UKC

It's been 20 years since I've regularly or seriously cycled.

I dusted off an old bike (a free donation) recently as I've not been running for a couple of weeks now due to a minor injury.

From July onwards, my circumstances with my kids school and nursery will be changing and commuting by bike to work will soon be a realistic prospect for me. Which has got me thinking.

As a kid, bikes were a means for seeing my mates and trials. Lots of trials. Using bikes not suitable for trials, and slowly adapting them. And breaking them, and fixing them on the cheap.

I kind of want to relive that. This may be an early mid life crisis. Not sure yet. My donation bike is a ropey Carrera Crossfire 2. I've put some mountain bike tyres on it, wide range freewheel and have some Deore hydraulic brakes on order as the brakes are terrible on it.

So the things I want this bike to do are:

• Commuting
• Very mild trials (haven't got the time and I'm not bouncy enough any more to get good, I'll just snap somehting if I try)
• Lots of trail rides on the weekend
• Mild downhill routes
• Pleasant bike rides

I did a test commute on the weekend and I need to sort out my bag situation. Even taking it easy my back was so sweaty, not a major issue as I have showers at work, but I would like to somehow hang the bag on the bike, and not on me.

But I still want the bike to be used for weekend fun, so whatever I add needs to be quick and easy to remove.

I know I should probably just have separate bikes, but I want to see if I can have a one bike does all first as I don't need it to be brilliant at anything.

Does such temporary bang hangy thing exist?

As a side note, I can't believe how much bikes have changed whilst I've been out of the game. Thru axles, dropper seat posts, tubeless tyres, 1x drivetrains. All this happened without me even noticing. Really want a dropper seat post for my situation, but they cost as much as a cheap bike. 

https://dillengerelectricbikes.co.uk/products/street-legal-electric-bike-ki...

What ever you get will be a compromise, if you want it to all of those things.

An adventure style gravel bike (I.e not a race type gravel bike) or a Cross Country MTB would be about as all round as you could go.  The former would be easiest to add bags to for communing.  But whatever you get will not be good at everything you listed.

Just rethinking, having re-read your post.  With your trials background, then a hardcore hardtail might be the best compromise.  It’s a very narrow market and many of these have gone very specifically for slopestyle jumping, so there’s not a lot to choose from.

I'm currently on the hunt for a cheap hardtail. They seem to demand a fair premium. May just keep an eye out for a second hand frame, or a complete, but neglected bike, and transfer a load of my components over. Short stem and riser bars and I think that would suite me well.

Other than the commuting bit (I hate road riding) I was in the same situation. 

Three weeks ago got a new Kona Honzo ESD at40%off, still not cheap but worth every penny. 

It's a blast really got my mojo back for mtb'ing again, having lost it back in the early 00's due to lack real places to ride a full dh rig in the UK. 

I had 3 bikes in the past, now I use a fairly standard hardtail with a 4 inch fork. I've got two wheel sets, one with chunky mtb tires and one with thin gravel tyres which I find fine on the road and pretty capable off road. I've also got a non suspension fork I can fit if I want to go the whole hog. I used to ride a road bike with drop handlebars but I only ever used the drops on decedents so decided they were pretty pointless.   

As for the bag you could get a quick release pannier like this

https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Ortlieb-Quick-Rack_246663.htm?sku=836389&utm_s...

Or could just use a regular pannier rack fitted with wing nuts. 

Quite clearly you need to get 5 bikes and then plan on getting a 6th when you decide to do a bit of touring and a 7th for retro cycling events. 

Panniers - you're paying for the fixtures that allow you to quickly clip on and off rack. It's worth paying that money for daily convenience. I have altura arran, although looking online not sure I like current version if it uses velcro for lower fixing.

Panniers hit stuff offroad so top bag better, look at top peak quick rack. Should do daily commute too.

In yee olde days people didn't have n+1 bikes as gravel, hybrid, mountain, time trial bikes didn't exist. There's something to be said for one bike does it all simplicity.

Ah, quick release paniers rack sound like a winner and exactly what I need. Should have been obvious, but this is all new territory for me.

Where I might struggle, is I think modern hardtail frames don't have those little rack attachment eyelet points near the rear axle.

Although, I think older and cheaper frames do, which suits me well for what I want.

I could so easily end up here. Just need to remember, I'm a bit crap at all the things I want to do, so I can deal with a compromise.

Plus I think I'm already partially ticking the retro box.

Have a peek at some of the beam racks that are on offer, they're a cantilevered type that clamp solely round the seat post and don't have any bottom fixings.

Another thing to add is that it’s a great time to buy second hand.  The demand for bikes has dropped off a cliff and they’re going for for a fraction of what they were two years ago.

I use a steel On One Inbred, it's a bit old school with 27.2 seat post, 1-1/8 headset, and QR wheels, I've got new hope wheels on it, just replaced a cheap dropper post with a good quality tranzx one and if my fork goes there is plenty of mid range ones dirt cheap because tapered headsets and forks are the new thing. I always ride the black trails when I go to trail centres and I find a xc style mountain bike with 4 inches of travel is plenty enough to burn my buddies off (although the uphills are a different story). I think a lot of these 'upgrades' are great for pro racers but for punters like me I don't think they make any difference.  

P clips. Not tried them but should do the job.

Sounds like you might like the Genesis Croix de Fer ?

Otherwise, I second elsewhere on the P-clips. I put some on an aluminium Focus road bike and commuted in London on it for years, also took it on a few multi-day tours, and a couple of months living on the beach at Vala Varques rattling up and down the stony access road. I think I only had to change the clips once, and other than scratching the paintwork (the rubber cover eventually wears away) no damage to the bike.

Flat bar or drops? (assume flat from your description?)

There are a hundred different answers coming your way and whilst I get what you're saying multiple bikes is the obvious answer. Probably the best solution though is decide what you're going to do the most and compromise least on that.

What condition is the Carrera in? Whilst not the greatest bike in the world it's a perfectly serviceable bike. Drop £40 on it for new chain / cables/ brake pads / clean up the gears and see how you go. Just get riding and the decisions about what to get next will present themselves I reckon. Keep your eye out for bargains in the meantime.

I got back into cycling with a Carrera Crossfire 2000. When that got stolen I got a Trek Dual Sport 3, so basically a better version of the same sort of thing. I have one bike for everything, although I don't commute on it. It does me well for road riding, getting to the crag with my gear, and gentle off road. I'm not sure what "trials" is but it's probably something similar to what I'm doing. Along the South Downs and through the woods  but no jumps or drops or anything. I have a rack on the back and I just change the tyres when it's muddy out. I don't reconfigure the bike in any way apart from that.

Some things I've learned:

Disk brakes are a massive improvement. I can't believe we used to try and stop a bike with bits of rubber against the rims.

The forks on both bikes were utter dogshit and fell apart rapidly. I put some budget Rockshox on and they are definitely worth having. I would not go rigid.

The gear range on the Trek wasn't wide enough. 2x9 with a 46:30 and 36:11. I put a 40:11 cassette on and this is good. It seems that all bikes are going 1x nowadays but I'd steer clear if possible. There is no 1x system with enough range for an all-purpose bike.

I haven't gone tubeless because I keep changing the tyres. I don't get many punctures though.