Have posted a bit about this in other threads but, it was only when putting the bike away this morning did I realise I am slightly addicted to this damn bike-ness.

I don’t mean riding the things, which would be great, more building and buying.

Last year, (already having a nice HT and FS bike) I fancied something lighter for local riding on fire roads or gravel. Don’t get on with road based bikes so ended up with a rigid on one Whippet. Built it up single speed and it was great.

Now, 12 months later it is 1×10 with a dropper, front suspension fork and yesterday I was looking over the internet at new wheels for it. Don’t need them, just wanted something nicer and maybe a touch lighter / stronger than the cheapy (but perfectly ok) things I bought s/hand when building the bike.

This morning I spent a couple of hours tracing a creak, which was the dropper and it dawned on me I’ve mutated the original plans for this bike into essentially a copy of my existing HT, apart from that having plus tyres and this not.

So I am now realising I don’t really want a gravel capable bike (which of course, most mtbs are anyway), I just want some lighter 29″ wheels and tyres for my main HT and swap them over every so often.

Balls, anybody want to buy an on one whippet ….. lol…

Classifieds?

The comment was tongue in cheek to end the post. It isn’t for sale just yet.

Was supposed to be a simple story about chasing desires to buy new things, only to realise you didn’t really want/need what you thought you did initially.

While we all joke about N+1 culture Antony de Heveningham’s piece in issue 136 is worth reading and makes some very good points about our consumer culture. The bike industry seems to keep coming up with new “bikes” and then telling us this is what we need, sadly a lot of people say “yeah I always wanted that”. Gravel bikes are a prime example, aren’t they just HT MTB’s with skinny tyres or road bikes with fatter tyres? And as for Gravel Bike specific accessories and clothing don’t get me started! Not having a go at you @twonks because you seem to have come to the same point (an epiphany some would say) albeit by buying a bike you now realise that you don’t actually need.

“The cycling industry is continuously promoting the newest, latest, fastest innovations and models. And in general, we as consumers still buy into that with our N+1 gospel. The next decades will need to see a change in fast consumerism.” – Antony de Heveningham (issue 136)

I’m laughing at the OP because that could so easily be me. At one point I had three “just go out in the hills” type bikes all built differently but with almost identical purpose.

When I have time to ride and that varies a lot with kids amd work, I can easily cover all my MTB bases with one mountian bike and ride from the door stuff (rough back lanes, suburbia and disused railway) is well suited to a gravel type bike yet I’ve still somehow got three other bikes not touched recently that heavily cross over with those.

The other thing I find harder is not “over biking” and buying with the hope value of those trips to Afan or the Purbecks or Lake District etc. forgetting that I only really stray out of the South Downs for a riding week/weekend/day trip once or maybe twice a year.

“The cycling industry is continuously promoting the newest, latest, fastest innovations and models. And in general, we as consumers still buy into that with our N+1 gospel. The next decades will need to see a change in fast consumerism.” – Antony de Heveningham (issue 136)

The industry promotes to an interested market. We the consumers are always searching for better and novelty and change of experience – it’s a 50-50 thing imo.
The bike industry spends more time talking about what customers might want next and where th trend indicators are than working out how it can create something new. And buyers are traditionally conservative, hanging on to a sales trend as long as possible, buying more of what worked last year. The brands look to niches for direction and I’d say niches are mostly created by rider demand.
Agree that it has to change – not the pattern as that’s natural but the pace and impact.

forgetting that I only really stray out of the South Downs for a riding week/weekend/day trip once or maybe twice a year.

You need a gravel bike 😉

Rent-a-sled on those yearly trips

Those are more the replies I was expecting, more akin to a conversation after a couple of beers back in t’ old days 😉

Not read the article, will go have a dig and do so but yes it seems like me to a large degree.

My reasoning (to myself at least) is that all things cycling is my main hobby in life. I enjoy it all, from researching bits to building bikes and then riding them. A lot of people don’t get this and will happily say ‘just have one bike and ride the bloody thing’

Well yes, clearly that’s a valid point but then I miss out on a few other likes within the things of my enjoyment.

Still, for this particular bike I have fallen for the ‘oh, I’d like a gravel bike’ after reading so much about them. Then done the research and study bit and determined what I actually want is a lightweight rigid MTB because I don’t like road bikes.

Bought and build said rigid MTB, even made it single speed to have a go at ‘another’ thing. Loved it but them found myself morphing the bike into what I actually ride the most – a hardtail with gears. Oh, I have one of those already, hence yesterday when I pinched myself and asked what am I doing (after spending the thick end of a solid day reading up on wheel options). Thank fully I did this before I spent a reasonable amount of money on said wheels.

It’s a bit hypocritical really as on one hand I like the messing about, researching, building and riding different bikes. It is a hobby and I am old enough to have available funds for it. (not a brag, just a fact). The other side is it’s daft and I very rarely (ever) come out on top after buying and selling the bits I build.

One bike I might build is my 26″ full suss from the old days of 2007 (like it’s really that old). I have all the bits and do wonder if it will feel horrendous and throw me off on the first pebble I hit at more than 10mph!

I agree OP.

I enjoy researching and reading about these things. I’m more opinionated than I need to be about them.

I’m a ‘keep a bike until it’s dead’ owner. My Marin is over 3 years old, and looking back I keep bikes 4-5 years on average. Usually changed because the economic cost of replacing parts is more than a new bike.

