RB1-luvr

I have 5 road bikes, 2 touring bikes, 3 mountain bikes and 5 vintage cruisers.

The vintage cruisers are not getting ridden as much as they used to since moving to a hilly neighborhood, so I'm going to sell four of them.

Collecting, working on, and riding them is fun. As someone else said, they don't take up much space.

staehpj1

When you want a new bike for what ever reason, there just may not be a driving need to unload any of the old ones. If you like them, have the space, and money isn't tight why not keep them?

These days I have pared down some, but I don't see why it is unreasonable to not do so. I think I am down to 6 if I am not forgetting any. That is not counting several that went with friends or family that I don't think will come back. In the past the total was probably double that or so.

indyfabz

IKR. I live in a pretty small house. When two of us lived together, we had as many as 5 bikes on the first floor. They were never in the way.

MinnMan

1. Commuter/shopping bike: set up with heavy steel baskets in the back, wide knobby tires, fenders.
2. Gravel bike - light carbon frame, wide tires, appropriate geometry.
3. TWO road bikes. The other day, as I was headed out for my early morning Saturday ride, I realized that Road Bike #1 had a flat tire.* Not wanting to miss the start of the planned group ride, I just grabbed Road Bike #2. If I had had to change the tire, I would have missed the ride. Also, when one of the two bikes is in the shop or waiting for a part...
4. Dedicated trainer bike. An older road bike that lives on the trainer. Always set up perfectly for the purpose with no time needed to get ready.
5. Recumbent Trike - it's a different experience all together.

I might get a fat bike before winter comes, so that would be 6.

*Very odd, as I had pumped up the tires the night before and there was no apparent problem then. $hit happens.

oh yeah, one of the bikes listed on the LHS there, the KHS, is gone. It needed more repairs than I thought were justified for an old bike with a very beat up frame. But next week my daughter is coming home for a visit and I'm sorry that I don't have it around for her to ride (she's tall and rides my-sized bikes).

79pmooney

I had two for decades, My good bike, the 1979 Peter Mooney that is an all-arounder that can do just about everything except be high performance enough to race and my workhorse winter/rain/city fix gear. In my apartment and later the crazy years of my first home ownership which included a failed marriage, two bikes were plenty. Early '00s, new to me house with garage, out of my marriage - put together a fun, performance fix gear on the cheap. Later '00s, a good paying job. I could afford the titanium custom I"d wanted since I tool a spin on the Merlin founder's personal bike. So I had TiCycles make me one. Around that time I realized I wanted a geared version of the fixed winer/rain city bike because 1) the Portland area is not flat and 2) my body was no longer that of a 20 something. Built it up. Bike number 5. I retired my el cheapo fun fix gear because I knew it had been hit by a car before I got it and didn't want it to fail on those same hills and had a ti version built. Still 5.

Last summer, a forumite posted pics of a rusted '83 Japanese race bike frame. And there it was! The bike I raced and loved, only 7 years later with 7 years of active innovation and improvements. So now I have 6. No real reason for that last one but it is a pure joy to ride. Getting on that seat takes me back almost 50 years to the time when I had the body of a bike racer, the fitness of the top 0.1% elite and the ride as pure as the thin leather flats I ran in HS cross country.

6 very different rides despite all being dropped handlebar road bikes. Half are geared. Half are fix gear. One of each carries a lock, wears fenders and racks, is fully rain "who cares" and is lockable almost anywhere. One of each is an all day rider that can handle comfortable tires (no, not big) and can handle bad weather. And one of each is a special ride. That old racer and my Mooney; a ride that has seen me through my worst years, been my link to sanity and that I have probably 3000 hours of my life on.

PhilFo 

Why?
For the same reason that I want to eat something other than ice cream sandwiches. I really like them, but I also like other food.

I currently have six of my own working bikes, but I'm also the custodian of my significant other's pedal-driven-locomotion devices, so you could count a total of ten, with a project in the stand. After that's done it will be eleven total. Seven for me, four for her.
Each of the bikes has a purpose or certain utility:
Folding commuter, 3x8 MTB, cargo, touring, light utility, road, single-speed MTB in the stand.
Each of these bikes was built for a purpose and fulfils that purpose well. Others could fulfill the same purpose, but not as well.
That's why I own and regularly ride six, soon to be seven, bicycles.

downtube42

Roll into town, beat the locals at their own game, rescue the princess, roll out of town.

Kwai had the same gig in Kung Fu, he just used his hands and feet.

If I wasn't saddled with a mortgage and a spouse, that's how I'd roll

jaxgtr

The question is, why not have many bikes.

macattack71

I then need to get another bike or two. Only have two. The old Raleigh Road bike stays on the trainer, though its also my Katy Trail gravel bike, which is infrequent. Fixed it up to Tiagra 2x10 with 32mm tires, it is now an easy bike to ride. Charlene gets ridden outside only. I could use a bad weather bike. I just don't have the time to be in the saddle do much. Need to find a way to ride after work, when I can't commute.

