One bike to do it all?

This Do-it-all bike Topic seems to be gaining traction again across multiple sites.
Theres no replacement for a dedicated XC or DH bike but i do think people tend to sway towards XC or dh side of things which may Give them the ability for 1 do-it-all and 1 bike of XC or DH depending on you see MTB.

We decided on the Fuel gen 7(have both carbon and alloy models) and they are fantastic with the changable links etc.
p.s do note discount the alloy, It rides bloody fantastic.

My Druid V2 can technically do it all, but I lack the skill to really let it buck on black trails at the bike park and on rowdier stuff. It always seems like my skills are the limiting factor... 🤔

I have two bikes, but only ride one for everything pretty much. I got a hardtail for mellower, more xc trails and I still just take my Jeffsy most of the time. A 140-150 rear bike really can do it all if you want it to. 

3  bikes here.

Santa Cruz higher 3 for trail riding.

transition spire for bike park. 

giant defy that doesn't move off the trainer to keep me in somewhat decent shape over the winter. 

3 bikes

DJ- Commencal Absolut- For dirt jumping and street

Super overbuilt short travel- Tallboy -For literally anything that requires pedaling. All day high country epics in SW CO, Lake Tahoe, Moab, and all the way to the roughest Whistler/Squamish/Revelstoke stuff (think the gnarly pirate trails you've heard the names of..maybe) plus Crazy Train, Howler, Martha Creek, Ultimate Frisby, and stuff like that.. It's a lot on a little bike but it can do it and thrive and I enjoy the mental and physical push on making that bike do it all. 

DH Bike- V10- Anything that is chairlift and shuttle

I'm a multiple bikes that match the purpose type of guy.  I could likely trim down to just the hightower... but I do like having a long travel bike for park duty.  

XC/Gravel = Kona Ouroboros

Trail/AM = Hightower 4

Park/Shuttle = Nomad 6

Ebike = Bullit 2

4 bikes total here
- a 170/160 enduro that pedals well and isnt built too heavy (minus the coil shock).

- a 140 hardtail for most of my riding, which is XC/trail stuff

- a dirtjumper, because both of the above bikes are 29" and that aint great on the many pumptracks around !

and a gravel bike for commuter/bikepacking every once in a blue moon.  Kinda tempted to add a downcountry/short travel trail fullsus to the fleet. Do I need one ? Absolutely not. Am I still looking at bikes despite buying one 6 months ago ? Absolutely yes. 

i have one mtb ( 180 front, 175/162 rear) that i ride everything from blue flow to bike park and it certainly has it's strengths and weaknesses but i also really like it for the trails really enjoy riding. The next add would be a slightly shorter travel bike to ride on mellow days or longer pedals that could still pull back up duty in the bike park so 160/150-140 and that would cover everything else mtb related. I have an old trusty bmx for pump track/skatepark and a gravel bike for mud season. I'd certainly have more specific bikes if I could because the best experience is often using the correct tool for the job. So, if i could afford every style of bike from dj to dh, i certainly would because bikes are fun. 

4 bikes here, from least to most suspension travel. 

-Cannondale Supersix Evo road bike. It's a road bike, sometimes I like to get fit and ride fast in a bunch.

-Transition Spur as an xc bike, though it's kinda downcountry, I have raced xc on it. Extremely capable bike though considering it's 120mm front and rear with xc suspension.

-Transition Sentinel. Great trail bike, mine is nearly 6 years old and still going strong, though it has had replacement tracker links and chain stays under warranty. 

-Trek Session. New to me for this summer because I had a mid life crisis and felt the need to get back into downhill before it's too late.

I recently "downgraded" from a Nomad as a One Bike to a Bronson, because I didn't hit really big stuff or ride park enough to justify the extra travel, and that same extra travel made it less effective on my normal trails.  I did think about keeping the Nomad and getting a Druid v2 as a primary trail bike but decided that would be just bracketing around what I really wanted to ride most of the time.  If I lived near a bike park I wanted to ride often, I'd get a DH bike as a second bike.

I've previously had a Transition Smuggler as a second bike, and while it was fun, it was so easy to get to the bike's limit that I was constantly overbuilding it to the point where it became redundant with a typical 150/160 trail bike.

I have a full power Vala and mid power Heckler SL ebike (would like to sell the mid), and find that for the extra weight of a full power, I like to have an extra 10mm more travel that I would like on a normal bike, so am running the Vala 160/170.  The SL rides really similar to the Bronson, so the stock 150/160 feels pretty good on it, but I feel like it really benefits from a stiffer fork.  I've run it with both a 160 and 170 fork, and there's pros and cons to both on it.

