What made you buy your current bike?

Nukeproof Mega TR frame to replace several warranty replacement Whyte 146 frames.
I wanted something with a reputation for not breaking………… to be fair it lasted 14 months before it cracked.

Consolidation.

I had read a review in MBR, and the description they gave it captured my imagination.

It has happily very much lived up to my hopes.

Santa cruz nomad. Was at gt, got a puncture the fluid wouldnt seal. Happened to be a demo day so took a nomad out(along with some frankly horrible oranges) and bought the bike 2 weeks later.

I got the Dune because it was a frame only deal that I couldn’t say no to plus it satisfied my hankering for a full susser.

The Arkose I bought because I read a big long rambling thread started by that chap that did the gifs that doesn’t come on here anymore.

I wanted a 40th birthday present for myself and bought the frame that won the most tour stages that year.

Threaded BB, one pivot with huge mud clearance.

Felt DD 30 Fat bike – I’d been toying with the idea of a rigid ‘winter bike’ for a few months after riding my full sus last winter. Liked the look of the new 27.5+ Charge cooker range, but then stumbled on to the felt and ended up with a bit of an impulsive buy. Have to say I’m loving it though – best fun I’ve had on a bike in ages and great in the current muddy conditions.

Fancied a return to the dark side and got an eBay bargain on last year’s CAAD8 105. Absolutely mint, plus a second set of wheels and tyres thrown in. 3 rides in 1 week an lovin’ it.

Suspected an OOF with a Bluto and light rims and tyres would be a pretty perfect trail bike for me, then tried a friend’s one which confirmed my suspicions. Started buying bits immediately after and now it’s all I’m riding … and it’s going to Spain next week.

I bought Gordymac’s Chromag Samurai 26 because I developed a massive crush on it while struggling to like a Pace RC305. It was awesome. I had the best holiday ever on it at BasqueMTB, a lot of Surrey, some Bristol and then a fantastic trip to Alpe D’Huez.

It got a little bit neglected in favour of a full-sus and a Solaris. But when I decided to consolidate down to one bike, I basically opted to replicate the previous Chromag pretty closely, Samurai65 flavour and all mod cons.

Not disappointed. 😀

I purchased a London road to try the one bike to rule them all hype, preety soon realied that you compromise to much trying to have a bike for all types of riding, now the LR is for road and tow path and the inbred for eveythinjg else I think i fell for the hype and am a little disapointed with the gravel bike experience.

My most recent purchase was to replace my stolen Zesty 214. A mate was selling a 314 so I bought that as the insurance money I’d set aside to replace the 214 had been eaten up by needing a new boiler 🙁

The XC bike? My LBS loaned my their demo bike to race on, did a little superficial damage, but really like it and we did a deal that day.

Blur LTc – always wanted on tried it back to back with the Nomad a few years before, not having the lakes in my back garden meant the Nomad was complete overkill and was just about to get the TR as it looked more fun. Turned out they didn’t have any in the country, but the LT was discontinued that day, same bike shop as above made some calls to the distributor and a Red LTc arrived later that week 🙂 So glad I got it in the end.
Build was specced personally with luckily matched what the LBS had in and wanted to shift 🙂

I ended up with both bikes by accident!

I was looking for a ~140mm trail bike and looked at quite a few. Ended up deciding on a Lapierre Zesty and was waiting for payday to put down the order. Went out at Afan on my Spesh with a mate and broke the rear mech clean off it on the White’s climb, not wanting to waste the day ended up renting an Orange 5 for the day. I’d dismissed a 5 early on as old hat but by the end of my day on one I was smitten. Went into the LBS the next day and got a demo arranged in the spec I was interested in, tried it and placed the order straight away! Haven’t regretted buying it once in 4 years 🙂

My Trek Fuel EX 7 27.5 was meant to be a GT Helion for XC all-day rides but the LBS convinced me to try a Trek instead, glad I did as it suits what I use it for perfectly. Have since had a ride on a Helion for comparison and the LBS was definitely right, much lighter and the extra 20mm of travel makes it more comfy.

Couldn’t go down to one bike, these two cover everything I do. Very happy 😀

it was cheap

I’d previously owned a Spearfish and arguably should have kept it, so when one came up it was silly not to buy another Spearfish.

