Mountain Biking - I love having two bikes. What are your thoughts??

It's great to have two rides. I've got a full-suspension none-too-light trail horse that makes me a better climber and a hardtail that makes me a better descender. I'm seeing all kinds of adjustments that I can make to one because that particular set up is better on the other and I want to match it. I used to think people with more than one bike were strange and unstable. Now I am enlightened. What are your insights?

Yeah I got my full out chi chi XC hardtail, my old spare parts singlespeed and my middle of the road old roadbike. I like 'em all though the roadbike gets the most miles and the singlespeed gets the most use offroad. The whole rigid craptacular bike makes you a better rider for sure. I feel pretty content though occasionally I want a trailbike for days when I feel lazy or want to do epic rides.

The following are my bikes:

Specialized Enduro SX - Custom build, Marz Z1, Full XTR
Intense Uzzi SL - Cracked frame, need to send in for warranty
Iron Horse Sinister - Custom, Marz Z1, mostly LX
K2 Brass Monkey - Frame and misc. parts
Cheap Steel SS - Nashbar $35 frame and spare parts
LeMond Zurich - Full Ultegra
Bianchi Axis - Brand New CX bike - all stock
Cilo - Old frame and fork
Schwinn Tandemn Deluxe - Needs restoration
Haro Backtrail 2.2 24" Cruiser
GT Mini (Son's race bike)
Specialized HotRock (Son's Play bike)

When I was married, my wife had 3 bikes of her own. 1 Cannondal R4000, a Cannondale Raven and a GT Backwoods.


You can never have too many bikes!
L8R

I have/had four bikes...Still do have two. My wife accidentally wacked my two older bikes with the car. The most damaged was her bike...A hybrid..Yet to have repaired...Hope it is worth being repaired.Seat stay is slightly bent..Maybe some handlebar damage, where the handlebar was forced into the garage wall.
I liked the hybrid for a city bike...That at least will need to be replaced..that is the one, I used for bad weather.
Sort of bumbed. Only two bikes.. If not worth repairing. Will have to replace it...City ubran bikes come in handy.
The seat stay is just slightly bent,not mangled..Does cro moly remain as strong as was, once bent back? Four bikes is about what we need..
A bike for all conditions.

hey nut! how do you decide what bike to ride on any given day? I stumble ordering breakfast, what would I do faced with so many choices?

Which bike to ride..Easy choice for me...Night conditions/ heavy errands/bad weather... The hybrid with a rack and 38 mm tires......Speed/Sunday rides. My Sunday dress up, race bike. .... Touring/commuting. My touring bike with a rack and accomdates a trailer. ..
Winter riding when I need more stuff. My older, less racey, race bike with a rack. That one because, in the cooler winter weather coming up, I just carry more stuff. Even on a casual ride.Yet, all the panniers on my touring bike would be overkill for Winter faster rides...
Each bike is obviously suited for my different needs.

I have a roadbike and a full-suspension XC bike. The worst mistake I ever made was getting rid of my old fully-rigid MTB when I bought the FS bike. I wish I had it back. My next bike will probably be a travel roadbike with S&S couplers since I do a lot of business travel. And then after that I'll probably get a hardtail MTB. Somewhere along the way, I plan on building up a singlespeed.

The following are my bikes:

Specialized Enduro SX - Custom build, Marz Z1, Full XTR
Intense Uzzi SL - Cracked frame, need to send in for warranty
Iron Horse Sinister - Custom, Marz Z1, mostly LX
K2 Brass Monkey - Frame and misc. parts
Cheap Steel SS - Nashbar $35 frame and spare parts
LeMond Zurich - Full Ultegra
Bianchi Axis - Brand New CX bike - all stock
Cilo - Old frame and fork
Schwinn Tandemn Deluxe - Needs restoration
Haro Backtrail 2.2 24" Cruiser
GT Mini (Son's race bike)
Specialized HotRock (Son's Play bike)

When I was married, my wife had 3 bikes of her own. 1 Cannondal R4000, a Cannondale Raven and a GT Backwoods.


You can never have too many bikes!
L8R

A2 has more bikes then my LBS.

The following are my bikes:

Specialized Enduro SX - Custom build, Marz Z1, Full XTR
Intense Uzzi SL - Cracked frame, need to send in for warranty
Iron Horse Sinister - Custom, Marz Z1, mostly LX
K2 Brass Monkey - Frame and misc. parts
Cheap Steel SS - Nashbar $35 frame and spare parts
LeMond Zurich - Full Ultegra
Bianchi Axis - Brand New CX bike - all stock
Cilo - Old frame and fork
Schwinn Tandemn Deluxe - Needs restoration
Haro Backtrail 2.2 24" Cruiser
GT Mini (Son's race bike)
Specialized HotRock (Son's Play bike)

L8R

Damn. But even in all that, you don't have a recumbant.

I have a road bike and MTB Hard tail and ride one day alternating on each. Great way to ride.

