[Closed] Why do you change bikes?

1. When I have the cash.

2. Broken.

3. Fancy a change*

*Reliant on 1

Changes with my riding.

For example, i had a Commencal Meta AM29, i was doing Afan, BPW, Surrey Hills etc, so an AM29 made sense.

I then did some longer XC events so had a Spearfish.

I then decided to get something a bit more hardcore and went Whyte T-130 which is a great bike.

Next, likely to be a 29er, 100mm susp both ends, Carbon, Fast, light. For XC racing.

They are all Trigger's Brushes. New bikes evolve as bits wear out or break and get replaced. Very occasionally a whole new one appears but that is for a specific purpose, time trial bike for example, but generally they just morph over time.

I get bored with them after a while but it’s usually a case of constant evolution.

Rotate my buying of bikes.

1 Year, Full Sus, next year Hardtail, next year Road.

Only do it because I fancy a change, no expectations of leaps of difference in terms of performance. Mrs W also seems this as an acceptable practice so that helps.....

Does go out of sequence occasionally, for example this year I had an urge to get a 29er full sus, so had to get one instead of a new road bike. But after riding with the road guys at the weekend and getting smashed, I now feel I need an uber new aero road bike.....

I'm kind of fortunate in the fact that Mrs W works, she spends similar money to me on gym / personal trainer / beauty stuff - so she can't really complain too much about my annual spending.

Up until last year and a 'big' birthday I've never had more than one bike at a time. I never replaced a bike unless absolutely necessary - the roll call:

2016-2009 GT Avalanche - frame cracked

2009-2013 Genesis Core - frame cracked

2013-2015 On One 456 evo 2  - nicked

2015-2016 One 45650b - frame cracked

2016 to date Dartmoor Primal

'Change' implies getting rid of a bike - I'm not very good at that. But if the question was "why do you add bikes to the collection?", it's probably because I just like them, and I can afford to. At the moment I have entries in the rigid single-speed, race hardtail, mid-travel 29er FS, road, shopping, road unicycle, mountain unicycle and folding categories. Which still leaves gaps in hardcore hardtail, hardtail SS, gravel, cyclocross,  long travel FS, race FS, touring, cargo, fat and road SS niches at least. Oh, and tandems.

usually change if something more shiny and niche catches my eye. Having said that I've had my jones for years and it will only get changed for the newer SWB plus version when a ti version comes out.

A: because I like building them from bits as a hobby - about to embark on cxgraventure style bike v3.0 with a mix of old and new parts

B: because the MTB was 13 years old and I was 40+x and wanted something new and fun and shiny and - damn it - because!

My bikes (mountain bike and road bike) evolve more than get replaced.

I've only ever bought one, whole new bike (Giant XTC) and since then I've gradually replaced or upgraded.

Sometimes it happens at such a rate that I have enough parts 'left over' to build another bike. Which happened recently when I upgraded my road bike to 105 groupset. The groupset I removed, plus a few bits from the Garage, has made a whole new (Winter) roadie.

My previous mountain bike frame is now a Singlespeed, rigid, bike that I use to pop around the village shops etc...

Because I like bikes.

And I'm a bit of a tart.

When it comes to mountain bikes, because after many years of using one, it becomes so outdated, I simply need a new one.

Road is more tricky. I might just be tired of the one I have and really fancy a 'new' offering. By 'new', I really mean 'new-to-me', as I can not really afford genuinely new bikes at the level I want them.

Finally, the bikes I use for commuting simply wear out.

Same as my cars really, my love / enthusiasm for it starts to diminish from the moment of the first scratch (13 mins into ownership).

For the first year maintenance is fastidious, it's a 'new bike' for it's entire first year, a source of pride and obviously, as it's the one I chose, the bike bike in the world, well in the niche I picked anyway.

For the second it's less so I'll typically forget all the little things that are wrong with it between rides until it becomes dangerous or worse, I have to end a ride early because it's unrideable and I'll lose my temper with it, strip it down to the frame and repair/replace everything I can at the time. At that point I'll notice more 'patina' and things like the saddle, grips, pedal arms etc, whilst not broken, will look like shit and by now, thanks to the way the 'industry' works, my bike is not only last years, it's actually 3 years old by this point, as the current one is waving at me from the future, which is now.

