Slimming the stable.. Opinions and thoughts on bike options

DodgeT

I was always of the opinion that you can never have too many bikes, N+1 and all that. However, got a bit daft really. Up until a couple of weeks ago, the number stood at 6.

Spesh enduro, for general XC/trail stuff
Trek Session, for DH
Carrera vulcan, cheap rigid for riding with the dog, towing my boy in his trailer, canals, tracks etc.
Planet X pro carbon, good weather road rides
Carrera TDF, bad weather road rides, commuting
Carrera Crixus CX, road/off road/trails, anything not too tasking.

I've now sold the Session and the TDF, so stuck with the 4

Spesh enduro, for general XC/trail stuff, will also use this for DH as I used to before
Carrera vulcan, cheap rigid for riding with the dog, towing my boy in his trailer, canals, tracks etc.
Planet X pro carbon, good weather road rides
Carrera Crixus CX, road/off road/trails, anything not too tasking, commuting, bad weather road rides

I'm wondering if I should slim down some more, in order to get more use out of each bike, and to generate some room. I was thinking should I get rid of the vulcan & crixus & replace them with a hardtail 29er, something short travel and quite racey, which would give me

Spesh enduro, for general XC/trail stuff, will also use this for DH as I used to before
Planet X pro carbon, good weather road rides (probably use it for bad weather road rides too, or just stay in..)
29er hardtail, road/off road/trails, commuting, bad weather road rides(maybe not ideal), riding with the dog, towing my boy in his trailer, canals, tracks etc.

I'm assuming that a racey 29er with skinny fast rolling tyres isn't going to be that much slower than a CX bike for the terrain i'm talking about. Bear in mind, i'm not after all out speed / cx racing etc. just for what would be suitable / sensible choices for the stuff i've listed.

Whats your thoughts peeps??

The Rookie

My Nephew uses a Rigid 29er on 32mm road tyres for fastish road use and it does the job very well.

Decathlon big8 is a nicely specced racey 29er.
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-bi ... 80092.html the other stand out options are the more trail orientated Voodoo Bizango or the Boardman 29er Pro http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/m ... -2014#tab2

paulneenan76

First world problems eh?

DodgeT

Like the idea of something like the boardman, but don't want to fall into the trap of wanting to use it for trails instead of the enduro. Which I fear would happen as they are supposed to be pretty capable.
I guess what I'd do is stick something like crossmarks on it, to maximise the speed on hard pack.
I love the cyclocross but the riding position doesn't love my back.

robertpb

This might be an idea http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bmc ... e-ec072468
Or http://www.evanscycles.com/products/bmc ... e-ec072462

The Northern Monkey

Remove all road bikes, replace with MTB's. Sorted.

Lewis A

What about a Cotic Escapade? It seems to fill your needs?