One Bike to Rule Them All

[eala]

5 hours ago, Sid the Sloth said:

That is seriously impressive...

Seriously impressed !. I was sukkeling carrying myself and bike down there .I still believe Gravel bike riders need a ,Weird licence, They probably hide it under their beards and flannel shirt  

[eala]

15 hours ago, The Ghost said:

A lot of people have given their opinion based on their experience with bikes and various terrain, so I’m going to give you my opinion based on the information you gave us of your experiences.

Is there one “do it all bike”? Based on your comments about wanting a road bike over a gravel bike on the road and a hard tail over a gravel bike on dirt roads I would say that for YOU there is no one bike that will do it all for you.

WRT selling your road bike and getting a gravel / endurance bike to do “some gravel” , you already tried a gravel bike on dirt and you didn’t enjoy it, so I don’t think you’d enjoy some gravel on one of these, and if you like your road bike you’ll probably miss it.

If I were you I’d get a decent hardtail for dirt roads, trails and gravel and keep the road bike for road rides - based on the information that you gave us.

 

 

This guy is clever and talented .The MvdP of the inter-webs 

[Shebeen]

On 7/3/2021 at 4:03 PM, Mountain Bru said:

These things? Can you send a pic?

I'm sure they work wonderfully, but I'm not sure I could ever defile my epic with bar ends. 

it's a prefect circle.

ha ha your bike looks silly <==> ha ha you care what people think about how your bike looks

 

 

 

 

On 7/6/2021 at 8:58 AM, AllTerrain said:

I tend to agree with this thinking. I ride my 2012 Scott hardtail 29er 99% of the time. Sometimes I worry my others bikes will up amd leave me???? That will change now, because I have bought a cheap hybrid bike from cycle-lab to use for day to day commuting and similar. Also, I don’t understand what the benefit of drop bars are. But I guess having never been a roadie, I am probably just scared of change. I demoed a norco gravelbike last year at rosemary hill though, which is not exactly technical, but there was no way I could find where the drops were better than flat bars on a trail or on a dirt road, where you need to steer, navigate bumps and use the brakes at the same time. 
 

A light hardtail 29er, with a 80-100mil fork, and a 2x crank is superior to a gravel bike in any conditions where you wouldn’t be able to ride your proper road bike. But that’s just my opinion. 

in my eyes I see it like this:

Road bike = Sports car (or supercar, depending on what you ride). Fast and fun and very good looking, but only practical under perfect conditions. 
 

XC Hardtail = Bakkie based SUV (fortuner/Everest etc). Sensible and practical on all roads and conditions. Obviously no match for the sports car on the road, but still able to ride it with ease. Perfectly capable on any gravel road and jeep track, and it can take on some proper 4x4 trips with relative ease also.

XC/Marathon Dual sus = Proper SUV (Prado/Discovery/Pajero or VX200/RangeRover if you wanna pay a bit more) very comfortable, much more so than the hardtail on every road type, but not as efficient, costs a lot more to own/run, but also much much nicer place to be when the going gets tough.

Trail Bike = Defender/Cruiser76/wrangler massively compromised in terms of performance compared with its XC stablemates, can still do everything they can do, but it’s not ideal. But shines when things get really wild. 

Enduro Bike = overland prepped 4x4. It’s still able to handle everyday use if you really only have one vehicle, but it’s not great at anything except getting out into the back country and taking on the really tough trails. Does everything the trail bike does, but with a bit more ease, but it could also take on most of the downhill bikes routes too, with a skilled pilot. 

Downhill Bikes = purpose built/ highly modded 4x4. Useless for everything except what it is actually built for. Not a practical day to day bike at all.

 

Gravel Bike = Single Cab fleet Bakkie. It’s does tar and gravel just fine, but it’s not ideal an either. It can cruise on the road all day long, at the average speed with everyone else, but It’s no match for the sports car on the road, or the 4x4 with decent ground clearance and bigger tires off road. So it’s left behind in both these roles. And it definately can’t do anything the other more off road biased vehicles can do. If you fit a canopy/panniers, it’s not actually too terrible to use for a long road trip, but, the SUV/XC bike would be just as good at this role, and more comfortable too, and, if you take a wrong turn, or the road conditions suddunly gets much much worse, your still good to go if you in an SUV…

 

I guess I’m gonna run and hide from all the gravel grinders now????

 

(please note, this was just a bit of fun, while I wait for my next zoom call….I don’t care what you ride, as long as you ride. But, I do get annoyed when marketing types invent new niches just to drive new sales, when they could have just sold more of an existing product that works)

i love this. we need the fat bike, SS comparisons, i'm not going to try as yours are excellent.

[Mountain Bru]

I think we have a winner ????????????????????????

[eddy]

On 7/7/2021 at 10:30 AM, MTBeer said:

I must add, I rode down Blomendaler behind a guy on a gravelbike once. Jeez that guy could handle a bike. I stayed with him but just barely.

This guy sommer rides an old CX bike with 32mm tyres, Canti-brakes and a little bit of Mr Min on the saddle.

The Greg Edit on Vimeo

Edited July 15, 2021 by eddy

[Sid the Sloth]

12 hours ago, Mountain Bru said:

I think we have a winner ????????????????????????

Except it weighs 8.4 kg fully built with sram red. Not sure how when I did the maths for a build of a cannondale super X and came out at 7.8 recently with force and no serious trickery. 

[Mountain Bru]

1 hour ago, Sid the Sloth said:

Except it weighs 8.4 kg fully built with sram red. Not sure how when I did the maths for a build of a cannondale super X and came out at 7.8 recently with force and no serious trickery. 

But does the ad say "one bike to do it all"? It's like Scott had a look at this fred and made a bike for us. 

I'm such a sucker for a cable free cockpit. I reckon thats worth the extra 600g cos it no doubt ads 100w to your FTP in everyone's mind when your bike looks super fast. 

Edited July 15, 2021 by Mountain Bru

[Sid the Sloth]

10 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

But does the ad say "one bike to do it all"? It's like Scott had a look at this fred and made a bike for us. 

I'm such a sucker for a cable free cockpit. I reckon thats worth the extra 600g cos it no doubt ads 100w to your FTP in everyone's mind when your bike looks super fast. 

The cockpit I have (Vision ACR) is supposed to be fully integrated as well, but I suspect the frame would need some modifications I am not willing to perform. Only weighs 363g apparently.