I voluntarily did an “N-1” a while back as I only really needed a single MTB for the amount of Mountain biking I now have time for, and it’s actually been a positive thing.

Last night I found myself mulling over a further reduction to the collection…

My current commuter; I’m still sort of fond of it, it’s a Cheap, Drop-barred, SS with guards and a rack that has done it’s job solidly for several years, but it’s yet another bike to look after and after I got a nice new Vaude clip on bag following this PSA I started wondering if it might make more sense to just have a second (slick tyred) wheelset and some Crud Roadracer Mk3 for my CX/Gravel bike.

The plan would be, Weekdays it’s kept in roadie commuter trim and weekends I’d whip the guards and bag off and shove the knobbly tyred wheelset on for muddy fun…
I’d have a lighter bike with some gears the ride to/from work, I’d still have my proper road bike available as a backup, with one less bicycle to maintain…

Fag packet maths and the spares bin says I can probably do this as an almost cost-neutral thing, once I’ve flogged a few bits off from the current commuter.

I’m no fan of “CX bikes” that spend their life as road commuters but it’s sort of making sense in this instance…

So does anyone want to talk me out of this?

Could you really be ars*d to do that. Plus the On One’s really take some beating as an all rounder….

It’s a pain in the behind switching it every weekend. Its what I always paln to do through the spring/summer/autumn. What actually happens is, I can’t be bothered to change the wheels that often (or in particular remove the guards), so the slick tyres and guards stay on and I just ride mtb if I want to go offroad or stick with the not-really slick schwalbe s-ones and ride road / easy flat offroad on the cx. Then when it gets nearer cx season the slicks come off and my commuting spped slows.

Sounds like the commuter isn’t worth much and doesn’t owe you anything, plus i like to have one bike i don’t feel bad leaving outside a pub or shop?

Could you really be ars*d to do that.

Yeah probably, I’d only need to re-build a rear cassette wheel, source some rotors/Cassette and the guards…

It’s a pain in the behind switching it every weekend.

In truth it wouldn’t be every weekend, maybe every other, one weekend I might go MTBing (on my MTB) or for a road ride (on my Road bike) I do like taking the CX bike off road, especially during the winter and have had the occasional piss poor stab at CX racing with it but doubling it up as a commuter Mon-Fri would at least see it earning it’s keep, and I would very definitely have two wheelsets rather than swapping tyres…

It probably is a bit of extra faff, at least initially, but so is looking after/storing four bikes when I could get it down to three and a spare pair of wheels…

plus i like to have one bike i don’t feel bad leaving outside a pub or shop?

Fair point, I don’t get to go to the Pub often thought either with or without a bike… 😥

with one less bicycle to maintain…

You know that as long as you don’t leave it covered in salt spray for months after a ride (only done that once!), the bike doesn’t need any maintenance?

Make it fixed instead. Less overlap in bikes. HTH

The maintenance is shared across several bikes and is related to the amount of riding not the number of bikes – if you don’t ride a bike it doesn’t need any work doing on it. IE if you don’t get the commuter dirty you don’t have to wash it for the next week’s commuting and change all the other stuff.

It’s virtuous to reduce the fleet but it sounds like it’d be counter productive.

So long as you can store it safely at work why not just fit mudguards to your roadbike to commute on?

Mine has crud racer guards on all year round, 2 mins with a sponge and a hose when you get home each night if it’s been wet has gotta be less hassle than switching wheels, cassettes, guards.

Ps. how far is your commute?

TiRed – Member
Make it fixed instead. Less overlap in bikes. HTH

It was fixed for about four years, I only fitted a FW when my commute changed to include a steepish descent…

The maintenance is shared across several bikes and is related to the amount of riding not the number of bikes – if you don’t ride a bike it doesn’t need any work doing on it. IE if you don’t get the commuter dirty you don’t have to wash it for the next week’s commuting and change all the other stuff.

Hmmm, so you’re saying I should own four bikes, but only ride three saving me the need to maintain the fourth? I Might as well just own three…

why not just fit mudguards to your roadbike to commute on?

I do on occasion ride the roadie in, it wears mk2 roadracer guards in winter, but I’ll admit a preference for the CX bikes disc brakes for all season commuting, and it’s the cheaper of the two bikes so putting wear and tear on the CX bike is slightly preferable, plus I don’t think I’d fancy cantilevering that vaude bag off the road bike’s carbon seatpost…

Ps. how far is your commute?