150mm bike and DH bike is the way.

I used to have a 170mm as my only bike but that was a bit too cumbersome for general trail riding.  Entirely possible to pedal a big rig around all day but as my skills progressed I found the trails I needed an enduro bike on became less and less.  I got into MTB through racing DH bikes so I have a soft spot for them, but just owning a 150mm bike would be fine by me.

Who wants to do it all? 

4 bikes here sometimes a 5th depending what i can find as a project.

Slug ti gravel bike (for staying not fat)

stanton "mad max" hardtail with 160mm lefty (mostly for golden gate park and riding to the bar)

banshee titan (any kind of mountain biking)

banshee legend (bike park/ racing)

I got 3 bikes with a good amount of overlap I feel like. 

1. Specialized P4 w/ 27.5" wheels, gears and a dropper post so I can commute and hit DJ's, pump tracks or street stuff 

2. Rocky Mountain E-bike for general trails and all-mountain rides in the back country

3. Transition Spire for Bike Park/DH/Freeride riding 

One bike for each type of ridding (road bike, conmutter, "tourer"...) but talking mtb I preffer to have different flavours, so a hardtail (often a trail oriented one, even if I own an xc right now), a fullsuspension trailbike, a longish travel ebike on top of that in a distant future, most probably

yeti sb160 is all i ever need. can do every type of riding i prefer with it. flowtrails, hometrails, enduro races, park laps, you name it.

plus a transition pbj for DJ and pumptracks.

Spectral 125 for the majority of riding, and a Superior Peak for park days 

I have to say my DJ doesn’t count and I want to built a hardtail soon 

Vala - weekend riding

Geometron - Bikepark/take away on holiday bike

Stumpjumper ST - XC bike

Seems to be a good spread for what I do. G1 is quite good in that you can throw a dual crown on and long shock it to turn it into a dh bike.

I've got pretty much the same set up:

1. Madonna - built for strength, not weight, so it's a bit of a tank. Pedal's okay when I want to put some effort in, but I mostly shuttle and ride park. 

2. Sirius - single speed, 130mm hardtail. Definitely a different kind of riding. 

3. Transition PBJ - no substitute for a dj

4. Spec. Diverge - I probably put more miles on my gravel bike every year than anything else. 

If I could only keep one, I'd keep the Madonna. Easily my favourite bike in the quiver. Someday I'll add a park specific, single speed dh bike to the quiver. Probably sell the hardtail to fund that project. Ha ha

2019 Transition Sentinel w/Cascade link(155mm rear??) and 170mm fork.  I ride it everywhere.  Key is 2 wheel sets, one with DH tires and another with EXO+, same tire set up, just different casings and compound, this makes a world of difference for trail riding.  

GT dirt jump bike for the pump track, about 5-10 times a year

Fatbike for the winter, only way to ride from December to March where I live without driving 3+ hours (which I try to do once a month)

Orbea Wild E-Bike.  I am surprised how much I don't ride it but when I do I am laughing the entire time.  

Personal fav for dirt is the V3 Ripmo. It just does everything well and good enough with a simple wheel swap and pressure change. 2nd fav is the Fairdale Elevator. In an age of long low and slack, it stands against purt much all of that. The marketing copy of the BMXer's MTB is true. It's intuitive to pop the front/bunny hop and is a blast on jump lines. Best way I can describe it is like the first time you go from a road bike to a pure 'cross bike. It's that eager to tip into a corner without any input from the bars. Definitely not the flavor for those wanting the longest stays at 406mm (!!!) and with clearance for a Maxxis 2.5 WT. Then there's the RSD Sergeant. Beach rides? Check. Snow? Check. Trails? Check. Singled/double track bike packing? Check, though the front triangle is tight on space for a bag, but it has all the mounts you need for racks and fork bags. Went with this one after a 35mi ride on my old Farley left my knees killing me for a few days after due to the wide AF Q factor. The Rocky Suzi Q was out of production, and no other co was making a bike with 4" tire compatibility on an 83mm shell. It'd be rad to get that Q factor and tire clearance on 70-80mm rims, but 50mm with inserts help keep the squirm under control.

While my ideal setup would be DJ + Trail + DH, I am at the point of my life (young family, small flat, two jobs, mountains), where I can store and use one bike only. 

