AdventureManCO 

I have too many bikes, for various reasons.

There is no more space, they are tripping hazards, they are getting damaged moving them around, they are taking up too much time away from family, and worst of all, they are eating up my Huffy budget (BIG NO NO)

I have been tempted on several occasions to 'just put a pile of them outside w/ a tarp over them' but I know that's how 'IT' starts and it's a bridge I'm not willing to cross. Jeff (DD) and I have talked about this on several occasions and he has always encouraged a more thoughtful approach to the bicycle collection. It is a position I have admired but that also has seemed far away. But I'm not willing to become that guy that ends up dying and leaving a huge headache for relatives. So something needs to be done now. I need intervention!

It's time for a change!

My old philosophy has always been one of 'opportunistic acquisition', but I'd like to change to a more 'thoughtfully intentional' one.


Maybe this describes you as well. If so, then lets help and support one another to get closer to where we really want to be.

I wanted to open this one up to anyone on a similar path who is looking for some support. You can do it! I can't do it for you, none of us can, but we can encourage and support each other and maybe most importantly, help keep each other accountable. Here are maybe some good boundaries, just to keep things positive and intentional:

- No judgment
- Any collection size is welcome - whether you are downsizing from 2 bikes or 200
- Lets try to strike a good balance between positive encouragement and honest accountability

Now, the hard numbers.

Here are the numbers I came into the new year with:

Bikes: 22
Frames: 10


I have been spending week after week cleaning and consolidating and here is where I currently stand:

Bikes: 20
Frames: 7
Last Bike Purchased: Dec 2023

I think these are some good accountability metrics
The Jamis and Novara are now gone, and a few frames got sent out. I did get rid of a few kids bikes, but since they are not *truly* mine, they are not being counted in this list.

I have 3 more frames in the truck, with another couple of bikes to be brought to the co-op, in addition to a couple of bikes that will also be getting shipped out, so that number will continue to go down.


I plan to keep updating this thread as the numbers change to reflect the current status. Participation is HIGHLY ENCOURAGED! If you'd like to participate, then post up your current numbers along with maybe some aspirations, and keep updating the thread with your current # compared to your old #.


Here are some pictures of the shop. I'm not proud of this. And believe it or not, it was a LOT worse. This is the result of weeks of work (sadly). These pictures don't account for all the bikes, but the majority -

52telecaster

You let me know I'm not alone.

SoCaled 

About time you started a support group! I think I need to undo a good chunk of my 'opportunistic acquisition' if I want to move forward, 'thoughtfully intentional(ly)'. I need to clear up physical space, mental space, and sunk costs, so I am in a better place to focus on the "keeper's". Hitting the same wall you did with my 'opportunistic acquisition(s)' Tried selling at reasonable prices, trading, selling for a song and giving away, not a lot of luck. Have resorted to dis-assembling a few. Hard to justify putting any time or money into them to make them more "sale-able" no return on that investment.
I will need to dig-in a bit to come up with numbers, but I have definitely made some dent in getting bikes out, less successful in not bringing in 'opportunistic acquisitions'.

VRJAKE 

Have you set goals? I’ve long had a rule of a bakers dozen or less, frames count. Think a vague “I gotta clear out some”, or “get intentional” isn’t specific enough. Intention has changed over time as tastes and riding has changed. Have a few parts groups for when the right frame opportunistically presents.

Currently at a true dozen.

RustyJames 

If I counted, which is only slightly daunting, I think I’m around 22. 4 are sitting by the front door and will be listed for sale when the weather improves here in Oregon. 3 or 4 more will need some fettling before I feel comfortable selling them. A few others (frame sets, for example) need significant rehab before they go away.

That will whittle me down to some unique/rare/once-in-a-lifetime things that I need to decide if I want to keep them. The Circuit and the Allez are birds of a feather so one will likely go.

I don’t have an exact number in mind but it seems like 8 remaining is about accurate.

Murray Missile 

I too have been a practitioner of "opportunistic acquisition" as evidenced by my purchase yesterday. I was just trying to come up with a list of what I need to let go after my big N-1 stumble yesterday when I saw this post.

Total frames and bikes on the premises as of 02 March, 2024 at 7:18 AM = 61.

Believe it or not that's down signiificantly from what it was a couple years ago but I didn't break it down between complete bikes and frames because I have MORE than enough parts to put almost all the frames on the road in some form or another. I worked on my shop all last year from Memorial Day on and have picked away at it through the past Winter and it has come a LONG, LONG way but still has a bit to go. I'm headed back out as soon as I finish this post to work on organizing parts, I'm down to small boxes of odds and ends now, my tools are finally done.

