Can man (or woman) survive on one bike alone?

I exist quite happily on one mountain bike but I don’t do any DH-orientated riding really.

I do though have a road bike, a tourer, and 2 city bikes (one only cost €50 and the other was given to me to fix up).

Nick_Christy – Member
6?? what are they? why you have so many?

Ibis Mojo, trail bike
Specialized Demo 8, DH bike
Specialized P2, Hardtail DH bike
Pastey Howler ti, XC bike
Kona Firemountain, pub bike
GT RTS with vintage 95/96 XTR, Judy SLs, just cos I can. 🙂

Be eco and have just 1

I am being eco – I’m saving on the ecological cost of disposing of my old bikes 😀

I’ll get shot down in flames for this, but I do think that too many bikes can be a disadvantage, and just means that you have far more work to do to keep them running.

This is very true. Only one of my six bikes doesn’t require any real fettling: the track bike, and that’s because it’s never been ruidden outdoors.

Realistically, I reckon four would do me:

HT MTB
CX bike (doubling as winter trainer/commuter)
Road race bike
Track bike

But, if I could only have one, it would be a light CX bike.

I have 3 in use. Geared hardtail, ss hardtail, cx bike. Also have road bike which i replaced with the new cx, but not worth selling if i want to play in the club crit races, and 2 old MTB s from my past I don’t want to part with, and are worth most to sell.

If I had to go to 1, would probably be my cx as it can do everything I need, would just need some proper 36 spoke wheels.

Cannondale six 105 Carbon Roady
Cotic simple SS
Ibis mojo SL ( with two set of forks 160mm and 140mm)
Kona dew Commuter (not that i commute these days)
( oh and theres a cracked titus frame in the bedroom i cant bear ot get rid off)

Just sold an SX Trail which really wasnt getting used.

If i had to just have one it would be the mojo, but my little cotic is very special, just not quite as versatile
Road bike is the poor mans form of cycling and would be the first to go if i was moving near decent mtbing again

Two bikes here, Ti hardtail for offroad stuff, and a roadbike. I’m thinking about getting a lighter 120mm full suspension something or other for marathons and XC rides, though.

Just one here, XC HT that’s set up more trail stylee. When a proper hardcore HT replaces it the XC bike (or its constituent parts) will be going to a new home. Brompton doesn’t count does it?

Well … certainly not ….

6 bikes here but trying to sell one ….

1 FS Ellsworth Truth
1 Kona Explosif
1 Dekerf Generation
1 Rocky Mountain Vertex SC

1 Colnago Masterlight Road
1 Merlin Extrlight Road …

Probably 3 hard tails is too much ….. one of the reasons I keep spares is to sus out the boyfriends by daughters bring home!

How hard do you lot with 4+ bikes find switching between them all?

I have one bike that I’m completely used to, when i get on someone else’s bike, everything feels wrong! Do you have to spend a while on each ride getting used to the bike? Or does it come back straight away?

3? (4)
I’m running a 09 5 spot, enjoying it so much it may make my 05 Ellsworth Truth redundant?
Also have a 98 Truth; my first decent full sus; and can’t bear to part with it.
It’s always there if the gf decides that biking isn’t as uncomfortable as she claims!
Checking out all the upgrade parts from the 5 spot frame swap I may be able to build my heckler back up again, tempting!

I;ve got one bike. I use it for MTB and Commuting at the moment. Not really ideal, but I’m skint.

I coped with one for over a decade of regular riding/commuting/trail centres/L2B/general pottering and it was fine. Just had multiple sets of tyres depending on what I was doing/time of year.

Now I have:

2001 Orange P7
2009 Zesty

Obviously need a spare in case Mrs wants to come riding (which she doesn’t).

Yeah, I’d be fine with just one bike if I needed to. Did it for 20 years and many of my mates still do.

I was talking to an old mate last month and he was astounded when I said I had about five MTBs.

He’s into computer games so I said “you don’t just have one computer game, do you?”

Probably not the perfect analogy, maybe more like people who have three different consoles and a PC for games.

Two bikes 140mm FS and 100mm HT. Use the hardtail for shorter rides and the FS for longer rides or if I’m off on a biking trip. I survived for a few months quite happily with the hardtail when the FS frame cracked. I’d probably go for a 120mm ish single pivot FS if I only had one.

Confession time. It turns out that I have been lying to you all. I said that I had one bike and then that got me thinking about my dad’s shed. Had a trip to Keswick yesterday and it turns out I have another two.

One 1989 MS Racing MTB which I upgraded to STX RC components in 1994 in favour of the old xt thumbies etc. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I am thinking of making this up into my ‘Keswick’ bike as it is ready to go in a retro way. I need some new smoke & dart tyres to get the full flashback feeling. Just look at these burly hubs.

I also found my lovely old 1984 MRD BMX which is currently causing a stir on ebay. That would be a great project but I will let someone else take it on.

i know people who do imagine not having a pile of tyres for your multiple bikes …shudders
5 for me
SS
FS
Hardatil Road bike
Pub Bike

One retired bike which is nearly complete
I could give up the Hardtail if I had to but not the rest as I use them

Five for me too, but I may well drop down to four if I see the geared HT.

