[Closed] People who own just one mtb... What do you own?

When I got my Blur LTc I ended up going down to one bike as it were, didn't rebuild the HT and loved it but it was always a compromise in the end. Build for the fun and then diet it for the more XC stuff then beef it back up.

Now have a DH bike the LTc and a 100mm 29r FS. Works much better, always happier having the right bike for the job.

A good workman never blames his tools...

Cotic Solaris. 100mm forks. No dropper. ProII/FlowEX wheelset.

I've gone back to hard tails a couple of times in the last few years. Sold my 5 frame and bought a Ti Holeshot. Then recently sold my ASR5C and kept the Solaris having fell in love with the big wheels.

Switched back with no regrets. It's a different style of riding and just as fun. As you discovered yesterday. Less to consider from a maintenance perspective too. I personally think it's good to get back to basics. It makes you consider your riding and riding choices and you realise that you can ride everything that you rode your FS on.

I've just had one bike for 12 months. Chromag Samurai65. Steel frame, fairly slack, 650b, 140mm fork, fairly hefty build.

No regrets, although the phase is coming to an end shortly as I could justify a full-sus bike and (in a moment of weakness) I let people tell me there were places I can't ride a hardtail.

🙂

I technically have two at the moment as I've just bought a new bike and will be selling old one soon.

Had an Enduro 29er as my only bike after theft of full suss Stumpjumper and 29r Hardtail stache. It coped with everything. A bit oversized when I visited my mum on the South Downs but perfect in Lakes Wales Scotland etc.

I am hoping new Giant Reign will do the same

Giant Trance - 150mm FS. Love it. It's even pulled me back from the backside somewhat and got me into MTB more than road!

KingofBiscuits - Member
Cotic Solaris. 100mm forks. No dropper

Same here. Mine is 1x10 and with Hope wheels. Great bike. No regrets.

Only ever had one.
Yeti 575.
Modern day Swiss Army Knife.

Cove G-Spot. 160mm frame, 170mm forks 1x10 big tyres (well big normal tyres not plus tyres) and a dropper.

It can do everything, but it's a compromise, it's a laugh around the trail centres, but I need to be flat-out to make it work or it drags a bit, it's brilliant at my local trails, there's some crazy DH trails up there that it's fine on, but I sometimes envy the guys on full-on DH bikes, but not when we're getting there or back. BPW it's most at home, it's very good in the Alps, I used to have a Shocker which was a bit more forgiving on long days, but the getting from Morzine to Les Gets, or Avoriaz, Chatel etc was a nightmare.

I'd like a lighter HT and a DH bike too, but I just don't have the money or space for them.

edenvalleyboy - Member
A good workman never blames his tools...

I to have only ever had one at a time. Most have been HT, but also an Orange sub 5 and Orange st4. Currently steel HT.

A super lightweight XC race hardtail (Trek Superfly). It's not ideal in all situations, but it's still more capable than me!

Hey Mikewsmith - I wanted to put a smiley face on mine but don't know how. I was also going to bracket it with (unless you have a specific job to do) - because you're right - be foolish to enter a downhill race on a fixed wheel singlespeed!

100mm travel carbon xc 29er HT, does everything I'm capable of

A rigid singlespeed. Does everything I need to do in the terrain I ride in with very little fuss.

I've only owned one mountain bike in the last three years, a 120mm travel full sus (Specialized Camber) in retro 26" variety.

I've never felt that I needed any more. It only starts to feel out of its depth on rocky, bouldery trails which is more to do with the fork and wheelset than the bike itself.

I don't do uplift days and I'm not hitting massive features, jumps or drops on a regular basis so I don't really feel the need for more travel.

Just a singular gryphon for me. Perfect for the Sherwood/dalby stuff I intend riding in the near future. Couple of years off the bike so getting back into slowly. If I work my fitness up to Peaks standard I'd definitely want front suspension and gears.

100mm 26" hardtail. Only bike I've owned, only bike I need. I regularly ride things common sense says you need a bouncy trail bike for, humbling my skill and showing how much you can do with how 'little' bike. It's great fun.

I've owned just one MTB since about 2008 when a got shot of the 3 I had, have gone from a 140mm Chameleon, to a 160mm PP Shan, and now for the first time in a long time a FS, a Yeti ASRc5.

All have been fun in their own way, Chameleon was genuine do it all bike, the Shan was like a monster truck, and the Yeti, like the Chameleon, a proper "Swiss army knife" as chopper said...

Cuts down on maintenance, and it's a damned sight cheaper

Cuts down on maintenance

Yep. And all the maintenance you actually do is being done on the bike you're going to ride next. Which is great.

🙂

Cotic Solaris with 120mm forks, like @asdfhjkl says, it's surprising what you can ride. I'm sure I'd be more comfortable on a FS but I doubt that [b]I'd[/b] be faster.

