Do you have separate bikes for commuting / touring & exercise?

johngwheeler

I've recently bought a "light-duty cyclocross" bike (Trek Crossrip) for commuting, general transport and exercise.

What I'm finding is that once I've added accessories for the first two categories (commuting/transport), such as a rack, panniers, saddle bag, lights, kickstand - that the bike is now fairly heavy and loaded with parts that are of little relevance to exercise / weekend pursuits. I obviously don't exercise with the panniers, but it's still very much configured for load-carrying rather than speed or robustness.

I was also annoyed to find that the bike won't fit in my turbo-trainer with the rack fitted. Taking it on & off seems like a chore.

I wonder whether this is a familiar situation and whether it's common to have a separate "exercise / fun" bike, and leave the commuting bike configured for that purpose?

I'm guess I'm learning that there is no "one size fits all" bike....like many other hobbies!

asprilla

The correct number of bike you should own is N+1 where N is the current number of bikes owned. The boundry condition is S-1 where S is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.

Commuting by car or public transport would cost me about £3500 a year so despite the fact my garage appears to have a revolving door for bikes in still saving money.

roger_merriman

I think once you add racks and what not, a bike can feel a bit sluggish. does depend on what your doing clearly.

I have settled on old MTB for commuting, plus odd trip into london, plus tow path rumbling at times.

A cheap and cheerful CX for roading and lightish off roading.

and a Newish Full suspension MTB for more serious stuff.

johngwheeler

Asprilla wrote:

The correct number of bike you should own is N+1 where N is the current number of bikes owned. The boundry condition is S-1 where S is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner.

Commuting by car or public transport would cost me about £3500 a year so despite the fact my garage appears to have a revolving door for bikes in still saving money.

Thanks for educating this newbie :-) I will learn the N+1 and S-1 formulae.....

(I have the same problem with my telescope collection, now vying for space in the garage with my new bike hobby). I'm putting it down to a healthier form of mid-life crisis. Hey, it beats the sports car, pony-tail, ear-ring & mistress....

cougie

Ditch the stand. There is always something to lean the bike on.

rhodrich

I have fewer bikes than my wife has pairs of shoes. That's all I'm prepared to say......

secretsam

The correct number of bikes = n+1

fat daddy

I have separate bikes for the same commute ..... putting panniers on my 1st bike ruined the handling .... even without the bag the mere 500g of rack over the back wheel and the mud guards have somehow ruined the handling.

so anytime I don't need to carry anything I'll take a singlespeed CX bike and enjoy the ride in ..... in the summer I often take the road bike in ... icy, take the MTB

I still need a CX bike with gears though ... and a normal road bike in the 8kg range for daily useage and pre-work rides .. pref with Disc brakes, but I think I might be pushing it there with weight vs cost

slowbike

Of course you need separate bikes for each duty ... plus a spare just incase you get to it and find there's a mechanical that you don't have time to fix before setting out.

I have the same number of bikes as my wife - my Son (not yet 2) isn't doing too bad either. My wife still has more shoes though.

itboffin

im working towards a different bike for each day of the month

awavey

definitely seperate bikes for commuting and weekend pursuits. Partly because I know the commute bike will get knocked about alot left in the bikesheds all day and face the worst of the weather and rubbish off the roads. And plus I dont have to fret about anyone trying to steal my road bike from work, which does happen to people every so often, came back one time to the bike shed and someone had unscrewed the brake blocks and had obviously been trying to take the front wheel off, which was nice of them.

So whilst my road bike isnt a dry weather only bike by any means, Ive not quite got to summer/winter road bikes yet, I try to avoid riding it in the worst of the weather and i very rarely let it out of my sight for long even at cafe stops.

johngwheeler

awavey wrote:

definitely seperate bikes for commuting and weekend pursuits. Partly because I know the commute bike will get knocked about alot left in the bikesheds all day and face the worst of the weather and rubbish off the roads. And plus I dont have to fret about anyone trying to steal my road bike from work, which does happen to people every so often, came back one time to the bike shed and someone had unscrewed the brake blocks and had obviously been trying to take the front wheel off, which was nice of them.

