ryansu

Two things that have worked for me is 1) last spring I passed along a number of projects and frames I knew I was just not going to get to and priced them to move i.e. stuff sitting for a year or more that I had little enthusiasm for and 2) I decided to raise my standards a bit: no safety levers, stem shifters, or really entry level stuff. It has also helped reminding myself when I see the next great thing that I have in progress projects and a queue, so I am trying to not bring in things until old things go out. That said if a really cool bike at a screaming deal came along I would probably cave

arimajol

I haven't downsized a huge amount, but went down from 3 to 2 in the past year. One thing that helped was realizing I never rode the bike I ended up selling. It was so dang pretty, and I liked it, but I didn't ride it. Also spending time doing other things, thinking about what makes for a good life and what I need and want out of life helped. I'll also echo zero-ing in on bikes that excel at specific types of riding I do and minimizing overlap. There wasn't a good reason to have two really similar bikes and one I just didn't use.

Sedgemop 

Seems you're doing that right now, if I'm not mistaken.

michael k

#1.I severely reduced the amount of storage space.

#2 . Hoping the "Box of Crap" is bigger in person than it appears on TV.

randyjawa 

The M+1 is clever but oil drips? I like to think of it as the Triumph marking its spot. And, there will be few leaks on this old steed. The guy who restored it is even fussier than I am...

steelbikeguy

sorry to wander further off topic, but this issue of "marking its spot" reminds me of a shirt that I saw... it was being worn by the ground crew of a B-25 Mitchell at a gathering of vintage warbirds. The B-25 has two big radial engines that tend to drip oil.

a shot of the B-25, just in case people aren't familiar with them....




and the t-shirt.....




Steve in Peoria
(antique aircraft are a fun way to avoid being tempted to buy one yourself... too danged expensive and too danged big! Better to just look at them)

motogeek 

Every time I walk out into the shed and look around at the 15 or 16 bikes there I have this overwhelming desire to thin out the herd, so I start looking around to find out which ones I want to eliminate. I think I've worked it down to around 7 or 8 plus the wife's bikes and the tandem that need to stay. Then the headache starts to come back and I lower my head and walk back into the house, defeated.

English bikes and cars are manufactured with a built-in oil leak. If it's not leaking oil then it's out of oil.

jetboy 

that MG is as good as it gets. buy it.

I am reviving the thread because even though I swore I'd not start "collecting" violins, I discovered that goodwill auctions has tons of violins for a fraction of CL or e0bay. So I have been putting some lowball bids on some decent violin just to see what happens. And no, nothing on goodwill auctions is gonna be great, but there are some decent level instruments.

case in point: my daughter is almost ready for 1/2 size, so I have been keeping my eye out and putting in a couple bits to see what happens: after missing about 4, I got one. : and in the mail today came an A. Schroetter violin AS-V060 with a glasser bow and hardcase: for 32$.

yes you heard me, for less than a meal out at a discount restaurant, you can get a hand crafted violin with a decent bow and good case.

came today and while the strings need replacing, and could use rehair for the bow, its in really good shape and sounds pretty good even as is. much better than her 1/4 suzuki. anyway, I am stoked even if she does not care. I am not letting her know and gonna fix a few blemishes and get it set up nice so its ready when her teacher says its time to upsize.
-j

-j

Chombi1 

I'm already up to 10 bikes..... a nice round number.......
I thought about it quite a bit, these past few weeks.......and I think I could be done with N+1!

friendofpugs

I'm at five myself, and I think it could get lower. I have a mint Trek 950 that I never ride (now that I've gotten a fat bike) so that will probably go. However, I would like an old orange road bike of some sort. Maybe French. It just needs to be orange.

Another thing that's helped stop the madness was I came to the realization that I couldn't tell much difference between "high end" and "low/middle end" frames and so sold off the pricey stuff. Fewer bikes means less maintenance, more time actually spent riding them.

Either you own your stuff, or your stuff owns you.