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Hello hive mind. I've not been using the MTB properly due to family and work commitments, so it's become my every day bike. Commute to work, short blasts on road, canal towpath and bridleways. This is clearly a waste of a Trans AM and it's not really the bike for this type of riding.
With winter on its way I've been looking at single speed (and geared) bikes that can take full guards and would cover all the above riding plus general exploring / messing about. The Genesis Day One and Charge Plug look like good value, especially now sales are starting. I've previously owned a Day One, but bought it too small. It seemed like it would be good in the right size. I've also had a Roadrat and an Escapade and didn't get on with either for various reasons.
In true singletrack style I'm looking for opinions on the plug, day one or whatever you ride that fits the bill. Budget is limited to around £600, drop bar bikes only.
I've owned a Charge SS, steel with full mud guards and flat bars. I think it was a Grater. And I currently own a Day One. The Day One offers more versatility as it can fit larger tyres and I like it as a bike. I think the newer Charge bikes with the aluminium frames have lost some of the quality of the older steel ones.
Definitely thinking of the day one. Decade model looks good. I'm just being daft because I've had one before. Keep hovering over the buy button on a medium 🙂
Lot of love on here for the plug frames. Ridden one and loved it but can't compare to the day one as never slung a leg over one
Hi Superstu. Was it one of the older steel plugs or the new Ali frame, carbon fork model? The two, three and four models all seem reasonable at the respective prices.
My "everything else" bike as I like to call it is a Pinnacle Arkose 2 (the one with the 1*10 and hydro brakes). I bloody love it, but I've not ridden the others so can't really compare it.
Get a plug frame off ebay and build one up like us lot on the below thread.
[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/cheap-charge-plug-5-frames-on-ebay ]This is the below thread[/url]
One of the steel ones. Seems (as per the thread above) to be built up to whatever budget suits. Some nice builds.
Thanks for the thread link Scandal. Anybody had experience with one of the 2016 plugs?
I had a plug SS when in that London, did many many miles, never got cleaned, never went wrong.
The steel plugs are nice but no experience of the Aluminum ones. Not sure how different they would be in aluminium to anyone else which is why I found it odd they swapped material.
I had one of the original model day one disc, in blue, lovely colour and I really liked it. Nice ride, comfy, good brakes, decent kit and for my flat offroad commute it was perfect, but, as I think I've said before on similar threads...
I like mtb ss and I used to really enjoy a bit of road ss (road ss is my current n+1 aspirational purchase) but I found ss cx a bit limiting. Standard gearing on the D1 (63") was great for singletrack and was ok for prolonged road sections, steep xc climbs were hard work tho. If you're gonna do a lot of proper uppy downy xc riding you need to lower the gearing which will then turn road sections into a bit of a spinny borefest.
I wouldn't take an mtb on a road ride, I wouldn't take a road bike on an mtb ride, a cx bike could potentially do both but possibly not a ss one.
Depends on your intended riding area, if it's flat sscx will be a right laugh, spot on for your road and towpaths - flattish bridleways are fine too.
And as I said I really liked the day one.
Dolan fxe for me..
Leaning towards the day one decade, lovely looking. I suppose I can always stick a Nexus or Alfine on the rear at some point if SS becomes annoying. I live in Macclesfield so surrounding area is relatively flat compared to where I originated in Yorkshire. Proper off road will still be taken care of by the trusty Trans AM 29er.
Thanks for the input all.