No, not at the same time!

I am using two different bikes for my rides each week. I have a racey road bike I keep at the office and ride from there, and a steel frame, drop bars touring/general purpose bike at home. I am working toward a Century or Metric Century in September (14 weeks from now). Is this a good idea, or are there good reasons to train on only one bike?

It's not a problem. However, you should make sure that enough of your training is done on the bike you will use for the event. If you're using the "racey road bike" for your century, it's important that at least some of your longer training rides are done on that bike so that you can identify any issues with position on the bike, gearing, making sure that you are comfortable on the bike for several hours at a time and so on. You don't want to be discovering problems of that nature on the day of the ride.

Other than that, ride as many as you like. Your fitness will improve just as fast, it depends on your effort, not on the bike.

Just coming back into training and a 60 miler next weekend. I have several bikes but for the last couple of weeks I have been riding the bike I will be using on this ride. Just got to clean and check after tomorrows ride and Possibly change the chain and adjust front Derailleur. One more long ride planned for Tuesday and then it will be finally check the bike till Saturday night. Ought to get a night ride in to check the position of the lights and I will be ready. Lights- It's a night ride. If it rains- I can offer you a dirty weekend in Brighton.

One for wet roads, one for dry roads, makes sense to me.

I've been training for a 110 miler tomorrow. On the group training rides (I was in the slow C group) there was one guy who showed up every week on a fixed gear single speed bike. He felt that when he rides his road bike for the event the hills will be a piece of cake. On the last ride he passed me on a 4.5 mile climb!

I have too many bikes to count and have 4 bikes I use for the road as well as my touring bike and all are suitable for long distances and have ridden them all enough to know that on a given day I could grab any one of them and knock down 100 miles... my choice would be based on how I plan to ride that 100 miles as the race bikes would get me from A to B just a little faster.

These bikes are two race bikes, one folder, and my XC mountain bike (with slicks).

Last year my folder was my most ridden bike and it did many centuries, metrics, and weekend trips where I rode between 200-300km as well as some moderately paced group rides.

Thanks, all! I'll be sure to take long rides on the bike I intend to ride on the Century. Cheers!

Inquiring minds want to know, which bike will it be?

I tend to agree with this. I've been doing 30 miles on Sunday with my 11 speed. I'm going to start doing it on my single speed and see how it goes. It's a flat ride and today I saw a lot of single speeds. Makes sense.

I don't think in terms of training, I ride my bikes. When I have a century or other big ride coming up, I ride more. I have four bikes that I ride depending on the nature of the ride and what mood strikes me on a given day. I'll make sure the bike I plan to ride for the event is dialed in and gets heavy rotation, but I'll ride all of my bikes.

I ride a steel Bianchi Vigorelli to work 4 days a week 25 miles round trip. On the weekends I'll do a long ride on my Cervelo RS that I also use for Century Rides. I switch back and forth with no I'll effect. My Bianchi is equipped with Shimano 105 while the Cervelo had full Ultegra. The Cervelo is faster and smoother so I am fortunate to have two bikes. They both get used weekly. Remember it is the training you do. Get a good bike fit and comfortable saddle and off you go. You can look on line for training for your first century programs. They are very useful just pick one and follow it. One thing on saddles I found that Selle SMP Evolution to be really comfortable even after 100+ miles. I have tried them all during the years this works great and no sore butt after a ride!

2005 Merckx Team SC (Alum/Scandium). I'll post a pic in the next couple of days.

For my two centuries this year, I spent some quality time on my fixed gear bike. I don't think it's a coincidence that these were the easiest centuries I've done in years - I owe some of that ease to my fixie, which forced me to pedal every inch of the way on my various 30 training rides.

I mixed in plenty of rides on my road bike, but I think the fixed gear gave me added endurance.

I have several bikes, I ride a different bike each time I go out. Now that I'm a older male I prefer to ride the touring bikes when I do long weekend trips, and use the racing type bikes on my shorter weekday rides.