I’m thinking of flogging my DH bike and my trail come XC bike to fund just one bike. I’m happy with my choice of soon to be new bike but the thought of just having one bike, just one! unsettles me a bit. Can I really consider myself a mountain biker with just one bike? I’ve defined myself by my obsession with riding so to just have one bike….. Can it be done?

Just get a flashy road bike.

Just get a flashy road bike.

Things aren’t that bad.

it can be done but why would u want to do such a thing lol every time iv tried to just have 2 another just ends up being built

You can still ‘define yourself’ by your obsession- just give your one and only bike the ultimate spec you can and ride it as often as you can.
Enjoy.

Until you remember winter time destroys your nice expensive components..
And you wish for a bike which didn’t cost so much to replace the consumables..

Mate of mine went from trailbike and dh bike to one really good trailbike, it’s suiting him well- allsorts of riding, big xc rides, (he guides sometimes), solo’d the GT7, raced dh and enduro (some good SDA places). Modern bikes are brilliant.

But, glad I don’t have to. I could get by with two (one mtb, one tarmac), and I’d be very happy with 3 but I like having 5 more 😉

What will you do when it’s broken though?

In theory you could also get away with one pair of sturdy shoes too.

But you need – slippers for the house, trainers for slacking out in, a pair of black and a pair of brown for best, same for work, boots for walking, boots for working, wellies for raining, flip flops for the beach, another pair of trainees for chillin’, at least one pair of cycling shoes, etc.etc.

So ask yourself would you forgo all your shoes for just one pair of Barker Black dinner brogues ?

I’d love to go back to just one bike and may still do so in the future. I was completely happy with my old hardtail as my only bike but since getting a full sus it made me realise what I was missing out on for rougher stuff. I still like a HT for jumps etc but sometimes blissful ignorance is better I reckon. Was way better just having the one bike to obsess over upgrading and maintaining!

I’m thinking of flogging my DH bike and my trail come XC bike to fund just one bike. I’m happy with my choice of soon to be new bike but the thought of just having one bike, just one! unsettles me a bit. Can I really consider myself a mountain biker with just one bike? I’ve defined myself by my obsession with riding so to just have one bike….. Can it be done?

Yeah, absolutely, the whole N+1 nonsense is about consumerism, not riding and not who or what you are. It’s sad, I see it as the leakage of global capitalism into cycling where it becomes about buying new bikes and things instead of about riding.

It’s driven by a bike industry which, understandably, is focussed on selling more stuff and a world which is generally all about defining yourself by stuff…

I think Fight Club had it about right: “The things you used to own, now they own you.” I remember that one because the last person who quoted it at me in a state of righteous, minimalist zeal worked for adidas… you couldn’t make it up.

What will you do when it’s broken though?

^^ this

You need at least two

I see it as the leakage of global capitalism into cycling where it becomes about buying new bikes and things instead of about riding.

Leakage? 😆

Mountainbikes are the finest example of ludicrously expensive things that have no practical use.

Excellent, another person heading for the nirvana of one bike zen cycling.
all you need to do now is get rid of all those fiddly gears and bouncy stuff and you will have reached enlightenment.
It’s cycling monogomy, a true love with just one.

ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

PS:

What will you do when it’s broken though?

– fix it?

>Can it be done?<

You’ve come to the wrong place to ask the question but you already know the answer.

‘The more you know the less you need.’ Chouinard iirc

Leakage?
Mountainbikes are the finest example of ludicrously expensive things that have no practical use.

That’s very STW black and white of you, but I’m not saying that mountain biking is wrong or of no use, just that it’s slightly sad when it seems to become not about riding bikes, but buying them. The whole N+1 thing which if, followed to its logical conclusion, would end up exhausting the world’s natural resources as they’re all converted into bikes and the accompanying Shimano documentation running into trillions of multi-lingual, sheets of paper…

You read it here first folks, N+1 will destroy the world in time…

You read it here first folks, N+1 will destroy the world in time…

N, where n=1 would do the same if everyone on the planet had one.

Mountainbikes will destroy the earth.

Mountainbikes will destroy the earth.

No, mountain bikes are just the innocent pawns in all this, it’s us who are going to destroy the earth. You’re getting confused with Transformers here.

Ah, it’s STW equivalent of Douglas Adams shoes.

Current 160mm bikes are amazingly capable – a good one will do 80/90% of what your DH bike will do, and not be a big compromise on your trail bike. What you lose in the DH sense is mostly margin for error – if I was a skilled/smooth rider I wouldn’t need a DH bike, but I know it gets me out of self-inflicted trouble and gives me a couple of extra clicks of confidence.

Ah, it’s STW equivalent of Douglas Adams shoes.

Are you thinking of Imelda Marcos?

Hmmm…. I do have more cycles (some have motors) than shoes.

It’s driven by a bike industry

Those monsters again : ) Most companies are happier with lower SKU counts. I think it’s at least as much driven by people wanting the best tool for the job and not accepting compromise. If not, we’d see far more people happy with one simple bike for all their riding and 2 fingers to genres. It’s just bikes in the dirt, why have 3 or 4 different ones unless you race or your ego means you can’t accept your mates riding away from you on certain types of trail? Chances are, none of them will be any more right any more often that the others.

1 bike per riding type is perfect imo. eg 1 road, 1 MTB, 1 FAB of some kind, a CX, BMX, whatever. I’ll get fired for that hehe. Really, try it, focus on having 1 bike that’s optimised for the riding you do most and look after it. Get so used to it that it’s your ‘most sorted bike ever’. It’s a good way to be.

@BWD – no, well not in any way that I’ll admit to on a public forum. 😳

I was thinking of the Shoe Event Horizon – just replace shoe with bike 😀

The Shoe Event Horizon is an economic theory that draws a correlation between the level of economic (and emotional) depression of a society and the number of shoe shops the society has.

The theory is summarized as such: as a society sinks into depression, the people of the society need to cheer themselves up by buying themselves gifts. This is usually done through the purchase of shoes. As more money is spent on shoes, more shoe shops are built, and the quality of the shoes begins to diminish as the demand for different types of shoes increases. This makes people buy more shoes.

The above turns into a vicious cycle, the end result being that other industries begin to falter.

Eventually the titular Shoe Event Horizon is reached, where the only type of store economically viable to build is a shoe shop. At this point, society ceases to function, and the economy collapses, sending a world into ruin. In the case of Brontitall and Frogstar World B, the population forsook shoes and evolved into birds.

Clickety

EDIT: this theory is supported by Pook’s announcement of yet another bike shop in Sheffield – it’s started already!

I’ve got 3.
A short travel, big wheeled FS.
A carbon road bike.
A CX bike with discs and reasonable gearing (compact & 11-32) and tough wheels.

The CX can be used for off road and road so covers a eventualities and the other two cover everything they’re meant to, especially the MTB. It’s way more capable than a 100mm FS bike should be, either that or I’m way crapper than anything with more travel would allow me to do / compensate for.

I used to also have a 100mm forked, big wheeled HT, but that got sold as it was not getting used and I has to keep on thinking of resond to ride it. When that happens you know it’s surplus to requirements.

Int modern bikes brilliant.