I ride two bikes almost all the time (well, one or the other ... ) but I couldn't give up my MTB ... not in shape for it yet, but i refuse to surrender.
My 2014 Workswell 066 Cervelo R5 clone is my "fast' bike. (If someone else rode it, it might actually be fast.) I built it from a frame, it has everything I want, it is tailored to me ... Way more bike than i can ride, which is fine with me.
My Fuji Sportif is my work/rain/groceries/light touring machine. Al frame and bars so I can load it up with gear, CF fork so it doesn't buzz me out, 11-32x50-34 gearing so I can haul medium loads up medium hills (in theory) mech discs so it stops in the rain but if a cable snaps I can get a new one at any bike shop or even a big-box store (hydro discs are Far superior ... until you tear loose a line on a tour. I can carry spare cables ... but a brake-bleeding kit? less likely.) I ride 28s but it will fit 32s.
But ... when I am fit enough to use it ... I need a full-suspension MTB because there is no way to ride a real trail with a rigid frame and 32s (and before I hear the howling .... I am old enough that I remember when an MTB was a balloon-tire cruiser .... I have ridden trails on steel rigid bikes with 1.6 tires .... so I know the limitations of those bikes. ( the worst were root-fields .... no way to blast through, no real choice but to travel at walking speed ....) )
Yes, I could limp along on the Fuji for some of the stuff .... and if i was a world-class trials rider i could ride any trail, pretty much. But here in the real world, and wanting to go more than 6 mph most of the time ....F/S lets me ride stuff that my technique and physique would not ... and at the end of the ride i am not so beat up I cannot lift the bike onto the rack for the drive home.
So ... fast road bike, endurance bike with load-carrying capacity, and F/S MTB.
Yes, a dedicated road- and an off-road tourer would be nice .... if I did tours or off-road tours which i don't any more. A tadpole trike would be awesome if there were safe places to ride it. Vintage steel and/or modern ti, just for the pleasure .... but the Big Three are as i have said.
I am tempted to post a pic of the Indyfab Custom, just because he did not ... I think that's a first.