So whilst my road bike isnt a dry weather only bike by any means, Ive not quite got to summer/winter road bikes yet, I try to avoid riding it in the worst of the weather and i very rarely let it out of my sight for long even at cafe stops.

Thanks for your advice. The security and wear-and-tear aspects are good factors to consider. I do worry a bit about using my bike for shopping etc. where I will leave it unattended for more than a hour. My current work has a secure bike lockup, which is a great thing to have, but if I were just locking up my bike in the street all day, I would be concerned about theft, possible vandalism or just getting scratches.

But my major question is my bike's fitness for purpose. When I bought it, I thought that racks, panniers and reasonably a heavy build would be fine for commuting and general transport for short trips, and this is indeed true - I'm not going flat out and the load carrying ability is important. It's also not really what I could call a robust off-roader; the 32C tyres have some grip, but are not "knobbly", and are rated at a minimum pressure of 60psi, which makes for a fairly bumpy ride.

Yes, I could strip it down for the weekends to make it lighter, and change the tyres (more likely the whole wheel) to a 35-38mm knobbly version, but I think this would quickly become too much of a hassle. If I'm going to invest in a new set of wheels, then I'm a fair way into the cost of buying a whole bike (30%?).

I'm probably just trying to justify it to myself....a month into bike ownership and already thinking of the next one - must be some kind of illness.... :-)

UndercoverElephant

Sounds like it should really be n+2 in your case. You need a lighter road bike for nice days and a mountain bike for the off-road.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

keef66

I started out with a light but all year round bike which would take proper mudguards and 25mm tyres. In summer, if it ever stopped raining, I'd take the guards off, but it was a bit of a faff. Some years they never came off.

After a few years I was able to buy a decent carbon frameset and build it up, so I now have a wet weather alu bike and a dry weather carbon one. I just take out whichever bike the weather dictates.

I don't commute, so both bikes are pretty light and unencumbered with luggage / accessories beyond Garmin, small seat pack, and lights when required. Both are a hoot to ride.

If I was ever to commute by bike the wet weather one will take a rack (in fact I have one I've been waiting 7 years to fit :oops: )

itboffin

keef66 wrote:

I started out with a light but all year round bike which would take proper mudguards and 25mm tyres. In summer, if it ever stopped raining, I'd take the guards off, but it was a bit of a faff. Some years they never came off.

After a few years I was able to buy a decent carbon frameset and build it up, so I now have a wet weather alu bike and a dry weather carbon one. I just take out whichever bike the weather dictates.

I don't commute, so both bikes are pretty light and unencumbered with luggage / accessories beyond Garmin, small seat pack, and lights when required. Both are a hoot to ride.

If I was ever to commute by bike the wet weather one will take a rack (in fact I have one I've been waiting 7 years to fit :oops: )

what happens if it rains whilst you're out on the dry bike?
support car bike swap?

fat daddy

itboffin wrote:

what happens if it rains whilst you're out on the dry bike?
support car bike swap?

only if the bike can fit IN the car ..... kind of pointless if it is going to sit on the roof in the rain.

Support "van" swap is better

keef66

itboffin wrote:

keef66 wrote:

I started out with a light but all year round bike which would take proper mudguards and 25mm tyres. In summer, if it ever stopped raining, I'd take the guards off, but it was a bit of a faff. Some years they never came off.

After a few years I was able to buy a decent carbon frameset and build it up, so I now have a wet weather alu bike and a dry weather carbon one. I just take out whichever bike the weather dictates.

I don't commute, so both bikes are pretty light and unencumbered with luggage / accessories beyond Garmin, small seat pack, and lights when required. Both are a hoot to ride.

If I was ever to commute by bike the wet weather one will take a rack (in fact I have one I've been waiting 7 years to fit :oops: )

what happens if it rains whilst you're out on the dry bike?
support car bike swap?

My @rse gets a lot wetter than I'd like and so do my feet usually. And then I start to worry about grit getting into the brake calipers and water into the frame.

Support car's only been required once in 10 years; snapped spoke resulting in a Pringle shaped rear wheel. Only 8 miles from home but the support car driver still seemed a bit grumpy about being called out!

