xtrajack

I do ride year round, all weather (Wed. 18 miles, sleet, hail, heavy rain, wind, thunder&lightning).
I ride in the snow and ice (gotta luv the studded tires).
I have only ridden one bike the last three years (Kona Fire Mountain Xtracycle).

Technically, I own 6 other bikes, but none of them have seen the road since coming to live with me. So for all intents and purposes, I only have one bike.

Oldsport

I ride on one bike year round. It is a Bruce Gordon BLT. I have 35 mm tires on it and 35 mm studded tires for the winter. I think wider tires might be nice for snowy days, but there are only a hand full of those here in the DC area. I do worry about rust because I don't clean her often when it is cold outside.

FunkyStickman

It's called "being frugal." That, and having a wife and kids and living on a single income.. it's hard, but you get used to it.

dedhed

I don't think I'm capable of owning just one bike. that would also be a violation of the N+1 rule.

SouthFLpix

I only have one bike right now, but I am about to purchase a 2nd bike that is more road friendly (touring bike).

UptownJoe60640

Yeah, I could never get use to that. Especially the one income thing. I couldn't live with someone who doesn't work.... regardless of their "situation"! Me and my other
half discuss things but when we want something... we get it! Doesn't really matter and neither one of us will EVER tell the other we cannot have something because
"we don't think it's a good idea"! We live by different standards but to each their own... I guess!

nosloedone

I'm an all weather yearounda camuta "Maine" with 1 bike used for commuting, a Releigh M60 Mtn bike with a few modifications. Schwalbe snow studs 1.90 in winter, late fall and early spring. Schwalbe silentos 1.75 in late spring summer early fall. Have a pair of planet bike full fenders. 5100 miles commuting the past two years. I have other bikes but this is my commuter. "It's blue but green"

ItsJustMe

No, I change the flat. It's not like I leave home just barely in time to make it to work anyway. What happens if you have a flat on the way? Actually I might just drive.

Overhauls? You mean, paying someone else to work on my bike? Why the hell would I do that?

My bike is my cargo bike. A Wald folding basket holds everything I've reasonably wanted to carry. The other day I did drive to work because I went to Lowes to buy a table saw. I didn't really feel that I wanted to carry a 60 pound box 4 x 4 x 2 feet on the bike.

ItsJustMe

I'm not perfectly happy with my house, but I only have one house. Same with my car. It's called "living with compromise." Or maybe willful denial; I'm sure that there are bikes out there I'd like better, but since I don't really want to spend the money, I just don't think about it. The best way to avoid temptation is to remove it. If I never look at other bikes, I don't think about buying one.

Sometimes I could really use a sliding compound miter saw, but I get along without one because I don't want to spend $500 on a tool I'll only use a few hours a year and I can get along without.

Pedaleur

Assuming Amsterdam is like Copenhagen, mostly one bike. But people who ride road bikes usually don't commute on them, so they'd have two (or more).

JPprivate

Yes, I have a couple of friends in Holland, and they confirmed that they have only one bike. (Have yet to meet a Dutchman who tells me he's an avid cyclist, but I'm sure they are out there). Most of them just do their 2, (at most) 3 mile commute by bike and find it convenient.

powitte

Only 1. For commuting, touring, and utility purposes (have a BicycleR Evolution Eco Shopper trailer).


Running a SRAM S7 with coaster brake year round. The winter gets the 35mm Nokian W106s. Rest of the year I ride 28mm Panaracer T-Servs (well, a 28 in the back and 32 in the front).

Mr Pink57

The problem here is we have so much salt in the winter that it's too hard to keep up with on just one bike, so I have a dedicated commuter.

woodway

Shoes:
Summertime = Specialized Tahoe (MTB shoes)
Wintertime = Lake MXZ302 Winter riding boots

Pedals:
Crank Brothers Candy's

tjspiel

We've structured our life so that we could live a on a single income if we had too. When our kids were younger my wife did work outside the home, but not very much. Before we were married she was quite sure that she'd keep working full time after we had kids. Once our son was born though she wanted to stay home.

Even if kids aren't in the picture, there's no guarantee that one spouse won't get laid off or won't be able to work for medical reasons.

Anyway, while none of this precludes me from getting more bikes, it does mean that as a rule we don't buy stuff on credit and that we have a fairly strict budget. There's money set aside for bike stuff but I'd have to not spend anything out of that budget for quite awhile before having enough in there for another bike. I'd also have sell one I already have.