Adjustable travel FS – being replaced with another one 😳
Geared HT – gets put away, then gets taken out and ridden and loved again 😆
SS HT – gets ridden in all weathers on local loops, quick evening blasts and 4 hour treks round and about possibly the best bike I’ve got 8)
Geared Road Bike – hasn’t been ridden since September last year, did cover over 2k in 8 months of occasional use though, might come down to London with me for post work mid-week rides 🙄
SS Steel hipster wagon for commuting, lives in London – this gets ridden the most at the moment in pure mileage terms 😈

Just the one bike for me MMBop

if that is out of action I can fall back on the wifes MMbop
till mine is mended

I not only exist on one bike… but I actually live a rich and fulfilling life..

On-One 456.. u-turn Revs.. SLX kit and strong wheels..

It will do abso-flippin-lutely anything I ask of it and all I ever have to do to encourage it to perform in any given situation is make minute adjustments to the amount that I am required to MTFU..

It’s a win/win situation

simplicity.. with synchronicity

Yup I have one bike, 6 inch full susser that I built up to be bullet proof and OK weight wise over the last 10 years. Don’t need to change it and truly hope it won’t break. Does me for all the riding I do.

If you like or love your bikes keep hold of them.

Second hand values are not great and there is no guilt in being overbiked.

I have an old 1985 Raleigh USA (xt, shark bites, welded stem/bar, ridiculous slack head angle) it is soo dated and handles like an angry drunk, I ride it a few times year, it entertains me and reminds me of my mtb past. Point being even a near pointless bike is better than £150 in the bank (or £150 less overdraft)

i live around 2 bikes for myself
ss rigid ss
rigid w/gears with 1.2 slicks flat bars,bar ends
dont feel i need more than this

[/url] Yoke[/url] by 18bikes[/url], on Flickr[/img]We’ll find out when this one arrives.

3

SX Trail – DH,AM,XC(!),FR – mountain bike…
Commencal hardtail 4x bike – a luxury for the odd bit race track, trails, dicking about type stuff. Don’t ‘need’ it, or use it that often
SS’d old road bike – commuting, shopping, pub etc.

Too many bikes means not getting the most out of them IMO.

I could get by with one mtb. I would have to have a change of wheels though so I can easily go between road and off road.

Only 1 for me. Lack of space you see.
I would love a Knolly delirium and an endorphin SL to go with my regular endorphin. Happy I would be.

i have 4 bikes cannondale prophet, ti 456, steel rigid inbred with both 26″ and 700cc wheel and a kinesis cx. I reckon i could manage with just the 456. I’d keep the carbon fork and 700cc wheels for touring which you could do on the 456 as it got the rack mounts.
But if I was to start commuting again i’d want a second hack bike as it seems a shame to trash an expensive mtb drive train to commute in all the muck thats on our roads. I had a lovely 1991 kona hananaha for that duty until
it got nicked boo.

In a word. No.

As Mrs Fopster very kindly bought me my STW subscription for Christmas, she is clearly aware of the existence of this site and may even find herself looking at it in a quiet moment to confirm what her beloved is up to.

I am therefore happy to confirm that I am indeed existing on just the one bike at the moment. I am, however, looking after a couple of other bikes for dear friends who sadly don’t have the space in their own garages. Purely on a temporary basis, you understand. I am sure I’m not the only one happy to help a fellow cyclist in this way – I know of several people with only one bike who happen to have more than that in their garage, “just for now”….
😯

I have a cargo bike, which is a bit of a lump for anything other than utility stuff and short commutes. But it’s barely recreational so it doesn’t count.

At present I seem to have 2 mountain bikes and 2 road bikes (summer and winter really in each case). But my winter road bike is singlespeed, so it won’t really do a touring job. So I’m at grave risk of a light tourer/audax/journey bike. I may get rid of the singlespeed roadie, but it seems a shame… 🙂

As soon as you start racing anything or trying to carry significant amounts of gear the number of machines you can justify rises rapidly.

3 – it’s the magic number….. no more no less….

a bike to commute on and knock about generally that you don’t mind being locked up in a public place

I like going riding away from the roads, therefore a mountain bike (choose your flavour) is needed and I don’t want to risk locking it up in public, so needs to be a different bike to the first

and I like riding longer rides on the roads, therefore I need something that is more comfy and efficient for doing this so you can’t do it on the first and it’d be too nice to leave in a public place – and clearly a road bike is no use away from the roads (and vice versa) so there’s my 3 and the justifications

I think that any more than 3 is a very tough sell to a non-cycling other half using the rationale above, you’re into ‘but they both go in the woods??’ territory for buying a full sus on top of the hardtail you have… 😆

Tried to go to the “one” bike a year or so ago, and thought I’d cracked it with the Ti456. Awesome bike, does everything I want, but then thought I’d better try this 29er lark (Scandal)…. brilliant bike too. Maybe a ti 29er could replace them both? Either way I now have two XC/Trail hardtails and it can get a bit annoying deciding which one to take out on which day…

All the spare bits were then built onto an ebay frame to make a commuter that (hopefully) won’t get nicked (although all the “old” parts, like v-brakes are bloody good stuff, so it’s ended up being my lightest bike at c.9kg with full gears!).

One bike can work, but you have to stop riding with other people (who keep upgrading)/reading magazines/browsing ebay/t’internet, so rampant consumerism is kept at bay. Then you can just enjoy the bike your on…

3

jumpy fun singlespeed

xc/commuter

fs for fun days.

to be honest i`m riding the xc almost exclusively atm other than on the pump track where only the small bike fits.

i need forks with a lockout/travel adjust to make the big bike more useable. actually i probably just need to be fitter…