I have tried this method of reducing my inventory of bicycles... But after selling a couple, I only seem to have ended up with more than I started with!

When you thin the heard it is kinda nice cause you'll appreciate them ones you have a whole lot more, I almost went through all of last year riding just one bike, but I do like to have two as when I commute to work and do grocery and shopping and what have you I dont wanna walk around in cleated shoes, just some sort of normal shoes in toe clip and stap pedals. I'll probably have a tt bike in the mix next year, that kinda irks me in a way just cause of the lack of room.. im gonna have to hang it from the ceiling in the corner some how.

gah! I know I just sold one and took on 3!

ZB, what did you sell, and what did you take on? Did you finally get rid of that Raleigh One Way?

This makes a little too much sense. I've had a heck of a time tinkering with the Super Course. It feels lighter than it is. I think it's about 30 pounds with fenders, a rack, and a big collection of accessories. But I can't get rid of the Rudge, at least not this year. I've wanted one for 30 years, and I finally have it. Maybe I need to try my ideas and be proven wrong.

Also, I hope that with my tinkering, I learn what a typical X weighs where X is each component, frame and fork. For instance, why is this 720 so inexplicably heavy? Is it the components or the frame?

I hope I don't regret selling the Super Course. I've regretted selling my Gran Sport, but hey, I was 19 years old. But this bike wants to move on. I picked it from the trash. By amazing luck, a neighbor recognized it. He had also trash-picked it and built into a bike for someone else who used it and eventually put it out. So I think it wants to spread the joy further, in a nomadic kind of way.

Velognome and Veloria: !

In the past I've gone years with just one bike, just like I've gone with just one motor vehicle. It is nice to have a 4-door passenger sedan and a pickup truck and a 2-seater sports car all at the same time, but I can get by just fine with just one car (as long as it has a trailer hitch on it. Likewise I can get by with just one bike, but it is nice to have options. Currently though I have one car, a wagon with a hitch.

My Colnago Master Light has a BOB trailer skewer on it just in case I wind up with just one bike again someday. I've also got a MTB with a BOB skewer too since that one-bike-only day ain't quite here yet.

Multi-bike ideality:
1. Matching his'n'hers Raleigh 3-speeds.
2. Commuter converted rigid MTB.
3. Singlespeed of some sort.
4. Multispeed roadbike.
5. Touring bike.
Any excess can be considered as flip/swap fodder.

Currently I have redundancy and haven't sorted out the overlaps.

I thought you might have had some attraction to the Rudge, but for the sake of practicality, which seems to be a theme of the thread, I threw the idea out there. Sounds like you've pretty much got your mind set about letting the super course go, If it we're my size I'd express an interest in it. You'll surely miss it, that's an inevitable part of the game .

I'll never let my Super Course go.

As far as I'm concerned, there's a place for each, and each in its place. That's why I'm in my current predicament

Cannondale Black Lightning - aluminum go-fast bike
Nishiki Modulus - steel go-fast bike (though I'm looking for a 531 framed upgrade...preferably English)
Fuji Palisade - triple-crank distance, fast/rando bike
Phillips - well, ya gotta have a 3 speed
Nishiki Riviera GT - loaded touring (not yet, but it's coming)
Univega Activa - cyclocross/mud/trails/etc. It was my original commuter.
Peugeot - fixed gear
Lenton Tourist - ok...two 3 speeds


And as far as I'm concerned, each one is for sale, pending a better-but-similar bike for a decent price (and pending my current financial situation )
I can go on. Each one has its purpose, and each one is ridden differently at different times and in different ways. The first three I beat like redheaded stepchildren though...

Asking this forum for advice on "thinning the herd," isn't that like asking addicts for advice on how to quit?

I am going through the same thoughts on my bikes and alot of my other posessions. I have too much stuff. I decided to just make a list of the stuff I actually need and then see if I have everything. I did this for my clothes and shoes and I have almost 3x the stuff I need. After buying some good shoes for work last week I don't want to go shopping for like a year and probably shouldn't. LOL

So yesterday I made a list for bikes and this is what I came up with

1 road bike
1 mountain bike
1 commuter bike
1 backup commuter bike
1 fun bike

Thats five bikes maybe less if I have a overlap. Lets see what I have that fits and then see what I might be able to cut.

Road bike
Lemond Victoire Nicest bike I own and probably will ever own.

Mountain bike
Diamondback Vertex WCF Love this bike

Commuter bike
Trek Police bike from the late 90's. The more I ride this bike compared to others the more I like it.

Backup commuter bike
Folding bike or mini velo. I have a couple to choose from here
Bianchi folder
Dahon Boardwalk 6 (bought this for my wife)
Windsor Shetland mini velo I just bought

Fun bike
Redline Monocog Flight I have had this on Craiglist for a couple months now, but nobody seems to want to pay my price. I like the bike.

This still leaves me with a number of frames I would like to build up

Ross Signature Road Criterium frame I stupidly repainted. It has some setimental value becasue it was my first thrift store find I have built it up in a couple of configurations.
A couple of mountain bike frames for possible backup commuters
GT Bullet kids mounain bike frame that I plan on making into a BMX type cruiser
Takara Road bike that I have mostly built up into a ghetto tri bike that I will proabably never use
Hercules 3-speed frame maybe good for a downtown bike idk
Specialized mountain bike frame that was converted to track dropouts
I am probably forgetting something else

Then there is 20+ other bikes/frames that I am planning on flipping or whatever.

My guess is that some of the bikes that I end up building up I won't like. I bought a nifty 80's Fuji lugged mountain bike a few weeks ago and it seemed like nothing I did to it made it that comfy. I decided I might as well sell it because I didn't enjoy riding it. Its too bad since I liked those suntour powershifter thumb shifters. Although I was dissapointed I guess thats a good thing in some ways since I obviously didn't need that bike anyway.

