I’ve looked *really* carefully at going down to one bike. Even mention of this topic has my brain whirring again… 😉
I have fond memories of just riding whatever MTB I had all the time, everywhere – I even did JOGLE on a Cannondale F900 (Lefty up front) back in the day!
A 29er with two wheelsets would fit the bill perfectly for this vision and one with mounts etc even more so (hence the appeal of a Surly).
The main reasons I can see “for” are:
– Riding one nice bike all the time;
– Saving space;
– Lower overall cost.
The main obstacles for me remain:
– Locking-up said single nice bike at a main railway station around once a week (now moot, as my two bikes are closer in spec than in the past);
– To a degree, limiting my riding.
I got close to going down to one bike in the spring, when I needed a new “life bike” and was eyeing my less-used Cotic Soul as a donor.
In the event, the good weather of 2014 has led me to spend more time on my Soul and to push my riding boundaries a bit more. I’ve also enjoyed spending a lot of time commuting and touring on the Escapade that I bought after deciding I needed to keep my second bike – complete with drops, disc 29er wheels, 35c tyres, rack mounts etc.
This has basically reinforced the point about one bike limiting my riding. Something like a Karate Monkey or Solaris would have done all the above, but probably wouldn’t have hit the spot in the same way that my two bikes did individually this year.
At a push, I’d probably opt to keep my Escapade and build something based around that if faced with a one bike scenario. It covers 90% of my mileage: riding with a tagalong / bike seat / commuting / light off road / riding to the shops…but it’s not going set any singletrack thrill records.
It would be very possible to swing the notch back towards MTB-style (swap the frame and combine parts), but then it wouldn’t be so good for the 2,000 miles I do on the road every year.
But the idea of a single bike still appeals to me… I don’t know why – aaaargghhh!!!