Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Can you get it down to one bike?

Thanks for a great forum. I usually just read quietly but have been thinking about this and thought I'd get thoughts. I ride my mountain bike. I've ridden cyclocross and love it but don't have a cyclocross bike. I've also really got into riding fixed in town to work and whatever.

Are these new interchangeable droppouts on a '29er size frame the way I can get all that down to one bike? with like a cassette and 700c wheels for cross and mountain, and a set of mavics with a flipflop hub for the fixee?

here's some examples of IDS--interchangeable droppout system. Or syndrome, I'm not sure...

scottusa.com/category.php?UID=219
nycbikes.com/wtf
titusti.com/eleven.html

hmmm.

owning one bike is impossible:D

mountain and cx geometry are really different. cx and commuter fg geometry aren't so different.

If you only need a really light duty mtb or don't mind doing cx and road riding with mtb geometry then you can easily get by. There are plenty of options with horizontal dropouts or trackends with a derailer hanger as well as sliding dropouts.

Personally I wouldn't want to do that though. One bike for cx and daily fixed road use and another for mtb seems alot nicer.

When you change wheels you shall also have to adjust the brakes remove the derialier and cables and swap chain. At the very least swap the chain and adgust the brakes. Unless you are very short on space I would not think it is worth it.

there are two schools of thought, in my mind, on how many bikes one can have:

8 :: one for every day of the week plus a backup

or

X+1 :: where X is the current number of bikes owned

I think it would be doable with a real chameleon-style frame (not the Santa Cruz type, either... ) like a Karate Monkey. If you swapped forks, wheelsets, brakes, and cockpits (okay, basically everything), you could run it as a road bike, XC bike, cross bike, and anything else you wanted. It wouldn't handle the best on the roads, and it is heavy as hell, but it would roll.

Check these out:

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2005/june/JoaquinSanchez.htm

http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2004/h/nick.htm

Personally, my interests are just too broad to do it with one. You can't make a roadie or even a CX bike take 5 footers without folding something. ;)

One geared bike, one fixed for me... For the geared, a CX would probably be best if you don't do really wild offroad. One frame for geared and ss/fix is not gonna work.

Eccentric bottom brackets are where it's at. Off the top of my head, Ant Bikes (http://antbikemike.com/) and Niner Bikes (http://www.ninerbikes.com/) can do an ebb on some of their bikes. Ride it fixed, singlespeed, or geared, but never have to mess with brakes, fenders, or wheel position.

I just got a VooDoo 29er. It has sliding dropouts and can be run SS, fixed, geared, disc (the caliper attatches to the sliding portion), or V-brakes.
I daresay one could rock CX tires on this thing and make a go of it.
Pop some fenders and a rack on it and it's your commuter.
It will not, however, look cool locked to the top of a streetsign...

I've seen those. If I had one, I'd buy like 3 wheelsets and 3 different bar setups. I'd run discs and buy a bunch of different forks. And I'd never come out of the garage, it'd just be building and rebuilding bikes all the time. If I had a garage. Or money. And a shopstand. I want all of that.

^^^ Sounds fun

You could use an internal geared hub and it would be easy. You'd just have shifters and front derailleur in SS mode, but that's not a big deal if cosmetics aren't important. The only way I would ever do this is if I lived in a 200 sq-ft studio, but that's just me. Now that I think about it, even then I think I'd just hang all my bikes from the ceiling.

I was at 3. Sold one, and the De Rosa was stolen. I am a man with 1 bike. That is all.

It can be done but becareful of relapse. I had 25 track, 2 road, 1 mtb and 1 cylocross 15yrs ago then got down to 1 .

Recently, 30 track, 3 road, 0mtb and 0 cyclocross, now 11 track , 2 road and 0 mtb and cyclocross.

Yes all mine to be ridden. hope to be down to 5 track, 1 road, 1 mtb or cyclocross.

S/F,
CEYA!

I was at 3. Sold one, and the De Rosa was stolen. I am a man with 1 bike. That is all.


you can take one of mine. You will get the DeRosa back.

S/F,
CEYA!

Ask me in 3 months when I'm unemployed and broke as ****.

