Your ideal bike for the type of riding you do
 

There are sooo many nice bikes out there to ogle. But, there are some which are just mantle pieces and others we just know we're going to use every day. If you have multiple bikes what is the bike that you don't think about using, you just use. This can be either for sheer joy of riding, or practical expediency. I am more the later. I haven't had a car for many years (not by choice) and ride a bike for transport but never specifically for pleasure. Pleasure would just be a tailwind carrying a load home, a sort of incidental joy or rather "relief". Also, bike riding is economical of course and a cheap steel mountain bike is the usual ride of choice to do the job. I'll ride whatever can carry a good load, prove reliable and be the easiest to pedal. And you?

My riding is only for pleasure/recreation/sport. I pick the bike that fits best with the kind of ride I want to do - road bike, gravel bike, or MTB.

All mine are patched-together 'Frankenbikes' so I can't give you a brand name or model to go by. Some have drop bars, some have flat bars, some 26" wheels and others with 700 wheels with varying tire sizes, gearing varies from 2 x 9 to a single speed. All have a rack of some type to carry a few extras, and none have disc brakes.

Nothing beats an old steel mountain bike for utility riding. Strong enough to bear any load, geared low enough to haul that load even up hills, and still high enough so that riding empty, you can still make decent time. Simple, durable, reliable.

When I was car-free the bike rides were the highlights of the day. Like the old joke, "Nothing ruins a good bike ride like ending up at work."

Glad you tolerate riding .... too bad you don't enjoy it more but at least you don't mind, I guess. Car-free certainly does cut expenses if you have the time and energy to ride.

I like TV .... though nowadays I don't have "TV," I have free streaming services and such. Lots of decent entertainment and information, if it is taken in small doses.

I stopped shopping at Walmart when they wouldn't provide safe outside bike racks and wouldn't let me lock up in their cavernous, empty lobby.

McDonalds ... I'd eat there if they sold food.

Amazon .... I hate the corporation but when you need something in a hurry, they are the go-to.

No way to get the variety offered by Internet shopping without spending a week traveling to various cities and various stores .... no thanks. I try to shop smart and so far I have pretty much always got what I needed. Counting on local stores to stock what I need .... yeah, doesn't seem to happen.

Other than groceries and hardware ..... I can wait for the mail-order delay and get what I really want. Works for me.

For my touring, a good touring bike designed for the type of touring I do is ideal. It’s also good for transportation around town.


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For road riding, my super fly, custom ti bike. Don’t have a photo of that available at the time.

I have 3 bikes and they fit 3 categories 1) My nice bike, but do most of my riding on it 2) Cino/ Eroica qualified bike and back up nice bike 3) though a leg over it and do a quick errand (farmers market, brew pub) bike

1) 85 Team Miyata with 11 speed 105 5800 (soon to be for sale san jose area people)
2) 84 Team Miyata with 6 speed dura ace friction
3) 81 SR Semi-pro set up with Velo orange left bank with thumb shifters

and because there are not enough bike pictures in general cycling

85 team miyata
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85 Team miyata with Cino gearing


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81 SR semi pro (with postino bars, since switched

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I have 5 bikes, my favorite to ride is my Lemond Tourmalet. The bike that best suits my bike wants and needs is my Soma Smoothie. It has a wonderful ride, comfortable and versatile. With the steel touring fork I now have on it, I can mount a rack both front and rear, and it also fits up to 32mm tires. It is also the bike I would be most likely to keep if I were to go to have only one bike.

I ride in NYC and I have two bikes, both drop bars, both with a three speed IGH, one converted from single speed. When I used to commute, I used the single speed. I find both bikes perfect for my use, which is exercise/fitness.

If I commute by bike again, I’m sure they’ll be perfect for that. In fact, every time I get bike envy and start thinking about “a real road bike,” I take a ride and realize I have all I need. I’m not particular about cadence; shift down if it’s windy or hilly, spin up if I want to go faster, shift up if I want to go really fast. But I can see needing more range if I venture north of the city, which is why I’m toying with the idea of a State 4130 Road.

