So, I have a Giant NRS full suspension for light down hill and longer xcountry days, I’ve just got a on one inbred ss to try it out but always wanted to try a 29er also. One came up at a good price trek Marlin ss, do I go for it and choose between the onone and trek? Do I convert the onone to 1×9 as it will make a nice hard tail?
What would you do?
What ways do you justify your bikes to your self or the other half?

Ps I fancy a fat bike as well! (Can’t quite justify it)

Stoddy

in my head many to other people not enough

What ways do you justify your bikes to your self or the other half?

My other half is an enthusiastic triathlete (or was until the arrival of monkfingerjunior) and currently has approximately twice as many bikes as I do.

“I fancy another bike” usually seems acceptable, or at a push, “I’ve wanted one of these for ages”.

At the minute I have 4 which are all designed for different things. I may sell the fs and bmx soon though as I need to scrape as much cash as possible together for a house deposit.

Currently 5 for me;
FS
HT
SS HT
Road
CX (canti)

Wondering about buiding up a monster cross / 29er with a lava dome frame that I have knocking about, not sure what I’d use it for though so trying to justify it to myself at the moment.

I pretend that other members of my family will use them ,but really ,they are all mine,MINE I tell you.
Muh ha ha ha ha . 🙂

Only joking ,they have all been bought and paid for by a life of super commuting,so I don’t really give a FF for any justification nonsense 😉

I can justify loads, but only need one.

Don’t need to justify anything but, if folks ask, I tend to use the golf club analogy.
You could hit a golf ball round a course with any one club, they all do the same thing, however they all do the same thing slightly differently.

I’ve ridden 7 of mine* in the last month – at a push I might have managed without one of them as one of the others could have done the job almost as well, but then that’s the one which gets ridden the most at some times of year.

* not my complete fleet

N+1. That’s how many. Although, I believe that if you are in a committed relationship the equation is written as S-1, where S is the amount of bikes it would take for your significant other to leave you.

I don’t need to justify how many I have, I just need to have the space in the garage to fit them all… which I don’t.

FS (in pieces and not ridden for years, so project bike)
HT (main main mountain bike)
CX bike (with slicks, communter and road rides)
Classic Kona Lava Dome. (20 years old, will never get rid of it, ever. Currently SS, has been Main bike, Commuter, Tow bike, touring bike….)
New SS fully rigid 29er. (Hardest bike to justify, I just wanted it)

There is room in my life for a Road bike then I’m done

I Have 3 But would like a 4th,
FS 160mm/140mm
HT DH
HT XC (SS in winter)
(All 26ers)

Would like a Road or CX bike (Something cheap and steel for hacking about on)

I could live with one bike (the FS) but don’t tell my wife that 😉

You could hit a golf ball round a course with any one club, they all do the same thing, however they all do the same thing slightly differently.

Mind if I borrow that analogy? I like it!

Justification is based on storage. Currently there’s nowhere to store another bike but that means a new much larger shed is justified.

I used to struggle with this dilemma, can i justify this or that, then I thought WGAF!!! it’s a hobby and not government spending that has to be justified to the electorate..
So I’m slowly putting no 6 together which will give me
29 rigid ss
29 HT
29 FS
26 FS
26 HT
Road bike,
They don’t all get ridden all the time, but they all get ridden sometimes.. And if anyone doesn’t like it, then tough…

I seem to have:
Fixie
SS Cross
DH
SS rigid MTB
FS MTB
29er HT MTB
commuting road
racing road
tri

9 seems to be roughly enough for me at the moment!

Cheers, Rich

6 at the moment, and a few motorbikes (the zx 7 is going though)

Well into double figures but can seemingly regularly justify one more… though I’m running up against muppetWranglers limit right now with significant bike overspill from the shed into the house.

my latest build is a gravel grinder – perfect for iowa and kansas – not so much south coast england.

I was stuggling to justify this at a family party over the weekend. 😆

I’ve only got 2 (26″ hardtail & flat bar road bike), maybe 3 later in the year, but I reckon I could justify:

1) 26″ or 650b full suss
2) 26″ hardtail
3) 29″ rigid (maybe SS)
4) Cyclocross
5) Road Bike

I think 2, 3 & 5 will be my actual line up, at some point.

How many bikes can you justify?

Up to “as many as fill the space I have to store them” I think.

1 (a road bike – excercise) but then I wouldn’t be able to ride the fun stuff on a not quite finished 29er ss, or the bouncy bike, or my all time favourite a 29er ht.

