Hmmm. Clearly there should be more votes for option one, given all the "just because/why not?" responses.
Poor wording on my part. Similarly, option three wasn't intended for where we assign different functions to similar bikes, but rather for collections where bikes are different by design.
Oh well. Written responses have been more interesting to read than the poll, anyhow.

Custom Engin ti for road rides
Surly LHT for commuting and touring
Bike Friday NWT, which was my old commuter
IF SCJ SE, which was my road ride
Cannondale M300, which I won in a photo contest but never rode much

I have six bikes and each one serves a purpose to me. If I could create a use or purpose for a 7th bike I'd buy a 7th bike.

1. Alu road bike with fenders, no rack, 25mm tires for riding to work most days, except winter.

2. Steel cross bike with fenders, rack, panniers, 38mm city tires/35mm studs for riding to work in winter and for picking up loads of grocery on way home from work year round.

3. Alu cross bike with disc brakes for...hm, this bike seems redundant to me. It was the most recent bike I bought and doesn't really serve much of purpose other than the fact that it has disc brakes and I wanted a bike with disc brakes. I thought I might tackle some gravel trails and dirt roads when I bought this. Not so much interested anymore.

4. Vintage steel road bike from my teenage years restored to former glory for riding occasionally. Makes me feel young and old at the same time. Strictly summer and dry roads.

5. Carbon road bike for weekend riding. Also rarely used as I don't ride much on weekends anymore.

6. Steel old beat-up MTB for riding to the park with kids and getting groceries locally.

I'm at seven right now and looking to make some room in the garage. Pretty sure I don't need two commuters and a cargo bike I rarely ride.
Two road bikes though? That just makes sense.

I need another option: Too lazy to clean out the garage.

Hmmm, so maybe I can try to show a "distinct function" for each. Here goes nothing....

1987 Waterford Paramount - Fast rides over flat/rolling courses
1990ish PDG Paramount - Fast rides when I'm feeling patriotic or to try and beat the time of a course done on the other Paramount just to prove the "lesser" PDG ones are just as good as the Waterford built one.
1987 Schwinn Circuit - Fast rides and long climbing rides when I want a "lighter" bike under me.
1989 Greg LeMond Ventoux - When I want a comfortable ride and used for centuries. I'll also climb with this one when I want a harder workout with a heavier bike
1990ish Greg LeMond Maillot Jaune - Fast rides with no sprinting until I sort out the RD issue of ghost shifting under power
2003 LeMond Tourmelet - Either fast rides or climbing rides with shallower descents. This one has a 53/34 set of Wickwerks chainrings so I can pedal a higher speed on the shallow descents where a lot of the route doesn't let me tuck and go fast.
2000 LeMond Zurich - Most fast ride PRs are on this bike but alas, all I can do is dream about it now. Loaned it to a friend a couple of years ago and still don't have it back.
1983 Bob Jackson-When I just want to take out something different and comfortable. This one goes a bit flexy under my weight at hard efforts.
1985 Fuji Opus III-My "Sunday" rider because it is so beautiful and classic looking. Superbe Pro is a joy to use.
1999 Bianchi Campione - Fast rides when I don't mind a bit of harshness and want to rock the valley with a fat old man riding a fluorescent green bike wearing fluorescent green jersey and socks.
1989 Giordana Antares- For those days I want to mess with the other riders. Picture a fat old man on white and pink bike wearing pink jersey and socks blowing by you on your brand new $20,000 C.F. bike. Feel the shame as you see he's only rocking 6-speeds and DT shifters. Too much fun and always makes me work harder. Oh and I'll use this for Pantani climbing "tribute" rides even though it's only rocking a 42 tooth small chainring. This does hold my fastest descent speed PR.
1988 Basso Gap-For the days I want to be carried along the roads on a soft, silken clound of pure comfort. This is one smooth riding bike that also happens to look quite beautiful.
1987 Schwinn Prologue - Another fast rider when I when to get low and slung out. This one is just a joy to ride but as a Dura Ace 6 speed classic setup it's not a real climbing bike for me.
2003 Kona Jake the Snake - Primarily my bad weather ride with fenders, gatorskins, etc. Will also take this one if doing some gravel.
1981 Fuji S12-s - 650b conversion that I'm still setting up for comfortable light touring. Good choice for days I want a slower more comfortable ride. In other words, hardly ever, LOL!
1986(?) Orbea Cabestany - This one was my main ride this past winter with the roads were dry but full of crap. It's a real mess of parts that work so well. Original 5 speed DT shifters friction shifting a 9 speed Ultegra RD over a 10-speed Campagnolo rear cassette while running fat 700 x 30 tires. This Vitus frame seems really stiff but rides nice and carries speed well. I've not tried it on climbing rides.

