How many bikes is too many? How many is enough?

Chaka Ping

After years on a steel hardtail, I've gone a bit overboard and ended up buying three in the space of 12 months (albeit heavily discounted).

I now have...
Giant Anthem - fast XC bike, perfect for my local trails
Cove Handjob - longish-travel steel hardtail, good for the winter and for being more reckless

And I'm currently building a Yeti 575 as a long-travel trail bike since neither of the others seem quite right for me on trail centre black routes and mountain rides.

I've noticed others on this forum have new bike-buying syndrome even worse than me, so I sometimes wonder if my logic is sound or if I'm just getting a bit carried away?

I do ride both my current bikes and get something different from each, but I know I'll be in for a ribbing from my mates when I reveal I've bought the Yeti!

How many bikes do you all have? And how do you justify keeping each of them?

zero303

I've only got two, personally I want a third...

I've got a late '70s Peugeot Racer which is my work/pub bike (also a potential resto project) and I've got an Orange 5. I want a fully ridged singlespeed, we've got some great technical and tight singletrack which is all flat, it gets super bogged up in winter but also the rigid bike is the best thing to ride it on even when it's dry.

Anything more than that would be pure indulgence for me...

niblue

I've got 4 and am about to buy a 5th, however SWMBO is insisting I get rid of one of the others.

The current 4 are:

Specialized Epic - full suss XC MTB
Cotic Soul - hardtail MTB (currently a carbon forked rigid singlespeed)
Giant OCR3T - road bike
On-One Inbred - set up as a rigid commuter/tourer

Blundell

God I'm a greedy bar-steward... I've got 5 MTB's:

1996 Trek 6500 - back when I was a studento http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/1328270/
2004 Klein Attitude XV http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/1336029/
2006 Giant Anthem 2 http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/1488726/
2007 Scott scale 20 http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/1305453/
2008 Litespeed Ocoee http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/1729680/

Clearly my philosophy is you can never have enough bikes... hmm kind of like Yeti's 'n' Storcks,and those Scott sparks kind of look lovely :shock:

dirtbiker100

hopefully before summer i'll have:
bmx
marin 4"-6" trail bike
marin quake dh/freeride
on-one inbred - commuter/pub bike

i'd say thats all bases covered.

fly4fun

ive got 2 bikes atm, and thats 1 too many. One has to go!

lm_trek

Ive got the two, in my Trek Hardtail and the Trek Full sus, ive also ordered an On-One 456 frame to build a new ride up, and im looking at a speshi pitch in the summer if i can save enough.

All are different rides for different places i go to, although i think one will have to go! depends on howmuch cash you have and room for bikes! my space is tight i currently have my 2 and my girlfriends bikes all in the living room i think a another would be crazy but hey its my hobby! And hobbies are meant to take over things!

mega9

Ive got 7 you can never have enough of a good thing
Giant vt1
Giant trance
GT zaskar team
97 Giant atx 990
98 Giant boulder
ROAD
Eddy Merckx team sc
Giant tcr
Justify them well road one summer one winter.mtb HELP WANTED

teacherman

have a hardtail for XC and trail use but would really like to expand my stable. Full suss trail bike would be a nice place to start.

Ibis mojo or Yeti 575 would be pretty high up on the list

Indigo Gorilla

I've got just the one at the moment. Got myself a 2007 GT Avalanche 1.0 (non-disc) 2007. Only had it a month now and already either looking at upgrades or a new bike!!!!!!!

Thinking I might get a FS next or maybe a dirt/jump bike.

Drfabulous0

nicklouse wrote:

X when X+1 is the ideal amount.

Sikora

I've only the 1 bike, but i'd like a HT for commuting from work and a FS for proper biking on weekends

Unklehomer

3...

#stands up# my name is homer, i will not buy a bike this year. i will not buy a bike this year #sits down and twitches#

Avalanche, no longer the one below, frame was replaced, but i still love it, and have ust given it some new bits.

