Stay with me for a minute..I have a head-cold. Three straight days stuck in the house so my mind wanders (blunders) off into strange places.....

I have four "Good" bikes, plus three more that will be once they get refurbed a bit. And today I'm thinking...why does one person need seven bicycles? And that's not counting my three speeds, the Columbia roadster, a few project frames... a Balooner and an old MTB....

Here is the scary part...I'm still looking for more, I hit the thrift every week, I go to all the flea markets, I have a wish list thats probably another eight to ten frames.

Am I insane? Is it a side effect from my years of sloth and devotion to a sedentairy life? (I used to collect empty pizza boxes). I suppose I'm obsessive compulsive... I'll neglect the oil change in the Jeep to buy parts.. It's a good thing I don't have kids I guess.

Medication induced ranting mode off...

No it never stops you have what is call B.A.S. its the same a Guitar.Aquisition.Syndrom. except for bicycles. Its ok I stopped at 7 guitars (for now) but when I get my MAN room done I'm sure there will be more. Enjoy it as long as can ride each one for a while each week then its all good. Just like the guitars I pick one and play it and only that one for a period of time usually a month then change to another one. Bicycles I think need to be in rotation more often IMHO of course YRMV

Buy better bikes and move to a better climate--just sayin'

I say it could stop to an extent.. Ive become a "less is more" kinda guy - 1 good bike, 1 middle bike, and the junker. Just one each which will cover the task at hand.. granted im at a time in life where theres too much uncertainty and the future is just a bleak abstract concept.. if I had the space and the security I'd be collecting them good bikes.

John.

If I could get out of Ohio... I'd still take all my gas-pipe clunkers with me.

Well, if you raised your interest level to only higher quality bikes you'd find less available and less affordable, so its win/win and self monitoring!

I hit the thrift every other day, and why not. That's where I got my Super Sport for $10, and my PH10 for $9.73. Your statement describes me to the letter.,,,,BD

I was there for a while too. I stopped at five, and sold the one I could live without. Still have my 66 Harmony Rocket though. I added a Bigsby, had it refretted, and put on Sperzel tuners. A bit like putting
campy on a Varsity I guess, but I like how it sounds! Still have my hotrodded 93 Mexican Strat too. My brother is in full on acquisition mode right now. Seems like every time I talk to him he has another new guitar.,,,,BD

Not my Harmony, but it's the exact twin of this one. Add a Bigsby and a custom white pearloid pick guard, and you're there. Scroll down to the red arch top Harmony and click

https://www.andersparker.com/gear.php

You can find better ones out here, it's not worth the freight!

I could have the same problem were it not for another, all-too-useful, affliction: Over-organized-anal-retentiveness coupled with a bout of neatfreakism. I have this wonderful self limiting factor to my collecting.

I can store a maximum of two bikes at work - done. In my garage I have a rack of eight hooks, six of which can take completed bikes. The other two would have to be unloaded when I wanted to use my workbench. I allow one general use bike (the Bianchi Nyala) on the pavement with the motorcycles, either ready for road work or on the trainer on bad weather days.

Which conveniently limits me to nine bikes without any shuffling around, and an absolute maximum of eleven. At the moment, I've got the nine, the Raleigh frame intended for the spring fixie and that remaining frame is something that going to be a giveaway on Craigslist after the holidays. One space left for the possible modern bike, or the Campy/Denali.

There are advantages to being overorganized:

Syke,

I am not afflicted with that particular problem...

I have personally gotten to the point where I'm quite happy with my guitar situation. I'm even considering letting a few go. I would still like to have a custom electric though (1 piece ash Jazzmaster body hardtail with lipstick pickups and a chunky neck with a rosewood board if you must know )

Of course I've started jamming with some friends on drums now and have started to notice the shortcomings of my drum kit. Nice drums cost $$$$ too.

I'm trying to stay at a constant level, ie if I get a bike, one has to go. But then I'll see a 50's Peugeot mixte for $35 or a nice Nishiki touring frame in the recycle bin and the count goes up. I am getting better at getting rid of stuff but I like things to go to a 'good home' and that takes a bit of time. I keep telling myself this spring I'll sell off some of the herd and move upscale. We'll see.....

I am up on the other side of Ohio and have the same issue going on. I did a quick count and I have something like 17 bikes between the basement and the garage. These include my keeper/riders and bikes that I plan to flip or part out. The hard part is I look at too many of them and think 'That would really be great if I fixed it up and did...)

