The one bike for most purposes?

[velosam]

Given the trek domane with discs has been around for awhile, are we getting closer to the holy grail of a single bike that while not being a master of anything, is more than adequate at most things?

I am asking with intent, as I find my Ciocc uncomfortable on certain roads and the other bike a lot heavier!

[freeflow]

Back in 2014 I commissioned a Ti frame with fittings for disk brakes and cantis at the rear with room for 40c tyres and full mudguards.  It does everything I ask of it with much aplomp.  The only thing I regret not doing was speccing downtube shifter bosses so that the option was there should I ever go on a long tour. Typical rides are 200-300km Audax or a 20 mile local route using farm tracks, gravel tracks, grass roads, paths around the edges of fields etc.

[vantage]

These 'holy grail' bikes have been around for decades and are called tourers. Mine does literally (with one exception) everything quite well. The exception being 'trick' riding...jumps etc.
Tough enough for mountain biking. None of that stupid carbon fibre crap. Fast and agile enough to keep up with other roadie type bikers (the bike, not me). Loaded with weekly shopping or loaded for touring or completely stripped of the practical stuff like mudguards and racks and it just works.
Why these things aren't more popular is a mystery to me.

[IanDG]

If I had to get rid and keep one it would be my Surly Cross Check.

[Kim]

These 'holy grail' bikes have been around for decades and are called tourers.

Quite.

[Karla]

If I had to get rid and keep one it would be my Surly Cross Check.

Or my Kona Jake

[Polar Bear]

My all purpose machine is my Roberts Roughstuff tourer which I specced with straight bars and it comes with 26 inch wheels when I bought it in 2004.

The only improvement that I can think of is disc brakes over V's. 

[Biggsy]

Given the trek domane with discs has been around for awhile, are we getting closer to the holy grail of a single bike that while not being a master of anything, is more than adequate at most things?

I am asking with intent, as I find my Ciocc uncomfortable on certain roads and the other bike a lot heavier!

Can the Domane easily take mudguards and 28mm tyres?

[Phil W]

This is the bike you had as a kid. We put cow horns and knobbly tyres on ours and called them tracker bikes

[LittleWheelsandBig]

These 'holy grail' bikes have been around for decades and are called tourers.

Quite.

velosam's heavy bike is a Ti tourer.

[yoav]

Back in the 70's I had a Condor in 531 with mudguard eyes. I used for road racing, time trialling, training and touring. I was only 16 so couldn't afford more than one bike. I had 2 sets of wheels, one with tubs and the other with clinchers.

[L CC]

Why would you want one bike for everything? Isn't it better to have the right tool for the job?

[Kim]

Why would you want one bike for everything? Isn't it better to have the right tool for the job?

Only sensible reasons I can come up with are because you're a Peniless Student Oaf, or have to live in a broom cupboard in That London with six other thirty-somethings.

Or because you don't really like cycling all that much, I suppose.

[citoyen]

Why would you want one bike for everything? Isn't it better to have the right tool for the job?

Absolutely this.

Anyone who seriously believes that a steel tourer can do "literally everything quite well" is literally quite barking. I loved my old Raleigh 531 tourer, and when it was the only bike I had, I was happy to press it into service for anything and everything, but it was always at best an "adequate compromise" for most uses.

[BrianI]

These 'holy grail' bikes have been around for decades and are called tourers.

Quite.

Indeed. Ah cannae wait to get my lovely 520 chromoly 2008 Dawes Horizon back in action!

[Karla]

Why would you want one bike for everything? Isn't it better to have the right tool for the job?

Absolutely this.

Anyone who seriously believes that a steel tourer can do "literally everything quite well" is literally quite barking. I loved my old Raleigh 531 tourer, and when it was the only bike I had, I was happy to press it into service for anything and everything, but it was always at best an "adequate compromise" for most uses.

Imagining the OP doing downhill trails on a Trek Domane is quite good fun thobut.

[vantage]

Why would you want one bike for everything? Isn't it better to have the right tool for the job?

It'd be nice...but when moneys tight and ones a grown up, there must be priorities. Personally, its bills and taking care of my girls

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

I was a (nearly) penniless student oaf in Manchester

In the 80s, I'd just this 531 tourer and went everywhere on it.  Weekdays it was a commuter in all weathers, I'd park it indoors if possible but otherwise it was chained to a drainpipe.  Weekends I'd explore the city or head off into the Peak District.

