If you had to have one bike?

[Ron Bones]

Hey all, just a hypothetical.

If you had to have one 'do it all' bike, should one exist, what would it be?

Road, trail and expo. Can it be done without massive compromise?

I currently ride a 2008 Marin wolf ridge on the trails and a kona honky Tonk on the road. I love them both but I'm shortly going to be moving into my camper van full time so space is an issue and I'm wondering if there is an option out there that could replace both but still be fast on the road and capable off it?

Thanks in advance!

 

[monkeyrider]

Salsa Fargo, preferably Ti. 29er, gravel, bikepacking. Weakest link would be pavement because it's a bit heavy. Switch tires and it's capable of most situations. It's suspension corrected. It's like a swiss army knife of bikes. Just switch tires or the fork.

 

[digitaldelay]

I agree, multiple tires. I have 6 sets of tires for 2 bikes.

I would think an XC bike with a set of fat slicks as extras would work for you.

Jason

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[Ron Bones]

Thanks for the responses. I love the look of the Fargo, doesn't seem to be too many over here though so I'd have to get some pennies together and keep an eye out. The xc bike with a set of road tires would probably be a cheaper option, I might pick up a cheap set and try them in my Marin. It jut feels heavy on Tarmac but it would give me the feel for it without a big outlay.

 

[ddog45]

I love my Surly Karate Monkey.

 

[Ron Bones]

Never even heard of a karate monkey till now, wow! What an awesome looking bike. Love the simplicity of it and I love steel frames. I had been looking at the long haul trucker a while back. Whatever I do I need a build with gears though, I couldn't cope with single speed!

 

[DaveInDenver]

I've basically done with with my Gunnar Rockhound 29, very happily sold or given away everything else except the old Redline Cyclocross.

Whatever you do it'll be a compromise because there's a difference between being passable at something and being good at it. There's a reason certain traits became dominate in various bikes. I think to some extent having a quiver of leisure bikes is inevitable if you want something truly suited to a particular task. As much as I love riding my Gunnar even on pavement between the house and trailheads I wouldn't look forward to a week long road tour on it. Some of that is solvable with a less dirt setup but it's a steel MTB with the geometry and weight of a steel MTB.

 

[Ron Bones]

It always going to be a tough choice. It's the last thing I want to do really, if I had the option I'd be adding a more expo driven bike to the line up and I keep drooling over fat bikes too but something's got to give. I can't convince the mrs that living standards are less important than bike storage even if I know which option I'd prefer!

 

[Christophe Noel]

I'm going to have to go with the new Salsa Ti Fargo. I've got roughly 1800 miles on this bike so far and I truly love it. I wouldn't give it a second thought to doing a cross-continent ride on this bike. It also traverses mildly technical singletrack far better than it should. While I think the new carbon fork is amazing, I recently (as in last night) added a new Rock Shox SID XX World Cup suspension fork to it. The idea is to fold in more singletrack on my rides. It will also make our long downhills a bit more comfy.

Between the Fargo and the Bucksaw....I have little want for anything else.

 

[Ron Bones]

That looks incredible! As does the place you've parked it! You've got the two bikes that ,money being no object, I would own! Im leaning toward a steel Fargo after a day reading reviews, trawling forums and watching YouTube videos. I'd love a Ti but it would be well out of my price bracket.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Point here is you see trends in this thread: 700c/29" with clearance for mid-fats to about 29x2.3", hard tail frame, 2x9/10 drivetrains, 80/100mm forks (or thus corrected rigid), etc.

The Fargo is cool and can serve a whole lot of rolls (especially if you want to run panniers). When you dig into geometries of do-it-all 29er hardtails they are remarkably similar. The Fargo in large has 71/73 angles, 580mm top tube, 460ish chainstays, 70mm BB drop, 150mm head tube, 483mm fork length (which is a 100mm set to 20% sag). My Gunnar has 71.5/73 angles, 630 top tube, 70mm BB drop, 450mm chainstays, 138mm head tube and is built around an 80mm fork (so it's a little more slack when run a 100mm fork).

I picked my ride because it was a bit more suited to technical singletrack. I run a 100mm fork, 80mm stem and flat (well straight riser, not drop) bars. The Fargo would ride very short without drop bars, that's all. Since I hate riding road and decided to keep around a cross bike which with slicks doubles as a very effective road bike, I felt the Gunnar-type geometry (which is very closely shared by the El Mariachi BTW) was a better fit. If you prefer flat bars without super long stems, which is not uncommon even with roadies because they raise your head and shoulders which can help with fitting around neck & body pains and lets you see traffic better, the Fargo is less ideal than, say, the El Mariachi.

I should also mention another reason I picked the Gunnar was I specifically wanted steel and they are made in Waterford, Wisconsin, USA (Salsas are made overseas, which is neither pro or con but a US-made steel frame from a smaller shop for $950 I thought was a selling point). Ti is nice until you break it. Field repairs of steel are less difficult, although the chance that I'd need a garage in rural India to re-weld a frame are small so that's mostly just theoretical.

Plus, not to sound all Gunnar-dork, that was just one bike I always lusted over. A buddy of mine recently got a frame from Nord down in Colorado Springs that is a $1,000, very functional, handmade steel ride.

 

[PirateMcGee]

Bianchi Project series or similar. Original 29ers

 

[caslim]

Specialized Hardrock Sport 29er

 

[Ron Bones]

Thanks for all the info Dave. I must confess to not being hugely knowledgeable about bikes, I just ride them and fix them when they break, they either feel right or they dont! Haha. I couldnt possibly begin to think about all the geometries, even gear ratio's elude me. Maybe I should start learning.

Gunnar is not a brand I'm familiar with at all, I just had a look and they are available here in the UK but they are expensive. Gorgeous looking and I can see why you'd want one. I've got to say I like US bikes a lot. Hence I've whittled mine down to two, the one being a Kona and the other a Marin, both of which I bought purely because I saw and had to have, they looked good, they looked well built and that was that. The kona is a beautiful bike, the paint is amazing, the butt welds are perfect, its got lots of subtleties that I love, but riding it its no where near as good as my old cheapo B'twin road bike, its too short, my feet catch the front wheel, its fast and the steel frame is lovely and smooth but its hard work to peddle, I never feel I'm totally in the right gear but its the position I think rather than the components. I've always loved the bike since I got it but I was always a little disappointed that it wasn't going to be the globe crushing, 150 mile a day steed I'd dreamt of, I'm just never comfy enough on it, its great for a commute and my training rides but I get tired just thinking of getting up in the morning and going for a 50 miler on it.

It's definitely looking like I'm headed down the 29er route anyway.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Yes, I do not know if Gunnar or their higher end brand Waterford are available worldwide. They are not a big company with a worldwide distribution like Salsa. The take-away is mostly about fit, though. The Fargo is designed around using drop bars or at least bars that are not flat such as Christophe is using. These bars make a lot of sense for touring for sure. I just can't ride them very well on dirt.

BTW, another reason I preferred a bike with a flat bar is the brakes. At the time, about 2 or 3 years ago, hydraulic road disc brakes were still conceptual. I very much prefer disc brakes and didn't want to nobble together something would not work as well. I absolutely love my Shimano XT discs, fantastic brakes. Now with SRAM and the cyclocross world pushing discs they are coming along so finding brake hoods and integrated shifters with brake master cylinders is possible and the cable actuated hydraulic calipers are getting quite good.