In our garage-less, limited storage space house and less income in retirement, my avid cyclist wife and I have agreed that two each is enough. “If one comes in, one needs to leave”, although some timing flexibility is permitted. I find that having one permanently fendered bike (the ‘79 Miyata 912), and one bike that’s easy to transport in the car for our frequent out-of-town rides (the ‘87 Marinoni), both functionally useful sport tourers as well as being just great rides, has felt quite sufficient for several years. I was allowed a third for a while that didn’t have an obvious ‘fit’ in our scheme so it was easy to let go.

Last year, I differentiated them by performing a serious Gugificazione conversion on the Miyata (Thank you again, [MENTION=381793]gugie[/MENTION]!), making it an effective travel bike with rando front bag and front panniers for our trip to Europe next year and more of that kind of cycling fun. And the Marinoni occasionally gets its 650B transformation for rides like that great Palouse adventure led by [MENTION=135635]scozim[/MENTION] last summer. Both are extremely satisfying to ride any distance, fun to wrench, and easy on the eyes. Making them different has enhanced my appreciation for both of them.

But I have the distinct advantage of watching [MENTION=401497]RiddleOfSteel[/MENTION]’s fleet come and go in-person, permitting me vicarious thrills of serious C&V bike ownership, even beyond those from being active on this forum. Plus we occasionally get to do fun builds together as volunteers at Bike Works, like that 1987 Fuso and a 1997 Marinoni Special; and ROS just helped me complete the rebuild of a lovely early 80’s Rodriguez for a good friend.