Mid 90s Giordana XL Super - Fast rides, climbing rides, comfort rides, and on and on. This is the perfect bike for me as it does everything so well while feeling utterly perfect under me. The bike gods sure smiled on this bike the day it was born.

1990ish De Rosa Nuovo Classico - Still deciding on the purpose for this one so it's not built up yet. Either going to use a 9 speed Chorus group I have or go all out with new Campagnolo Record or better and build it up light as a real climbing machine.

1972 Peugeot U-08 - For tooling around town and other leisurely rides.

And I think that's all the current road bikes.

Rideable right now:

1) race bike
2) CX/gravel bike
3) FG
4) beater mtb

I also have a couple frames hanging in the rafters, one is my old race bike that I will rebuild for my rapidly growing 13-yo son.

Heresy.

Sorry, we're going to have to report this to the mods.

2 bikes, one for the city, one for the country:
Nashbar Carbon Ultegra - soon to become a Bowman Palace R. Generally a faster race bike style setup, despite not being particularly fast myself, nor racing. Training mode.

Black Mountain Cycles Road - more of an "all-road" setup. Ride this in the winter in the city too. Exploring mode.

I have to admit to myself I've moved over into collector territory. I guess I'm ok with that.

1. 03 Cinelli Supercorsa - too pretty to ride, need to address that. Needs a new stem and post to be comfortable
2. 14 Stevens Ventoux - my only plastic bike, great for going fast and far
3. 83 Trek 600 - touring bike and around town bike. It gets the most miles
4. 84 Bianchi Nuovo Alloro - flat bar roadie, town bike
5. 86 3Rensho - rescued single speed conversion. First frame I braze repaired in college
6. 94 Cannondale track - grail bike, sees the most miles of the single speed stuff
7. 94 GT GTB - track bike from college days. We went to the ER together once
8. 90? Romic track - first collecting splurge
9. Lynskey Ridgeline - my only mtb bike right now
10. 90 Burley Duet - tandem, probably selling to a friend soon. Remnant from previous relationship.
11. 10 Dahon - folder
12. 13 Cinelli Zydeco - cross bike
13. 16? Cinelli Mash SSCX - not sure why
14. 91 Cannondale Criterium - always wanted one. Looks stellar next to the track.
15. 95 Klein Quantum II - have you seen the paint job?
16. 89? Concorde Squadra - another bonkers neon paintjob I couldn't resist. Possibly Ciocc-built.

I got 5 working bikes, three of which are mountain bikes. I need to sell one trail bike and keep one where the other mountain bike is an xc singlespeed.


I have one road bike and one cyclocross bike. The road bike is for group rides and the cyclocross bike is for gravel, cx, and general riding around.




I can honestly say I don't have another bike on my radar right now. If I forget about mountain biking right now, I could probably see myself getting a back up road bike that could take wider tires and possibly full length fenders.

I currently have two bikes:

'14 Fuji Sportif 1.3: Upgraded to 105 FD/RD/Shifters for cleaner lines and shifting. Also toyed around with tires (looking up some Compass Bon Jon Pass 35c) for commuting. Also great for gravel and endurance riding, all I need is just to change the tires currently, actually seeking out a different wheelset to make the change easier.

'12 Fuji SST 2.0 UDi2: Strictly for training and local fast rides.

On the radar:

Definitely a cheap beater for campus beat downs
A proper gravel bike (Jamis Renegade, CAADX, and GT Grade are on the short list)
Another, better quality endurance bike (like a Specialized Roubaix)
A chopper/cruiser bike (brother-in-law builds custom rigs and is in that scene pretty heavily)
A mountain bike (have a few rides under my legs, but haven't researched enough to narrow down a choice)
Cargo bike... possibly.
Also... the gravel/CX bike would most likely act as a bikepacking platform, that or the MTB.