Even though it makes me bitter to some extent (as a former e-bike disbeliever), I can’t imagine a better one-bike-quiver than the Yeti MTe, after thoroughly testing it around Alps. I can use assist when I slept only for three hours or remove battery at all when I rarely (once a season) join a group of fellow bio-bikers. 95% of time I ride alone. I am staying away from too consequential lines so DH territory is out of equation anyway. I can still enjoy it on local dirt jumps. It climbs and rides as a normal bike, I still got meditative climbing experience albeit much easier on my not-that-fit body. Not a fan of the price but I do see the value. Please feel welcome to talk me out of this

Two bikes here: 
Privateer 161 with a Zeb and SDlux Coil for the gnarly stuff and bike parks.

Reeb SST with a 150mm fork and DBIL coil for the other trails. 

I bounce between 195-205lbs and all the trails around me are very rocky, so both bikes are overbuilt with enduro/DH casing tires and cush core in the rear. Both bikes are very good on the trails I built them around.

There really is no substitute for a DJ. I picked up a GT LaBomba during their liquidation sale last year and its been an awesome addition because I can ride it on pump tracks, dirt jumps, and indoor parks when our trails are too snowed over to ride. 

I also have a Canyon Grail gravel bike I rarely use because I hate its geometry and it belongs in a canyon. 

Most of my primary riding is done on a Santa Cruz Megatower v2 though. I find its just well behaved enough to be used as a trail bike given all of my rides have a sustained downhill and I average about 17 park days a year. A dh bike would be fun but our parks aren’t super gnarly so an enduro bike works just fine. 

I’ve been eyeing the new EVIL Offering though and relegating my Megatower to just a park bike though since I want something a little smaller than my enduro bike for trail riding. 

I want to know my bike better than the back of my hand. I want to know exactly how it’ll handle in any given situation. I want to get on it and feel at home like pulling on my favorite pair of jeans. My hands immediately fall into the pits of the grips, my shoes lock into the pins in exactly the same place. One bike for everything for me. 
Mountain biking is mountain biking whether it’s trials, jumps, XC or downhill. And I’ll regularly do all in one ride.

I'm relatively forced into the do-it-all bike just due to cost of a FS MTB. But I've been more than happy with what you can do with a mid travel mullet bike, in the MX Jeffsy. So, finances allowing, the idea of a much more refined and lighter carbon version of such a bike would be fairly compelling from XC all day epics to bike park laps.

But I don't see the do-it-all bike as a compelling narrative outside of budgetary restrictions or (a problem that is very revealing of where I live) housing space restrictions. Change my scenario tomorrow BELIEVE me I'm getting a short travel and long travel bike instead of one mid travel bike. And even for me not quite XC and DH as my riding does not justify either at the very ends of those spectrum. Just a downcountry and enduro bike instead of an all mountain trail rig to do-it-all. 

But the concept is naturally seeming more and more practical with these modern bikes. I'm glad to have joined MTBing in the 1x/dropper post era. We even have Orbea making a 'dual-platform' bike and Pinksite turning the new Phoenix into a single crown enduro rig... And kinda liking it. It makes it clear the pedal-able mid-to-long-travel mountain bike is a valid single bike solution. The compromise is shrinking by the model year.

But there will never be a replacement for a purposeful bike, especially if you're riding at the higher end. Even though underbiking will always be sick.

I ditched all my "pedal-fast" bikes (road, cross/gravel, XC, short travel trail, AM) after I stopped riding them, in favor of my 140mm FS emtb. I replaced it with a 160 FS emtb 10k miles after, and have not looked back.

I started to convert to a lifestyle rider, using the bike more more utilitarian purposes, like transportation for work and errands (groceries), replacing enough car trips that I felt I could go without a car. I carried a bike lock with me on all my trips, and had a bag ready for bringing stuff home. I didn't really need any water or food, since I consider the battery to be a fuel alternative.

Rather than add a DJ and DH bike to my collection, I opted to equip myself to do other things like trail running, hiking, climbing, trail building, gardening, home/community improvement projects...

A lot of people on this forum have very solid skillsets and are prime candidates for under-biking. Under biking requires maxing skills to increase capability, which can make trails more spicy (fun to me), and lower grade trails more engaging. Which could lean towards the one bike to do it all. Just put a stiff enough fork on it. 27.5 5010 with a 36 & Cascade link here, good at foothills to big mountain. Are we back to All Mountain?