As we’re all well aware, the supposed correct number of bicycles that one should own is N+1, with the “N” of course being the number of bikes you currently own.
Now, this would be great if you had an industrial sized unit to house all of these hypothetical bikes in, as well as the bottomless credit limit on the Amex to fund it, and all of the free time in the world to actually enjoy riding these wonderful machines.
But what if you didn’t need an endless number of bikes to scratch the majority of your riding itches?
What if you could “only” (and yes, I understand the ridiculousness of what I’ve just written) have 3 bikes?
What would you choose, and why?
There are of course many, many considerations with all of this. After all, there are so many different bikes being made today that do many different jobs; some bikes are very, very specific, like a triathlon bike or downhill mountain bike.
Other bikes are more versatile, like a drop bar road bike or gravel bike. It all depends on what cycling means to you, and where you enjoy riding your bike(s).
To give an insight into the mind of a bike fitter, albeit a slightly jaded / biased one, and how they might go about choosing a bike “rotation”, Wei asked me to come up with 3 bike choices that I would pick to cover my own riding interests and why – money no object…
The money no object bit is where I struggle.
It doesn’t really mean anything. It’s not useful. So I’ve decided to put a cap on the hypothetical budget;
I want to get 3 bikes for the same price as the top spec Specialized Aethos, which at the time of writing has an RRP of £15k and is spec’d with the brand new Campagnolo Super Record EPS 13 speed groupset. Now, that is a LOT of money to spend on three bikes, let alone one, but that seems to be where we are in 2025, and I want to try and prove a point that you don’t have to spend silly money to get a great bike.
It also makes this exercise a bit more useful in that it’s actually potentially feasible to buy the particular bikes I’m talking about for more people, rather than just ogling at unobtainable exotica online.
Before I go into which bikes would make my shortlist, I want to give a brief overview of some of the specific qualities I look for when I go bike shopping. Hopefully this can give some insight into what to potentially consider when planning your own bike purchases in the future.
So, without further ado…
1. Fit / Geometry
Sounds insanely obvious, but how the bike fits is my number one consideration. You can have a £15k bike, but if it doesn’t fit you, you’ve basically just bought yourself an inordinately expensive ornament.
Geometry is not only important from a fit standpoint, but also regarding how the bike is going to handle. Knowing how you want your bike to feel can really help in informing your purchasing decision.
2. Adjustability / Non-Proprietary Component Standards
This of course ties in with how the bike fits, and importantly, how it will continue to fit over time. Bodies change, and if your bike is too restrictive in allowing you to modify the position to account for any physical changes to the body, or changes in riding preferences / style, then it can potentially cut down the longevity that particular bike has. I also want to be able to choose things like handlebars, stems and seatposts for myself, rather than be tied into proprietary parts.
3. Ease of Maintenance.
The bicycle is, in principle, a simple enough machine, and the vast majority of general upkeep and maintenance tasks should, in theory at least, be able to be done at home IMHO. I’m looking for the least amount of aggro when it comes to servicing a bike. Having to rip out all of the hydraulic hosing and re-bleed brakes just to change some headset bearings is a hard NO from me.
4. Budgeting
Again, sounds obvious, but you need a budget!
The size and amount of flexibility in the budget will of course vary depending on the individual, but it’s how you utilise that budget is the important part. In order, I’m prioritising the frameset and contact points first off (contact points being; saddle, bars, stem, seatpost, crank length, shoes etc – anything that can affect how you contact and move on the bike), then the tyres and wheels, and the groupset / what shifts the gears comes last.
Drivetrain components (chains, cassettes, chainrings, brake pads, bearings etc) tend to wear out much faster than the other parts of the bike, and can be easily upgraded once the original parts have worn out.
They also don’t have anywhere near as much of a tangible impact on your enjoyment of the bike, compared with your contact points. I’ll be frank, if you’re spending c.£300+ on an oversized pulley system before a great fitting pair of shoes, or making sure your crank length is correct, then you might want to rethink your priorities.
5. Aesthetics
I get it, we all want our bikes to look cool – I do too. The definition of what that actually is however, is totally subjective, but if you’re not “into” the bike you’re riding, then you’re less likely to get out and ride it. For me, once all of the other boxes have been checked, then I can start to think about aesthetics.
The bike is a tool to do a job, first and foremost, but once it’s satisfied all of the practical criteria, then I start to think about how it looks.
So, with all that being said, what would my 3 bike line up actually look like?
For the majority of riding I do / would like to do these days, here’s what I’d choose and why…
Road – Ritchey Road Logic
Right then, straight in with a controversial opinion!
I want my road bike to have a steel frame, and have rim brakes.
Maybe I’m living in the past, but that’s how I envisage a road bike that I’d actually want to own these days.
I’m by no means against disc brakes or carbon fibre, I just don’t want or need it. Carbon is a fantastic material to make a bike out of, and I’ve ridden a fair few carbon bikes over the years that I’ve really enjoyed, but for me, steel is definitely the way to go.
Why? I don’t need a super stiff race bike just to ride to the café, and the simplicity of a steel bike is appealing. Most steel (and titanium) frames are still, relatively speaking, pretty straight forward.
Threaded bottom brackets, straight forward cable routing and non-proprietary component standards make these bikes adjustable and easily serviceable, as well as giving them longevity. They also don’t have the excess bells & whistles and gimmicks that modern carbon bike manufacturers seem to push onto consumers these days, which I like.
It’s essentially the road racing bicycle, stripped back to only what is necessary.
I love the idea of the Ritchey Logic frame as the geometry works really well for my torso dominant morphology. I can build it however I want as there are no proprietary component standards, and because it’s great value for money at c.£1,400 for the frameset, I could go to town on building it.
