Such an interesting exercise. For me, it's really a matter of convenient storage and mental space, and how my SO's tolerance has changed throughout the years.
When I first got into buying and tinkering with bikes, I owned a group-living home and there isn't that much bike storage for 6 people. So my wife and I had two bikes each--a nice bike and a workhorse since bicycles were our primary means of transportation. Even after we moved to our current property which has a whole garage for storing bike parts, tools, and bikes, we held that number at five combined for the two of us for several years, with I getting a third bike to ride around my office. I have gone through many bikes, though I always sold one before buying another. Then my wife got three more bikes (all vintage Treks) for herself (I obviously enabled) within a 12-month period to bring her personal total to 3, which allows me to feel like I can follow suit. So now our total is 10. My wife's preference in riding and bikes seems to be pretty narrow--pavement-centric, steel, drop bar, vintage Treks. She has three go-fast road bikes: 1) 85' hot-pink Trek 770 <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/albums/72157654383142309>, 2) Ebisu Road <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/albums/72157622468795773>, and a 3) 84' Trek 500 <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/albums/72157654383142259>. She also has a 4) 650b'ed 1982 Trek 720 <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/albums/72157627787869627> touring bike for our overnight jaunts and camping trips. A 5) 89' Trek 850 <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/albums/72157654383142289>, also 650b'ed, serves as her daily commute and errand bike nowadays. The touring bike and the commuter has dynamo light, fenders, and racks, the other three are bare-bone road bikes. I horse-traded through many bikes, and through that process really have discovered my riding preference, and even though all my bikes are fairly versatile, they all share certain traits--steel, 650b wheels, low-trail front end, racks, fenders, dynamo lighting, relatively thin-tubes, fit at least 42mm tires. 1. I have a custom Ebisu All-Purpose <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/albums/72157615808679968> that I got married on (we had a bike wedding) that still serves as my brevet bike. 2. The longest-serving member of the group is a 08' 2nd-gen Kogswell P/R <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/albums/72157613524232554> with a porteur rack and bag; it's my workhorse and now has close to 13000 miles. 3. 7 years ago I 650b-converted a specialized Sequoia <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/albums/72157632662017902> from 83' or 84'. I later repainted it vintage pink and turned it into my touring bike. Friend and fellow lister JimG made a custom rack for it. It also has a Kogswell Konversion fork which makes it low-trail 4. I bought a Rawland rSogn <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/albums/72157645025527618> from Bill Lindsay 2-3 years back, and with tires like Switchback Hills and Thunder Burts have really rediscovered the joy of dirt/gravel riding. 5. This leads me to my newest, not-yet-here bike, which comes to me via a friend. It's a Fitz custom <https://www.flickr.com/photos/franklyn/28252680435/> too big for him that was built around the 48mm tire size with fenders. I can't wait to build it up this Summer. I suppose I don't have a true mountain bike, though all of my bikes are capable of doing mixed-terrain with the rSogn and the Fitz having wider range of suitability. If I were to buy a mountain bike for more rocky/muddy stuff, it'd probably be a steel Jones. I have yet able to cross the mental line on: disc brakes, suspension, thru-axle, fat-bikes, carbon forks. A lot of these lines have to do with my unfamiliarity with repairing and maintaining these newer parts, parts interchangeability among all our bikes (which relates to bike parts inventory hording/optimization) Franklyn On Monday, April 3, 2017 at 8:24:18 AM UTC-7, Bob K. wrote: > > Hey Folks: > > I know threads somewhat similar to this pop up every now and again, but > Ryan's question to Eric in the Rivendell Road SOLD thread made me wonder > how folks settle on their stable size. I fall squarely in the minimalist > camp, but I'm guessing others here probably don't. So: > > 1. How do you settle on what N equals for you? (N+1, I know, I know...) > 2. What bikes do you currently own/have in regular rotation and why do you > own them? > > My stable is currently at one because of a recent sale, but it will (soon) > bump back up to two. I settled on two as the acceptable number of bikes for > a number of reasons, but mostly because I can't imagine riding enough to > justify having any more of them. We also don't have the space for me to > store any additional bikes aside from in a somewhat humid basement, and > neither my wife nor myself would appreciate more bikes in the corner of the > living room as we're not big fans of clutter, especially clutter that > doesn't get used very often. > > Current Stable: > > 1. 2009 Sam Hillborne (canti): Used mostly for road riding and touring and > some occasional single track and forest roads if the ride allows/inspires > it. > > 2. 2017 Surly Troll: I settled on the new Troll after a lengthy flirtation > with the idea of buying a Crust Evasion and other bikes as well. I decided > the Troll is better for my needs for a number of reasons: the geometry > readily accepts a Jones H-Bar, 2x is easy vs. not doable at all with the > Evasion, and my desired 26x3.0 setup doesn't require the need for expensive > cranksets. It's also $300 cheaper and I like the maroon better than the > also admittedly pretty Evasion color. It will take the place of my > erstwhile Krampus as my mountain bike, off-road tourer, long distance > tourer (if/when I get to do that!), kid trailer, and stuff hauler. > > How about you? > > Bob K. in Baltimore > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. 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