Getting to Know You, Intimately
 

I have tried to stay busy in the winter in these last seven years, and have built a bike during each one. I know some riders or collectors advocate that one should buy, or build, yet another bike, no matter the present number, but what I have learnt is that, in the attempt to keep them all in a "rotation" and active, I have distanced myself from them, in that I do not get to really "know" any of them. Has anyone else discovered this phenomenon? What did you do about it? I am considering choosing one bike per summer and really establishing a relationship with it.

They are kept in there own places & when I do ride them, I take them out to different locations. I'll throw a clean towel over them after I'm done. I don't mind it, they'll always be there when I want them.

I'm thinking of increasing the distance of my rides.

They are bikes, not human beings. If it takes you all summer to get to know them intimately, you're doing something wrong.

I think 1,000 miles is reasonable in a 3-month period, to know the personality of a bike, so I'm thinking of riding all of them (except for the 3-speed and the MTB) at that distance, thereby getting in more like 5,000 miles. Sounds like a plan.
They may not be human, but they are not "just bikes", either.

Thank you. You've been very helpful.

This thread seems to be humblebrag bait.


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You should ride all of them back and forth to your appointments with your shrink.

Not that I meant for it to happen, but I've found that my small fleet of five bikes has divided itself into two fiefdoms: my three 700c bikes and my two 20" folding bikes. I find myself riding bikes out of one group or another for weeks or even months at a time, and each time I decommission one group and commission the other, it's like we've just met for the first time. It's a strange and weird feeling, but it's also wonderful and keeps things interesting, despite them having been the same bikes for years.

Remembered the user name. Here is another doozie:

https://www.bikeforums.net/training-...eing-here.html

You people are unbelievable!

I have not discovered this phenomenon. Perhaps I do not ride enough miles? Perhaps I just know how my bikes will feel/perform better than you know how yours will feel/perform?

- main road bike thats new steel with modern components. It gets the most road miles each year as it fits the best and has the nicest components.
- backup road bike thats old steel with modern components. It gets used less than the main road bike because it doesnt fit as well. Ill use it for some shorter rides sometimes. It lives on my trainer from mid-October thru mid-March for zwifting.
- gravel bike. It gets the most gravel miles each years since its what I select for mixed surface rides up to full gravel rides.
- commute/tour bike. It used to be used more than it is now because I work from home these last few years. I am going to change it to a large front platform bag instead of panniers as the default carrying setup in the hopes that I use it more this coming year. I will use it only slightly more frequently and come this time next year, I will be annoyed I spent money on that front bag.
- backup to the backup road bike. I always have one, I rarely use it, but its a sickness that I continue to have one. Its usually something different each year- currently building a Cannondale CAAD3 that I splatter painted and hanging some 6800 Ultegra on it. I will love the idea of using it a lot and will end up using it rarely.
- will build up a singlespeed from an older steel frame. This one is a Peugeot 531 road frame that will fit 35mm tires. I will ultimately use it just as infrequently as all the other single speed bikes I have build up. I will hope this time it will be different, but I will continually pass over that bike for bikes that will allow me to ride faster/further. Itll get out for 20mi each month on one or two family rides. I will be frustrated come next December that I once again did not use the bike as much as I hoped.

I know my bikes- both the current ones and ones I havent yet ridden. I dont need to distance myself from any of them to know how they will feel/perform.
Admittedly, I dont fully understand your plan. But best of luck on it being motivation to ride more bikes.

"Funny. I was thinking the same thing."--Jules Winfield

But have you been intimate with them?

Well, I for one take the question posed in the original post very seriously. In that spirit, and while I've never experienced a desire to "know" my bicycles intimately, I believe that there must exist out there quite a few short films on the subject. Let's just call them 'documentaries'. I'm sure that some of these might contain helpful hints and suggestions.

I'm afraid I can't direct the op to specific examples, but I don't think they would be hard to find.

Can't speak for anyone else, but for me this feeling of "newness" lasts about 5 minutes while I snap back into the habits I had on that bike before. It's like riding a bicycle.

I can just imagine. "First, I want to slowly loosen your quick release until your front wheel falls lazily to the floor. I reach for the lube and go to work, making sure I every inch of your chain is slippery and glistening...."

Never on the first date.

If you built it yourself, is it incest?

Slight digression: Grant Petersen, writing about geometry differences between bikes, said that, on his first ride on a bike with a bottom bracket markedly higher than that of the bike he'd been riding regularly, he started out hating the way the bike rode. But then he noticed that, after a half-hour or so on the bike, it felt fine, and he settled into enjoying its ride. If he rode the bike for a week or two and then got back on the first bike, that one now felt weird and required some time in the saddle to reacclimatize to it.

I've found that to be true. My 1987 Cannondale M500, with its 12" BB height and Beast of the East geometry, made me feel like a flagpole sitter whenever I took it out for a ride after riding other bikes, but all it took was a few minutes to get used to it again.

Mos’ def’. I experience the same when switching between my touring bike and my road bike, but it doesn’t take long to reacclimate. One thing that sometimes happens is that, if I have been riding the touring bike, which has bar end shifters, for a while and get back on the road bike, I will reach down to grab the non-existent bar end shifters. When I move from the road bike to the touring bike, I will initially try to shift using the brake levers. Makes me chuckle.

If the goal was to stay busy, then the winter build project served its purpose. If you've accumulated too many bikes to "know" them all, sell or donate a few.

I can wholly agree. I think N+1 is a great formula for collecting but truthfully I believe I do have too many bikes and not all of them ones I really want to ride. I have built some stuff that is great but I just don't ride it and while two of them are ones I love staring at a couple I just don't really need anymore. I would rather just get rid of some of it and build an upgraded version that I want to ride more. I have gotten to know some of the bikes but these days I am not riding them as much so figuring out a better solution would be ideal.

If I had the money I would probably sell my Langster and build up my ultimate dream fixed gear road bike out of titanium and possibly also get rid of the Cinelli Mash Work and build up a gravel bike with plenty of tire clearance that I could run single speed if I wanted and maybe also make it rack compatible and then maybe get rid of a couple road bikes and just run them all as a 1x gravel bike. I could probably figure out different wheels and swapping chainrings and cassettes and maybe do some magic numbering to not have to swap the chain each time? I don't know but I would like to have a smaller collection so it is easier to manage and find what I want to ride and ride them all more often.

This has to be one of the most bizarre, disturbing threads I have seen in awhile. And there have been a few.