As many as I can store. And then a couple more.

Bike hanging by Jon Wyatt, on Flickr

There’s a 24″ cruiser and my son’s roadbike just out of shot. Seems about right. Bit selfish of the wife taking up one of the hooks with her bike though.

at one point i had 5…then i got married…reduced the fleet to 3…then bought a house and further reduced the fleet to 2….then some thieving scumbag nicked one from my shed…so now i have 1…but now i’d struggle to justify getting any more at the moment…maybe in a year or so i’ll get another…

All purpose SS MTB
Road bike
Touring bike
Pub bike
Butchers bike
Track bike
Beach cruiser

Just the one as of this morning (sold the roadie). Meta 55 VIP. Building a SS Rigid 29er though, so that’ll be two by this time next week 😀

Just finished the buuild on a Cross, nice ride out to Bolton Abbey. Sat with a nice double espresso contemplating the climb back over the moors.
Thats number 9 in the stable 3 of which are the missus’
Funny thing is when sorting out bits I reckon that I have enough for another hard tail, just need a frame 🙂

HT geared or SS
Road best
Road race and winter
Fixed commuter

All ridden regularly in the past few months.

Could also justify a CX bike for winter racing and a short travel 29er FS and a folding bike.

Oh and that didnt include the tandem for kiddy transport of friends’s children.

I have 3 – utility. road, HT.

Would quite like to have a ‘winter’ HT and a ‘summer’ FS, but right now am struggling to justify a new HT…

justify? sorry I dont understand what that word means? justify? pah, get outta here.;)

Me:
Road bike (Canondale CAAD 8 2011)
DH bike (Orange 222 2002)
AM bike (Orange Patriot 2000)
Race BMX (Redline Flight Pro XXL 2010)
HT bike (Dialled PA 2004)

Wife:
Road bike (Spesh Dolce 2012)
AM bike (Orange Patriot 2001)
Fun bike (Pashley Britannia)
XC bike (Kona Lisa HT 2009)

Lack of space is the main problem….

I can probably only justify one – the commuter. It replaced the car, it saves train fares, it was the bike that got me back into cycling and it still keeps me smiling. And in the past I used it for what I now use the hardtail and the road bike for before I got them.

But then it’s no stretch of the conscience to justify a spare, back-up bike. Probably the MTB as they’re different enough.

Having had five bikes and now down to these three (sold the singlecross and snapped the winter road bike), I don’t think I could get rid of any more. I have a real hankering for another cyclocrosser, but I’d really have to sell the road bike to properly justify it.

Currently 6, of which 5 are rideable. Ideally I’d like to get it down to two: one for the trail and one for the road. Having too many always feels like the start of a syndrome of some sort 😯

Just the one, 2013 Zesty 414 for me. The girlfriend / boss / dictator would kill me if I took up more of the unused space in her huge kitchen with another. :/

Good weather road bike (Light, race geometry)
Bad weather road bike (Bit more relaxed geometry + mudguards)
Folding bike (Brompton)
26″ Full Suss (Trance)
29er HT (FF29)

Having 3 road bikes and only 2 off-road doesn’t feel right as 80-90% of my riding is off-road these days. I’d get rid of the bad weather road bike and use the FF29 instead, but I can’t fit the 700mm bars in the bike lockers at work and going to 600mm bars would probably ruin it on the trails.

Currently got

Commuter/winter roadie
Summer/best roadie
26er ss HT
On order is a 160 mm AM beauty/dream bike

Could easily justify to myself:
The Santa cruz solo c I rode last week, but can’t afford without lottery funding.
XC fs 29er
BMX
Fat bike
The only limiting factor is my housemates desire to actually use his bedroom for it’s intended purpose 🙁

My wife’s not a cyclist so anything more than one bike kind of confuses her. That said, if I want more then its no problem to her.

For me though, I kind of can’t justify having more than my current crop of a road bike, HT and FS. Any other bike I get now will be to replace any of those 3, either through curiosity for another frame or necessity (been hankering after a Soul for a couple of years but waiting for my 10 year old HT frame to die first – damn you Cannondale and your poor quality hardtails!)

Saying that, every time I go to the Alps I decide I’ll buy a DH bike for my next trip. Not happened yet but you never know!!

Latest, like it doesnt feel quick but 5 PRs on climbs and a 9th out of 900 for a descent says other wise 🙂

A few others hanging around

Two.
Mounatin bike (HT 29, Solaris)
Road Bike (Steel, 105 mud gaurds in winter, use as a commute mainly)