4/2.5 up front and a 2.25 at the back it’ll go up and down anything. Not fast DH necessarily, but rideable, and fun.
Let's see ye riding Wharnscale on one then! 🙂
I'm always up for a challenge 😉 might put a dropper post on for that though.
For anything that isn't tarmac my Soul does me just fine - swapping tyres between some 2.6 and some skinny 2.1s makes a huge difference for local tame canal paths/ fields or the 2.6s for the peaks / lakes
The one I ride least, my Trek Superfly.
It's doubled up as MTB (obviously), very capable gravel bike with some 40c almost slicks, on longer gravel rides with long road sections it has trucked along quite happily (not chain gang fast, but not dis-spiritingly slow either), it's been a CX racer, commuter and currently functions as child lugger-abouterer.
But of course, as I spend most of my time on road now and have three bikes for that purpose (winter, shoulder season, summer 😀 ) I rarely ride the poor Superfly.
I can't see me stopping riding MTB or road any time soon - so it's difficult to cover both needs with just one bike.
I currently have 4 bikes: a racey carbon 29er HT, steel "all-road" 700c (discs and mudguards), more focused steel caliper-braked road 700c and a Brompton. All are high spec (XT / Ultegra level) and cover different needs.
If I had to slim down, I'd keep the hardtail and all-round road bike as they're sufficiently different. The more racey road bike and Brompton could go if needs be, but I can't see it happening any time soon.
I currently have 5 bikes in my stable.
They consist of a 2006 Giant XTC (sometimes used by my son), a 2010 Giant Defy Advanced (winter road bike) a Boardman Pro 29er (my main mtb) a Cannondale Supersix (Best road bike) and a Pinnacle Lithium hybrid.
The one I clock up the most miles onis the Supersix but the one that is most versatile is the Pinnacle Lithium.
Let’s see ye riding Wharnscale on one then! 🙂
CX bike at Aberfoyle.
(btw I've tried Bat House on our CX. Propper sh*ts and giggles.)
If I had to have one bike, I’d change my definition of “all”. Currently “all” is everything from Alps/Lakes MTB to long, hilly road rides, via CX and a bit of TTing. I could ride all of that on one bike, but I wouldn’t enjoy most of it.
Probably the best somethingion.
You might not be able to do the Rangers path down Snowdon on a cross bike, but you could ride a lot of other stuff. Enough that you wouldn't get bored anyway.
OTOH if you've no interest in cycling on the road then a trail bike would do "it all", as long as you never wanted to go for a road ride quicker than a bimble.
What would I upset the wife with if I only had one bike? 😀
If I had to keep just one, the Stanton Slackline (Gen2) I've just bought would be the one, simply because it's the most fun bike I've ever owned.
However, my 2017 Kona Unit 27+ is probably the most versatile bike I own.
I'd miss my 2014 Charge Plug though.
CX bike at Aberfoyle.
Which is a million times easier than the descent I suggested.
As most have said (in one way or another), it’s ridiculous to expect any bike that can descend a rocky mountain at high-speeds to also place respectably in a TDF stage. It’s likewise ridiculous to expect a light, rigid bike with drop bars to descend a mountain at speed without mincing or stacking
The definition of ‘Do it all’ for the (1.) purely recreational and/or competitive cyclist will differ whether road or mtb. Presumably highest-speed over a particular terrain is the priority?
‘Do it all’ for someone like (2.) me (have always ridden for both utility and recreation) means a versatile, nicely-made yet cheaply-maintained bike that will travel happily both on-road and off-road (paths) and also easily carry a good load of stuff in comfort and at a ‘decent’ pace. A kind of ATB in other words.
Anything else to me is a ‘play-bike‘ (ie MTB or road-racer)
Even then a ‘compromise bias‘ will lean:
1. Toward ‘road‘ vs ‘offroad‘
2. Toward ‘performance/speed’ vs ‘utility/versatility’
Captain Obvious concludes that a ‘do it all’ bike is more about ‘bias’ than ‘compromise’. If it becomes more about ‘compromise‘ then it’s time to change tack.
One-size-fits-all is the perfect scenario for endless rounds of disagreement!
Growing up in working-class 1970s England I was convinced that 99% of adult-bicycles were all shed-bound variants of (50s-60s vintage) Raleigh Wayfarers* that were no longer required because the more successful grown-ups now had money for cars!
The other 1% I perceived as road or track-racing lightweight machines reserved for some odd/distant class of people about which I knew nothing at all.
It’s weird to think back to when the ‘everyman’ bike looked like this:
Weirder still that it looks very much like my current ‘do it all’ bike! (1990 vintage) But at least it’s moved out of the shed 🙂
*note - socks with sandals? Utility vs recreation?
Nowadays we ‘can have it all’
‘Gravel’ is just the bicycle version of socks with sandals? Discuss...🤓
I think everyone needs a second bike in the form of a commuter or town bike that can be locked up without fear. If I only had to have one main mtb it would be my gt 4x bike. It can do everything from xc to bike parks and is a ht.
Everyone needs
^ ‘Some people‘ need? I’d agree.
Then the discussion becomes about whether a ‘cyclist’ is someone who rides a bike more than drives a car, or a ‘cyclist’ is someone that more often drives to places to ride a bike? No ‘serious cyclist’ would have just one bike? A conundrum...