Those who have downsized to one bike, any regrets?

Sell the road bike and get a TT bike then you’ve got a road bike that goes really fast.

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I grew up in Centreville, right near the border of Fairfax and Loudon counties. So there are a decent amount of gravel options if you drive out to the Middleburg/The Plains/Marshall area. But 30 years ago Centreville was most certainly the very edge of what might have been considered N VA and is still much much more suburban than the Tysons area. So compared to Tysons, I imagine Centreville is like a cyclist’s paradise

30 years ago, Centerville was “the sticks”…LOL!! My brother now lives in Haymarket, which was essentially worlds away when I was living there. Now it is considered a suburb. :exploding_head: :exploding_head:

No way I could live in NOVA now…even when I just visit my brother for a few days, my BP skyrockets driving around. The traffic is just unreal.

We used to drive out to Marshall to do the Blue Ridger, which was a great road ride. Worth checking out if you have never done it (have no idea how popular it is anymore).

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Oh yeah NOVA is an absolute mess now.

But I have actually done a variation of that ride! Started in The Plains then went to Middleburg before heading to Mount Weather.

The riding out there really is great but it takes a bit of commitment to get there if you live close into DC.

I live in Michigan now near Ann Arbor so it is much calmer here but I always miss riding around the Blue Ridge. It’s just so beautiful out there. It’s hard to beat.

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@mwglow15 agreed that there are great routes a short drive away from Fairfax (where I’m at).

Honestly I was fine with my CX and road bikes but then that new Diverge hit and got me thinking about going all in on gravel. After spending the past few weekends exploring Purcellville and Leesburg gravel the thought of hours on the W&OD path is no longer appealing.

Yeah if the W&OD was my primary route then I would probably be having similar thoughts!

In the end its up to you and what you think best fits your purposes. If your only road riding is cruising along and endurance riding then maybe a gravel bike with a second wheelset is good enough. But if you might do some more spirited riding/descending then it probably makes more sense to keep the road bike for trips to skyline, group rides, etc.

Downsize to one bike?

Are you a troll or a Russian bot?

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If you need the money: sell it. If not: keep it.
If you enjoyed roadcycling once, chances are that, when your gravel love fades, you miss roadcycling.
More important to me is having a spare bike.
Plus: Even if you only use your bike on a trainer, there is a lot of wear and tear due to the sweat. Two bikes increase the time your bikes last (only if you don’t have to buy newer shiny bikes asap :wink: ).

I wanted to add my perspective: I live in a tiny 1bdrm apartment which I rent, and I don’t have a large disposable income. Financially, I can’t afford to just keep an extra bike lying around. I pay for my current bike by selling the previous. I absolutely cannot just have a bike permanently set up on the trainer, having two bikes is almost overwhelming in this lack of space!

I have two bikes. One is a beefy trail mountain bike that I use for everything, from XCM to bike park. I live in the PNW so bike races usually need something beefier than a typical xc race bike. The other bike is a gravel bike, which I have a spare road wheel set on. Changing wheels takes about 5 minutes once you’ve done it a few times, and that’s including swapping the cassette.

As for maintenance, I’ve only ever been without a mountain bike when I need a suspension service. I do everything else myself, and by being proactive my bike almost never goes into a bike shop. Part of apartment life is needing to meticulously clean my bikes after every ride, which is also an opportunity to catch any potential issues. I kind of hated it at first, but now i love how comfortable and confident I am working on my bikes.

In conclusion, having a gravel/road bike works great for me, I don’t see myself ever buying a separate road bike unless I discover a hidden road racing talent!

This. I sold my first road bike and have had only one bike for a year… and have regretted not keeping the old bike for trainer duty. Got $400 for it, and now of course finding something else just to put on the trainer would cost more. Taking my Synapse on and off the trainer twice a week is a pain, costs me time, and has even caused to damage my rear brake a little since I’m not as smooth as more-experienced riders might be.

If you don’t need the money or need the space, leaving that frame on the trainer is a worthy use for it. And it does provide a backup if something (service, breakdown, accident) happens to your main bike.

Sold my Yeti, TI Deluxe which left me with one road bike.

No regrets, changing priorities, more time poor and the consequence that it takes an older body longer to repair after an off.

I downsized right before sh!% hit the fan in the US, and it’s been fine. Had a Trek Checkpoint, S-Works Tarmac, and Trek Boone. We were moving to a smaller apartment so it was partly out of necessity, but I also wanted a MTB, so selling a few was the answer. With the Trek Boone, I get a lot of use for the money. I have a few wheel sets that I swap out, as well as cassettes.

For road, I’m running 50/34 and 11-30t, with 25mm Vittoria Corsa or 28mm Conti GP4000 for racing and training/normal riding respectively. For gravel I can either keep the wider 28s on, or I have a set of WTB Riddler 37s. For gearing I’ve tried 50/34 with 11-34t, and also 46/36 with 11-40t. Going 46/36 up front lets me go wider in the rear (and staying within RD capacity), though I miss the top end with only the 46/11 combo. For CX, I go 1x, with 40t front and 11-32t rear. I really only go 1x during cross season, it’s 2x the rest of the year.

Overall, I’ve been pretty happy with it. I’ve raced crits and done pretty well (4/5 field nothing crazy). I’ve done long rides of 60-70 miles. It handles just about any terrain. There are downsides, though. Going back and forth between outside and the trainer is slightly annoying having to reindex the RD (Di2 makes it slightly easier). Changing the gearing is time consuming, and why I usually just leave the 50/34 chainrings on all the time. Wheel swaps aren’t too bad. And it does sacrifice some on flat roads, but not too bad. And at 7.95kg for the road setup, it’s not terribly heavy, about half a kilo more than the Tarmac.

With that said, the new Tarmac is really calling my name, and I will probably pick up a dedicated road bike in the future.

I got into cycling because I wanted to complete an Ironman. Started with a road bike, sold it off to get a tt bike. TT bike is always on the trainer and only sees the outdoors nearing race day, when I take it out for bike handling and tests.

I’m now hooked to cycling and a part of me wish I had kept the road bike so that I can ride outside more often. For the place I reside in, it’s not bike friendly and TT handling just add to my stress.

Looking at the Canyon Ultimate or the Trek Emonda as I would one day love to ride into the mountains.

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While I haven’t, I could see doing it with my CX bike. I don’t race CX nor road, and my 2 bikes, both carbon, both 11-sp 105, are close stack/reach wise so they fit very similar, gearing is similar because I don’t need CX oriented crankset (even though I have one because they came with the bike). I also have an extra wheelset (also came with the bike) that I threw some 28c road tires on.

When, and only when, there is a Road-Gravel-Mountain-TT-Triathlon-Trainer-Track bike may you consider owning one bike. Enough of this foolishness.

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My experience: I have 2 bikes now after getting a Tarmac di2 disc a couple of months back and ended up keeping my Trek emonda alr5.

I thought about initially selling but It is a good bike and I would have only got about $500-700 so I decided to relegate it to trainer duty on my H3 which has been very nice and convenient. For some reason I need a backup I still have the Trek.

At some point I want to get a mtn bike to add to the collection. I understand the potential anxiety of getting hit (my Varia has helped with awareness) but in GA we could have it worse but are fortunate we have some good places to ride with minimal traffic.

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