Only ever had one bike. Changed a few times but one out, one in is the rule.
Here's the current machine. Don't think it will be going anywhere anytime soon as it's brilliant.
[img] [/img]

I recently consolidated my bikes and purchased a Stanton Switchback. it is more than capable enough for my riding and continues to put a massive grin on my face every ride.

[img] [/img]

Steel, 100mm hardtail, 26 inch wheels.
All I've ever owned, had about half a dozen now.

Have considered going full suss, but I reckon it's just a passing fad.
😛

First reply is from someone with 3 bikes. Go STW!

I would never want my only mtb to be a hardtail, stuff that! My only mtb is a Rallon, pedals great, 31lbs. Depends on your riding

I went through a long period (6 years) of only having one bike, a 456Ti running 140mm forks - then I moved.

I now live in the Scottish Borders and while I still ride the 456Ti I bought a carbon 140mm FS also. I also starting riding with a different group who ride far more extreme stuff than I use to, at greater speeds and the HT was not only beating me up but destroying components at a great rate.

The FS is built up stronger, for example, Flow EX's as opposed to Crest's and a Pike rather than a Rev.

I've also entered Enduro's whereas previously it was XC/Marathon events.

650b Giant Trance with the carbon frame and 150 Pikes running 1X11. It's the best MTB I've owned and is my only MTB at the moment. I regularly go to Swinley and the Alps ( two extremes, I know ) and it's fine for both. I love it and saved a chunk of money as I built it up myself.

Owning stuff is such a drag...just the one mtb for me, a 2007 Stumpjumper full suss.

Just the one MTB for me, an orbea rallon. Works fine for all my offroad riding needs, wouldnt want anything 'smaller' and wouldnt want anything 'bigger'.

It is possible a bit overkill for just riding round the park with my son, but I'm not going to buy a specific bike just for that.

Cannondale Trigger 1. Does everything I need.
So why I'm planning on two more bikes this month I don't really know...

I had three bikes, then went down to one, as it was the only one that ever got used. And it got used all the time. Still does.

So the only difference it made was that I didn't get that nagging feeling that I had two bikes that never got used, gathering dust in the shed. And I no longer had the constant 'well bike X needs a new ... insert title of expensive multiple parts that need either replacing or servicing here'

My do it all bike....

[img] [/img]

Pinnacle Iroko 2, 120mm hardtail. I ride infrequently and (increasingly) lamely, so anything more than that would be a waste of money/weight for me.

Kona Hei Hei frame, bought new in'98 but it's now starting to show its age when it comes to replacing parts in a world of rapidly changing standards. I just don't know what to replace it with so will asking for assistance on here shortly.

can't afford more than one bike - mine is a do it all. I don't do XC shite so my 150/140 travel bike does everything. I don't race DH but its been down fort bill DH course and I'm the limiting factor 😀 Could do with having a slacker head angle but other than that its pretty good and most things. I'm currently faster than my 10 year old boy so all is good ah ah a ha ha

I tried having more than one mtb but found that one sat in the garage the whole time. If I did something other than ride round the Peak I might need another bike but a 140mm FS does everything I want. I do have two road bikes and then the frankenbike for nipping to the shops...

I've only got one mtb. A Kili Flyer 120mm full sus, after around 8 years on a Santa Cruz Chameleon.

Have a cx and a hybrid as well tho.

Orange clockwork 29er 2015. Hated by well, haters..Just about to put the rigid forks back on for the winter.

100mm, 1x11, 29er w/o dropper here. Easy to maintain, quick up and more than quick enough down

Santa Cruz TallBoy carbon. Perfect bike for my riding, XC and XCM, everything from short rides to the Manx100.

Santa Cruz Solo / 5010

Does most things really well, better than I do.

[img] [/img]

and some mincing:

[img] [/img]

150/160mm FS with Talas 36 up front. Does everything. 120mm mode on the forks is useful as the difference between 65.5° and 68° is enough to keep the bike sharp on flatter trails.

Whyte G150 , pikes up front and does me , long saddle days or silly hour blasts ,even work commute

Trek Stache 29er hardtail, 120mm SID RCT3s, 2x10, stealth Reverb, wider bars, shorter stem, nice chunky 2.35" tyres.

Works pretty well for most things, from a quick loop around the woods to bikepark wales and other trailcentres.

I do sometimes think about 27.5 full suspension bikes but it's a big chunk of money and I don't need to go faster than the mates I usually ride with.

Always had only 1 mtb and built to be do-it-all, so good trade-off between lightness and strength, and never that expensive either! Had a Rock Lobster 853 for 7 years, then an Inbred, and now this:

[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5691/20706337066_f0062eff61_k.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5691/20706337066_f0062eff61_k.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/xxKoBu ]Parkwood in the fields[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/turkey_plucker/ ]Matthew Walker[/url], on Flickr

Good value, rides well, pretty light, crap decals removed on everything where possible!

