Has anyone on here with an array of bikes for different disciplines decided that they are fed up of maintenance and storage issues and got rid of most of them and replaced the fleet with 1 or 2 bikes?

If so what did you choose to have in the end?

My problem is I ride road with 2 clubs, big all mountain rides with a mtb club usually in the peaks (hope valley etc). Local mtb fast not tech trails but longer quicker than a big bike is capable of and also have one specifically for taking my daughter on the back.

Would love to replace the fleet and go down to 2 bikes, is this possible?

Anyone done this and did you regret it?

Nope, I’ve always just had 2 bikes (well, 3 if you include the commuter). One road, one MTB. I do XCM so I don’t need different bikes for different things.

Yep replaced 5 down to 3 – hardtail 29er/27.5 plus do it all bike, road bike and commuter
Perfect don’t need any thing else

fed up of maintenance and storage issues

I’ve found the biggest peril of having more than one bike the the ease with which you can let maintenance slide. Faced with one bike that needs fixing and another (or others) that don’t its easy to do a different ride rather than fix the bust bike.

Until they’re all bust.

Yeah same here, managed to get it down to 6 now. If you don’t count the SS hack I keep at Waterloo.

Lots of people in denial here ” if you don’t include”… ha ha ha

I find that never riding with anyone else helps in this respect (that, and not riding road) – means I’m never holding anyone up by being on the “wrong” bike. One full suss, one SS commuter/winter MTB hack. Job done.

In our house there are five of us, five mountain bikes and one paper round / local shopping singlespeed.

I couldn’t cope with any more maintenance – although that is perhaps having a couple of mechanically brutal sons…

I went from a peak of 7 down to 4 …

Road, CX, MTB (HT) and commuter (SS roady).

And that’s about right for me, so from here on its a “one in/one out policy” and probably no FS bikes likely for some while…

I do catch myself wondering sometimes if I could rationalise the road and CX bikes down to a single drop barred bike with multiple wheelsets, but they’re different enough in build and use, that this seems unlikely at present…

We need to get rid of some. We have a 26″ fs each and a 650fs each, a Rrat and Ddisco and a 26″ SS. But I keep wondering about a 29er/27.5+

I maintain a healthy 5 bies and now operate a 1 in 1 out policy

Reason being it wont get much use if i go over this anyway – my road bike gets about 4 outings a year – almost always centuries [ and i would prefer to not ride the steel cross/commuter bike at 14kg for this-

Hardtail, FS, SS[winter MTB], Road, CX

That is what I maintain personally as its one of each “class”

If i had less i would end up combining the SS and Hardtail and the CX and road so it was a bit shit at each option but ok ish for both.

Wouldn’t want to go down to two, any maintenance problem would mean missing rides until it was fixed. Being tandems means high attrition rates and sometimes slightly unusual parts. Took both off-road tandems on our last road trip and were very pleased when we bust one of them on the first ride!

No, but I do ride them all. Different bikes for different rides. Just the one mtb though. If I wasn’t riding them or rode fewer disciplines, then one could possibly cull a few. I prefer an extra bike rather than the pfaff of swapping tyres or wheels or cassettes.

I could probably lose a race bike to be honest, but I like to lend them out.

I’d be hard pressed to ride track, road, mtb and TT’s on two bikes 😉

I’ve got a 29+ rigid and a 29 full suss mid travel bike. Covers all my biking.

I maintain a healthy 5 bikes and now operate a 1 in 1 out policy.

Same here, although I’m trying to keep it to 4 purely due to living in a flat! An all-mountain/enduro bike, an XC/trail bike, the commuter bike and a road/adventure bike. The MTB’s are the only really maintenance-intensive ones, one’s usually in need of some TLC. Although saying that 3 out of my 4 bikes have a TBD list to sort out 😳

Have been higher and lower but settled a while ago on 5, which cover all bases for me : HT, FS, summer road, gravel, track.

toying with this more and more.
lol @maccruisken at the maintenance bit.

Each bike has a purpose though; two 26″ MTBs might be a bit much, even more when there’s another fixed MTB hack as well.

