Letting go.....
 

While going over my parts for current builds I came to the conclusion that the "herd" has reached critical mass...... again. I'm trying to decide what bikes to complete and what ones to cut loose and with only a few exceptions it has been hard. Very hard. I need to reduce the "accumulation" by at least half. I have framesets I have nearly all the pieces for, do I finish them to see if I like the ride or do I cut them loose unfinished? Others are complete just needing rebuilt but are they worth rebuilding only to find I don't like them? Besides all being tall frames and hard to sell anyway the local vintage bike market is all but non-existent right now.

It's not that I've lost interest in any of them, I haven't. That's what makes it so tough. I just have more than I can realistically finish. Something has gotta go, but what?

The beautifully crafted Italian 25" frame that fits 30mm tires. 😉

I am planning to leave Cambodia in a year or so. What bike do I ship to Lancaster, Pennsylvania?
My 85 Gazelle Market bike.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...608242b9fd.jpg
My Witcomb
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...821c7eee48.jpg
My All-road
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c4c71bc3f9.jpg
My big boy 29rMX
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ef5b7e9f14.jpg
and others
Like a Pure fix Cleveland, A 2 speed SRAM Automatix klunker, A Giant MTB, a 26" Folder, a bike for my Wife.... Others.

how many bikes are we talking?

Good luck with that! I've been trying to do the same thing the past two years yet new bikes keep sneaking back in.

This year I got down at one point to about 20 bikes. But the following somehow snuck in this year.

Fausto Coppi
Bianch Trofeo
C4 Air One
David Kirk Terraplane
Raleigh Supercourse
Kuwahara Count
Peugeot Tourmelet
Raleigh Team USA
Olmo Forma (Oscar Freire?)

​​​​​Jeesh.....I didn't realize it was so many until I typed this up. That's freakin' ridiculous. Resistance is futile.....I need an intervention! :o

Good luck with letting them go! If it really works out I'd love to hear how you did it!

I have gotten down to 4 bikes.

#1 is set up with fenders, lights and a rack.
#2 is basically the same as #1 minus, the fenders, lights and rack.
#3 is a vintage mountain bike for rail trail rides with the family.
#4 is permanently attached to an indoor trainer.

This covers all of the riding I currently do. I have been good (until recently) about buying more stuff. The deals are pretty frequent in my area and it can be hard to resist. That said, I keep going back to what will another bike do that any that I currently own won't?

That is why I sold/ am selling the two most recent acquisitions, 1971 Raleigh International and 1971 Gitane Super Corsa, both in my size and both really cool. They won't change the way I ride or when I ride and will ultimately just make me feel bad for NOT riding them.

I like working on them and cleaning them up and then moving them to new homes, which seems like a good compromise. I have also given away a ton of parts/frames/wheels to a local co-op. That helps keep the impending "project creep" to minimum, when there are no readily available parts to "finish" a build.

Good luck!

It can be pretty overwhelming, especially if the number of bikes is large.

The first step is always difficult, deciding which ones to let go, so start with just one. You may find it liberating to have one less project calling out to you each time you walk by. That makes getting rid of the next one even easier.

Brent

I have 5 that are going for sure, 5 that stay no matter what and a bunch more I have to make tough choices on. Condition will dictate a lot of my decision but not solely.

THAT one I have room for LOL. :D

That's just silly. When in doubt, hoard :D

This is what I do. When I complete a bike, I pretty it up re-sale ready and photographed asap. Because the bike isn't going to look any better later.

I also do it to bikes I intend to ride often, like daily and beaters.

I post ads for sale. They don't need to be updated often.

Ones I don't really want to sell, I put a ceiling price on them. Believe it or not, after a few weeks/months/years, they always find a buyer.

The buyer often agrees to give me their contact info on the chance I may get sellers' remose and want to buy it back.

After a few days, my greif does go away and I move on. One time, a buyer actually contact me a year later and asked if I wanted to buy it back but of course I politely refuse with any reason that sounds just.

My motivation? Cash takes up less space than a bike. And it's always easy to buy bikes.

Thank god bent deraillers and broken shifters are small and can all be hoarded in a box. I do draw the line in tossing away busted cable housing and tyres missing wire beads.

I'm at the point that there are 4 bikes that I regularly ride. 3 that are torn apart and in that "when I decide to get to them" queue. 2 that I don't think I've even taken down from the rafters this year.

They're all cool bikes... getting rid of one and deciding I want one back would be difficult.


YEARS ago I had these awesome flip flops. In a temporary move- I lost one of the flip flops- I looked EVERYWHERE for it. I hung onto that one flip flop for almost 2 years. One day, after I moved back to the States I figured that flip flop was lost... I threw it out... and found the other one within like a week.

I now have separation anxiety because of that.

I made a few painful sales this year, and now I'm hoping to sell three more in 2023. It only hurts for a little while.