[URL= http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a491/loddrik1/Mobile%20Uploads/91A67640-2E65-48EE-A4A4-8638BD845796_zpskkyqr6dh.jp g" target="_blank">http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a491/loddrik1/Mobile%20Uploads/91A67640-2E65-48EE-A4A4-8638BD845796_zpskkyqr6dh.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

Just one. Can't afford more due to being a student. Rigid singlespeed, though it's going to get a dropper soon.

Don't like having too much stuff, so one MTB and one road bike for me.

The MTB is an On One Codeine with 160mm up front and is probably a bit much for the day to day stuff, but I'm enjoying thinking some more interesting lines and it pedals incredibly well for a heavy single-pivot bike.

Cotic Solaris with 120mm forks and a dropper until recently. XC use locally mainly

Now acquired a Salsa El Mariachi for local rides and bikepacking trips when I want to go rigid. Currently singlespeed but will prob go to gears at some point

(I know that makes it two MTBs)

Rigid Cotic Soul.. Usually 1x9 but currently SS with a chain tensioner..
I also have a 90s steel Joe Murray town bike

Only ever had one.
Yeti 575.
Modern day Swiss Army Knife.

This. I have a hardcore hard tail, an XC hardtail and a 575. I kinda qualify as I have't ridden anything other than the Yeti since I got it. It's great at everything. All day XC epics, trail centre stuff, dales, Alps etc etc.

One review I read once said it was an XC bike on steroids, and this isn't a bad description, apart from the fairly slack head angle that is.

Commencal Meta 5.5.2 XT 2008.
150 Revs up front, 140 Fox RP2 out back, DT Swiss 26" wheels (Hope and DT Swiss hubs), full XT (2x9 with bash/Stinger), Reverb, SPDs - @30 lbs. A good all-rounder. Getting on a bit now but has been great on local stuff, trail centres, lots of Lakes trips and just done a stint in Morzine - a little more travel would have been nice but it coped pretty well. Toyed with changing it for something like a Transition Patrol/Radon Slide/Canyon Strive but can't justify spending @£3k when it won't make me a better rider than when I'm on a perfectly capable Meta.
Also have a carbon Cube roadie but that doesn't count 😉

100mm travel carbon xc 29er HT, does everything I'm capable of

Ditto. Whyte 29CS. It is a very [i]nice[/i] one bike 🙂

(Do also have a cross/road bike but no need for anything burly round here)

Right now only this one
[IMG] [/IMG]
I do have a custom steel Gnarmac that covers a bit of MTB ish stuff.

As long as you don't count the rigid commuter as it just happens to be an MTB technically, then yup, just the one MTB.

2011 Pitch Pro, 1x10, 170mm Lyriks, wide bars, dropper. Far more capable than I'll ever be and a bit of a slog on tamer trails but dragging it up hills keeps me fit. Just a big bouncy fun bike really.

As I am in the process of splitting down my 26" HT I will be left with my 140mm 5 29 for 99.9% of my riding. I do have some early 90's bikes but they're for looking at more then riding.

Think I'll end up with a 29" HT and 650b FS in the future though.

Nukeproof Mega TR with two sets of wheels. One set relatively light with 700/800 gram tyres the other set a bit heavier bit fitted with DH tyres. This seems to cover most bases.

It's not the only bike I own but it is the only MTB I ride - [img] [/img] Giant Reign 0 2009.

my jones is the only bike i own. set x10 speed.

with a 29er front, fat front option and a load of different tyres and various bike packing bags etc i feel i've got a bike thats adaptable for anything id want to do on my bike.

had a few other second bikes (carbon hardtail 26", single speed 29er) but when the jones is about nothing was winning the 'which bike today' competition other than it.

having said all that, I'm talking to a mate about an old kona 26" of his for use as a hack bike for local messing about/scooting to the shops etc. ill see how i get on...

This is my only MTB now - I don't ride much nowadays though so have no need for a full suss or front suss...

[img] [/img]

You could have one bike but it's always going to be a compromise (as each of the ones you have are on certain things).

I suspect a lightweight full sus would make more sense as a compromise unless you have a need to fit racks at any point.

I honestly do not feel that having a 160mm bike is any compromise at all. I can climb up anything just as well as my mates on 29ers and shorter travel XC bikes, and when it gets to the downhills (which lets face it are the reason we go mountain biking, me anyway) I can blast down anything, the steeper the better. There just isn't any compromise there for me. The only reason I could imagine wanting a different bike would be for XC racing, which I have no interest in.