At the end of my degree I did my first tour - train down to Weymouth and onward to Tours doing the Youth Hostels.  I'd a budget of c.£80 so  not quite penniless - and of course, no student loan.  Glory days! 

So yeah, the tourer would be 'the one bike'.

[Pancho]

I have a bike as a tool, rather than cycling as a hobby.

It's an incredibly flexible tool - bending to a whole range of tasks from doing the weekly shopping, commuting, family days out though to touring and even occasional sports (if you count audax as a sport). For me, one bike is enough. And, yes, it's a tourer.

I once dabbled with the lotsa-bikes way of life but just found I had lots of unused bikes. You can only ride one at a time and I'd just go through phases with each. And that's the nice thing about being bike monogamous - you can bond.

[T42]

Given the trek domane with discs has been around for awhile, are we getting closer to the holy grail of a single bike that while not being a master of anything, is more than adequate at most things?

I am asking with intent, as I find my Ciocc uncomfortable on certain roads and the other bike a lot heavier!

Can the Domane easily take mudguards and 28mm tyres?

My 2015 Domane has fittings for mudguards and came with 25mm tyres ready-mounted.  I believe it would take 28s.

The funny thing is that although Trek delivers the fittings, last year they discontinued the mudguards.

[Blodwyn Pig]

This is the bike you had as a kid. We put cow horns and knobbly tyres on ours and called them tracker bikes

Yes we did call them tracker bikes, and I lived nowhere near you, and probably a different generation ad well. Funny how names stick. I had a rear rack on mine, and I had a big Japanese radio that picked up police radio when the Ariel was up. I used to ride around the woods, with it bleeping ' Oscar Charlie 1 to control......bleep'

[Ben T]

The trek domane with disks and Di2 looks an awesome bike and probably features high on the list of bikes I would get if I had cause to have to replace my current domane, but it's SIX grand!?
My current Domane (4.5) was I think about 2 grand odd in July 2013 and it's got Di2, the only thing it hasn't got that the new SLR7 seems to have is disks.
If you don't care about the advanced suspension thingy, but you want carbon, disks, Di2, and mudguard clearance, what else are your options? I can't believe that's the only one.

[Andrew]

it was always at best an "adequate compromise" for most uses.

In a nutshell.

My first reaction when I read 'a tourer is the one bike for all' was that twisty mouth thing that one does when one is not quite convinced of an argument.

True, if one could only have one (sorry, a different 'one' this time) bike and your needs included touring, shopping, whatever else then, yes, a tourer makes sense but I think a case could equally be made for a hardtail MTB with suspension lockout. Whack a rack on that and you can tour, pick up the groceries etc (with compromise, as a tourer is compromised on an off-road trail).

So perhaps the answer is an individual, needs-based one arrived at by weighing up the compromises.

[Exit Stage Left]

Why would you want one bike for everything? Isn't it better to have the right tool for the job?

I once asked Andy Wilkinson that question. His feeling was that using one position had advantages. Superficially, his bike is an MTB with tri-bars. But it's handbuilt, from the highest grade Deadacci steel.

On Sunday June 9 2013, the endurance ‘meister’ rode the National 25 TT to take 15th place with a 53:50 (average 27.8mph) on his custom-built Dedaccia steel-tubed Dolan finished in the Port Sunlight Wheelers livery.

It’s the bike that took him to the two competition records in the 12- and 24-hour events and to the second-fastest recorded 50 time.

The bike also doubles as his commuting and touring bike using a set of 700c cyclo cross rims shod with 30mm or 32mm touring or cyclo-cross tyres. The MTB type ’29er’ tyres can be fitted to the 700c CX rims too for those serious off road ventures.

Mountain bike 2.1-inch width tyre on the rear and a 1.8-inch width on the front offers more security on those longer off-road trails.


Read more at http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/andy-wilkinsons-dolan-time-trial-bike-29431#dXfScK6PMqWVYLsE.99

Rim brakes make it easy to swap wheels, for a range of purposes.

[zigzag]

if i had to resort to using one bike (especially if it's a steel tourer..) i'd probably give up cycling altogether