Yes, this is a thinly disguised justification for a new bike
My question is how important is using my specific MTB race bike for riding & training?
The reason I ask is that it’s a bit of a “fun” limiter at times in my opinion, and sometimes I’d rather take a burlier more flattering bike for all day rides in the rockier and more challenging parts of the UK that’d be easier to enjoy than manhandling a 100mm Spark worrying about rocks hitting carbon.
For this reason I’ve found a reduced price ‘21 Giant Trance X 2 29er. This would replace an Orange Clockwork Evo 29 which sits as my spare / winter bike in that same lovely Tropical blue.
So I’m concerned that I’d ride the Giant more and the Spark less as it becomes a more focussed race bike and this may be detrimental to performance?
My “race” bike is a carbon 100m hardtail, it’s awesome. However to improve some of my riding skills I also ride an Orange P7 29er, it is more forgiving and allows me to ride rougher terrain.
Not an MTBer so I don’t get all the lingo and suspension and stuff. But having a choice of bikes can make things better - not just performance but skills improvement, injury prevention etc. Also the specialness of your race bike can make a psychological difference on race day.
I’d say fitness-wise, no difference. Many of us ride on the road for fitness on the mountain bike so, two different mountain bikes won’t matter. I would however ride it enough that you can feel the difference between the two and make sure you are riding the spark as it should and not trying to ride the spark as a trail bike.