The Charge Cooker I wanted a cheap, simple HT with nice lines etc.

On-One had half price Fatty frames for sale. That was almost two years ago; I’m still not finished with the build. Sad progress.

Prior to that Cycleworks had an Orange 5 Black for £1,800 new. And prior to that, my PACE RC303 frame was…. well half price at Evans.

So, for me, cheapness is the motivator.

But it never works out. Half price frame still needs building up. And that Orange was made of pig iron, so cost another grand to get it down to less than anchor weight. I rarely ride it now, so it was no bargain. Fun to ride, yet somehow I’m a hardtail boy at heart. If it disappeared from the Man Cave I’d not miss it.

So, for me, cheapness is the motivator.

But it never works out.

I once bought a Trek VRX200 instead of a Marin Mt Vision, because the Trek was 50% off. Because it was terrible. And they couldn’t sell them.

🙂

Kona Explosif 650b ’13- Loved the look of the raw frame. Had a good spec and the right amount of travel for my XC routes

Pinnacle Arkos 3- Best spec for C2W and looked great.

Stooge- Love the Brand and what Andy did with the simple design/colour/logo.

Chumba HX2- Cheap frame.

Whyte T129 SCR Works- Impulse. Mixture of a great price, spec and colour.

Oddly I didn’t test ride any of them but I love them all and gel really well with them. I guess I know the general geometry that suits me.

I wanted a DH hardtail to fit all my old 26″ bits and have a laugh on

There was this Kona Cowan frame on eBay with a seized bb, that I got for £26 postage

Yerrr, which one?

Roadie, simple I knew what I wanted and yet took about 3months to actually buy it. I saw it in Condor and fondled it, went back for more fondling, and again, and again, and again.. then finally got it down and sat on it, bought it, rode it home that following weekend.. Absolute stunner and I knew it would be.

CX’er, fell in love with a picture of Lars Van De Haar riding the bright blue one I have on a course over the Dunes in Holland somewhere famous 😆 They’d not been released yet but I put my deposit down and rode that home a month later.. then it went back in to Giant for the sodding SRAM brake replacement thingy.. Absolute cracker of a bike.

Touring, oohhh I ponced about for ages over this, knew what type and style but never being in a position for touring thought I’d ask on here, got some excellent tips and settled on a cracker, light, lythe and sexy (for a tourer)

As for my other bikes I’ve owned I normally go through a process of setting out a problem statement then finding a bike for the solution, then spec a few out in that catagory and simply if I fall in love with it I buy it.

I had the hardtail desire again and spotted the Mondraker Vantage RR was coming out. Sold my bike (2014 giant trance), ordered the mondraker frame and all the bits to go with it (160mm pikes etc). Frame delivery was repeatedly delayed to the point that I lost the head one night and decided I was buying the nearest frame for sale that I could pick up asap as I was tired of not riding.

Found a Norco Range Killer B-1, went and picked it up the same day and I’ve fallen deeply in love with it. All turned out well!

I had a chest infection that wouldn’t shift. I started looking at the classifieds here and saw what I needed to get better.

about 5 years ago i had a ht, dh bike and a f/s. the f/s got sold and i ended up just doing most of my riding on the ht. i then found a f/s frame which i got for a very cheap price and the ht frame donated it parts to the build. then the dh bike got stolen and i decided to use the insurance payout to upgrade the fs.
after a while i spotted my current frame…again at a very good price.
i’d like to think the next bike will be a full bike (new or used) i purchase but it will depend on whether or not i’ve been a good boy!

Fireline – because I needed a HT frame capable of a bit more than the superfly frame I had. All the bits swapped over, great bike, love riding it, although I would probably size up if I were to buy again – it’s short in the TT and I’d like to run something shorter than a 70mm stem on it

Codeine – because I like wagon wheels, loved the look of it when the released the teaser pictures and 2.5k for a pike, CCDB air and X01 is still a bargain! Fast up, faster down. Brilliant for being a hooligan

Cooker Maxi – cycle to work scheme, price matched – effectively became £540 – rude not to. Heavy. Needs a change of wheels really, so doesn’t get used much other than bog trotting or slowing me down enough that the other half can keep up

Longitude – had lots of spare bits kicking around liked fat, but wanted a halfway house – a lot cheaper than a Krampus to try 29+. Just love it

Boardman Hardtail – the bike which got me back into cycling – we moved house 5 years ago, from an urban slum with no storage space, so somewhere a bit greener with a garage to store bikes in.
The Boardman was an entry level C2W purchase – just to see if I liked it, and if I’d use it.
5 years later it is still my only MTB.

