Talk me out of it: One Bike Only

poptart242

Here's my thinking:

Current bikes:

Canyon Ultimate CF SL: Built up in winter form with 105 level components and heavy tubeless wheels. Nice bike, not a huge amount of fun to ride...mostly down to the choice of wheelset, I think.
CAAD12 Disc: Dura-Ace, 60mm wheels, cool paint job, the works. Rocket ship but a bit messy at the front end, alu and not aero.

My current riding: Banned from MTB by the wife which, given my ratio of broken bones to rides, is fair. So I'm mostly on road. Pootling with the wife at 15mph, chain gangs & club runs at a higher pace, or long distance rides over a couple of days with very light packing, solo. I *want* to ride & tour gravel too, but can't at the moment due to the lack of bikes with the capability.

Storage: One bike per person in the flat only, no other storage. So the summer bike is in a garage 70 miles away at the in-laws at the moment, until spring when I swap them round. This also means that when it's wet in spring/summer, I'm on the best bike.

Idea: Rondo HVRT CF with it's cool variable geometry + two wheelsets. Buy the frame and transfer the Dura Ace and wheels from my CAAD, buy some 650b wheels for gravel & I've a genuine 1 bike solution (albeit with clip on mudguards). Road geo for road, endurance geo for touring, gravel and winter.

What am I missing here?

joe_totale-2

I'm trying the whole CX/Winter bike thing this winter, it's not too bad although a wheel set swap takes longer with disc brakes as I find I have to recenter the brakes each time I do it.

You may also want to change the gearing as you'll want lower gears off road. I've got a 1x set up and I use a 40t chainring off-road and a 44t one on the road. That doesn't take too long to change.

Also on the road I use proper mudguards as the bike has the mounts, that again takes a bit of time.

Not going to lie but my CX bike feels pretty bland on the road compared to my fast bike which is also a CAAD 12, it's also a couple of kilos heavier. I'm thinking of going all N+1 and getting a dedicated winter/long distance bike, possibly a CAAD 13 Disc. I appreciate this isn't an option for you.

poptart242

Aye the gearing is another thought. Currently running 52/36 11-30. I could sell the Dura Ace RD and the Spidering for a compact and an Ultegra RX RD for up to 34-34 at the back I guess. Discs I have some experience with. Frustrating but not the end of the world when I hopefully won't be swapping sets too often.

fenix

If I had to have just the one bike I would have a cross with double chain set and clearances for mudguards in the winter. Two sets of tyres/wheels for summer and winter.

timothyw

It's an interesting concept, certainly.

Personally I'm not that convinced that different geometry is strictly necessary to go between road and cross/gravel (and is probably much cheaper accomplished by flipping the stem or raising it a bit if required) but if you feel it is necessary then go for it.

Presumably 650 wheels are beyond the capacity of the current caad?

arlowood

Have a look at the On-One Free Ranger. It might tick most of your boxes. Carbon frame with rack, mudguard and pannier mounts (for your light solo touring). Built up models come with 1 x gearing but the frameset is capable of taking a 2 x drivetrain if that suits you better. Can take 700c and 650b wheelsets

https://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/bikes/gravel-adventure-bikes/on-one-free-ranger

Certainly a cheaper option than the Rondo - so you could go to town on speccing it for both uses

haydenm

I was at a very similar point with the HVRT, looks fantastic. If I were in your position I would certainly do it (although I have never ridden one).

The reason why I have decided against it for the moment is that I'm not currently short on storage (although the OH disagrees), and my other bikes are great as they are. It might cost me some cash to do it once I factor in nice wheels so it seems silly to go to one drop barred bike. I decided it would be best to upgrade my current bikes separately and keep them in their niches for now.

Interestingly the drop bar bike I ride the most is a Croix de Fer with a choice of off road wheels with 38mm Gravel King SKs, and road wheels with GP5000s, both tubeless. I could easily live without the fast bike but then MTB is my main hobby rather than road.

Another option to look at might be the Orbea Terra, a mate of mine has one and swaps wheelsets as he keeps smashing his fast bike in races. For him the only thing it lacks over his Argon is stiffness in sprints, but most of it is in his head. It's a very road orientated off road bike as far as I can tell. I still prefer the look of the HVRT

slowbike

Hmm - well I can't go down to 1 bike - I'm still allowed to MTB ... and I still ride TTs ...
but I could probably combine my original road bike and my "tourer" which is currently used mostly for the school run ...
It would make a bit more space in the garage for Little Slowbikes N+1 - even if I keep multiple wheelsets for the various tasks...

Like the look of that HVRT ... hmm best start saving!

singleton

I've got a CX bike that I use for winter road use with road wheels and proper guards, and then I switch the wheels and use it for some summer off road fun.
It works fine for both - but not as good as a dedicated bike for off road use.
I also have a good, summer bike for road riding in the summer.

ugo.santalucia

I have a road bike + a Brompton... the latter takes very little room and is used for commuting to work. The road bike takes guards for winter and is used all year round on roads only. Anything more would be hoarding

gary_sparrow

I like the look of the Planet X titanium cx /gravel bikes
Tempest and Pickenflick
Could be worth a punt

haydenm

Ribble CGR Ti? The Zipp specced one on their website looks lovely

poptart242

Thanks for the comments everyone. It's made me think that I'm on to something here. Good points on the CGR and CdF, although I'd still say that I envisage ~90% of my riding to be on the road, and much of that fast. For that I'm still pretty up for a race geo'd aero bike.

In an ideal world what I really want is my old Scott Foil back, with some added versatility. Not too much to ask

cookeeemonster

I have an ultimate with ultegra and a caad12 with 105 (both disc) and the ultimate is vastly, vastly better than the caad12 in every way - replace those wheels asap!!!!!

Then swop the caad for a gravel bike.

Unless you really have to limit yourself to one bike, stick with 2. I've done the cx thing with different wheelsets for fast road and commutting and all I really got was a Jack of all trades...master of none.

You could probably get close though you'd need to spend a bit I reckon.

poptart242

Update, taken the plunge as the frameset in 2019 colours was on sale. Will post up when built!

DeVlaeminck

So you've now got 3 bikes - seems like a good solution.

poptart242

DeVlaeminck said:

So you've now got 3 bikes - seems like a good solution.

Haha! I'm going to strip the good kit from the CAAD unfortunately, and my father in law pestered me to buy the Canyon this weekend too. N+2-2 = solution

poptart242

Update on this - ended up going for it. Build thread will be here.