6. Must take a long hard look soon. Problem is how to offload (or just donate to charity I guess). Of the 26″ MTB frames, all have V brake only at rear which is even more limiting in usefulness / attractiveness.

I’m currently looking at combing the roadie and cx bike into one with 2 set of wheels. Makes sense if you ask me.

With the right wheels and cassette, there really isn’t much compromise to be honest. I raced a cross bike at Hillingdon with deep section wheels. I have also run 1×10 on another with an 10-23 cassette. But you will have to prise my fixed wheel road bike from my cold dead hands!

Gone from six to four. Full suss, nice hardtail, rigid mountain bike and CX. Had a road bike which I’d liked to have kept but thought what’s the point when the cx is nearly as good and I’m not quick. Retro ride was cheap and meant for shopping pub rides etc which I rarely do. Four is still a lot, could get rid of the rigid mountain bike but I do use it and enjoy it.

I keep adding +1. 26er FS, 26er Ti hardcore HT, 26er steel SS, 29er/27.5+ (when I buy the wheels) steel SS was supposed to replace the 26er but can’t bring myself to sell it. Plan was to break it, sell the frame and build Mrs BOB a nice HT but haven’t found the right frame and think I need to keep it (an Inbred) for really muddy days when I don’t want to spoil the new bike (a Sherpa).
There is no right answer, so long as you have storage let the fleet grow I say.

Space dictates how many I have and that’s two.

The fixie/commuter and the mtb which is currently a 29er SS HT.

Whilst the SS may be limiting in some situations I largely ride solo so not worried about slowing others down.
For me it’s more a case of picking the right bike that covers what I want. Had a 150/130 FS previous and tbh for the vast majority of riding it was overkill for me. Once I get properly back into it I’ll build a nice HT with some front bounce again and am certain it’ll cover everything I need.

Fair play to those with several but do you honestly not just gravitate to a particular bike whilst the others largely collect dust? I know the what I did when I was able to have a few.

I ride one bike for ages and think ‘I don’t need the other ones hanging on the wall of the shed’. Then I ride one of them and of course it’s great. And I’m always happy to lend a mate a bike if they’re ‘caught short’. I have two FS chubbies (120mm and 140mm) a 160mm FS and a chubby HT. And a cross bike. And my old jump bike. And a road bike I lent to someone a couple of years ago. Not quite sure who.

Really I should cut down. But they all get ridden and they all get fixed and that makes no financial sense at all. But then MTBs make no financial sense so….

Re-reading that, I don’t feel I’ve helped 😉

I have five. Two 26″ hardtail mtbs, a 29r fs, a roadie and a hybrid/hack.

If I had an empty bike shed I would have just one MTB (either a geared slack rigid 29r like a stooge or a shortish travel fs 29r) and a lightish cx/gravel bike that had rack mounts for maximum versatility to do leisurely road rides,easier/mixed off road stuff and the odd commute (perhaps drop bar hybrid would sum its use up neatly).

The issue i have in reaching such a sense of nirvana is the same as another poster above. Loads of ‘obsolete’ gear that needs re-homing.

I’m constantly swapping bikes, yet to hit the sweet spot, just sold my dj/4x bike.

Now down to 26″ Zesty full sus & a Soul 275. Did have a Solaris and loved the speed, but on occasions the Zesty was broken/I didn’t want to ride it, I didn’t really like the 29″ wheels on techier stuff.

Soul is reasonably light, but thinking a used cx bike would be good for road and easy local mixed rides….. A specific bike packing bike would be nice too, but don’t do enough of it.

I have an MTB, road bike and bmx. This covers everything but I could live with just the MTB and ride it more. Maintenance is the same cos I only ride one at a time! The main thing is getting stuck in one psyche; going somewhere and forgetting to take the bmx or MTB or wearing too much clothing on the road bike.

I’m around about this point.

So far as bikes I’m counting is concerned, I did have it down to HT, FS, CX and Fat but then I wibbled about getting rid of the Mk2 Soul and added a Solaris to the Soul275 and thus now have three HT’s, one in each wheel size which is just silly.

I’m giving very serious consideration to scrapping it down to Fat, CX and 29er FS. I’m thinking a FlareMax with a nice build will probably do everything I want a FS for.