Normally ~10 miles each way, mixture of suburban/country B-roads…

I’ve tried to do this before, I ended up with two bikes!! 🙂

mixture of suburban/country B-roads

unless you have loads of junctions/lights you should bearely need to brake at all. So what other wear and tear are you worried about? At that sort of mileage you should get at a year out of your drivetrain and tyres.

Before this thread I had no idea what a vaude bag was. but using a bike based around fitting an ugly £15 bag seems madness.

kinda seems like you’ve already made up your mind though.

In truth it wouldn’t be every weekend, maybe every other, one weekend I might go MTBing (on my MTB) or for a road ride (on my Road bike) I do like taking the CX bike off road,

No matter what you do it will always be set up wrong when you go to it. Keep your commuter

Before this thread I had no idea what a vaude bag was. but using a bike based around fitting an ugly £15 bag seems madness.

Fair point, of course once you remove the bag all that’s left is a little clip on the seatpost, and that Ugly bag beats a sweat soaked rucksack every time (IMO of course)…

kinda seems like you’ve already made up your mind though.

Almost, but I’m not totally resolved, I was kind of hoping some compelling reasons to keep the commuter might be put Forward. TBH I think the best challenge to the idea so far has been the question over whether or not I really will bother switching between wheels and guards at weekends…

I think I might just give the SS a bit more of a chance, I’ll give it a spruce tonight, replace the beam rack with the vaude pack and see if I get over the urge to consolidate, I’ll hold off till Christmas maybe…

After selling my pure road bike going from n=3 to 2 I tried the one bike (cx), two wheelsets approach and it’s doable but found I rarely swapped the wheels. Ultimately I sold one pair and fitted some wider tubeless tyres to the best wheels and absorbed the slight performance loss on tarmac and the muddier trails.

To confuse things though, I’ve now got a frame that will take 700c and 650b and am reconsidering the double wheelset option again 🙂

Although the appeal of more N is strong personally I think there’s something to be said for the simplicity of having the minimum number of bikes for your needs.

I have 2 sets of wheels for the #commuter #gravel, luckily they just drop right in. Doing anything else would result in n+1, I tried it with a heckler once, having a trail build and DH build for same bike. Soon bought my first DH bike.

I have a Tripster ATR and 3 wheelsets – road, commute and off-road. They’re all on the same hubs and they still need the brakes tweaking each time the wheels are swapped.

N-1 only allowed if you get rid of two bikes and replace them with a shinier nicer one

I’m feeling better about the old nag now, spent a couple of hours, I’ve reinstated the fixed drivetrain (I’ll just have to take a slight detour) on the way home, degreased and waxed the chain fitted that ugly bag and after a quick trundle up and down the road I’ve remembered why I liked it to begin with…

I did this at the end of last year, old flat bar commuter got retired to kids duty and for riding to places where there isn’t secure lockup. New CX bike served as gravel grinder and commuter as well as occasional race steed. Meant I could take on smooth single track and longer rides easier on way home. It has a set of file-tread type tyres on it which roll well on bitumen but grip well on gravel also. I find I ride it more than my nice mountain bike or roadie due to the convenience of being able to do longer fun rides home from work.

I’ve thought about getting another set of wheels for my Arkose, which is set up in commuting mode – tyres, rack, guards, lock etc

In reality, the extra faff required just mean I CBA to do that, so have a SS rigid MTB for anything local instead

If you have the space to keep the extra bike I’d just stick with it

Funnily enough on my way in today I was passed by a CX bike wearing slicks, I then then drafted him for a couple of miles, he didn’t look any better or worse off than me, so I think on balance there’s no real advantage in doing what I was proposing and I’d simply end up crippling a perfectly good CX bike…

The things I actually do need to address on the commuter:

-BB needs replacing, there’s a definite ‘Notch’ at the ~2:00 position when under load.
-The sticky rear calliper needs replacing/servicing…
-The rider just needs to ride a bit more…

Cheers all….

Looks like you’ve already decided, but just to reinforce it – NO

Putting guards on is a PITA, something to be done once a year. The roadracers are IME crap as mudguards (not long enough) and fragile, just get chromoplastics (or PDW’s if you’re feeling flush).

TBH a bike you don’t mind leaving outside is no bad thing. I’ve gone n-1 this year and ended up with a road bike (nice summer one) and a mountain bike (rigid fatty SS). I now need a hack bike.