Just in the past few days I crossed the psychological barrier of stripping a really sweet riding bike down to sell for parts. It is the one I call my 'Cincinnati bike' since I got it on ebay and it was a pick up only from the Queen City. All Superbe Pro -- smooth and responsive. The funny thing is it was too nice a bike for me to ride.

I flipped a Centurion Le Mans that was in great shape and my size because the paint was so nice I knew that when (not if) I scratched it I would be annoyed. I am fixing up a similar era Le Mans with iffy aesthetics which I may keep. Nice ride and I don't have to worry about banging it up.

Oh and I have about 25 balloon tire and middle weight bikes in the attic above the garage.

I actually feel stressed when I pass a thrift store and I can't stop in.

I get thrift store cravings often.

There is no cure.

Not having kids is a factor.

I suffer from the same affliction but applied to Cadillac cars (4)
Canon film Cameras (30+)
Morgan and Peace dollar coins (300+)

While my wife has it for
movies
star wars figures (which I'm going to SELL)
Farscape whatever (which I call fartscape)
JAG (dvds and cards)

My ***** definately costs more money though...

But I only have one bike - the Professional - which I've had longer than nearly anything i own, although i did recently do a large Super Record upgrade and have lots of Nuovo record parts lying around...

Bikes take up a lot of room, that's a factor. Sure the cars are big, but we use them all the time. (and I know guys with 15 or more cars).

Not even counting the herd of flip bikes that seems to reproduce all by itself, I have about 4 or 5 bikes at any given time that are mine. Maybe, maybe I could justify 3 bikes.

But I seem to find myself at the thrift store or the LBS backroom about every week. Like a crack addict hanging around at the dark end of the park.

Maybe I should look into this guitar thing.

jim

I have only acoustic guitars 2 Martins a D-28 and a D-1R. Two Gibsons a J-45 tobacco sunburst Mahogany back and sides and a J-40 from the 70's that belonged to my dad. Then a Guild D-4 and a Fullerton OOO size that is a knockoff of a Martin OOO 45 and last but not least a Takamine 12 string from the mid 70's. I had a couple of Strats but figured out I'm not an electric kind of guy so now its just acoustics

back to the Original question (sorry I don't really play guitar, only sold them in the 70's).
I try to limit myself to one area, that being Dutch bikes. It helps tremendously in that I can
pass up all those paramounts, colnagos, Hetchins and other non netherlands bikes (ok I absolutely
could not pass up the deal I was offered on the Pogliaghi).
that said, if I had more room (and yes disposable income) I'd probably have at least twice as
many bikes as I do now.
What kills me is the collection of components I'm amassing, I mean seriously who needs 5 or 6 spare cranksets?

Marty

I think you are asking the wrong crowd. I know that I hoard "bottleneck" parts for the end days. Not even sure what my real rationale is. But I hoard cranksets, leather saddles, cup and cone BB parts, wheels -when I can get them, and long reach stems. Evidently, I must believe that when civilization crashes, I will be able to find enough chains and seatposts and derailleurs and handlebars to make do.

jim

p.s., oh yeah, and chainring bolts for some reason.

How true, how true.....

This place is NOT a support group! lol.....this place actually feeds my addiction.....

I have at least 20 bikes/frames in various build states....in the garage hanging from the beams, along the sides of the garage, in the basement.....only 4 are road worthy, though.....soon that number will be 6.....then 8......where does it stop?........death. Death is the only way out.....and I don't wanna die anytime soon.....too many bikes to gather and nurture back to health!

Substitute "dump" for "thrift store," and that pretty much describes my situation. Fortunately the nearest thrift (40 miles), a Salvation Army one, only keeps kiddie bikes.

I thought I was limiting myself by only looking for Schwinns. Big mistake.

Now death is something I know a little something about. But it doesn't have much to do with bikes so I'll not mention it here.

It's a sickness, there's no doubt about it.

When I land a bike at a garage sale, I proudly mount it on the bike rack and move on to the next sale. When I get home I leave the bike on the rack for all the neighbors to see. Like they almost care! I ve worked my way up to 50 bikes.

My wife looks at it like this, it's cheaper to let me buy these garage sale beauties and work on them than to pay a psychiatrist to get me to stop.

My guns and my bicycles seems to multiply every now and then. I have more guns, but my bikes are catching on. Yup, there's no cure.

It's tires* that we'll have to worry about. If something happens and gas rises to $15/gallon, there will be a lot of bike riders, and all the tires are imports!