Hinaultscrapcousin

I commute on the same fixed wheel I do most of my riding on. I do have spare wheels for it that I can use if the weather is rubbish but I tend not to swap them as I'm lazy. I never commute on my geared bike and while it doesn;t get much use that stays as a "leisure" riding bike. I don't really have space to store another bike (I have a monstercross bike and I generally leave either my geared bike or monstercross at my parents house to ride when I'm there).

tgotb

Commuting bike (rack, mudguards etc)
Pub bike (20 quid job that no-one will want to steal)
Road bike
2 x cyclocross bikes
TT bike
MTB
Track bike
Tandem
Folding bike

Plus a spare CX frame, vintage steel road frame that I'll build up some time, etc. Quite a few sets of wheels for the CX bikes, but no more than my girlfriend has sets of running shoes. She just has 3 bikes (commuter, road, CX); Junior also has 3 (CX, road, MTB) though I think she'll need a commuter when she starts secondary school.

I actually lost my road bike a while ago, searched everywhere for it. Eventually turned up inside my bike box...

greenamex2

Ali/Carbon fork/Ultegra/full mudguards CX bike (Trek Crockett 9) for commuting, 50/50 mud/cycle path. Clapped out old MTB for training my daughter on tow paths to ride the London to Southend ride...until she gets too quick as I am slowly running out of gears!

Fortunately I have somewhere fairly secure to park the CX bike at work.

Working on the principle if I am going to slog through mud/rain/snow/sub zero twice a day all year I am going to do my best to enjoy it! More likely to continue then.

johngwheeler

Hmmm, interesting replies...

So it looks like having more than one bike is really not that uncommon; many of you seems to have a lot more than two!

I'll have to assess whether I'm really spending enough time with different types of riding (general transport, weekend trails, mountain biking etc.) to justify another bike (or more :-) ).

I'm finding that the inner equipment geek in me is sorely tempted by all the new shiny bits in the reviews & bike stores.

John.

inbike

On a purely financial basis I'd spend less money if I walked everywhere or just stayed at home.

I quite like cycling though.

milemuncher1

For most of my cycling life, I had 1 bike for road stuff ( that's everything done on the road), and one for trails / off road. The 'road stuff' bike was traditionally a fixed / single speed, until about 5 years ago, and the trail / off roader was a front sus Hybrid ( simply because that could be used as a road bike If the need arose, with minimal faffing). Over recent years, I've decided a derailleur geared bike is better for endurance road stuff, and the SS is still the best option for Road commutes. The Hybrid still takes the trail / off road riding. Even more recently, I decided that a Carbon fibre road bike with derailleur gears would be even better for endurance road stuff, so I added one to my collection. Then I decided to upgrade the groupset on the Carbon Road bike, but found a really good deal on an Ultegra 6800 groupset, which pretty much came with a fairly decent bike and finishing kit, practically thrown in for free ( BTwin Ultra 720 AF ), so I added that to the collection. Whilst I was at it, I bought yet another road bike ( purely in order to keep the miles off of the Carbon Fiber one you understand), then I couldn't resist a bargain front sus Hybrid that I spotted, and added that as well ( this one had disc brakes, which I won't have on a road bike, but MTB / TT and Hybrids are suitable IMHO), so that justified the purchase, on the grounds that it's different to the other Hybrid, you understand. So I went from 1 road bike, and one Hybrid, to lots of road bikes and 2 Hybrids, in the space of a couple of years. That's how it works, N+n I think.

slowbike

johngwheeler wrote:

I'll have to assess whether I'm really spending enough time with different types of riding (general transport, weekend trails, mountain biking etc.) to justify another bike (or more :-) ).

It doesn't have to be different types of riding - two bikes is always handy when you're due to get on it and there's a mechanical - just pick up the spare!
I've got 3 bikes that essentially do the same job - they all ride on the road - one doesn't have mudguards, the other two do. The middle one (my first bike) has low clearance guards which are fine most of the time, but no good on really dirty roads - which is why I bought my CX - which now has a rack, fixed mudguards and a kiddy seat - it's my do-it-all bike - having done CX rides on it (not races) as well as self supported ride of the green route from Dieppe to Paris - I'd not want to ride it all the time though.
Then there's the TT bike (it's only a cheap frame - but it has TT bars and is setup for TTing) and the 29er for when it's too muddy for the CX - it's also got disk brakes which are way better than the CX brakes - it's also handy to pull the kiddy trailer too as the gearing is lower - excellent if there are steep hills!