Meta '07 which i Adore, its sucha goer, great trail bike, if a bugger to clean

trek 4100 pub/commute


i was hankering for a trek 69er... but since you can't get treks online anymore i'm unlikely to pay retail for one... so, "i will not buy a bike this year"... i might by a 456 frame though and transform the avalanches to an inbred... that wouldn't count as buying a bike, would it?

joshleb

I currently have three full bikes.

BMX
Kona Stuff
Gt Chucker - In France at the moment, because got a house over there.

Currently on the look out for a freeride/SlOpeStlOrZ!!! frame to build up, got some of the parts for it, but Im well stingy so only buy on massive discounts or off Ebay

paulf2007

mega9 wrote:

Ive got 7 you can never have enough of a good thing
Giant vt1
Giant trance
GT zaskar team
97 Giant atx 990
98 Giant boulder
ROAD
Eddy Merckx team sc
Giant tcr
Justify them well road one summer one winter.mtb HELP WANTED

lets see now, I have giant trance advanced, giant anthem team, gt zaskar le singlespeed, versus trigger, versus blitz, rocky mountain slayer, airborne titanium road bike, oyama folding bike and a monowheel. I make that 9

homers_double

I have one do-it-all Santa Cruz Heckler.

The only other bike I'd like is a lightweight hardtail for enduro racing.

P-Jay

I've got 2,

An '06 Spesh Endruo Expert that does everything, I comute on it, I ride to the shops, go to see friends and family on it. I live in South Wales so I hit Cwmcarn, Afan, Brecfa and Coed on it every weekend.

I've also got a '07 Norco A-line that I ride the DH at Cwmcarn and I've taken it to Morzine.

The Norco's going because I've never really got on with it and I'm having a Cove Shocker instead.

My ride-2-work ends in Sept on an old GT I don't have any more (Don't tell the TAX man).I'm going to get a Spesh P2 All-mountain on my next one, only costs me £11 a month so I might as well. Gonna stick some semi-slicks on it and use it for all the road / urban riding I do on my Endruo at the moment. Mostly just to minimise the wear and tear on it, because when the Endruo is finally ruined I wont be able to buy another.

So I’d say you can have as many bikes as you can store / pay for if you want. Non-riding friends and Family always ask me how I can justify having 2 bikes, the different jobs they do is lost on them. I’ve been asked more than a few times if my Spesh is an “uphill” bike, if my Norco is a downhill bike, ha ha. But I always tell them the same thing. I can justify it because it’s my money, I earned it and if I want to spend it on “another bloody bike” I will. I can pay all my bills, I’m not going short of anything, nice holidays, nice car, go out with my mates so sod it. In fact once I’ve sold the Norco and bought the Cove I wont owe a penny on MTB’s

Steve_b77

I've got a Specialized Pitch Comp that I use for everything from riding round the fire road in Delamere Forest to the Black bits @ Coed Llandegla, it's ace

Also got my "first" recent bike a GT Aggressor 2.0XC which I keep promosing to myself I'll use for riding round the fire roads at Delamere & other Forests as the Pitch is a bit of overkill for that but I always end up on the pitch

And a Mongoose BMX that I think I've ridden twice, spur of the moment purchase :oops:

zero303

Steve: I know what you mean, I've been taking my Five out even to ride around town - any excuse to go for a spin!

The Big Cheese

I have 3....

Indian Fire Trail (race)

Attack Trail (Trail)

Wildcard (FR/DH)

I do have a Jump build that hasn't been built up yet (Static Plan and I am looking at getting a commuter.....

I never seem to have enough bikes!

paulf2007

Cheesey wrote:

I have 3....

Indian Fire Trail (race)

Attack Trail (Trail)

Wildcard (FR/DH)

I do have a Jump build that hasn't been built up yet (Static Plan and I am looking at getting a commuter.....

I never seem to have enough bikes!

doesn't look like you will get far on the wildcard cheesey

The Big Cheese

he he - forgot to say it was not fully built yet...

well - I nearly have three

I just stick it between my legs and run around the woods making neighing noises

jbford

I've got two, a hardtail and a 5" bouncer.