In the 3rd year I'm already window shopping for the next one, by this time it's looking pretty rough to my eyes (I only ever own one bike at a time), I'm, way past caring about upgrades, my CRC bills are just a list of stuff that's broken. When I'm working on it now I'm already thinking about re-sale value, at this point everything you had on your must-have list last time is now obsolete (who have thought, a 15x100mm from axle, 12x142mm rear axle, 650b rims with 2.3mm ID, 200x57 shock and a 66.5 degree head angle wouldn't stick when 'standards settle down') but unless something seismic happens like the wheels size we'd all used for decades suddenly goes obsolete it's still worth something so you let Man Maths tell you it will only cost you more to change it next year so, the 4th year rarely comes, start all over again.

I've decided to go down the PCP route, well the bike version anyway - we've got a sort of in-house R2W scheme where we can repay it over 3 years instead of 1 - so I'll buy a new one on that and change it when it ends.

It's purely n+1 with me, and a case of just taking a fancy in something new. Do tend to stick to brands or designs I like though.

Still, I keep going back to my older bikes too. I like them all. Even got one retired frame and thinking of doing something with that as I can't bring myself to get rid of it (and got most the bits to build it up again).

Never bothered about scratches, depreciation or new technology making what I've got less attractive. I get out riding the thing and come back with a grin saying I really love this bike, whichever bike I'm on.

Latest one - because I've wanted one since launch, test rode one and loved it, had other other bikes, ratonalised not spending that much money, but in the end succumbed. I had the cash, they were on offer, I'm in the right situation at the moment, and it will last me for a very long time, also my finances are as good now as they're going to be for quite a while as buying proprty on the horizon. So I fancied it, have never had a brand new 'nice' bike and probably won't get the opportunity to again for quite some time.

Same applies to the shotgun I'm going to look at tomorrow!

When I get an ebay alert and it's an absolute bargain!

When the bikes I own stop me from doing what I want to do.

Getting out in the hills:

Yep, a nice, light slack hardtail with bigger tyres would be better than my current 15 year old bike. £1500 better? Not sure, but I'm itching to find out. Fancy a daft  budget susser as well.

Touring:

You'll prise my Disc Trucker out of my cold, dead fingers. Best bike I've ever owned. A slightly sloping top tube and Reynolds 7/853 would make it perfect.

Road Bike:

God, it's awful.

But it's 22 years old, alloy and utterly beautiful so can be forgiven.

I absolutely never purchase new bikes on a whim. They are always carefully planned out, taking into account my own long-term cycling needs, and current and future trends, together with a well organised, careful analysis of all of the suitable bikes on the market to ensure that I pick th....

OOOOH! Shiny! Do you take....MONEY?

(More seriously, I tend to stick with bikes for quite a while, but like adding to my collection. My favourite bike is always the newest one (regardless of discipline - at the moment, it's the gravel bike and I look for any excuse at all to take it out) but ultimately, the whole process is very much governed by the "S-1" rule.)

Just because, normally.

I've not changed bike in three and a half years, but the last changes were due to bike limitations I discovered through riding or changing as I had the wrong sized bike.

I've no plans to change my Charge Plug, maybe try some 650b road plus setup in a year or so, but for now I am happy just riding it.

I've considered chopping in the hardtail, but seem to be replacing worn out bits with new/less used bits instead. The main reason for wanting to change that is wanting to try a bigger wheel size and more modern geometry, but for now at least I am sticking with what I have.

Got a zesty because I fancied a fs, got a rhyme because it was much better than the zesty (sold the zesty) got the enduro because it was an absolute bargain, previous owner didn't have to worry about upgrading the components or losing money when selling (rhyme has also gone). So basically just upgrading because a bargain came along.

Up until about 5 years ago, only replaced when stolen. Stable was just 1 HT and 1 commuter.

But got more 'into' biking, and found that although my Boardman HT was fine for local stuff, it wasn't really the right bike for weekends away to bigger places (notably too little bike for Antur!)

