Would you buy a spare frame?

Hi,

I love my bike.

I have had a new rear triangle a few years ago due to my incompetence.

The frame was second hand. The frame and new rear triangle together come to about the same price as a new frame.

Currently there is someone selling a complete frame and shock for significantly less than a rear triangle. Probably the same as a full price shock.

Would you buy it as a spare?
It could also replace my hardtail frame, and be built with a (slightly) lighter build than my current frame.

My bike plan is to keep it 10 years until I’m deep into my 50’s then get an e bike.

Anyone on here run 2 of the same frame with different builds kits?

It’s a geometron g13

Not the same frame, but I have two road bikes with almost identical geometry (+/- 1/2mm). One is setup as a lightweight climbing summer bike, the other is my aero race bike (more due to 65mm aero wheels than anything else). They are very different bikes to ride.

I had a pair of Singular Pegasus bikes for a while – a Singlespeed and an all day hard tail.  Not sure I’d do it again.

Who said e-bike in their 50’s – no chance – 70’s maybe (health conditions aside).

Depending on the frame and shock condition then yes. Have done in the past when daughter was racing.

Never kept one that long. Oldest bike at the moment is a 2018 Turbo Levo

i’ve been in the situation quite often where i ‘love’ my bike and will ‘never’ get rid of it. Then something changes, or new comes along or i fancy a trying another bike, then i sell up. I’m not a serial bike swapper mind, once every couple of years at most.

it would be a bit more of a faff if i had to sell up twice?! So wouldnt work for me.

I’m not gonna stop you buying a new/spare frame BUT…

It could also replace my hardtail frame, and be built with a (slightly) lighter build than my current frame.

You only really need a lighter set of wheels & tyres to swap onto your existing frame.

You’d be better to get a proper light trail / downcountry frame to replace the HT, I reckon.

If it’s really the only bike frame you’re happy riding, perhaps. But surely better to get a different bike for different conditions, giving you a wider range of options for the same garage space and money.

Thanks all.

I don’t need a spare for racing

Realistically the two bikes won’t be that far apart weight wise

When I had a proper light xc frame I broke a linkage and didn’t want to ride it hard after I’d replaced the linkage.

I’ve picked in my 50’s for an e bike as thats when I hope/ assume my wee ones will be caning me up and down hill 😄

I’ll file it under nice but pointless ideas.

Doesn’t sound like you will lose money if you end up selling it?

That said I’ve never found a frame I liked that much, and geometry etc may move on more in 10 years.

Currently there is someone selling a complete frame and shock for significantly less than a rear triangle. Probably the same as a full price shock.

Yes this is the exact reason I have a spare frame and shock

@tall_martin, G13 you say… similar but not the same, there’s a rather lovely Nicolai Saturn 14 currently on ebay by an extremely reputable seller. Same travel as the G13 but less burly overall.

Surely if you go an build it up it’s a spare bike not just a spare frame, and at that point you end up having a whole second FS bike to maintain (two of everything including shocks and forks)…

It’s tempting to have a bit of redundancy, but I can see it swallowing more time and money than it’s really worth.

You have a bike

n = 1

Many people get a second bike, be it slightly or substantially different
n + 1 = 2

Your second bike will be another version of the same bike so you end up with
n 2 (squared)  = 1

I’m not sure I understand the advantage of two bikes the same versus the fun value of having two bikes different.

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Surely if you go an build it up it’s a spare bike not just a spare frame, and at that point you end up having a whole second FS bike to maintain (two of everything including shocks and forks)…

It’s tempting to have a bit of redundancy, but I can see it swallowing more time and money than it’s really worth.

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That’s a deep question here. If you have 2 fs bikes is that twice the suspension servicing or just service each bike head as often?

We have a very old Kona frame unused on top of the wardrobe. It’s fits my partner and is a spare for the frame of her favourite bike. It was cheap from CRC years ago.

It’s really out of date but who cares, as she likes it.

Curious as to how a frame ends up on top of the wardrobe? My other half wouldn’t allow a bike in any part of the house.

Thanks for the offer @a11y.

If you are I treated in selling frame only, I’d be interested.

I’ve got a full bikes worth of spares to build with 😄

When our garage got part of the roof removed in an attempt to break in we had 16 bikes chained up on the landing and in the spare room.

My partner has half a room of botanical specimens and we have a grumpy 80 year old tortoise who lives in the dining room.

Our life style is not very conventional.

I’ve got a full bikes worth of spares to build with 😄

You can play “spot the STW PSA” with many of the parts I’ve swapped into my Nicolai frame to sell it😄

I’ve messaged you re frame-only @tall_martin.

we have a grumpy 80 year old tortoise who lives in the dining room.

No need to talk about the mother in law like that

The Mother in laws is even older.

By a tortuous series of events, I have managed to own two Giant Propels and two Giant Defys. Now they are different models, and specs, but they are essentially the same bikes (Propels more so as both are carbon, one with an ISP). It means I have a race bike (Propel Advanced SL with Ultegra 6800) which only comes out for races, a training Propel (Advanced, no ISP, DA7800, and on the Kickr at the moment), a best endurance bike (Defy Advanced SL with DA9000) which only comes out for nice weather rides, and of course the very cheap alloy Defy (Ultegra 6600) which is effectively disposable and any weather geared bike with mudguard option.

I see no issue in having two bikes near the same. The upside is that I can travel with the lesser Propel and not worry if I never see it again (it was an insurance write off after the Great Crash of 2015). The depressing part is just how good the alloy Defy is with 15 year old Ultegra and some used Ksyrium wheels. It’s value is about 10% of the best bike and about 80% of the performance! And how nice external cabled shifting DA7800 is compared with later group sets – shiny is always nicer than black too 😉

So buy with confidence!

No, but I do end up with overlapping niches, because most people have a type of local riding, and want n+1 bikes, so end up with at least some similar bikes.

I would consider another On-One Scandal to supplement my singlespeeded one, but then that would end up overlapping with the SS, the FS trial bike, and the gravel bike.  A better option would probably be ditch the gravel bike and get a proper XC race style bike to cover things like evening trail center blasts where I’d be more bothered about covering the ground quickly than just the fun sections, and ‘gravel’.

An expensive ‘spare’ seems silly.  The odds are by the time you break a frame it’ll probably be superseded by the next big thing anyway so then you’re just left with an unfashionable frame to sell. A bit like those 26″ die hards that bought spares, yet if you go on ebay the problem isn’t so much a scarcity due to demand, but scarcity because it’s nor worth people even listing it.