Boardman Hybrid – bough on C2W 3 years ago as I wanted something different to ride on the roads with. Still like it but may swap it for an Arkose in the next year or so.

Giant Defy 1 – purchased last summer (again on C2W) primarily for a London-Llanberis charity ride. I chose it as it appeared to be about the best road bike around for £1k, and there is a Giant main dealer close to where we live.

Next purchase will almost certainly be an Arkose to replace the hybrid for winter/touring duties. (will have full guards + rack, etc)

Getting to the point my old bike felt like it was limiting me, rather than the other way around. Went from a 100mm hardtail to a Blue Pig with 160, as it felt like the next step and suited to the kind of things I was enjoying. Also considered a 456 and BFe.

In two years of bringing my riding on, I haven’t got to a point where I feel the bike is holding me back, so unless I have a windfall and fancy something squishy, it’ll probably be a long time before I consider another bike.

I really like bears! Grrrrrr!

Grrrrrr! #mtb #chromagbikes by Dan and Claire Lees[/url], on Flickr

And I have a think for Canadian Bikes….

Thursday shred time? Yes, please! #chromagbikes @chromagbikes #mtb by Dan and Claire Lees[/url], on Flickr

Geometry, Price and transferable warranty. Plus I was able to demo it and loved it.

I bought my blue Salsa Vaya to replace my blue cdf.

4 months later SWMBO still hasn’t realised that this change has taken place 🙂

Realisation that my previous bike was pretty worn out
Discussion with Rosscopeco along the lines of ‘fancy a new bike, thinking steel, thinking rigid fork for winter susp fork for summer, budget no more than a grand, what do you think?
He says what sort of riding are you planning
I say, you know where I ride
He says Stooge
I buy Stooge

Reason I bought a second Stooge? Out for a ride with the family and my wife borrows the Stooge for a shot. Comes back and says, this is is mine now. She even went off for an extra blast half way through a cup of tea – unheard of – so decided second Stooge required if I was going to see it.

Since beginning of July have risen 1700km on the Stooge and not even thought of riding anything else on the fleet…

Ragley Piglet-2….bought on the basis of good reviews, solid steel build, decent all-rounder ability, sensible money….it was bought for my better half so she could join me on rides but I seem to have acquired it permanently as horses take up all her time now

…she liked the ‘interesting’ bright green colour and the cartoon-like graphic of a piglet on the top tube.

Nothing like getting the priorities right eh?…. sometimes she really does live up to gender stereotypes!

It’s Canadian and the company is owned by an all round decent Scottish bloke who answered everyone of my silly questions about the bike and how I was thinking of building it up and didn’t once fob me off for emailing him directly rather than customer services. Bought it, had it just over 18 months and I love it, puts a smile on my face every time I ride it so know I made the right choice.

Bought the Camber because I was doing BC Bike race. Chose it because I was quicker on the Stumpjumper than the hard tail but wanted something lighter.

Soul: I couldn’t get on with the Handjob, wanted steel and this place had a Soul thread every other week (back in 07/08). So I badgered Cotic over frame size then ordered one.

Solaris: I was in Crested Butte in ’98 and happened upon Wes Willets shop. Guy there was evangelical about 29ers. This festered in me like syphilis until it burst forth upon reading Cotic were doing one! How could I possibly resist? But it had to be that green…

Roadie: I used to have a replica Once TCR (until it got rotted by cement dust). Escape Route in Pitlochry had an EOS TCR C2 at a good discount (and they swapped the chainset for a compact for me). Plus they set it up properly and took the time to see it was the right fit. Cheers Kev.

CX: TCX SLR1, it was another eos reduced at Escape Route…. Have you ever left the shop empty handed when Kev goes into full sales mode? 😉

Canyon Strive 2011. No reviews available when I ordered, but the geometry looked right and the spec for the price was unbeatable. Does everything I want it to uphill & down, flatters my ability and no plans to change it.