Your Preferred Stable

[R3awak3n]

I have 4 and that is 1 more that I really need but its nice to have the extras when 1 breaks down (or 2 or 3 which is where I am right now).

1 road bike
1 gravel bike (extra set of wheels with skinny tires so this can also be a road bike)
1 travel bike
1 trainer bike (also road bike but will mostly be on the trainer during winter)


Missing a MTB here and maybe one day if I get into it.

[saab2000]

I have six or so and it's too many. I could actually see going down to 2 or 3, tops and I could actually make it work with one, though that's risky because if something goes wrong with the bike then you can't ride at all.

[AngryScientist]

i have WAY too many bikes.

i like them all, and selling them seems like too much of a hassle, so i dont bother.

if i could go back and not have bought them all, my ideal stable would probably be three bikes.

A: Production carbon road bike
B: Custom steel all-road bike, with clearance for 35c under caliper brakes
C: Titanium gravel bike

and a half dozen sets of wheels with various tires mounted ready for varied conditions/surfaces.

[oldpotatoe]

I have/ride 2, dry day Merckx, wet day Moots..I have a Campag 80th anniversary Moots and 50th Campag anniversary Merckx hanging in Vecchio's. I have a Ciocc in my shop. Complete with no tires..Can only ride one bike atta time.

[charliedid]

I'm afraid of horses but I do have and ride 3 bikes.

[nesteel]

I have 8 ready to ride:
1 gravelish old touring bike, steel. 650b 41mm wide. Handles gravel well
1 old touring bike, steel
1 old touring bike, aluminum
5 road only bikes, all steel, almost all old, ranging from an '81 Merckx to an '09Bianchi

I don't justify any of it. It's a hobby, I keep what I want, and when I get bored with one of them, it moves on, likely to be replaced with another soon after.
That's why there are normally 4 more in the build que waiting their turn.

I have a workshop in the house, and the ready to ride bikes live there, hanging on the "wall o bikes" waiting their turn.
They get rotated in the ride schedule. My go to is usually the wide tired gravel bike, as it's quite smooth on pavement also. Or one of the other "touring" bikes.

Could I get down to three bikes? Sure. Do I want to? No. Would I if I needed to? Absolutely.

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by hummus_aquinas

Ya gotta have three only
road, mountain, other

MODERATORS: I thought we had a Forum Policy against Objectionable Content!

Four road for me:
Peg Responsorium
Serotta Legend Ti
'91 DeRosa Primato
BMC SLC01 (ProMachine)

[John H.]

I agree with Houston- I like bikes, I have space for a fleet, I don't mind having many bikes.
But I don't need redundant bikes or bikes that don't suit the type of riding that I like to do.

I agree that chasing deals or bikes that are not exactly what you want is often a waste of money- But some like it, so who am I to say.

The biggest point that Houston makes is that nostalgia makes a crappy bike. I couldn't agree more.
I rode and raced pretty much every variation from lugged steel, tig'd steel, steel with carbon fork, ti, all sorts of aluminum, and finally carbon. Stock and custom versions of all of those. But I rode then when they were state of the art- not 20 years after.
I have zero desire to go all the way back to the steel bikes that I raced in the 90's- They are fine bikes, but todays bikes are better in every way.
I did once wax nostalgic for a custom Parlee Z3 that I owned- This made me buy a used stock Z3. I was super underwhelmed with how a stock 2006 Parlee Z3 rode (compared to what I was riding in 2016).

I buy what I want, when I want- none of this dream bike or grail bike business (and I am not a rich man). Relatively speaking, cycling is a cheap sport. It is not that hard to own the best bike that money can buy for the riding that you do. Just keep your fleet, wheels, and spare parts current.

Originally Posted by joosttx

I have four bikes- Road bike, MTB bike, Gravel bike, Rando/commuter bike. This is all I really want. I believe if you going chasing deals for good or great bikes that are not exactly what you want you will spend more money and waste more time than buying the bikes that are dialed to your exact wishes.