I’m also happy with a chunkier HT and my do it all gravel,  road, tour, shopping and commuting bike. I don’t need* anything more, but that doesn’t stop me looking…

Shops always hated me. IIRC I only ever bought two new bikes in 40 years. Oh, and one ex-demo bike for my 50th

I love many kinds of bikes except for road racing.

Touring
Rando
Utility/Town
Gadabout/singlespeed
Gravel
Monstercross
Retro tinkering
Aggro Hardtail
XC
Folding

Just love bikes and cycling and have been a serial (used bike) swapper for decades. Covid tax and injury has slowed me down that in latter years

Never tried enduro. Nearest I got was a club Roost XC4, which was still not really near at all.

If I could only have one bike at this point in time I suppose I’d keep the Longitude 29+. Yet like today when was running late for hospital appointment my old trusty retro tourer got me there more swiftly, bang on time, and was also happy(ish) to lock it up outside without sweating for the whole appt.

A road tourer and an aggro hardtail would be the sensible ‘compromise’ for me. But then again I can’t underestimate a stepthru ute with IGH if you don’t use a car for town/grocery trips.

I’m atypical in that I prefer/choose cycling over motor vehicle for most of my transport, utility and leisure – but am not very greedy for new tech/geo/trends.

If I had a garage it would no doubt be full of pristine relics and the scent of GT85 😎

I counter it by going the opposite way. I have one bike that is as simple a bike as can be and don’t even use many modern parts on it. I ride it everywhere (road, gravel, off-road) and just enjoy it for what it is.

I just focus on actually riding as much as I can.

Yep, the more bikes I have, the more specific each one is, which means the better it is at a very specific task, which means riding a ‘do-it-all’ bike is now a horrible compromise to me! 🙄

The answer of course is not to stop buying more bikes but instead to plot your routes more carefully to suit the specific abilities of the bike you want to ride, means I get to combine my two favourite activities e.g. intricate route planning and buying/owning lots of nice bikes 😁

At my peak I think I had seven bikes just for for little old me. Most were various flavours of MTB but there was a road bike and a BMX in there too.

I’m now down to five but they’re a bit more diverse (and cheaper) now. Only one is an MTB, I’ve stopped kidding myself about riding a BMX, two are more utilitarian (a pub/shopping fixie and a sensible mudguarded commuter) and the two most frequently ridden for fun are probably the carbon road bike and the niche whore Gravel machine…

I now operate a one in, one out policy and I’m not really too bothered by new and shiny anymore, the newest frame is five years old now, most of them were bought used… I expect my five bikes combined are worth far less than some people’s cheapest “hack”.

I do think some elements of the N+1 marketing trope have gotten a little out of hand.

It creates the impression in some people’s minds that there’s a need for significant financial outlay in the name of “keeping up” in order to call yourself a “cyclist”. And some people seem unable to fathom the idea of not buying a new bike every 12-24 months.

Perhaps it’s just a by-product of “end stage capitalism”: people just can’t be happy with what they’ve got knowing that there’s something apparently better, slightly out of their grasp, if they just stretch their credit card a little further…

I do wonder if I’d enjoy riding a £5k+ MTB more, the truth is it’s financial value would be playing on my mind the second the wheels left the ground.

Hence just about adequate bikes are the truly the ‘best’ fun… FACT!

Hence just about adequate bikes are the truly the ‘best’ fun… FACT!

That’s why I like retro touring bikes. Nice ones (can be) very inexpensive to purchase once used compared to anything similar new today, yet they are most often hand-built from 531 and were the top marques of the day. I have that rides so much better than ‘adequately’, it’s a dream and it somehow makes me grin the most of all my bikes. It goes like stink (for a tourer), it glides swiftly, silently and always leaves me without any discomfort anywhere.

It also cost £80 all in, because it’s over 30 years old!

Agreed, an adequate MTB is a lot of fun too. My last hardtail was a 26er, about £100 used, Tora 130 forks, singlespeed cromo. It was bags of fun.

@p7eaven: Not quite vintage or classic but this gets me to work and trundles the local lanes when it’s wet out:

Frame and fork were £30 (IIRC), most of the rest came from the spares bin/eBay, but yeah it’s what I’d call adequate and I’m quite attached to it…

I’ve spent years swapping and changing bikes. It only recently dawned on me that you can ride what you want where the hell you want as long as you’re having fun. To this end I’m in the process of building up a Stooge Dirtbomb. It will be my only bike and will make me giggle. In the end that’s all that matters.

N+1 is not just for the bike industry though, any retail industry needs a constant supply of customers buying goods…millions are spent on convincing you to part with the cash. Resistance is futile.

I’m just going through the same mental torture, experimented over the last few weeks riding trails/singletrack and gravel on my Salsa Vaya that I was riding on my Krampus that I recently finished building. I discovered I can ride the same stuff on the Vaya albeit a bit slower. I have been deliberating dropping down from two to one with a wide tyred gravel bike like a Cutthroat but when I’m down to one bike I always feel like I need another one 😂. This has been my never ending circle for the past twenty years. I know exactly where you are coming from.

I’ve had the same bike for the last 12 years! What’s wrong with me 😂 ?

Strictly speaking, I’ve had my GT Pantera since I bought it in 1994. Trouble is, I’ve also had about 314 others in between 😀