If I had a co-op closer than 100 miles away I'd load up a couple (that's all my vehicle will hold) and some boxes of parts and donate them but I don't. I may put some of them on Marketplace dirt cheap or even free but even then with the current market I'm not optimistic of finding any takers. That leaves the better stuff most of which I really hate to part with and even when I do make that hard choice I have the added handicap of riding tall frames. Those, as we all know, take a long time to sell. More than enough time for me to change my mind which as you may have noticed I do frequently.

It's good to know I'm not alone in my obsession.

jdawginsc 

I am beginning the process....this was posted in another thread, but feel pretty good about the garage menagerie. I still have a utility trailer to empty...



Not all will end up up being keeper, but I need to build up everything to see how they compare.

Pretty interesting row of frames

Bianchigirll 

You just need more space! I was messaging this guy about a Mixte and this is part of his current collection and a suprising number have C-Rec kit. IIRC the room is 12-18



The rug is sweet too!

SoCaled 

My Circuit and 2 Sirrus's were casualties of my attempts to get my collection under control. They went earlier than they should have, because unlike a number of others, they were ready to sell.

cinelliguy 

This is an excellent thread start. Thank you for kicking this off!

Guy

bikemig 

I like to think of this as the recovering cat lady thread . . . except just swap too many bikes for too many cats,

I got rid of 10 bikes last year. I'll get rid of 10 more this year.

albrt 

This is great, but could somebody please start a thread to encourage the buyers who are gonna take all these bikes off our hands?

Rick_D

I don't have a clue but most assuredly am bookmarking in order to show spouse when it seems appropriate.
Good luck!

Arrowana

Last year I had ~40 bikes and ~50 frames, then the landlord land parasite got greedy and jacked up the rent enough to force us to move with little warning. Managed to get down to 8 bikes and 6 frames in the span of a month, almost everything was donated to the various coops and used bikes shops in the area. It was exhausting to do, but having a much smaller hoard is nice. You can only ride one or two bikes at a time, may as well get the extras into the hands of people who will actually use them.

seagrade 

The most bicycles I have ever owned at one time was “only” seven, but I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to afford that many.

These are the self-imposed rules that have kept me at or below that number over the last decade:

1. Nothing bought unless it gets ridden at least once a month over the course of a year. My two bicycles for racing don’t get much winter riding, but they do get used 12-plus times a year.
2. Nothing bought unless it is the right size. Not very nearly the right size, but very actually the right size. This has really kept a lid on things.
3. Total value of all bicycles remains less than the price of the single most expensive racing bicycle locally available. Right now that’s about NZD20-25k, I guess.
4. No impulse purchases. I’ve refined a pretty clear idea of the very few bicycles I would still like, and if I see something else a wait of 24-48 hours is usually enough to realise it wasn’t one of those and wasn’t quite right. No regrets so far…

Even with a relatively small number of semi-collectable classic/vintage/retromod bicycles, I have no idea how I’ll ever eventually sell them within New Zealand. The market for such bicycles in 60cm size is pretty small, and the cost of international freight is prohibitive. I guess I’ll just have to keep riding them all once a month.

rjhammett

I am getting up in years and don't want my kids to have to deal with disposing of my bikes. In the last year I have sold 10 'keepers'. All were pretty high end vintage steel. I have 6 bikes left. I plan to sell at least 3 more this spring/summer. Once that is done I will tackle selling the tons of parts that I have accumulated over the years. I have thought about doing this for a couple years because I didn't want to burden my kids. I thought it would be painful to get rid of my collection but I am feeling really good about selling them.

RustyJames 

The Allez rides sooo nice and kinda ticks the box for “spritely 80s steel” but I also have my Strawberry that was made the same year and is almost finished. The Circuit also rides very nice and the indexing is nice. Arrggghhhh…

Keepers, so far;
1 of the Legnanos
Merz
Chrome-frame old (50’s?) thing with BSA crank and pedals
1965 Schwinn Traveler
Rod-brake Bianchi (50s?)
Trek 420

Not sure;
1 of 3 MTBs
Raleigh Int’l frame
Cilo
Bianchi step-through
The other Legnano
Nishiki Mixte

A motivator is I am biased to less “serious” bikes. I just wanna hop on and ride. No special clothing required.