So you don't need to do lots of different riding to justify extra bikes

dyrlac

5 bikes: fast (L'etape); fixed gear (FXE); time trial (Scala); winter/turbo (Caadx); singlespeed (Plug). Went from N = 1 in late 2013 to N = 5 last year. Started with the Caadx which I bought explicitly on the basis that it was a do-it-all bike. Oops. Only thing missing now really is a mountain bike and a folder (and a tandem?), but I have it on good authority that S = 6.

Fixed gear gets the most real world use, but the Caadx has more "miles" by virtue of living on the turbo these days. L'etape is on its second frame (but same components/bars/saddle), and will take over commuting and weekend duties in the summer. The Plug is my old fixie, repurposed into a shops pootler/loaner bike. Scala was acquired in daft circumstances, but will get a run out later this spring.

I only have mudguards on the Caadx (which no longer sees any rain) and the Plug (which no longer gets ridden that often). I should really do something about that but my revealed preferences seem to say I prefer the look of the absence of mudguards to a reliably dry arse.

cruff

Got four bikes - Fast (Venge), Long (Synapse), Old (CAAD8) and Missile (Plasma)

Used to ride the long or old on commutes, but the old has been relegated to turbo/cobbles duty and the long just isn't as nice to ride as the fast, so tend to be on that most of the time. I'm a bit more diligent about cleaning my bike than most though - gets cleaned at least every Sunday, and if it's been filthy weather I'll give it a quick wipe/wash as soon as I get in. Still hasn't stopped the Lancashire winter destroying freehubs, wearing brake/gear cables and grinding up chains/cassettes at twice the rate of summer miles. SKS raceblades are a lifesaver on the Venge.

wolfsbane2k

2 bikes.
Started with a 2007, heavy, bombproof hardtail with 100mm sus forks for x-country stuff. Used it for commuting. Got knocked off it. Bought a "more suitable" roadie for the commute. still replacing broken bits on hardtail.
Roadie good for clean roads, but there are few of those around here, so want more clearance and mud guards.
So been planning N+1 as a CX/"Adventure road" bike since about November.

So - I don't do "roads" for enjoyment - I do XC MTB. Therefore 2 bikes were essential as far as I was concerned.

imatfaal

Bombproof steel rigid mtb for commuting (guards etc), fast but ratty looking hybrid for quick runs at home, cross bike for wet weather fun rides and seriously quick commuting in summer and at weekends (too often), and snazzy fast road bike for dry fun rides.

arthur_scrimshaw

The problem is there are far too many bike options out there and I keep making the terrible mistake of not quite buying the right bike each time. I may get there someday (but I really hope not)

MrSweary

3 bikes. 2 build projects. Several frames. Not enough time or money.

- Kinesis Racelite 4S Disc - basically my do it all bike. Commuter / weekend ride (once in blue moon these days) etc etc.
- Kona Paddywagon SS/Fixed - Occasional commuter and run around. Currently in need of a new BB, headset, chainset, freehub.
- Old Peugeot racing tandem - barely functioning wreck sitting in the garage bought before my beautiful daughter barreled into our lives and f*%ked sh%t up (as they say). Now a long term project for that far off mythical time when I have loads of spare cash and time.
- N+1 Dolan FXE build - priced up, funded and sourced and intended as a new occasional commuter / run around.

rhodrich

Cruff wrote:

I'm a bit more diligent about cleaning my bike than most though - gets cleaned at least every Sunday, and if it's been filthy weather I'll give it a quick wipe/wash as soon as I get in.

Goodness me! I have NEVER cleaned my regular commuting bikes (the Carlton and the Dawes), with the exception of the drivetrain. You know a bike's dirty when there's more build up of brake pad material stuck to the front forks than is left on the brake pads themselves. You'd never know the back wheel on the Carlton has a polished alloy rim, given that with the grime build up it's the same colour as the dark anodised front one.