Cash has always been tight-ish, so still followed a N+1-1=N rule, but did specifically choose my next MTB (On One 45650b) to be a more capable 'one-MTB' bike than the Boardman I sold.

On the commuting side, went from a road bike to a disc Boardman hybrid to a CX bike ... Found I loved the versatility of the thing and hatched a plan over a number of years to add (ADD! Not swap!) for a second similar (nicer) bike ... My 50th birthday Pickenflick was the realisation of that plan, the old CX retired to just commuting/winter road ride duties.

Mind you, had to sell the On One 45650b to part fund that, but that was offset by having gathered (begged, borrowed, ebay) most of the bits to put together not one, but two MTB's ... A rigid SS Inbred and a Cannondale Prophet. Being 26ers, they were cheap but still do the job!

Ideally, I would still like another hardcore HT, a road bike and a commuting SS drop bar bike, but having increased my collection from 2-4 bikes, which cover pretty well all the riding I ever want/need to do, I'll leave it there for now ...

If the manufacturer puts out a sick edit

I like them shiney.

I only ever have one bike at a time so change frames and parts for the sake of it most of the time but sometimes for a better reason.  Just recently change my track frame for a fixed gear freestyle frame as it takes 43c tyres and was fed up with the 25c tyres off road.

I don't like the though of owning more than one bike (having to choose which one to ride, maintain them etc,).  Just the same with guitars.

Just change my road bike. No reason whatsoever really, happened to be in a bike shop buying some bits for my MTB, spotted a road bike I liked the look of, put my road bike on ebay, got a good price for it, also sold off some other bits and bobs and funded the balance by the C2W scheme, so swapped my road bike over without actually spending a penny purely because I liked the look of it. Why not? These things are designed to be desirable, they all better bikes than I am a rider, and I simply don't ride enough to wear out a bike. I'll probably keep this one for a couple of years and see something else I fancy while I'm browsing in a bike shop one day.

More to the point , what do you do with the old bikes? I can never be arsed to go through the rigmarole of selling them and since the kids now buy their own instead of hoovering up my castoffs I have stopped buying new ones. I really fancy a new Solaris but who will buy the scruffy and battered 26" Soul it will replace?

There are always half a dozen or so bikes that I am pretty taken by and a combination of if I am flush enough or if one pops up on the classifieds or ebay I'll take the plunge. Very rarely am so smitten by something to buy it from new.

Once the manufacturer of my current bike drops outside of the top 10 of the EWS team rankings...

I change stuff when I fancy a change or if stuff breaks/is stolen. My (current) Switchback still has me under its spell but I'd like to try a short travel (~120mm) slack-ish 26"/650B FS with a bottle cage mount if one exists. I suspect it may be a moon/stick combination though :/

Usually update because whatever I have at the time is a few years old and something newer/better comes along or if I buy and just don't get on with. my Ibis & Kinesis fell under the first and quite likely my T130 eventually will as well, my 456C and Foxy carbon fell under the second, just didn't gel with them.

“I’d like to try a short travel (~120mm) slack-ish 26″/650B FS with a bottle cage mount if one exists. I suspect it may be a moon/stick combination though :/”

Bird Aeris 120.

Used to just buy a new bike when I fancied it but have calmed down a lot over the last 3 or so years.  Now I have to justify the new bike before purchase.

Recently replaced my 7 year old Orange 5 as it was a little on the short side for the riding I'm doing now and geometry has moved a long way forward (plus wheel sizes).  I was mainly an XC rider when I bought it and was right between sizes.  Went for the shorter size and it was great until I started doing more DH-orientated riding.  The new bike, a Rocket, is much more suited to that type of stuff and it doesn't cross over with my other bike, a 2015 Trek Fuel EX which is great for long, gentler days and trail centres.  The 5 and the Trek were a little bit too close to each other and I was finding I could grab either for most of my riding.  Have been hankering after a hardtail recently so bought a cheap frame to put all the bits from the Trek on for the winter.  It was fun but at no point was I riding anything that the Trek could handle just as well so that's getting rebuilt and I'll be back down to 3 bikes, the other being the commuter bike.