I have a roadbike and a full-suspension XC bike. The worst mistake I ever made was getting rid of my old fully-rigid MTB when I bought the FS bike. I wish I had it back. My next bike will probably be a travel roadbike with S&S couplers since I do a lot of business travel. And then after that I'll probably get a hardtail MTB. Somewhere along the way, I plan on building up a singlespeed.

My Favorite bike ever was a steel Stumpjumper with hard fork and tail, stolen. The early rocky mountain bikes were all hard and light.

I got rid of my FS Trek Y5 (bob,bob,bob) and bought a CD F600 Furio w/lockout head shock-best of all worlds.

I have one working and trying to decide what to do with what is left. In the end I could end up with an adult sized bmx (street bike), xc bike and dh/fr bike....depends on whether I care enough haha :)

i have 5:
Freeride/tour bike: '03/04 Rocky Mountain slayer (125mm full suspension - about 34 lbs.)
XC race fully: '03 Specialized FSR XC (100/90mm full suspension - about 26lbs.)
hardtail: '97 Norco with 80mm
old MTB: '89 Stumpjumper ridig
road bike: '97 Raleigh R700

for trails i now have the choice between the FSR and the Slayer... if i want to be light and fast, i take the FSR and (more often) for fun i ride the Slayer.
for commuting i use the hard tail.
for road riding the road bike
the old Stumpjumper doesn't get much use, but i use it as my "junker" when it's not safe to lock up one of my others. plus, it's just a cool classic!

but yeah, i like having multiple bikes - even trail MTBs! the only problem i have had so far is forgetting what is broken: i.e. did a tour and broke a rear spoke on the Slayer, then did a week tour with the FSR, then took the Slayer out and on the trail realized the rim was WAY out of true (oh, gee, i broke a spoke 2 weeks ago)

today i got a good chance to buy an even "bigger" freeride bike (170mm), but i passed it up (just can't justify the cash!)

although a singlespeed i do still want... or maybe do a convert of the old Stumpjumper?

I have 2 bikes and need a third.

'94 Gary Fisher Mamba - HT suspension forks commuter/beater
'02 Gary Fisher Sugar 4 - FS mountain bike

What I want is a road/cx/touring bike. Something with drop bars and skinny tires for weekend road rides and stuff. I used to think 1 bike was enough, so I almost got rid of the mamba when I bought the sugar. Luckily it fits my wife and I kept it. She doesnt' ride it ever, so I put slicks on it and ride it daily to get to work.

It's also usefull when friends visit from out of town I can put the knobbies back on and we can go for a ride.

A cycling enthusiast can almost never have too many bikes. I think 3 bikes is a minimum.
- mtn
- road
- beater

Specialized Rockhopper Pro made into a commuter. Surly 1X1 forks and 26X1.25 Panaracer Urbanmax.
Mosh 24" cruiser for my lunchtime rides at work.
2003 24" Specialized TR-X for thrashing motorides with my kids.
And yes it probably does look a little silly to have a 40+ guy riding bmx with his kids. But hey, We having fun!!! :-)

I have the road bike, the new FS Mtn bike and the beater hardtail. The uses of the road bike and the FS speak for themselves. The hardtail lives in the loft on the trainer for those wet/ snowy/ lazy days. It's nice not to have to put the "good" bikes on the trainer.

Road bike: 2003 Allez sport
Mountain bike: older steel frame (true temper OX platinum), all new parts
Single speed: A 4130 scott frame from the early 90s, full rigid. I need a new left crank arm (175) for this to be usable again.
Commuter road bike/rain bike: early 90s Cannondale R400.

All of these bikes (except for the single speed) get ridden on a fairly regular basis.

I agree with the first post, I learn something from riding each bike, that I use while riding/working on the other bikes.

hey nut! how do you decide what bike to ride on any given day? I stumble ordering breakfast, what would I do faced with so many choices?


Just bought the CX bike, so I've been riding it.
My Enduro is my main bike which I ride off-road.
My hardtail is my "I need to practice jumping again" bike, and it's my spare bike.
My SS is my back-up bike when everything else is broken or when I'm feeling masochistic.
My road bike probably gets the most use since I don't ride off-road during the week. Plus, my riding buddy and I ride at night through his well lit neighborhood to get some training in.
My BMX Cruiser is what I use when I go riding with my son.
The others are in pieces and I'll get around to building them up sooner or later.

L8R

Different horses for different courses. I ride around 60/40 trail/asphalt (usu to the trail & back).
My 3 bikes:

Iron Horse Hollowpoint FS clone (North Face labeled, mostly XT drivetrain)
Haro V3 HT (mods- Easton EA70 stem, RockShox susp seatpost, IRC XC tires)
Old Schwinn World roadie (Giant-built twin chainring beater/dust collector)

I want to get a better road bike, but I ride my FS and HT so much I doubt a new roadie would see much use.