50PlusCycling

Because I like bikes. I also have a lot of guitars because I like guitars.

Ironfish653

I had one bike for everything for a long time; a nice Cannondale hard tail; set up for city commuting/utility riding and light trail use. Sometimes, though, having only one bike means it may be too much or not enough for a given ride.
The more riding you do, especially different kinds of rides; the more you can see the benefits of having more than one bike.
You don’t have to figure out what to do with the racks and baskets for a trail ride, because they’re on the commuter/ townie; or swapping the slicks for knobbies on the weekend.
Add in a dedicated lightweight for training/sporty rides and you’re on your way to a collection.

I also like to scan Marketplace/CL ads for interesting projects, potential flips or builds for friends/family; and a couple of my bikes, like my SoftRide, were acquired that way. Sometimes one of those “I’ve always wanted to try one of those” bikes turns up at a price that’s too good to walk away from

Gresp15C

Technically, I could do everything with one bike, but it would be a bag of compromises. Why not...

1. Dedicated winter bike, that can bear the brunt of salt and grit. Might as well configure it for winter riding, e.g., IGH and a shifter that's easy to operate while wearing heavy mittens.

2. Single speed "fun" bike, as lightweight as practical without shelling out for expensive new parts.

3. "Klunker" that's unlikely to get stolen if parked somewhere downtown.

Reflector Guy

I don't hoard bicycles, but I do hoard cameras. I bet I have more than 20 of them. Fortunately they don't take up much space.

I also have four cars. One guitar.

tFUnK

Because:

• Different bike for different purposes, (up to a certain point).
• When I was younger I couldn't afford a nice bike. Now I'm a working professional and have the funds and the space to support my hobbies.
• Related to the 2nd point, sometimes there are really great deals on used bikes, particularly bikes that were meaningful to me during the time in my life when I lacked the funds or the space to indulge.
  • Two of my bikes are "collectors" meaning I lusted over them when I was younger and they were uncommon enough that I was fortunate to pick them up, and I don't envision ever selling unless I had to.
  • Others make fun projects that I like to build to a particular spec, ride for a bit, and eventually sell.

Eric F 

How many is a lot? Between guitars and bases I have 10 (recently down from 13). I don't feel like that is a lot.

robinhood1971

Trying to keep the number at three for space, but it's not easy.

genejockey 

Oooo! I see we're doing lists!!
Okay, then - by age:
1982 Lotus Supreme - Japanese steel, 7200 Dura Ace
1982 Lotus Classique - Japanese Steel, 600 Arabesque
1985 Centurion Ironman - Japanese steel, 6207 version of 600
1989 Schwinn Circuit* - Columbus steel, full 7 sp indexed Sante groupset
199? Battaglin - Columbus MAX steel, Italian lugged construction, newer Chorus 10sp
1994 Cannondale R500 - American aluminum, RX100 8 sp w/ indexed DT shifters
1995 Litespeed Ultimate - American Titanium, R8000 11 sp Ultegra
1996 Ritchey Road Logic - Japanese Steel, Tom Ritchey design, Taiwanese welding, mixed 7410/7800 Dura Ace
2006 Bianchi 928 - Italian CF, Veloce 10sp, compact crank
2020 Canyon Endurace - German designed Chinese CF, disk brakes, 11sp R7000 105

Each of these has some aspect that makes it unique within the collection. Every one has its own characteristics which make each a unique joy to ride. Any new addition would have to bring something new to the table.

* currently exists as 3 frames, 2 forks, 1 wheelset, and a box of parts. Long story.

Chandne

I mountain bike, road bike, gravel bike and fatbike on snow. So that is four, so I at least have to have four. I need a mountain bike backup (with more travel for tougher trails) and a road bike backup...I ride those the most. So that's six. Then I needed a fatbike e-bike, a Mtn bike e-bike, and a road e-bike. So that is nine. I figured that was bare minimum.

SoCaled 

"If someone tells you that you have enough bicycles and you don't need any more, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life" - @gugie signature

XxHaimBondxX

I'm starting to understand why people have at least 5 bikes. Had myself hankering for a fixie and picked this up today. I have no idea why MSRP was at $600, but for $20 I thought it was worth it.

Broctoon

FIFY. People steal everything.

teejaywhy

I don't know why anyone that is not a collector would have 10-20 bikes.

Three bikes would be "many" to some.

indyfabz

The only place I have had a bike stolen from was my living room, while I was home and awake, and I’ve been locking bikes on the mean streets of Philadelphia for more than 30 years. And I’m not talking beater bikes. The replacement cost of the racks on my touring/commuter bike is about $500.

deimos25

It just depends how versatile your riding is. Me, for example, ride mtb and slow touring rides, thus only have two: hardtail mtb and hybrid. But as I am planning to go more deeply into the road cycling I am soon getting a road bike. In ideal conditions I don't see having more than 5 bikes.

BBB_Adrift

Because I dont have space for 6.

;-)