My ideal number is three: 1) a mountain bike for fast single track riding (so, no racks, fenders, or underbiking)
2) a relatively stripped down bike for solo road rides (but fenders are still nice for wet rides, and with fat tires, why not?) 3) a racked/fendered/etc bike for pulling the kids around, grocery runs, family rides, camping etc. So how did I end up at seven? I think I'm about to go through a downsizing phase. I have in each category (pictures here: https://bikingtoplay.blogspot.com/2017/04/fleet-update-again.html) 1a) Surly Karate Monkey rigid single speed 29er. I've tried to sell this bike, but I can't. It rides wonderfully and is just right for me. 1b) Niner SIR9, but with B+ wheels and lately gears and a sus fork. I'm not sure this will be a keeper 1c) Jones Plus: so capable, but maybe too stable for me. 2a) Raleigh Tecnhium road bike, with gears, no fenders. I bought this for $25, it's a really nice riding bike 2b) Specialized Rockhopper, converted to 700c and fixed gear. Twice the price of the Raleigh! But a nice bike. 3a) Raleigh Technium Peak mtb converted to city bike duties, my attempt to combine the flexy ride of my Technium road bike with big tires and strong brakes 3b) VO Polyvalent, a usefully designed 650b low trail bike. Kinda boring, though. I may end up selling off most everything but the Surly. Riv content: a Quickbeam (64cm, if you have one), could replace my road bikes, and maybe a Clem Smith for the city bikes. Eric Plain City, OH On Mon, Apr 3, 2017 at 11:24 AM, Bob K. <bobk...@gmail.com> 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. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