Riv ClemSmith Jr. w 2.4” 650B tires. It floats like no bike I’ve ever had.

Since my hip replacements, which included 4 dislocations and a re-do, I really prefer bicycles with step-through frames. My first dislocation happened mounting my motorcycle, and I have gotten better at mounting my diamond-framed bike, but it is not confidence inspiring, and if I have to stop on a steep part, I'm walking until it's nearly flat again to re-mount. Despite that, I've done some of my longest and most satisfying rides on it since I restored it.


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Church at Black Mesa


I started riding again during the pandemic, on a Jamis Citizen 1 step-through upright hybrid, or 'comfort' bike, or whatever, but now it seems pretty sluggish and I seldom ride it anymore, mainly because its "hop on and ride" role is now filled with my brother's Clem Smith Jr. step-through. I'm going to ditch the experimental butterfly bars on Clem shortly, and go back to the Clarence bars with single grips. Even though I have more hand positions, I don't like any of them as well, it seems. The downside of Clem is that it's a foot longer than most any other bike around, and so weighs about 32 pounds. Still fleeter than the Jamis, and it let me ride every foot of Saguaro NP's loop drive with ease and joy.


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Clem

Now I'm building a drop-bar step-through, which will have brifters and clipless pedals for me to master...


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55 cm Raleigh Super Record mixte

I will dub the look "Classic Funky". :)

I'm also a Rivendell rider these days, a recent Atlantis model. It feels like the summer I had as a teenager driving my grandpa's Cadillac. For my riding, it's just right.

some of the best rides have been on this 40+ yo AustroDaimler. Not sure if it was the bike, or the location, or the frame of mind.
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I have many, those are divided in 4 categories:
1) the road bikes for getting fast and comfy on long roads. I have 4 roadbike projects builds in the pipe and 2 roadbikes that will be upgraded .
2) the mountainbikes which are ideal for going on trails and into gravel roads , have already 3 mountain bikes all 30 speeds, building a 4th one
3) the hybrid is a special bike because youcan use it on trails and on roads, my 1992 giant tourer is what I use when going insome places which have not so good paved roads
4) the town bike used for everyday commuting and running in town errands, mine is a 1992 peugeot chenonceaux
I like bikes and mostly steel framed ones, after the builds/projects being made I will ride the bikes, and focus into spare parts. Pleasure of riding a bike comes for me mostly from a good frame but also good wheels and good transmission.

Answering the original question, I'm going to choose my Specialized Diverge with 48-34 chainrings. I do most of my riding on pavement and also have a road bike (Cervelo Caledonia), and really enjoy both equally riding on pavement. If I'm riding with others, I'll take the Caledonia because it's a little faster, but the Diverge is better off-road and also has a softer ride on pavement. I mention this because lots of people seem to think that riding a gravel bike on pavement is a compromise. If I'm riding solo, I don't see it that way. The Diverge is just as enjoyable on pavement as the Caledonia.

Riding a gravel bike (>35mm tires with tread) is a compromise on the road, if you’re comparing rolling efficiency to a road bike with <28mm slick tires. You acknowledged that yourself. Whether or not that compromise matters to you, and the way you ride, is the determining factor. For me, if I’m doing a ride that is all paved, my road bike will be my choice. For you, efficiency might not be as much of a priority.

That's true. I'm riding for fitness, and it doesn't matter to me whether I arrive home a few seconds later because I rode the Diverge that day.

An ideal type of bike for me is a jack of all trades type of a bike....In my case that is a rigid fork MTB with heavy duty wheels and 700 x 45 mm tires, full fenders and a front rack. This set up allows me to handle majority of the on road and off road terrain and conditions.

I mostly ride my road bikes, and typically gravitate towards my Emonda.

But my CX bike is the ideal bike for what I do. One set of tires with a slick center section and treads on the outside - its nearly as fast as my road bike, it can go offroad, gravel, single track, I like drop bars and the 1x drivetrain is simple and so far, bomb proof. Plenty of range for 20% climbs and cruising along in the flats - and I'm not strong enough to run out of gears.