Mad Honk 

For those of you who want to talk me into more; Please don't! I have owned some really nice specimens such as factory issued Trek team bikes, and a couple of nice Schwinns. I now have a handful of Vintage Italian and even a few hand-made ones. I can't imagine letting go of chrome Faggin a gift from jdawginsc , or the Ciooc that was a gift from SwimmerMike , or even the Rossin still in the build process. I am not going to give up Ochsner, or the trek 950 (a gift from AdventureManCO ). I gave away likely seven bikes to our local Co-Op last year, and am thinking about downsizing the parts stash. So help a brother out, and talk me down from acquiring another. I am still sitting on a 1973 "Old Nago" that needs to leave. I guess it is a case of "First World Problems". Smiles, MH

SoCaled 

My Sirrus was also super smooth with snappy indexing, Circuit was a bit easier to let go, as it was just a tad big for me
We seem to be on a very similar page (although I think your Strawberry and Merz trump my keepers - Cuevas and Raleigh GS comp)

For road bikes, I still have some work to do but the path is mostly clear

MTB's - I am in the weeds
Cimmaron is a keeper - wasn't planned to be
Need to decide between 1988 Rockhopper comp (bought painted as a Pinarello) & Shogun Prairie Breaker Pro - basically same bike, don't need both
Collection of Peugeot ATB's - that all need work and should probably all go
Pair of Bridgestone MB's 2 & 3 - at least one needs to go
Tiny Bianchi Grizzly - Tried and failed to not buy
Schwinn Sierra MOS - have tried to sell and give away
Specialized Rockhopper - Is still "mine" but lived for 3 years in one neighbor's garage on semi-permanent loan, got it back for a week and now has been with another neighbor for 2? months.

merziac

Those buyers are us, the road to H**L.

Most all buyers for our stuff have the same and that isn't going to change I think.

Pretty sure we're coming down the backside of all this now for the most part.

No body is lining up to save us from ourselves, let alone going to make any of the $$$$$$ expended return.

My son has been advised to bail on whats left as he sees fit, no expectations, he knows what it is so he can make the call.

SwimmerMike 

I'm getting much better at looking at the collection and making decisions. I've sold 3 bikes/frames recently that I thought would be keepers. The 1948 Bianchi was at the house for no more than 2 weeks, it was just too small. The '69 Paramount frame was redundant to my 2 other Paramounts, and the Colnago was a tad small and I always went for my '81 Bianchi over it when I wanted to ride a racy bike of that era. They all found good homes around the country with BF members. Unfortunately, two other bikes with very expensive tastes made it into the garage for a net of 0 on the bikes and a lot more cash outgo.

albrt 

I've been making a pretty consistent effort to reduce the number of bikes over the past several months. I sold two for disappointing prices, and gave away a third. The giveaway was much more satisfying.

I never expected to make money on any of these, but I expected to be able to mitigate the damages a little bit if a bike did not turn out to be among my favorites. If vintage mid-range bikes in good working order are truly worth $0 on the open market that puts a little bit different perspective on things.

Kabuki12

I sold one last year and may sell at least one more this year. The market is as bad as ever but , other than a few of my bikes , it really doesn’t matter. I really only have one bike that I went all out on and that one is staying with me. If I sell more I will probably strip them down and sell all the Campy stuff separately and donate or sell the frames for a reduced rate. Seventies Campagnolo stuff is still worth something , so it doesn’t make sense to sell bikes complete for $100 . There is a 70’s Motobecane Grand Jubile with Campagnolo NR derailleurs for sale in my area for $99 and it has been lingering for months. Joe

AdventureManCO 

Yep, I used to think like that 'oh, I bet the kids will want it, will leave something nice for them' - not just bikes, but guitars, other stuff. Truth is they probably don't want any of it! They'll probably have their own interests and at this point, this type of thinking I have is just imposing on them.

Trust me, I've been over 'the list' dozens and dozens of times. Each time is a little different, but every time it is still too long. And if you can believe it, half the bikes on 'the list' are bikes that I don't even own yet. How is that for silly? I'm finding it is a bit easier to focus on the stuff that will be more easy to let go of than to focus on the stuff that I really want to keep. There is a really good question that comes to mind - if a wildfire swept through and I only had time to grab one or two bikes (after family and pets and all that), what would I grab? For sure the Huffente, and then...? I dunno? Maybe the Trek Multitrack?

Mad Honk please know that you owe me nothing towards that bike - if you want to sell it, flip it, donate it, it is fully yours and you have complete freedom to exercise your will, without regard - I have no string attached period!

Interesting that you mention the Cimarron, and more than a few have mentioned a Circuit. Both of those bikes have been on my short list after hearing such glowing things about each. But really, what I'd like is to get to a place where if I happen to find either one in my size, that I could 'opportunistically yet intentionally' purchase either and have enough room in the shop where I'm far the limits. Sort of an 'overflow/surplus' bike spot if you will.

The market is horrible, so I've forced myself to move past selling and into giving away and donating. Feels pretty good, and its a win-win.

panzerwagon 

Does not compute. Where’s the N+1 angle here?