I have realized over the past few months that although I like tinkering and working on bikes I like riding them more than working on them. For this reason I am trying to tighten up my fleet and upgrade some of the bikes I really like. I am also trying to get out of the bike flipping game, but its hard to stop looking on CL or in thrift stores. Its an addiction or at least a big habit. I guess I could try selling some frames, but I have doubts I am going to get enough for them to be worth the trouble. I should just build things up and go from there and sell what I don't like. I am pretty fortunate to have the bikes I do. Sometimes I dream of owning only 1 bike, but its pointless to try because I have plenty fo space for more than one and I can afford more than one without being extravagant so I think its ok.

Hmm. This is truer than anything else said here.

Really want to thin the herd? Keep your two nicest road bikes, and one utility-ish bike which can be a MTB, cross bike, or touring bike depending on what you are doing with it (use for commuting, bad weather, etc...). Any more than that is pretty redundant honestly, especially 3 speeds and cruisers.

Also agreed...

It's real simple. Keep what you need, get rid of what you don't need. Right now, I only need one bicycle. If I were to get rid of my car, then I would probably need two, and that's it. Anything more than that is pure luxury. Apparently, some people define "need" as having bikes that are just fun to ride. I'm all for having fun bikes, but that's not how I define "need."

Since I keep up just fine on group/charity rides with my commuter bike, the only other bike I'd need would be a cargo bike. A road bike would be a luxury.

If/when I thin the herd, a couple of rules I consider.

1. If I have overlapping bikes, and I consider both equally competent, then the bike that is more marketable (at or near full market value) is the one I sell.

2. If one bike is really hard to find, and one bike is pretty easy to find, I will let the "easy to find" bike go, as if I ever regret selling it, I figure I can replace it fairly easily.

3. Sentimental bikes trump the rules, but I do not have any sentimental bikes right now. But I understand when others apply the "sentimental" rule.

I find all my vintage bikes to be pretty reliable, so I don't keep a "reliable" one.

If I had to reduce the keeper herd to just two bikes, I would keep a rigid frame MTB, and my Schwinn Prologue. The rest can go and can be replaced later if I change my mind, or need a different style bike.

wrk101, that's food for a LOT of thought. If I followed it, I'd be able to get rid of a heck of a lot of stuff. And I should. But it's hard. And I could really use the money right now.

What's easier to find, a Super Course with original but damaged paint, or an International with a new paint job?

So much of this depends on things like where you live, how and why you ride, how much space you have and many other variables.

Being honest with myself...I legitimately "need" only three bikes...one as a multi-purpose commuter, cargo, do it all bike capable of handling gravel, one fast road bike and one back up/winter bike. Anything beyond that are bikes I want. I could see an argument depending on the purpose and person, for more specialization.

Looking at my collection, the Koga Miyata is clearly my most practical and needed bike. It's also the bike I find myself riding the most often. It can handle rain, gravel, loads, distance rides and some day will be the touring bike I take cross country. I have the stump jumper as the winter/back up bike and then a bunch of road bikes. I also have the International, the stated purpose of which was trail riding and fast commuting, but the Lemond Poprad works better for both.

When looking at thinning my stable, the International is clearly the odd man out. I also sold the De Rosa to help fund the Marnati because I couldn't justify having two Italian Campy road bikes. The Merckx had the same group as the De Rosa (8sp ergo) and the Marnati replaced it as the orange Italian. What I'll probably do long term, because I do want a De Rosa in the collection, is to find a panto late 70s or early 80s model. Ideally I'd want the 1987 De Rosa signature, because that was the first bike I ever truly lusted for. The second was a Merlin.

Tom -
I'm not "into" thinning herds, but if I had to, I'd start with a complete list, and compare any two bikes from that list...

The winner would go up against the next bike, and the next, ad-nauseum until only ONE bike remained.

Then, I would repeat the whole process to select a Second, a Third, and so forth.

- If the winners were all one kind of bike, so be it: My gut would have spoken!

The one that's closest to 58cm

Seriously, the Super Course is an easier to find bike in any condition.

+1.

Yeah, I'm going to sell it. I might polish the frame first, because the paint is pretty bad. I'll probably put upright bars on it again.

I'm making my Cross Check into a general purpose bike. It has fenders, and I'll put a rack on it. I'll build a pair of medium-weight wheels for it so I can swap them on any time the going gets rough. It currently has insanely light-weight wheels on it.

Good point. I have three (and a half) commuter bikes: one for dry days in summer (no fenders), one for rainy days in summer (fenders), and one for the winter once the snow flies. It has two sets of wheels (hence the "and a half"), one with 25C slicks ('cos it doesn't really snow all that much here) and one with 32C cyclo-cross knobs (for when it does.) Alas, can't fit studs. Now, my commute is long so I spend a lot of time on my commuter bikes and want to enjoy each optimized for weather conditions. I don't use any of them for grocery getting (unless they'll go in my backpack), but flowers for my wife can be tied athwart the handlebars.

So Tom, don't be too quick to cull your fleet. Even if you could use the money, think hard about whether your collection will be worth as much to the marketplace as it is to you now. For most people cycling isn't a "way of life" the way it is here for many of us -- you might find yourself with a little more cash but a lot worse off.

I'm craving another bike, to be built up out of my spares: A no-BS utility bike with diamond frame, single speed drivetrain, front and rear racks, sidepull brakes and airless tires. Sometimes you just don't want to fuss and fiddle.

I'm hypercritical of my bikes. Every time I ride, I think of something the bike needs, even if it's a tiny tweak. This would be the case even with a single-speed.

Having lots of bikes means I can jump on another when one has a flat.