Was averaging a new bike every 12 months on average for a long time but as bikes are getting more and more capable it's easier to cover all my riding with two bikes.  That and I think I'm getting old and sort of wiser!

Change? I don't understand the question. I buy new one. Old bike stays...

Thanks for all the interesting responses so far.

This thread was prompted by a throw-away comment on another thread where the poster said that they realised a new bike wouldn't make them a better rider. That seemed eminently sensible but then I thought that I probably am looking for a new bike to at least make me look or feel like a better rider. If I didn't think it would at least make me able to get up or down stuff that I don't feel comfortable doing on my current bike I'm not sure why I'd change. It looks as though there are lots of other reasons as well though. I'd not even though of looking at the EWS rankings 🙂

Only bike I really change is my full sus. My roadbike and hardtail do the same thing they've always done.  My FS changes as my riding & circumstances change.

MTB - change for something different (rare, present bikes bought in 2005, 2011 and 2017)

Road - now found my ultimate commuter/tourer, summer bike gets upgraded every couple of years with a high-end frame off ebay and the odd occasional treat (£50 carbon cranks saved me 200gm this year)

Since my return to Cycling after Uni about 15 years ago...

Old Specialized Stumpy hardtail    In: Cheap from my brother  Out: gave back to my brother

Marin Wolf Ridge   In: Fancied a fullsusser    Out: Realised i preferred hardtails, sold frame and shock

Specialized Allez In: fancied trying road cycling  Out: NA but gathering a lot of dust

Dialled Prince Albert In: Back to hardtail, built up with bits off Marin    Out:Cracked

Ragley Blue Pig: In: replace Prince Albert      Out: Cracked

Surly Karate Monkey: In: Fancied trying a 29er   Out: Stolen

Surly Krampus In: Won a frame at Tide2Tide   Out: Stolen

Chromag Rootdown   In: Insurance replacement  Out: NA

Jamis Renegade  In: Fancied a bike for "mixed" routes  Out: NA

When I did it was something different but I’ve still got them all except ones I gave away.

The urge is always strongest when i'm enjoying my riding the least. Conveniently, that's also the easiest time to resist it.

Im about to change cos a few years ago everyone on here told me my bike needed to be short and "flickable" and now your all telling me i need to stretched out like a limo with lots of pedal strikes and the turning circle of the QE2.

I have a feeble mind, So its all your fault

To keep up with the in-crowd.

That and my choice of riding changes, i.e. gone from more XC MTB orientated racing to Enduros.

I add to the collection rather than change bikes, more often than not buy a frame, usually secondhand (Not fussed on it looking shiny as the first couple of long rides gets rid of that) & build them up from the spares box, which is  kinda big these days !...

Main reasons being - CBA to sell a bike that works fine but is rather battered looking for a fraction of what it's cost me, especially if I still like riding it. But I do like riding different types of bikes on a regular basis - last month it was the FS Kona, this month it's been mainly the fatty, but has switched to the Anthem this week.

& then yesterday I was fondly looking at the old NRS frame hanging up & thought it's high time I put it back together again...

if something I think I should have comes along

so - since very late 90s I have had 5 bikes

- hardtail

- elastomer front sus

- elastomer front sus, spring rear sus, *added v brakes

- air oil forks, air spring rear, hydraulics discs, *added tubeless

- ebike with shimano motor, new this year

hopefully there will be a battery/motor technology jump(*weight reduction/distance increase) in a few years

I change when they wear out. It's not often.

Because the grass always appears greener (often not the case however).

I went through a bit of a mad spell for mibbe 3 years there, chasing the next best thing, was a bit daft really.

Ended up with a Bronson V2 that is by far the best all round bike I've ever ridden, tbh it bloody should be the amount it cost, had it for 13 months now, I can see it lasting 5 years easy.

I'll mibbe have a hardtail again one day, but the amount of riding I do, I can't really justify another mtb.

For me it’s usually when something interesting comes along or when I fancy a change. Main bike model year since I got the bug again have been 2004, 2006, 2009, 2014, 2017.

Add to that ever changing retro and a few modern ht’s over the years. Oh, and a CX bike I didn’t use.

I tend to change while the old bike has value left in it too.