We live in a fortunate era, where most bikes are well-made and capable of all sorts of fun. With a glut of modern “quiver killing” trail bikes, and a tool marketed to every sub-sub-genre of the sport, which bike type(s) would you never need to buy?
What Type of Bike do You NOT Need in Your Stable?
With a glut of modern "quiver killing" trail bikes to choose from, and a tool marketed to every sub-sub-genre of the sport, we want to know which type(s) of bike would you never feel the need to buy.
I think the perfect 2 bike quiver would have a 50-70mm travel full-sus Gravelbike for pavement, gravel, and easy singletrack and a 120-150mm travel full-sus Trail/Enduro bike for more technical singletrack. You could add a full-rigid Fatbike if you have the right winter snow conditions.
Sounds good to me. Personally a rigid gravel bike and a medium travel trail cover pretty much all bases (and if I lived where my relatives live, a fatbike for winter fun). Then rent a DH bike if I go to a bike park.
Alternatively swap the trail bike for an enduro that pedals decently (few options out there) that can ride park (park at my level) and add a long travel slack hardtail for pedally trail duties (e.g. Rootdown). Like you, gravel would cover everything else (gravel, pavement, commuting, adventure etc).
I have zero interest in pure pavement bikes anymore (sold my fixie). I don’t ride pavement enough to justify something that’s only useful on pavement.
Don’t need any bikes suffering from bulimia.
Not going to compromise versatility for race-optimization if I’m not racing.
The modern road bike is probably the most incorrectly prescribed bike out there today (where there’s almost certainly a better bike for that person unless they are racing or a dedicated roadie), so I’ll have to go with that.
I race but more often I just ride a lot of climby trails so I don’t think I’ll ever be without my trusty XC hardtail – I just don’t mess with the ultralight stuff.
I lament the “gravel” category. In the last ten years cyclocross bikes were getting more capable, with discs, greater clearance, thru-axles, and 1X drivetrains. They pretty much peaked a couple years ago. However, now that companies are selling gravel specific bikes (and these bikes are NOT race ready at all since many of them ship with 2X drivetrains and sluggish geometry), cyclocross bikes are now going back to being more specialized. I’ve seen some BMC’s lately that have only 3mm of clearance on either side of a 35mm tire – I’m sorry but my road bike has more clearance than that.
So now we’ve got these overbuilt, overly expensive gravel “fred sleds” which are taking over categories previously filled by the Specialized Roubaix and Trek Domane, but on the other side the CX bikes are becoming too race specific.
Surprised that BMX didn’t even make the list, since that could lead to at least a few more bikes:
– BMX street
– BMX park
– BMX race
A companion question should have been, how many bikes do you currently own?