Also, I am a believer that nostalgia makes crappy bikes. I know many disagree. Remember its just an opinion.


I guess the only bike I would really like to have is to switch my 44 for a Ti 44 or a Ti Bingham Built MTB

[DrSpoke]

What a sweet fleet. Especially the SV and Black Cat.
Any photos of the Black Cat?

Originally Posted by rmk

So I have:

Road:

Trek Emonda (race bike)
SV OG-1 (steel fun bike)
Custom Ti (my first and favorite fancy bike)

Gravel:

All-Road Black Cat NAHBS bike (trying to get to 20/80)
Hampsten Classic (my 80/20)

MTB:

Santa Cruz 5010 (older version)

This thread is prompted by the fact that I have a new road frame coming in, and I will be building it up with the parts from either the Emonda or SV. And I probably will sell one or both of those frames because why couldn't I race on my Ti bike.

And, for a little dirt, the Hampsten rocks. It is more road bike than gravel bike but I am hoping that that bike will be a ton of fun on rides like the Grasshoppers in Northern California where there is a ton of pavement climbing but the bike has to handle dirt descents ok. Because that bike cannot handle full on nasty fire roads, I sort-of desire 2 gravel bikes. Plus, the Black Cat is a beautiful bike. It might end up for sale too, however, because I am still trying to get the fit and components right.

Anyhow, if I had a point, I guess it is that n+1 is not the right metric, and that for me, n = 4 (or perhaps 5).

[Gummee]

I've gotten deals and I've gone 'all in' on FN bikes so have more than a few and some I need to sell...

Mtn:
DS (Top Fuel Med for sale)
AL HT (Superfly)
steel HT (Ritchey P650b for sale)
steel SS mtn (Niner SIR 9 for sale)

Road:
FN Fast (carbon)
FN Spirit (steel)
AL road: (BMC Teammachine ALR01* for sale, 02 E5 S-Works*, Quattro Assi Team 2000* for sale)

Road or CX Fixed/SS
AL fixed (Langster for sale)
steel fixed/SSCX (All City Nature Boy 853 disc for sale)

CX:
FN Cross (carbon canti for sale once the new FNs come in)

There's a Masi* that needs a seatstay replaced in the garage too. That one's a 56cm SLX/SP frame. Pay shipping and it's yours. I got it from a customer for free so I'm passing it on for free)

How do you know what you like if you don't try em all? That 'I'm only riding these X bikes' thing always did mystify me. Kinda like 'I'm only going to have meat and potatoes...' Boring!

M

*framesets

[MattTuck]

I look to Dave Kirk for inspiration here.

4 Bikes.

Road, CX/Gravel, Mountain, Fat.

Minimal over lap, maximum total range.

[s4life]

5 bikes
Custom steel Zanc
CX Moots Psychlo SL.
Custom carbon meivici (not made for me, but it fits me better than any carbon road bike I've tried)
A light road carbon bike for climbing Wilier Zero.7 for now
A mondonico foco lugged steel

Ideally I'd have only three: a light road bike (steel or carbon), a disc gravel one instead of the canti CX one, and keep the lugged steel one for commuting.. Almost there I suppose.

[warren128]

Oops, I didn't get the memo

I have 5 road-ready bikes, all redundant. LOL.

2 Steel, 3 titanium, all road bikes, all 10 speed, none newer than 2001.

I ride all of them, 3 have gearing for the hills around here. The other two are more geared for flatter rides, but I have compact cranks in reserve for one day when I decide to make them hill climbers too.

[vav]

I feel I am at a good spot now.

A Zanconato CX / gravel
A Parlee Z5 for roads
An IF MTB
An old steel Raleigh converted to SS for commuting

[sparky33]

before I thought this:
road, road, fatroad, rando, cx, gravel, gravel, mtb

now I like this:
road, cx, gravel/rando, mtb, mtb