How many bikes is enough ?

[Neil Fat Man On A Bike]

I returned to cycling about 3 or 4 years ago after a break of about 2o years, looking for a cheap way to get and sthen stay fit.
When I was a kid I had a Raleigh that as I remeber was about £300, did thousands of miles and never went wrong. So I expected normal service to be resumed.
I bought a hardrock sport mountain bike and hit the local tracks. I loved it, even if I was probably a ridiculouse sight and very slow.
The front wheel collapsed within 3 weeks (landing me hard head first in a rock garden) this was the initial spur to start some exstensive upgrading.
Many many £££'s later the Hardrock had new wheels, forks and brakes and a few other bits as the originals failed and wore out. At this point I bought a lovely Giant Trance in an intrest free sale ( for my wife to ride ). Well my BB bearings failed and I started to ride her bike, and found it was quite nice to have suspension and seeing as I had so many nice bits on the Hardrock perhaps a new frame was in order......so I bought a Cove G Spot on Ebay......it lasted a year or so before the frame snapped.....curse that alluminium. So I replaced that with a brand new steel hard tail, the on-one Inbred.
At this point, I decided to do lejog, so I would need a touring bike......ebay......one rather knackered mercian arrived.......so after exstensive rebuild and renovation ( why didn't I just bite the bullet and buy a new one??) I now have a lovely Mercian.
Meanwhile, a friend gave me his old Galaxy that had been laying outside for 2 years or so.......so after exstensive rebuild the wife now has a 'new' bike too.
Somewhere along the line I managed to aquire another mountain bike too (cycle to work scheme) an orange 5.
So in total we have 3 MTB and 2 tourers and two scrap heaps with wheels awaiting their fate.

How many bikes do you have?
How do I know when I have enough?
How can I keep them all in the house without going through divorce?

[stewartpratt]

n + 1

I've cut back to 7 now (plus the tandem). Minimalism rules

[hubgearfreak]

How many bikes do you have?
How do I know when I have enough?
How can I keep them all in the house without going through divorce?

A1. a dozen or so
A2. you don't know how many there are
A3. keep them safely locked up in the shed (the wife, obviously).

[EdinburghFixed]

We have each a road bike and a mountain bike, plus a spare (!) 26" slick MTB (my girlfriend's old commuter) and the frame/forks from an Edinburgh Courier Race which I want to turn into a rough and tumble city singlespeed one day.

So the answer is 5.5 I suppose, but only 2 1/2 working bikes each. Luckily we have an external cupboard on the ground floor that just about fits the four active bikes, so they don't ever come in the flat!

[glueman]

A nice bike and a hack. If you have more you'll waste good riding time fettling. $ods law dictates your hack will handle better than your best bike and you'll spend twenty years trying to chase the conservative and predictable handling of Old Faithful in various glittering and expensive bicycles.
Those old steel Dawes, Raleighs, Carltons, etc were designed to have no surprises, room for guards, sensible tyres and a rack. Basically the kind of thing tourists really want as opposed to what they think they need.

[rbrian]

I have four, and I'm starting to think that's too many. I may move from my house to a small flat, if so then I'd probably only keep the Brompton.

[Si]

You probably oughta stop adding to the collection when you go to a cycle-jumble sale, see a handle bar and think "mmm, I could build a decent bike around those bars".

But for £2 I couldn't help buying them anyway.

[random37]

I had 8 for a while. It's a fine line between collection and illness.
When I spent January in bed with killer lurgy, I managed to pick up three new bikes just because I was bored and couldn't do anything other than come on here!
I have to be honest, though, my hack Puegeot Lazarus all I have at the minute, and it's such a nice machine to ride part of me wonders why I even bother with my other bikes.

[Punk_shore]

To be going on with:
one bike to ride, with moderate touring kit ;
one prototype for the purposes of comparison
one bike with suspension, earmarked for project
one incomplete set of odds & ends, to make the next prototype with.

Anymuch else is a waste of time and space for me really. Did have about 12 old bikes in the garage at one time, though managed to get them going and sell them all .

Kind regards, Punk_shore

[dan_b]

Two and a half. One nice bike (dry days only), one practical bike (mudguards, rack, pannier) and one collection of parts which is permanently attached to the turbo so I don't stress the frame in nasty ways on either of the outdoor ones.

If I did MTB or cycloX or anything other than road riding then I'd be wanting another for that purpose, but if I had that kind of money spare right now I'd be spending it on new skates anyway

[Neil Fat Man On A Bike]

n + 1

I've cut back to 7 now (plus the tandem). Minimalism rules

[jan19]

As many as you can get in the garage That's 3 for him , 2 for me (one of which I never use) and the girls' two bikes (which also don't see a lot of use) . Never bothered trying to get the car in there.

Jan

No, they don't come into the house unless they need maintenance and its very cold outside!

[Punk_shore]

dan_b wrote "the turbo". What is a turbo please?
I only know of it as an abbreviation for turbocharger or turbosupercharger. Both of those terms relate to internal combustion engines. Many thanks,

Progress note: have just started cutting-out brackets for the next "mule" bike.

Punk_shore

[markhr]

Currently have 4 but 6 completely different ones seems like a nice round number.

cyclocross/road/touring/commuting bike
recumbent
folder
freeride/all mountain mtb
bmx
trials bike

I guess if you were either a racer or into your multi sport events then 2 or 3 more would be needed

either a cross country or downhill mtb
union of (anti)cycling idiots compliant road racing bike
union of (anti)cycling idiots compliant road time trial/triathlon bike

[Wildduck]

I'm experimenting with the new equation......

(number of cycles that trigger divorce proceedings) - 1.

Just bought another recumbent. Mrs.Wildduck is pretty cool about the whole thing. Might be at least another couple of machines yet before things get rocky....