I ride for recreation/pleasure. I do like light bikes since I have to climb quite a bit here in Colorado. I may eventually build my BMC to be under 15 lbs but it and my Ti Moots are my primary rides. The BMC is rim brake and the Moots is tubeless and disc. The Moots has deeper carbon rims but the BMC is lighter and climbs a bit faster. I'm pretty set since I tend to do more mountain biking as the season really takes hold. I still ride my road bikes after June but mostly up at 9,000-11,000 ft and not much at all in the Denver area where I primarily live.

My main whip is a traditional cyclotouring bike (700c, rack mounts for racks and panniers). I wish it had room for wider tires, though (current max is ~38mm) because I find myself having to slowly pick my way through a lot of the rougher terrain I ride, and, because there are a lot more rough routes than paved ones around here, when my touring bike eventually breaks I will probably replace it with a gravel bike that can fit 2" or 50mm tires.

I also have a fat bike that I generally use for winter riding, but it is also my summer off-road bike for rides on rough singletrack and other trails I don't want to take my touring bike on.

To the OP's question, let me take the last part first: the kind of riding I do.

Since I was a kid, I have used bikes to explore ... not widely or speedily, but rather more closely, if you will. I don't cover a whole lot of distance on a ride because I stop a lot to look around. One of the things I enjoy is just turning off onto some side road I've never been on before and finding out where it goes and what's on it. Around where I live, a lot of what I find is just residential real estate, but there are often delightful surprises. For example, a couple years ago I took such a detour, and at the little cul-de-sac turnaround at the end I found out why the road stopped there: a broad ravine. The surprise was that on its opposite side was the back end of some other residential road I hadn't been on ... and the people in the house on the far side had built a little kind of private park: they'd built a set of stairs going diagonally down into the ravine, leading to a tiny groomed spot big enough for a picnic table. What's more, they had built a very pretty little bridge spanning the little stream at the bottom.

Aside from things like this, I also get to enjoy nature, seeing the various creatures that motor-speed steals from perception, and finally, I've just always enjoyed propelling myself around under my own quiet power.

My ideal bike, then, isn't properly a bike at all, it's the new GreenSpeed Anura I bought in late January.

As much as I've loved (most of) the uprights I've had, I've wanted a delta trike ever since I knew they existed, and maybe before that; something about the idea just appealed to me, but I never had the means before. I wasn't going to buy one without trying it, either, and I got my chance at the Recumbent Cycle-Con in October last year. Long drive, but it was well worth it.

You remember a long time ago how Mazda had a tag-line for their car commercials: "It just feels right"? That was the phrase that came to me when I got on the Anura, from the first minute.

I'd also been considering a Sunseeker X3-AX, and someone brought in an assortment of Sun trikes and bikes ... I test-rode that one for a very short time. Nice seat ... the rest of it just plain scared me.

As of now, the Anura is in my living room being fitted with options, some very challenging, like how to attach the two small cargo boxes I bought for it, and how to attach the tail-lights where I want them, on the top of the rear fenders. I'm having to invent custom brackets for those, but the boxes will bring a few groceries home ... and maybe an odd souvenir from the road.

I have a GURU Sidero (steel), a CAAD 12 and a GURU Photon. It's the Photon that is my first choice...Dura Ace mechanical and it weighs 14 lb 8 oz w/o pedals. All kitted out for an actual ride it's about16 lbs.

This is my all purpose bike and the one I ride the most. Schwalbe Land Cruisers roll fine on pavement and are stable on dirt roads and gravel tracks. Winter in Wyoming has not been kind to cyclists this year. 13 degrees and windy this morning.

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The trusty, never rusty, Ti triple
 

Hills need gears for old legs.

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After yesterday’s outing.

One can try to make one bike work but they might find themselves underbiked or overbiked on occasion.

​​​​I'm a believer of having the right tool for the job. The magic number for me is 4:

• Road (fast, long rides)
• Mountain (technical trails or purely off-road riding)
• Gravel (non-technical trails or tarmac/dirt mix)
• Urban/utility (around town, commuting, panniers, etc)

Sometimes I miss having a fixed gear/singlespeed bike but I live near the foothills now and there's always headwind so not really.