How do you choose?

[NHAero]

CAAD10 - new-to-me - when I feel like riding hard, dry weather, 25mm tires

Anderson all-rounder - all day comfort on 37mm tires

Bob Jackson - fenders and rack, it's been wet out and I'm doing errands so need to carry a small amount of stuff - 25mm tires going to 28mm soon

Nagasawa fixed road trainer - usually, nice day, not a lot of time to ride, 10 miles around the state forest loop or back and forth to the library. Couple times/year ride it on a 35 mile loop.

Pivot MACH429C - weekly 3 hour ride with VORBA and other MTB rides

Litespeed Unicoi drop bar conversion - errands and short trips that combine pavement and trail, 54mm file tread Contis

Klein Pulse II - studded Freddy's Revenge tires, for fun when the roads and trails are ice and snow

Big Dummy - carrying more than the Bob Jackson and/or wet weather - generator hub and great fender converage

Raleigh 20 folder - hike or kayak outing that is not a loop but connected by road so can ride back to get the car

Nine bikes yet not a ton of overlap. Pretty lucky to have 'em, and my wife is more than tolerant (she's got a Salsa Casseroll all-rounder, a Spesh MTB, and a nice old Gunnar Rockhound with rack and generator hub for commuting)

[PacNW2Ford]

Originally Posted by kingpin75s

Tires.

Why change tires when you can change wheels.
Why change wheels when you can change bikes.

Kidding aside. As I ride every surface I can and preferably most or all in the same ride when possible. For road, dirt, mountain and snow, I really have slotted most of my bikes based on tire size and tread purpose at this point.

This^
Bike 1 - steel with carbon rims - flatter rides
Bike 2 - aluminum with fenders - wet rides
Bike 3 - titanium - anything
Bike 4 - carbon - just built, but by weight, the hilly stages

[rePhil]

I am the weird one with two identical (with the exception of wheels) 585's plus a third road bike, a Moots compact. From 35 years of riding I know what I like. And being retired in Florida I don't need a rain, gravel, CX, MTB or SS.

[bicycletricycle]

I try to keep a variety around. Still have a few that never get ridden

Oh well!

[witcombusa]

Not to over state the obvious but... which ever one you want!
Sometimes I take a different bike each time I ride for a week or two. Other times I may ride the same bike for five rides in a row.
I doesn't have to make sense!

[Llewellyn]

Easy.

If it's nice weather then I take the Llewellyn at least 80% of the time because it's simply the best fitting bike I have and it's the most fun to ride. My Tommasini gets a run when I feel like riding something different and my wife's old Ricardo gets a spin if I feel like going retro and using DT shifters and 6 speeds.

For wet or "it might end up wet" weather I take the Lynskey. And the Bianchi all rounder is for cafe rides with my wife or commuting.

[MattTuck]

If I'm riding outside on a road, I ride the Kirk, set up to handle roads and reasonable dirt. If the Kirk is being worked on, I ride my old Lemond Zurich.

If I get another bike, it will be set up more toward the big tires, fenders and the possibility of doing CX. Between those two, I'd be able to handle pretty much all road riding that I can imagine. If I needed to spend more money on bikes after that, I'd probably go for something a little more race oriented, with light wheels/fast tires.

[Vientomas]

Horses for courses...32c steel bike for dirt roads and 28c carbon bike for pavement.

[mhespenheide]

Originally Posted by weisan

The secret is to make sure you don't duplicate and there are enough of a distinction between them to warrant the occasion. Some pals have racing bike #1, racing bike #2, racing bike #3....nuthin' wrong with that if that's what float your boat.

Here's the way I differentiate...

Classic steel bike #1 (Rivendell) - 32mm Compass tires, all-day comfort, relatively bad roads

Classic steel bike #2 (Eddy Merckx Corsa Xtra)- stage racer geometry, hot sexy red, bring to group ride where 99% of folks show up on their 5k carbon bikes, let them know who's boss , bears the name of god on the downtube

Classic steel bike #3 (Richard Sachs) - S&S coupled - travel or bring bike on trips, Eroica/PBP

Custom steel bike #4 - Ritchey Breakaway coupling - travel/carry bike on plane, meet airline restrictions, can fit 35mm tires, D2R2 bike

Multipurpose steel bike #5 (Surly Trucker) - platform flat pedals, saddle almost level with handlebar, big fatty 48mm Switch Back Hills compass tires, do-it-all, can serve gravel duty or just neighborhood bike

Titanium gravel bike (Merlin) - full fenders, triple crank, can fit 32mm file thread slicks or 42mm knobby, bad weather bike, has a rear pannier rack, light-duty/credit card touring

Carbon road bike (Cyfac) - absolutely must have the latest and the greatest but doesn't seem to make me any faster, I am no retro-grouch

There are others....but you get the idea. Buy/Build/Ride with Purpose.

Weisan-pal, I am impressed. I knew you had a good collection, but two coupled bikes?

[R3awak3n]

I keep trying to diversify but seem to always have to have 2 road bikes that do exactly the same.

My elephant NFE does everything so it serves as commuter, gravel bike, touring bike and occasionally road bike. It is just too good that I don't need more bikes, expect I like road bikes on the road (which is really where the elephant kind of.... I wouldnt say sucks, but its less good).

So I have the English. Steel, 28mm tires, love the geometry on this, very comfortable and fits me perfectly. Will be great on long rides.

Now I just bought a look 585 ultra because I always wanted to try carbon. Still building it but to be honest, this will do the same duty as the english... I should have bought a MTB but I am just not into it right now... maybe in the future.


Matt, you are kind of the same situation. The zanc and the goodritch are kind of the same bike so it will be a tossup all the time. The Lyon will always be picked in crappy weather or gravel. ah, same situation as me, but I don't have the chicken.. at least not yet (I am about to move to a farm so we might get chickens at some point)

[YesNdeed]

Simple: Ride the Zanc, mail the Goodrich to me. Done.

[bking]

Kind of like TickDoc above, whichever one calls my name sweetly...or screams loudest. And I usually stick with it two days...then move on.

[oldpotatoe]

Wet, like yesterday-Moots. DT shifters, friction, Phil hubs and BB..hardly ever clean it.

Dry, like today, Merckx MXLeader/Delta/EPS

[Mzilliox]

Originally Posted by bking

Kind of like TickDoc above, whichever one calls my name sweetly...or screams loudest. And I usually stick with it two days...then move on.

I love what you've done with the place!

[Mzilliox]

Originally Posted by R3awak3n

Matt, you are kind of the same situation. The zanc and the goodritch are kind of the same bike so it will be a tossup all the time. The Lyon will always be picked in crappy weather or gravel. ah, same situation as me, but I don't have the chicken.. at least not yet (I am about to move to a farm so we might get chickens at some point)

The Goodrich is really a pretty good all rounder to be honest. i mean i could ride it on gravel no issues with 30mm tires.

I see the Goodrich being my daily driving Cadillac/BMW, the Zanc being the Porsche that comes out on weekends, and the Lyon is the farm truck or station wagon, doing the dirty work.