Mountain biking's constantly evolving disciplines and sub genres have allowed bike engineers to really go to town when it comes to creating bikes with a single purpose. These extremely specialist machines have been designed from the ground up to dominate a variety of unique environments and scenarios from sailing over huge jumps, navigating vertical rock-strewn lines at warp speed, ploughing through snow drifts or even aiding your survival on a multi-day adventure in the wilderness.
But for most of us, we have just the one bike, one which we have chosen for a number of reasons, but at the heart of that decision was its application with regards to where and how we ride, most of the time. But what if you could have another bike, regardless of cost and irrespective of how much time you would actually use it? A specialist one trick pony and a bike you've always thought,
"I'd love to have one of those"...
FROM ONE EXTREME TO THE OTHER
Big Travel Bruiser
They're big, they're bad-ass and they're expensive, especially considering they only go in one direction; down! But then downhill bikes are like Formula 1 cars, honed to do the one thing we all love to do, bomb downhill. Downhill bikes also represent something else - the sharp and dangerous end of an already dangerous sport. Today's DH bikes are rocket ships - a honed species of specialist bike that are 20-years in the making and getting faster all the time. Are they too much to handle for anyone but factory pro's or do they allow mere mortals like us to shred the kind of trails we could only have dreamed of a few years ago?
Slopestyle Supremo
Maybe this is an aesthetics thing, but slopestyle bikes just look like a lot of fun, especially the full suspension ones - almost to the point where you could be fooled into thinking they'd let you clear a line at your local dirt jump spot? Unfortunately for most us, the necessary minerals required to ride like Ryan Howard, Brandon Semenuk or Martin Soderstrom are few and far between. But that said, sales of these specialist little machines are on the rise and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they probably could help many of us with a skills shortfall, a degree of access to the world of tricks and stunts...
Go Fat or Go Home
Designed to keep you on two wheels when everything turns white, fat bikes have seemingly come from nowhere, quickly becoming a regular fixture at popular riding destinations around the world, even during the summer months. Their popularity in the UK for example, where it rarely snows to the point that you couldn't ride a regular MTB, is surely tantamount to madness? At least, that's what you'd think except for the massive smiles on their bearded faces... But for those who deal with snow, ice and indeed sand on a regular basis, surely such a machine would be less of a guilty pleasure and more of a necessity?
And that brings us to this week's poll question... So what will it be? A downhill bike to destroy your local DH tracks or a fat bike to show winter who's boss? How about a super lightweight XC bike to smash Strava or a thoroughbred enduro machine to take to the wildest off-piste terrain you can find? Maybe you just want one because they look rad and would probably never use it properly - it doesn't matter; what does, is letting us know in the poll below!
MENTIONS: @natedh9 / @davetrump / @SramMedia / @trek / @devinci / @RockyMountainBicycles / @COMMENCALbicycles
Come on!
PS. you can get some pretty bad ass high end digital cameras. (have you heard of a company called RED and their digital cameras?) Its not like the changed the name of them or anything the just progressively get better, like basically all technology, even DH bikes! holy cow!! I am not getting how they relate at all.
please neg prop the shit out of me you bandwagon jumping faeries!
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/6b/75/63/6b756335a2e2fc6fe6355e2e3a2f4840.jpg
Please add additional option: Industry needs to invent new bike type
CX, road bikes, why not a trainer while you're at it?
twitter.com/stephanpastis/status/505861949188743169
Fat biking and indoor bike parks during the winter.
rollers. we need rollers on this thread.
Oh myyy. I have to agree.
How is a road bike not an option?
A BMX bike should definitely be in there as well. Either a ultralight BMX race bike, a Trail BMX or a Street/Park BMX...So much fun, so little maintenance, so much reward when you get back on a big bike!
I voted a fat bike. I already own an AM/Trail bike, a hardtail/backup mtb, 2 BMX, a road bike, and a commuter. The only thing missing is a fat bike.
I would never spend my own money on a Fat Bike but i would love to have a play around on one just to see what they're like. However an Enduro style bike would be far more practical and useful to me.
But f*ck practicality lets go with the Fat Bike if I'm not paying!
www.vecnum.net/bike-parts/adjustable-seatpost/moveloc-seatpost.html
9point8 has also made a 200mm Fall Line. I don't know if it's been greenlighted for production or not; supposedly they wanted to gauge public reaction before committing. I've heard some interest in it here on Pinkbike, so hopefully they decide to make it. It's a little more modern than the Vecnum, having both stealth routing and infinite adjust, On the other hand, you have to be comfortable drilling a small hole somewhere discreet.
www.bikerumor.com/2015/09/17/ib15-9point8-stretches-the-fall-line-dropper-post-to-175-and-200mm-travel
I've actually put a fair amount of consideration into this little thought project. Not many full-suspension slopestyle bikes have enough straight seat tube to fit the Vecnum, and of those that do, even fewer have concentric bottom bracket pivots (desirable for their easy compatibility with street-smart singlespeed and internal gear hub builds). The NS Soda Slope is one of them.
If you already own:
Downhill / Freeride Bike
Dirt Jump / Slopestyle Bike
4X / Slalom Bike
XC Race Bike
That leaves:
Adventure / Bike-packing Bike
Enduro Race Bike
Fatbike
Well seeing as the Enduro bike is pointless when you own a dh bike and a trail bike, that leaves me fatbike or adventure bike.
I'll go with adventure fatbike please.
But yeh, I do race dh, so not getting rid of the dh bike anytime soon. And it is hard enough to persude me to pedal up a hill in the first place, and thats before sticking 160mm of travel and monster tryes on the bike...
.....On the other hand, would I have bought something like that as my first mountain bike? Doubtful.
A Yeti 4X would be ideal, why the fk did they cease production!!
Shed your shame, let your (mild) freak flag fly.
Consider this a PSA, demo'ing the Insurgent is dangerous business for your wallet.
Seriously. My bike lair is packed with pointless awesomeness.
oh wait already have one, just getting out on it is a guilty pleasure
HA ! What you gonna do, now ?
Street Trials....I'm way too old and would break my nuts but I've always wanted to try it
Whyte T130 Carbon for me please ...
m.pinkbike.com/photo/12253257
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDh-XR1l9A
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yDh-XR1l9A