I'd also look at different wheelsets for the bikes which could give them better versatility and possibly relinquish the need for another bike altogether.

All things to lust after... it's great to have a wife who only rolls her eyes at my hobby when I'm not looking.

Literally just bought a TT bike yesterday moving my number of bikes to N. So now I need another bike.

3, uh...4...oh look, a squirrel!

For me, the bikes serve an entirely different purpose.

Allez DSW Sprint SL - this is a fairly fast and aerodynamic bike that's great for going faster at a certain wattage...It's surprisingly comfortable, stiff, very fast in the corners, and with a little engine work, quite the climbing machine. The only problem is you will have to always hit your brakes on downhills in group rides. Rollers are a breeze on this machine, just stay in the drops and drop the hammer down. On certain days, you do wish for an extra climbing gear, but then you remind yourself that pain makes you faster...and you feel good about it.

Fuji Cross - currently outfitted with some 32mm Roubaix Pro tires - this is a laid back cruising machine for the towpath and/or exploring. I'll bring this one on vacations where I don't know where I'll end up. I also have some 32mm knobby tires in the event that a world flood happens and everything turns to mud. This bike also typically lives on my indoor trainer about 90% of the time.

I've ended up with these two bikes after years of trying different things. I've had mtb's, 29ers, gravel bikes, endurance bikes, etc etc - and these are just the two bikes that do everything I enjoy doing.

I'm content with 5 for now.
Prime time road bike
Rain, backup road bike
Steel road bike for casual rides
Touring bike
Hybrid to use as alternative to driving

None of the above. When you commute on your bike every day, you may not always have time to work on your bike before you head out the door; you want a backup bike(s) ready to go.

Loving these responses, so many make so much sense... a combination of "specific use", "collection", and experimenting with different materials and groupsets. The one path I haven't gone down is modern carbon, and only a super-fantastic deal could make that happen. I'm truly happy at the moment with the range I've got.

* '98 Klein Pulse, hardtail mtb for city riding
* '76 Bianchi Sprint 76, heavy steel, upgraded w/modern 9-speed Campy, for winter & training
* '00 Bianchi M Alloy Pro, fat aluminium tubes, pretty and light and I love it, can't bring myself to parting with it
* '97 Colnago Competition "Crystal", sweet steel frame and gorgeous to ride
* '97 Litespeed Catalyst, titanium w/new 10 speed Veloce.

I was moving stuff around my shed and had them all out in the garden:

At the moment, I have 2. Both road bikes.
One is an aluminium specialized dolce. It's My first road bike, I bought it last year. Entry level, Claris groupset. It's a more endurance geometry oriented frame. I'll be fitting it with mudguards and a rack soon as it will be my wet weather/winter bike. I'll also use it when I head out on rides with my wife, as well as take it into town or on holiday.

My second is a Sublime zoku, a custom build from a local company. It's carbon with 105, and a more aero geometry. But still a very comfortable ride. It's my 'best bike, used for club runs, long rides, sportive and commuting. It won't go into town or on holiday and lives in he house, not the garage.

My first interest when I started cycling was timed endurance climbing events in the 100-200 mile/10k feet of climbing range. So I have an endurance climbing bike, it's very comfortable to ride on very long days in the saddle.

I wanted a back up road bike, looked around and bought a used race bike, a Trek Madone. It is stiffer than my endurance bike, with quicker handling. I like it for group rides and interval workouts on the road bike.

Then I became interested in time trials, so I bought a TT bike. TTing is my main thing, so I ride that bike a lot nowadays. It's fun to go fast sans draft.

And then I didn't want long weekends off the bike like I was having with our sail trips (we were sailors before I was a cyclist). Our main sailing destination is an off shore island that has very few paved roads. So I bought a mountain bike to ride over at the island, and have since found that I really like mountain biking.

So four bikes and I ride em all regularly. Not "collecting," they each have a purpose in my cycling life.

I have five bikes, and my wife doesn't seem to care at all, but she did ask why I need two helmets. I explained one for road, one for mtn.

I don't think she understood.