Originally Posted by
RCMoeur
My observation is one-bike riders fall into one of 3 categories. Surprise, fear, and... wait - wrong list.
1. They only have or can afford one bike so it does everything they ask (or dies trying).
2. They only do one form of riding, whether it's triath-trialing, neighborhood cruising, etc.
3. They bought a (insert sales buzzword here) bike intended to be a "Swiss Army bike", e.g. great to have with you and good at a few things but not great at any one thing.
4. (wait, 4? you said 3!) They have a physical challenge that is accommodated by a specific type of bike.
Even in my most cash-deprived days I typically had more than one bike so I would have bikes that were optimized for some form of riding (even if cobbled together from third-hand parts). So going down to one bike may wait until I'm in category 4 above mumblesomething years from now.
I like the somewhat philosophical direction this is going. For someone that has access to roads, gravel, mountains, snow, etc. just what would be a good number?
Now, I've seen that joke cartoon (or is it just a diagram), showing 10-20 bikes, each one for a specific purpose, but assuming a bit of overlap is realistic...
Could one (again, assuming 'one' is an individual that loves bikes, loves riding bikes, wrenching, etc), potential get away with:
1) Road bike with 2 sets of wheels - 1 for road, 1 for gravel
2) Some sort of atb / mtb for when the desire hit to go a bit more off the gravel road
3) Some sort of Sat/Sun ride 'collector' bike that is fun to take on the retro rides and get all nerdy over?
4) Some all-weather commuter type bike?
You could even get away w/ combos - 1 and 3, or 1 and 4. 3 and 4 are polar opposites, so not really anything there.
For me personally, I like the idea of a do-anything, bugout bike - something that you could take, throw in the back of a vehicle, and no matter what you'd face, you'd at least have some sort of 2 wheeled transportation? An older 'atb' would be perfect for that. I like the idea of a fast road bike that is exhilarating to ride, something that reminds you of why you ride. I like something of an older collectible bike, but obscure enough that you don't see them often. A commuter, yes.
I could probably come up with another two dozen random idea for bikes, and then I'm sort of lost in it all again.