Am in the process of bartering with wife to be, in order for me to start building up a stable!

Would love as a start:
7" bouncer - Bullit or Demo 7
Steel hardtail - Cotic?
Titanium hardtail from Merlin (the USA company not the bike shop)

ride_whenever

Currently building a 456, got a singlespeed carrera vulcan with knackered judys on, I want a set of pace rigids for it.

After that I'd love a fixed CX bike, street/DJ bike, FS play bike

paulrockliffe

I've got:

GT XCR2000 - 100mm front and back for general off road naughtiness
Trek OCLV 9900 Team Issue - Hardtail for something a bit different
Mongoose Transfer - Street/General messing about, rifid.
Santa Cruz Bullit - 7" Weapon, for big stuff

Sun Grandprix - Road bike for zipping about on.

Currently only the Bulit is fully working, the others need a few bits and I don't have enough wheels and brakes to build them all up at once, but can easily swap those over. General philosophy is that I'm fit enough and skilled enough to cope with any of those bikes (apart from road) on pretty much any ride I do, so I pick what I feel like on the day

Justification? I don't usually buy bikes brand new, the Bullit I picked up this week for £440 without brakes and wheels, so I can justify having a few bikes for the price of one, if that makes sense.

I was actually looking at getting a Zesty to replace the GT, but it was going to be £2.5k by the time I'd swapped the bits onto it that I wanted. So I saved a few k and bought the Bullit, which I'll run with the GT and Hardtail until I've decided what to replace the GT with. The GT is buggered and held together with silicone rubber!

Northwind

I've got 3 but only one counts, the Soul is "the bike", my kraken is just a spare/parts donor/loaner, it never gets ridden if I can avoid it, and my road bike's a road bike and so doesn't count.

TBH I don't feel any need for more, but it just depends on your riding... I like the way my Soul makes things interesting at the level I ride, and though there's stuff out there that it's not great at, i don't ride that stuff all that much as it's all a bit scary The fact that it'd completely fail at doing a downhill course doesn't really matter all that much. But it's fast, strong and light, so it can do most things pretty well- it's exactly as good at mincing along canal paths as it is at black runs at trail centres.

I think I'll end up with a stereotypical 5 inch full suss at some point, it's always good to have another string to your bow, and I've vaguely thought about a cheapish jump bike to help work on my bike handling a bit, but 1 is enough just now.

toasty

Drfabulous0 wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

X when X+1 is the ideal amount.

Indeed, exactly that.

I can't understand how I'd survive without a trail full sus, xc hardtail and a commuting bike. Obviously my life would be better with a hardcore hardtail for lobbing around and playing on the local 4x course though. Err, I'd quite like a marathon full sus too, the Meta is a bit beefy for 24 hour racing. Oh and a road bike for training... bugger.

X when 2X is the ideal amount!

birchy

got an old trek road bike :oops: cant remember when i last rode that though,

other than that i have a trek 6000, a trek topfuel 8 & a trek ex9

my other half says i can only ride one at a time so why do i have them all :roll: , so i tell here that she can only wear one pair of shoes at a time so why does she have 67 pairs and counting 8)

dynamis_dk

Got just the one at the moment, building up a 2nd as a play bike - main bike being a SC superlight for XC/fitness.

If i had more money tho i'd also like to get something like a Blur LT2 and maybe a Bullit/V10 for DH/FR... used santa cruz as examples as getting the superlight i've seen there lineup.

Used to have a bullit and a hardtail play bike but ended up selling the bullit due to lack of storage space!! Won't happen again tho, bikes will live in bedroom if needed before i selll up!!

GHill

Currently got two (although they're 5000 miles apart), a Specialized FSR-XC Comp ('08 ) and a Trek Fuel Ex 8 ('09).

Will probably flog the FSR when I return to the UK and build up a hardtail. A Ragley mmmBop is currently the top contender.

dirtbiker100

My current lot:

Charge plug: http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/3521312/
Giant trance with all my own bits on: http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/3521305/
Marin Quake 7.3 : http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/3521314/
and a fit flow