One bike or more?

Hey, I’m sure this has been discussed  before but a quick scrub didn’t show anything too fresh.

I’m wondering about the value of having two bikes, a big enduro or free ride and a smaller trail or hardtail vs one all mountain (150/160 ish)

Anyone have experience with both that can offer some practical insights?

Happy trails!

N+1

I think it really depends on the type of riding you're aiming to do, and what really brings you bike joy.

I started riding trail bikes in '98/'99 on a hard tail, like pretty much everyone did at the time. About a year and a half later I started getting into suspension bikes which led directly to bikes with more travel and a lot of DH racing for around 5 straight years. Then succumbed to a reeeeally long stint of post-secondary education where I only had a trail suspension bike and could barely even buy parts for maintenance. As soon as I started getting back on my feet, I bought a cheap Chromag frame, built up with whatever I could find, and realized that I still love the experience of riding a hard tail. With a background of spending 8 months a year on a DH bike, bringing one back into the fold made me realize I really love smashing trails with 200mm of travel, huge brakes and very soft tires. Yet I still spend most of my riding time on my 160/150 trail bike, which I absolutely love.

All this to say that we've never been in a better place to have one good bike that can manage most of the riding out there. But if you get more fun from the specific aspects that different bikes provide, it can still be very worth it to have the "right tool for the job". It's also nice that, after the big investments are over with, the maintenance costs tend to stretch out pretty well when you're spreading the riding hours over multiple bikes. And if one goes down with emergency repairs needed, you just grab another one, and go have a slightly different kind of fun. 

I didn't just dump a irresponsible amount of $ to build my quiver, I did it slowly over time, with value in mind. Hard tail was fab'd by a friend, and a mix of old/new parts went on there. DH bike started with a 26" frame for a great price, half the parts were from my old 2008 DH bikes, but a great fork and 27.5" front wheel went on there and it's a lot of fun. 160/150 bike is the newest of the lot, first brand new bike I've purchased in 13 years, and purchased just pre-Covid boom.

Definitely two bikes, a full squish of some sort and a hardtail. One of the main benefits to two bikes is that if something breaks you're not caught without a ride if you have to wait for parts/service. 

I'm a huge proponent of min-max and buying used. It allowed me to replace 3 bikes a couple of years ago for under $5K - DH, Enduro, XC. They are not all the latest-greatest but are more than capable and with a few tweeks (angleset) have the geo I need want.

Only one or two? Please don’t tell my wife.

I can happily live with one bike, as long as it has modern geometry, fits me well, and has at least 140mm of rear suspension travel.  I get the utility of having a back-up bike, but found that it was easier to focus my time and $$ on maintaining and upgrading a single bike.  Having said that, I recently added a modern, aggressive hardtail, mostly to have something different to ride. I wouldn't want the HT as my only bike, but it sure complements the full-sus well. I ride the same trails on both bikes. The experience is different for sure, but equally fun on either bike.

I was a one-bike guy for a long time, then spent a few dedicated seasons on a modern progressive hardtail and then back to full suspension but with the HT as a backup. I like it this way. I could do anything on the HT I could on FS but it's harder on the body. As a taller rider the more trail-oriented bikes are typically poorly laid out, in particular the little forks and tiny rear shocks; once you spec one of those XC bikes in a durable way you may as well be on a more versatile frame. 

A custom HT makes a good small bike for me. My HT is super aggressive with Tannus inserts but I recently swapped to much less aggressive tires and this is now my long haul XC sort of bike. The aggressive geo and inserts means the bike can do very gnarly terrain too, stuff I wouldn't want to do on a steeper trail/XC bike. It's ti so it's very compliant and it's great to be on a HT for rides with long road connectors. My FS is my daily driver for most things and having the HT as a backup in these times of uncertain supply of spare parts is just a smart way to go. 

An easy way to build up is to just start accumulating parts. Upgrade your main bike's parts a little early and put those replaced parts on your secondary frame.

If you can afford two bikes it's nice to have a choice of what to ride depending on the mission at hand and to have a back up. Right now I've got 3 bikes for trail shredding. 160/140mm FS, 140mm HT geared & 140mm HT SS. I could make do with any one of them as my only bike if push came to shove.

If I was starting from scratch I'd build up two bikes FS & HT using mostly the same parts for maximum cross compatibility.

I am lucky enough to have 3 bikes...Pedally Trailbike (160/147), XC bike(120/105) and Gravel/road bike.  Sure does a great job keeping me entertained on two wheels.

Posted by: Vikb

If you can afford two bikes it's nice to have a choice of what to ride depending on the mission at hand and to have a back up. Right now I've got 3 bikes for trail shredding. 160/140mm FS, 140mm HT geared & 140mm HT SS. I could make do with any one of them as my only bike if push came to shove.

If I was starting from scratch I'd build up two bikes FS & HT using mostly the same parts for maximum cross compatibility.

The cross-compatibility is key. It's really handy to be able to swap parts in a pinch.

Posted by: FLATCH

Only one or two? Please don’t tell my wife.

Same here. Only 1 or 2 bikes sounds... terrifying.  Lol

To sidetrack from what Craw said... can also upgrade/replace a little early and then keep the parts as spare. This is my method for allowing only 1 bike, allows you to keep riding while waiting for new parts when something breaks, but then again you don't always have a spare. This also assumes that you can do the work yourself, waiting for parts and shop time might be another story. Mind you I have too many old spare parts for the amount of bikes...

Posted by: craw

The cross-compatibility is key. It's really handy to be able to swap parts in a pinch.

Indeed. In a perfect world having the same parts on multiple bikes also means only having to stock one set of spare parts, knowing how to service one set of parts and if you keep stuff a long time being able to cannibalize a couple old parts to create one serviceable part that can get used even longer. This isn't always possible, but I do try and head in that direction as much as I can.

I figure it's part of the fun figuring out what particular stable of bike(s) works for you.

Usually for me over the past couple decades+ that was a continuous string of different long travel bikes, plus a short travel bike for the XC race season.

With the advent of the BCXC category that selection was turned on it's head, and the long travel unexpectedly sat unridden.

Now I'm on a 125mm Optic as my only bike, and I'm quite enjoying the breathe through your eyeballs climbs followed by edge of your seat sketchy descents.

My buddies have mostly settled on a more reasonable 140mm'ish as their one bike though, but they're all interested in arriving alive at the bottom of the descents and not having a cardiac arrest during the climb. Pfft.