So, to distill your first paragraph. You could spend less money, get "less" bike, but buy two of them. I'll never for the life of me understand this, obviously you can spend less, you could buy the lower end model, you could buy used, all of these options will make you very happy. Having 2 "lesser" bikes does not equal 1, well rounded bike to me. Dont get me wrong, a hard tail is a good time, so is a long travel enduro bike.
but additional storage, maintenance, parts, repais, fiddle friggin, etc, it doesnt add up to a good quality (for me) very capable trail bike. I say this as the owner of more than 1 bike, so grain of salt and all that.
Its always only been "incremental changes" we just tend to look back in hindsight at bikes tha are 10 years old. We got here by incremental changes, and we will continue to refine things, and new manufacturing methods, and materials, and additional tech (e-bikes) will make it all just a little better.
We are not at peak bike, things are great, but we thought the same thing when we went through LX 9spd derailleurs monthly as well
March 10, 2024, 9:55 a.m. - Onawalk
So, to distill your first paragraph. You could spend less money, get "less" bike, but buy two of them. I'll never for the life of me understand this, obviously you can spend less, you could buy the lower end model, you could buy used, all of these options will make you very happy. Having 2 "lesser" bikes does not equal 1, well rounded bike to me. Dont get me wrong, a hard tail is a good time, so is a long travel enduro bike. but additional storage, maintenance, parts, repais, fiddle friggin, etc, it doesnt add up to a good quality (for me) very capable trail bike. I say this as the owner of more than 1 bike, so grain of salt and all that. Its always only been "incremental changes" we just tend to look back in hindsight at bikes tha are 10 years old. We got here by incremental changes, and we will continue to refine things, and new manufacturing methods, and materials, and additional tech (e-bikes) will make it all just a little better. We are not at peak bike, things are great, but we thought the same thing when we went through LX 9spd derailleurs monthly as well