My bike btw
[img] [/img]

I had a SC Blur Classic and a Heckler, I used to ride the Blur a lot more but found the Heckler too big a bike, then got rid of them both, well the Blur complete, the Heckler was stripped down with the majority now on my Yeti ASR 5 which is somewhere in the middle of the two and does what I want.

You could have one bike but it's always going to be a compromise

Not really. I'm not good or brave enough to go down anything that would compromise my bike and for everything else it matches my ability. Only time I would feel over biked would be on a gentle bimble but that doesn't happen often and that's what the retro is for.

I'm a one-bike-to-rule-them-all person.

I currently ride a Cotic BFe with 140mm forks. It does everything from local XC riding to any kinda trail centre or natural trails or down-hill stuff.

I limit the bike - so I'm happy 🙂

Oh don't get me wrong, I limit all my bikes. It's just I limit some of them less than others depending on the ride.

Just the 26", 100 mm HT steel singlespeed (Genesis IO ID). I ditched the Alfine hub, then I ditched the riser bars for some funky semi-drops, then I ditched the front suspension and wide tyres for cyclocross. It's 9 kilos and rides like a dream. I do go back to wider tyres for off road duties.

I also have access to Teen 1's Giant Trance, and the FS is far more capable than me, but the ride just doesn't excite in the same way. And that includes some of the Dh at FoD.

voodoo bokor - 26in tyres, small fork, still got most of the original bits on it, I figure that it's not worth upgrading unless something goes really wrong (which it won't for a long time)

it's more than capable for the stuff I do on it so can't see the point in trying to flog it on for a more expensive replacement... and can't afford that anyway

What are you thinking of, man??!? My wife might read this, it has taken years for me to persuade her that I am the only MTBer who has only two bikes, every body else obviously having n+1!

at my peak i had 7 bikes...i sold a few and one got lent out never to return
i then got married and at the time had 3. then we bought a house and i had to sell another due to a lack of space, then one got stolen. the insurance payout went towards upgrading the one that was left. due to a lack of space still i cant have more than one bike so here it is in its latest incarnation:
[img] [/img]

Edit: the tyres have been swapped for some Schwalbes and i also own a 700c hybrid commuter but i dont class that as a proper bike!! 😆

I only have the one bike built up currently, a Ragley HT...I can do most things on it, surely the very point of a MTB is that they are versatile and can turn their hand to anything?!

If your only riding is XC racing and training for example then get an XC focused bike, if you only ride uplift days get a DH bike etc....but if you do a bit of everything the bike should reflect that.

The Ragley has been designed to run forks from 130mm to 150mm, I run mine at 140mm and it's a great UK trail bike.
It's also hardy enough to take on uplift days, compact enough to play on dirt jumps (I had it over at the Milford trails dirt jumps this weekend) and it's comfy enough to spend all day on if I want to cover some distance.

It's far from perfect though, it's a heavy lump when doing a bit of hike-a-bike and the back end is less compliant than other HTs I've owned over the years.

My FS (when built up again) has a similar ethos, it's a Giant Trance and should be able to make a good go of most riding when it's finished...when you have one bike you have to be careful not to go too far in one particular direction (too slack, long travel, inefficient peddling) for example, can leave you frustrated on normal trail/XC type rides....likewise a bike with steep angles, twitchy handling, short travel etc may put you off trying more DH type stuff or put you off entering Enduros etc....

I went 2 yrs, early 13 to Spring this year with just 1 mtb - a Soul, with 120mm Reba's and a Reverb. It is more than capable for all I ride - mainly west of Scotland techy xc, some big days, the odd trail centre.

I did however supplement it in May with an Anthem SX, which is more of the goto bike when trails are dry as it's more capable in most ways. It won't come out so much in the winter though, as I prefer the simplicity of a HT in the gloop.

I only have one bike, '15 Giant Reign, so 160 front & back.

I don't really go out and do mile munching, boring XC so I don't need a bike that can do that.

But I'll blast round the local woods, do the odd trail centre, race enduro & DH on it and it's currently nearing the end of a summer in Whistler.

Bronson

DMR exalt from here. reason? I've always liked DMRs. Good fun, simple build.

Transition Patrol, 1 x 11 XT.

Wanted the scout but glad i got the patrol

Canyon Nerve 29.

Technically I've also got an old Rockhopper Pro (maybe a 2006 vintage) as I haven't bothered to sell it. It's taking up room in the shed for the one or two times a year the wife wants to come mountain biking.

Ventana el conquistador tandem, only mtb in 15 years. Ok, I lie a little, we have a hardtail S&s coupled tandem for traveling but it is very rarely used and most of that is road tours.

Rigid retro M-Trax (chromoly) with full XT (including B/B). Makes my fillings hurt over some rock gardens but not as bad as most modern rigids, allegedly 8)