TakingMyTime

We have 6 bikes in the garage. 3 of them are ridden regularly. I will usually buy almost any spare part if I find it at a highly discounted price. Most of the bikes are of the same era and most of the consumables are interchangeable so I don't have to keep a large variety of spare parts.

I do hoard...
1 - Tubes
2 - Inner Cables
3 - Cable Housing
4 - Lubricant
5 - Chains

sch

I have ended up giving away or selling at fire sale prices items bought 'in excess' years ago. Thanks to some retro-fans a few yrs ago

on BF I was able to clear out 95% of my left over '70s era stuff for not much less than the '70s prices I paid. Occasional looks at

ebay suggest maybe I should have gotten more but I was happy to de-bulk. 15yrs ago I stumbled on a pile of NIB 5/8/9/10 spd

KMC chains for $5 to 13 and bought a bunch. At the time I had a use for all of these. The last of the 3 of the 8spd residua are

bonus to the buyer of my tandem. Since timing chains last >10k miles I doubt he will use them up either. The 5 9spd chains may

end up on my recumbent or donated to the local co-op. The 10spd pile will certainly be used on my now 11spd bikes where they

fortunately work fine. Tubes: unfortunately do not use up very fast, now have ~15 patched and 12-15 NIB which likely will never

be used. Most of those came from a friend who left town. I am about half-way through the 8 tires he left me as well. Still to go

are a flotsam of 9-10 spd Campy stuff, sub Chorus level and a CF tandem crankset and tandem Rolf wheelset I have no use for.

capnjonny 

Ever looked inside a Plumbing service Van . They are like a hardware store inside. One reasonI hated doing plumbing work when I was a remodeling contractor - you always wind up needing a special fitting and when you go to Home depot it is the one part they are out of. I one time spent a whole day trying to plumb a sink. Had to drive across town 3 times to get the right parts.

When working on bikes you can get into the same situation. I work on a lot of bikes at home and have accumulated wheels, derailleurs, brakes, and cables along with jars filled with all sorts of misc. stuff and trays full of nuts and bolts. I constantly dip into my various stashes to find a special bolt or clamp . Just yesterday I was working on an old Raleigh Sprite 5 speed. and needed a cable guide . I dumped out my jar of them and found just what I needed. If I didn't have that stash I would have had to drive 15 minutes to the Bike Exchange and root through their stash. Having my own supply saves me a tremendous amount of time.

veganbikes

I generally have a stock of parts currently I have enough stuff to make a bike or two minus frame and maybe a few other odds and ends because I collect a lot of stuff and buy or collect plenty of spares because I never know when I will need it or someone else might need it.

elizilla 

Wow, reading this makes me realize I fit right in, here. After 20 years hiatus, I return to the fold, and with a similar stockpile already in hand.

2old

Performance had a 90% off sale the last day of business; I've got enough for at least a couple of bikes, if not more. My goal is to outlive my parts.