There is also mega tyre clearance for a rim brake frame – Ritchey specifies a max width of 700x30mm, but I reckon I could get at least a 32mm in there! And as we all know, one must fit as wide a tyre as is possible to squeeze into the frame.
Spec wise, I’d keep it simple; Shimano R7000 105 mechanical groupset (the groupset of the people!), Appleman 2XR 160mm cranks (for a bit of something different), handbuilt wheels (I already have some Light Bicycle R35 carbon rims built onto DT Swiss 350 hubs which are fantastic) GP5000 32mm tyres (with inner tubes), DEDA Superleggero finishing kit and course, an SMP Forma saddle. I reckon all that would come in around £4k. £11k left to spend!
Mountain Bike – Pace RC295
Putting my sensible hat on, if I was buying a mountain bike, it makes logical sense to buy an XC race bike.
Something that is relatively light, can climb, and pedals well over pretty much most of the terrain that I’ll encounter in the UK; a Specialized Epic would be ideal. My inner child however, wants something with a bit more about it.
Enter, the Pace RC295. If you don’t know Pace as a brand, it’s a small family run business based on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors and they’ve been making bikes literally since the year I was born in 1987!
In my head, I think of the RC295 as a more capable XC bike (yeah, I know; it’s a “Trail” bike), and I’d run a 140mm travel fork (it can take a 150mm, but that’d be overkill for me) with the stock 135mm of rear suspension travel. That would be enough to satisfy any itch of going back to the days where I was riding a big, bouncy DH bike, without being tempted to get ahead of myself and try to ride down trails where I’d quickly run out of talent and likely crash.
The geometry is fairly standard by modern trail bike standards (slacker head tube / steep-ish seat tube angles), but it’s not so wild that it’ll feel like trash when pedalling on milder, less technical terrain which is, to be honest, where I’d be riding most of the time.
Using carbon for the frame keeps the weight down, especially if there’s any ambition of pedalling up hills for any length of time, and at just under £5k for a full Shimano XT build, it’s a lot of bike for the money. The only spec change I’d make would be to the wheels. It comes stock with Hunt Trail Wide wheels, but I’d change these for something like the DT Swiss XRC 1501’s (no need for the 1200’s at my level!), which I think would make the bike feel even more fun.
With the wheel upgrade, I reckon this bike would set me back about £6.5k, so with the road bike, that’s £10.5k down. £4.5 left to go.
“Gravel” – Curtis XC9
The last bike I’d choose has to be a “gravel” bike, but here comes another controversial opinion… I’d want it to have to have flat bars. “But that’s just a 90’s MTB” I hear you cry! Exactly.
Gravel riding is a very broad church. It covers everything from the kind of all out racing you see at the Unbound / Traka events, where folks are essentially riding aero road bikes with XC tyres, to bikepacking across continents on huge rigid 29’er MTB’s that are loaded up to the nines.
For me, a “gravel” bike leans more towards the rigid MTB end of the spectrum. Whilst I’d lose out on some straight line speed, I just think they’re far more capable and versatile than their drop bar cousins.
The Curtis XC9 frame I’d choose is essentially a steel XC hardtail. Curtis is a British steel manufacturer based in Somerset, with A long and amazing heritage in BMX racing, 4x racing and trail riding. The primary function of this bike would be to sit in the saddle and pedal for a really long time.
No need for a suspension fork, as this bike wouldn’t be going anywhere remotely gnarly. The idea is to have a bike that you could take on a weekend getaway, but instead of driving there, you ride there.
The really cool thing about the Curtis however, is that although their stock geometries are great, they allow you to semi-customise the geometry of the frame if you so wish. This means head tube and seat tube lengths and angles can be altered to a riders preference at no extra cost.
This is great, and one of the (many) things that attracts me to this brand.
I’d go for a size L frame, but have the seat tube angle changed from 74 degrees to 73 degrees, putting my weight a little further back relative to the bottom bracket, and have the headtube shortened by 10mm or so. This would make the bike a bit longer and a bit lower – which I need for my fit to avoid the need for a ridiculously long stem that points down at silly angle. It’ll also mean that the bike performs well where I’d want it to – pedalling on mild terrain. And with it being steel, bottle bosses and various mounting options can be easily added.
So far as a build goes, again, I’d keep it super simple; An ENVE rigid carbon fork, Shimano SLX groupset, DT Swiss XR 1700 alloy wheels, 700×2” Vittoria Terreno Zero tyres and Thomson finishing kit. All topped off with my favourite SMP saddle and maybe even some lovely Restrap bags as and when needed. I reckon that’s a decent way to spend £4.5k!
How’d I Do?
So what would a bike fitter ride? I reckon there are three absolutely banging bikes there for the price of one top spec Aethos.
In reality, I’ll likely never own all of these bikes (I am very seriously toying with making the Curtis happen though), but hopefully that’s either…
a) provided some useful insight into how I’d go about buying a few new bikes that you could apply to your own new bike purchase, or
b) just provided a few minutes of light entertainment.
I think the key take away I’d encourage folks in the market for a new bike to consider is primarily this;
What does the bike need to do for you, and does a bike that you’re considering purchasing truly fit all of your own personal criteria?
You can spend vast sums of money on something that looks cool leaning up against a wall, or is the latest and greatest bike to be seen riding in the park, but riding a bike, for me at least, is about how it makes you feel.
If you don’t feel comfortable riding it and it doesn’t put a smile on your face with how it feels, then there’s likely a more appropriate bike out there for you.
As always, just calling it how I see it.
Words by Mat (one ‘t’)
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