Ouch. I get it. Sounds like it's time for that nasty 'P' word: Prioritization.

Due to health and other factors I went through a similar exercise with various grandiose motorcycle projects I had in mind, prioritized what I still had the appetite to do and was most meaningful and set about culling the rest.

Best of luck.

first question of course is what frame size :)

I think build what fascinates you first then ride and decide

As much as would like to, i haven't built up a large collection

i have
1) '"best "bike ride long fast and hard (at least in my mind) currently a 85 team miyata with 105 11 speed
2) Cino or Eroica ready bike currently and 84 team miyata
3) throw a leg on and ride do errant bike with rack and bags SR Semi-pro

that said I would grab a torpado super light in an instant, I have my eyes on a bianchi time capsule that is window dressing in a surf shop and have a new frame in the works

the new frame would be the best bike....but it wlll be really hard to part with the 85 miyata but it will go (heads up san jose are people)
for a number of reasons I don't see letting go of the 84 miyata team....it's overall toughness and few other thiings
i can see adding either a super light or the Bianchi to the mix as a less ratty eroica bike

good luck

I hear you. I have more bikes than I can ride, more projects than I can complete, and other things upon which I need to focus. I am probably going to give away most of them.

Shipping from Cambodia to England must be awesomely expensive.

The Gazelle is awfully nice but can be replaced, as can the others.

That Whitcomb is nice and might be the most difficult to replace. For that reason, I say ship the Whitcomb.

Perhaps knowing you are sending them to good homes will help you make your decisions. Tell us what you have and the sizes and condition. The Board members here may pick this and that and you can let those go,... or not.

Another great album by Bonnie Prince Billy (Will Oldham).

[The Letting Go - full album]

I have a pretty eclectic accumulation from gas pipe bike boom stuff nobody's ever heard of like a "Clara" (Chiorda built) and Nissan built "Cherry" to a pretty nice '84 Guercciotti GLX Super Record Special TSD frameset with Columbus SLX tubing. Sorry guys, the Guercciotti stays, there was never any question of that. :lol: Most of them are 25"/62-63mm, some are complete but need gone through, some are framesets, some have nice paint and some don't. And I like every one of them......... or have a vision of what they could be with some TLC and I LOVE to build things. It used to be cars, that got E-X-P-E-N-S-I-V-E. I sold the bulk of that stuff a couple years ago as I know my project car days are long over. I made my cousin a REAL happy guy! Now his garage is full of car parts not mine LOL but I still find the odd piece tucked away in a cabinet or a box up in the rafters.

Pretty sure most of the Raleighs will stay, not sure about the '87 Technium 480 frameset though. It's NICE, almost perfect paint and graphics but the color! :twitchy: I was going to build it with 3X8 Shimano RSX but I wanted to run 700c wheels and the calipers don't have enough reach and even if I get it done I really don't have a need for it. It seemed like a good idea at the time, you know how that goes..... I'll probably hang onto all the Reynolds 531 bikes/frames and my 3 current Champion No. 2 bikes. I love the way they ride and they're all different enough they aren't duplicates. The 1984 Focus SG-300 and RS-500 road bikes stay because who else has TWO of them LOL? For that matter, how many people have even SEEN 2 of them in the wild? :lol: And that RS-500 is SOOOO clean and SOOOO red!!!!! :love:

I only have 5 vintage Mountain bikes so there's no issue there and one of those I could easily let go without a second thought and probably will. One I bought new in '97, a TREK 820 I have upgraded to full Deore XT 3X9. When all the other bikes are gone and I can't ride any more I will still have that one, we've been through a lot together. The road bikes are the problem. I need a nice warm dry day so I can pull them all out and line them up in the sunlight and take a good hard look at each one to compare them and ride the ones I can ride. Not looking good for that any time soon though, winter in Illinois doesn't offer many opportunities like that.

:roflmao2:My cousin drew this 25 years ago and made a T-shirt for me..........

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...959f14252a.jpg

I have 3 too many. Those three are fun to ride and cool to look at. The last three that were the 3 too many and were sold have been replaced by the current three too many. I'm waiting for the market to turn around before I try selling them:rolleyes: (I wish good tires were cheaper.)

Oh to only have 3 too many LOL. :innocent:

Oh great.
You remind yourself what's amazing and beautiful about each of the road bikes, and then what? Buy a new shed?
😀 😃 🙂

I went from about 40 bikes, that is bikes, not frames. Decided to get more into motorcycles, I had an old Norton. Sold all but 7 of the bicycles, then with the wad of cash in my pocket, added a Ducati 900SS, then a Yamaha 650 Tracker, Honda VFR, and a Ducati 998. Had a couple of accidents on the motos, decided I could not deal with the next one. I am 68, healing is longer and harder. Sold the motorcycles, then turned around over the last few years and bought another 6 bicycles, mainly vintage road bikes.

Could not be happier. We all have our journey, right :-)

Guy