Mr IGH

I have one wife (25 years), one house (45 years old), one car (140K miles, going strong)...I often tell my wife she's lucky she's not a driver/putter (golf club) or bike...it seems there's no limit to my excess on those two areas. Congrates for being so disiplined, I haven't owned one bike since I was 11 years old...39 years ago. I have three different bikes I street ride in the winter, depending on conditions.

Ipedaltahoe

Up until last summer I only had one a Trek mountain track, which I converted to an Xtracycle. For my birthday last summer I bought the single speed of my dreams. But I really only use it for commuting once in a blue moon, I use it more for weekends and evening trips with no need to carry anything.

crhilton

Yes. I commute on a cross check. In the summer I run cheap touring tires. In the winter I put on 700x40c nokians. Our winters are inconsistent about road conditions. So I keep the nokians on their own wheelset and swap that in and out as needed (probably half the days I'm running those).

I run the same full SKS fenders all year. Same rack, etc.

Every fall I put on a thick layer of wax. They use liquid salt here.


I could afford a second bike, but I prefer to ride the same bike. I have it setup and comfortable!



(Edit: I have several other bikes. They're all for fun.)

crhilton

I suspect that cost of living between Chicago and Minneapolis is quite different as well. Cost of living in some of the big cities seems pretty out of control to me. $2k a month as a normal housing cost?

daijoubu2k8

I work 1000' above the city so I reliably get snow in the winter. I just completed my first year of year round commuting on a mid-80s touring bike and can't believe how much I love this thing. It's heavier than a race bike, but it handles everything I've thrown at it. There's enough clearance for studded cross tires in the winter, with fenders and it has all the eyelets for racks. Mud in the summer is my only downfall so far. Deep mud and slicks don't work together.

ItsJustMe

Most people who go everywhere in a car do not consider themselves avid car nuts. I feel the same way about bikes. I like to ride, and i ride about 25 to 30 miles a day, but I don't consider myself an avid cyclist. I have a friend who's a huge cycling nut, she flies cross country and internationally to just watch races and get autographs, she also rides a lot. I can't think of anything more boring than watching a race of any kind much less a bike race.

Someone at work once asked me if I planned to race, since I rode my bike so much. I asked him if he planned to race, given that he drove his car so much.

Praxis

I'm going to ignore your caveats.

Year 'round commuter here, no snow. One bike, an older hybrid (20 years), I bought it new in high school. I could buy another bike, but this one works fine. I did recently convert to drops out of an abundance of caution of the wrist pain I was getting. If I bought another bike I'd have to store it somewhere. Family of 6, not much spare room to go around.

I think I'd consider a CX bike (or something like my hybrid) if I were riding in snow so I could change wheels to something wider, which I assume helps in snow (haven't ever biked in it). I'd still prefer one bike I think, but I don't know how bad the salt kills things.

There is some merit to having a backup bike. I do all my own work but I have to always have it wrapped up in time if I want to use the bike. Doing my own work means I don't have to make an appointment, drive the bike there, pick it up later, and potentially get irked at the quality of work done. I can get work on my bike done between when I get home and when I ride the next day, when shops aren't open.

tjspiel

I've known several people who live in Chicago on a single income. Yes, average housing costs go up, but often times income goes up along with it. The other thing that happens in big cities is that the need for a car, - especially multiple cars is reduced.

tligman

I have just one bike, that I ride for commuting year round, in the harsh cleveland winters, and can afford a second bike. In fact, I'm sort of loosely shopping for a second bike, because I'm tired of getting dropped on every group ride because I'm on a heavy MTB w/ racks and bags and big cushy tires... do I count?

irclean

While I don't doubt that the streets you mentioned are steep, I find it hard to believe that anything you're facing is greater than a 30% grade. Here's a story you might find interesting, and this website lists some of the steepest streets in the US.

In response to the thread, I have one bike that I commute on year-round. I confess to having more than one bike, but the others see very little duty compared to my 4-season bike. I bought this bike, a belt-driven Norco Ceres, specifically to handle winter duties, which it does in stellar fashion. This winter we say 3x the normal annual snowfall. On one particular December day we received more than 100cm (~40 inches) of snow. I was forced to stay home that day, and I doubt even Pugsley riders would have been able to get anywhere. Only snow machine riders were getting around successfully. In any case, having a low-maintenance, belt-driven, IGH-equipped, disc-braked bike makes riding in inclement weather fun. It's nice to know that I only have to worry about protecting myself from the elements, knowing that my bike can handle whatever Mother Nature throws at it.