Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
I like to play the "least amount of bikes I need" game when the thought of downsizing raises it's head. I have half a garage full of various bikes because I like to rebuild them but don't ride most regularly. ...
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5.Technical MTB. Soon to be my next purchase. Currently I own an old 26" hardtail but time spent on some modern FS bikes has shown me how limiting it is and convinced me a 29r FS trail bike is the way to go. As it is I mostly mtb with the fat bike now.
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My dissertation on my fleet (a few posts above) made me think about swapping my rando bike and road bike, last night pulled the road bike out of storage, put the rando bike in storage. I was considering doing a 200k this coming Saturday, but the forecast is rain which I prefer to avoid, so unlikely to need the rando bike for a while. Rode the road bike today for an exercise ride. Thus riding that means that I now have ridden six of my fleet since January 1.
My heavy duty touring bike (which I sometimes call an expedition bike) has a frame designed for either the solid fork that came with it or a 100mm suspension fork, it can take up to 57mm wide tires. About six years ago a friend organized a trip for ten of us to ride the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Lacking a good mountain bike, it became a question of what do I take, do I rent a full suspension bike or do I get a suspension fork for my expedition bike and use it as a hard tail. Found a NOS suspension fork on Ebay for a great price, that answered my question for me. Since then, also did a week of day trips while car camping in North Dakota ridding the Maah Daah Hey Trail with that same bike. I will just keep using my expedition bike with a suspension fork as my (drop bar) mountain hard tail bike when I get an urge to go mountain biking.
I could do brevets with my light touring bike (Lynskey Backroad), so my rando bike is probably the most redundant bike I have. But, I really do not need to get rid of a bike at this time, so I will keep what I have.
A few years ago I donated a frame and a complete bike to a local bike charity. For now that will have to suffice as my downsizing. The charity sold the frame for $350 USD several weeks later.