N+1 - do-everything mtb?

[idiotgap]

I have 4 bikes at the moment and always hankering for more. I appear not yet to have reached S-1 so am bound by the rules to add to the collection. I can't ride right now because I'm healing a skiing injury but that, for some reason, seems to be increasing the hankering feeling.

Here's what I've got:-
- 1991 Dawes - The Edge XT. Pink reynolds 531 steel mountain bike covered in mint-sauce stickers, no suspension at all. Used for towpath type riding towing a trail-a-bike or trail-gator with young kids, owned from new.
- 2008 Kona Dew hybrid - £50 aluminium gumtree snotter bought last year to leave chained up in Croydon and commute to central London on.
- 2009 Specialized Allez Sport - £200 bike forum classifieds, Aluminium tiagra road bike I bought in 2014 to try out road riding.
- 2013 Colnago CLX 3.0 105 - Nicer carbon road bike I treated myself to in 2016 - ebay <> £700. I crashed it but have had the frame repaired and it's nearly ready to ride again for when my arm is healed.

I went to Swinley without bikes to take my young kids to the lookout science exhibition at the weekend and I saw all the mountain bikers around the place. It looked like they'd had fun and I'd like to have a go. My eldest son is 7 now and I'm hoping before long we can go to a trail centre and get stuck into some mud.

I'm vaguely aware that mountain bikes come in a lot of different flavours these days from hardtail to DH and that my rigid dawes might be a bit stiff. What sort of thing might I look at to get something with a bit of compliance as a good all rounder? I stopped reading mbuk in about 1993 so I am well out of touch. I thought I might watch a few episodes of the gmbn dirt shed show and see if that brings me up to speed, any other good resources? The bikes I saw at the weekend look very different to what I'm used to.

What are the key features I should be looking for and what's a nice to have?
- dropper post
- carbon frame / alu frame?
- what size wheels
- I assume pretty much everything has hydraulic discs?
- 1x or 2x

How much would I need to spend to get something decent? (A couple of years old secondhand is my initial thought)

I would probably like to go for something that's more of a niche manufacturer than the mainstream things that everyone else has got. I had an orange clockwork back in 1990 but it got nicked, wouldn't mind an orange again.

The sensible answer is that I should just ride the pink bike and see how I get on, learn what kind of riding I like to do etc. but it just looks so different to a modern mtb and that plan doesn't involve the buying of new shiny things.

[joshleb]

You will probably have more fun on a new bike tbh. Man maths complete.

How serious about the descents and jumps are you?

Get onto pinkbike.com and see what they have in the classifieds. I'd recommend something 100-130mm travel, 2x or 1x doesn't really matter, 27.5 wheels to ensure you can get tires in the future and just see what's in your budget.

You can get an Orange 5, but they have been round for years so double check what you're getting!

[P-Jay]

idiotgap said:

What are the key features I should be looking for and what's a nice to have?
- dropper post
- carbon frame / alu frame?
- what size wheels
- I assume pretty much everything has hydraulic discs?
- 1x or 2x

- Dropper posts are great, once you try you won't want to go without, but buying a bike with one pre-installed will put you in the posh end which you might not want to go to just yet - they can be added later without much bother.

- Alu frame, carbon is nice - but it's a £1000-ish nice-to-have to save not much weight.

- 650b/27.5 or 29. try before you buy, I prefer 650b and would still be happy on 26" if they still made them.
- Not everything, but most things, some low end stuff will be on cable discs.
- I wouldn't lose sleep over it, but all current Sram and most Shimano systems are now 1x.

As you've said - there's a lot of niches out there now, trials bike to DH bikes and everything inbetween plus oddities like fat bikes and leftfield stuff like plus bikes - the "bigger tyre market" does seem to have peaked now though, less plus bikes and little or no new fat bikes coming out.

If you want one bike to rule them all, the mid-travel FS bike is still where it's at - 5ish inches of travel lets you do almost everything and freed from being a niche with a race series they're usually better value and less ttty to maintain.

The best bang for your buck is still the Bossnut IMHO, it's a good frame with good parts for not much money:

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/calibre-bossnut-full-s...

If you want a slightly more aggressive version (bit slacker, bit longer fork) and a dropper they have a limited edition Beastnut due soon.

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/calibre-beastnut-mount...

It won't have the same car park cool factor of a Santa Cruz or an Intense - but it doesn't cost £4k - £10k either.

[idiotgap]

Thanks for thoughts. I never would have thought to look at a gooutdoors own brand type thing. I'll have to have a read up on them.

I think full-suspension makes sense given everything else I have is rigid but what I've read before suggests the lower end of the market rear suspension models aren't up to much so I'm interested in working out where on the scale they get useful.

[RobDickinson]

I picked up a trance 1 650b thing as a do everything bike suits me.
Aly frame carbon wheels, dropper post etc

[Herman Toothrot]

I keep wondering about selling my fleet for a do it all. I ride what today would be called enduro (back in the 90's, simply going for a ride - I had a Dawes Wildcat back then, it's still in my parents garage), race DH. Plus I ride road, time trial so road bikes for those tasks. Mostly it is ride up hills to ride fast as I can down that's what I like the most, just got back from a week in Spain doing just that, SRAM test track etc

My current fleet :-

Commencal Supreme FR 200/180mm
NS Snabb T 160/140mm
Ragley MmmBop 150mm
On One 456Ti Evo 130mm
On One Inbred Single Speed 110mm



Vitus Sommet is whats caught my attention, same basic bike comes in different materials and groups depending on budget. I think from looking at geometry reviews etc it could do everything my current fleet does with no really significant sacrifices. Looks a bargain with the model that has aluminium frame, Yari forks and XT kit £1899 minus 10% British cycling membership discount.

[gradeA]

As you're near Swinley, I'd highly recommend popping over to Bird Cycleworks and booking a demo on their Aeris 120 full suspension; it's only £10 for a full day and it'll give you a good starting point for what a good modern full suspension bike is like. Plus they're a local company and awesome guys (I have an Aeris 145 on order so maybe slightly biased!).

https://www.bird.bike

[Mr Gearchange]

It very much depends on what you mean by 'do everything'.

A modern All-Mountain/Enduro bike really will do everything from towpath rides to big jumps and technical DH tracks - but you will be paying £2K upwards for something decent.

If 'do everything' means rolling down to the pub and doing some XC and trail riding then you really can't go wrong with the Bossnut as detailed above - they have reviewed really well and are incredible value for money.