Ask me in 3 months when I'm unemployed and broke as ****.

I am there now.

S/F,
CEYA!

Where do you keep all those bikes Ceya?!

Yes--Relapse. 2 track (one classic, one modern), fixed/fendered rainbike, and SS MTB. Just need an insanely light steel (Pegoretti, carbon Record) roadbike, and a cross bike and I should be set. What's that, six? I'm like a monk.

Who wants just one bike for everything when you could cramp your living space with a bike for every occasion? It's just way too much fun getting new bikes.

Oh yes, and this:

http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/gt_bicycles/73?PHPSESSID=d8835122e9bafadd435e922ee9e8bc23

The bike I mowed a grip of lawns to buy back in '83. Some punk jacked it in '86. I'm still pissed.

Where do you keep all those bikes Ceya?!


In my house.

Now, 5 bikes in my house, 2 in storage and 6 in japan(storage). so 13 bikes.

all are broken down into framesets besides the Gianni Motta, Level and Panasonic.

oops 6 in my house forgot the Makino.

S/F,
CEYA!

i just have 1

I usually get it down to 1 working bike. I can't really afford to maintain 3 bikes, so I usually fix whatever is cheapest to get me riding again, be it on the bike I just broke or one of my other 2.

i keep dreaming about the ONE bike. i tried a cyclocross bike but found it to be the do-nothing-really-well bike. then a road bike,a track bike, a fixed gear conversion, another road frame in the garage.
what i'm thinking is a nice lugged steel frame, long paul type dropouts/forkends w/a hanger, i want a 1-1/8th inch straight blade fork, lugged threadless stem, brake holes, something around 74 degrees parallel, spaced 130 with a phil wood flip flop, room for up to 30mm tires, and s&s couplers. basically i want a beautiful bike i can ride as a fixed gear with lots of adjustability for different gear ratios that is versatile enough to travel with.

how about this:
find an old (70s?) 531 or columbus racing frame (peugeot px10, raleigh professional, motobecane, etc or similar modern design)
probably will have around 73 parallel angles
120mm rear spacing
long horizontal campy 1010a dropouts with eyelets
good fender/tire clearances

build a flip/flop rear wheel, ride cross singelspeed and flip to fixed whenever you'd like..
if you need more gears build another rear with a sturmey-archer 3, 4, or 5 speed hub (also can be spaced to 120mm)
or maybe even an 8 speed shimano nexus ? (not sure what the spacing is on these)

pretty versatile, not much space

I'm ending up, I think next year, with one geared mountain bike, and a (ToBeAnnounced) fixed-gear. That should be plenty, but if I got crazy I think I'd buy a geared road bike as well.

The only way I would ever do this is if I lived in a 200 sq-ft studio, but that's just me. Now that I think about it, even then I think I'd just hang all my bikes from the ceiling.

I live in a just slightly-larger than 200 sq-ft studio (with another person and a cat!) and our three bikes fit just fine...Okay, maybe 200 is exaggerting a little bit, but it's small, trust me!

You can always make room for more bikes...

no

I own exactly 1 Bike

I have had one bike for the past year+, but I am itching to build up another. The bike I have been riding exclusively is a pure bred track bike (http://velospace.org/node/123). I change out the cockpit depending on what type of riding I am doing - risers for the road, bullhorns for the road, aerobars when I feel like it, deep drops at the track, etc. Having a fork with a brakehole is nice because I can add one in for riding outside the track.

A few stems, a stem shim, and 10 minutes to swap the cockpit was perfect to adapt my one bike to different types of riding.

I bought a frame the other day though.. time to start a new build!

no, i cannot get it down to one bike...ever.
road and track are nice together
just like the mud from CX and MTB are nice - and I miss the last two.

i am debating on a knobby build...

transplant said:
there are two schools of thought, in my mind, on how many bikes one can have:

8 :: one for every day of the week plus a backup

or

X+1 :: where X is the current number of bikes owned

+1

i have just one (in sig).
ideally i'd like a road bike, a randonneur and a dirtjump rig too.
but for now i'm happy with my one bike.