First world problems indeed! Reading the answers above and finding likeminded people I suspect that if STW ever gets it’s collective ass together and stops hoarding obsolete stuff that could be sold the bike industry in this country is f*cked…

I’m happy at 8. If pushed I could get rid of maybe 3, but I’m not pushed for space and my oldest retro bikes aren’t worth anything to sell. Only bike I don’t use much is my 97 GT STS, but I’ve had it from new and will never sell it.
Don’t find maintainence an issue, just don’t be lazy and fix things as they occur. Same as if you only had one bike. Spare wheels are all very well and good in theory, but also go on to become attached to spare rotors, cassettes, tyres. Rotor spacing is never quite the same, cassettes worn at different rates etc, and you just never bother swapping. Better to have a different bike ready to go.
Riding choice goes in cycles ( boom boom). Winter means b plus hard tail or winter road bike. Summer means 29er ht or full suss, and good road bike.
Fat bike for the beach/snow.
Two retro bikes for reminding me how good modern bikes are.

2 (and a half) for me. One road disc commuter and one MTB which is currently a 650b 140mm forked HT. I’ve also still got my old Bizango which I kept for a winter bike but is mainly for the Mrs when we go on family rides.

Sadly I ride so far to work I’m too knackered/pressed for time to do too much other riding. So it’s one or two MTB rides per week in the summer. Don’t think I’ve done any pleasure road rides in the last 18months I’ve been riding to work, do occasionally take the long way though.

I’d love a nice light road bike but I can’t afford one at the moment and I’d only ride to work on it anyway so it’d be largely pointless.

I have 6 that get used reasonably regularly…

HT 29er
summer road bike
winter road bike
cross bike
fixie
e-bike

Also have a touring bike that is only used for touring
Oh, and a singlespeed cx bike and a rigid 26″ (my 1st mtb) and 3 frames.

I did cut down a few years ago but seems to have crept back up again. I could probably get by with just a cx bike but where is the fun in that?

Down to 3* bikes: Arkrose, high latitude, codeine. All possibilities covered.

*ok, 4**, including a commuter

**ok, 5***, including a bmx.

***ok, you got me, 6 including my dad’s old Dawes, but that’s it, all I need…

I’m at 5 which is about right, although I do fancy a DH bike.

Roadie
Arkose
Rigid fatbike
26″ FS
29″ rigid SS hack thing

The FS might get updated to an Aeris 145, but all bases are covered there, plus there is a direct back up in terms of two MTBs and two drop handlebar bikes. I couldn’t have fewer bikes.

Road bike
Winter road bike
FS
AM HT
Retro HT

I’d like to cut this to 3 maybe 2. Problem is some of them are worth more to me than the market so I just keep them.

Hmmm …
Alps/uplift bike
Fatbike
Trail hardtail
Rigid SS
Rigid geared
Cross bike
Road bike
SS MTB station bike

Oh dear

Currently at 6, and only 1 that doesn’t see regular use, but fills a niche that the others can’t.

29er HT
140mm FS
Rigid SS b+
Road bike
CX (used as winter road bike)
Road SS

Have funds allocated for n+1, but no-where to keep it.
Also still reluctant to spend on a ‘nice’ bike while wheel/axle standards are still changing every 6 months.

I’ve rationalised my bikes now that my teenagers ride with me. Maintenance just got to be a pain.

I’m now down to just a fat bike and a 140mm FS. Teenagers have a trail bike each and the wife has my old Anthem. 5 bikes is enough to keep on top of.

Though I keep help looking at the Trek Stache as something a bit different. Or a gravel bike. Or …..

Down to one from three. Space and time to ride being the driver behind downsizing. Just have a Trek Stache for off road use.

Down to one from three.

same. never had or wanted a road bike or a full suss, think at my maximum of three i had a moots softail, surly fixie and a conveyor belt of different singlespeeds (konas, dekerfs, singulars etc).

im happy enough with my one do-it-all singular gryphon these days, altho when i say do-it-all it probably wouldnt be ideal for the peaks, but then again neither is my fitness these days 😀
both cannock trails or dalby is about my level at present.

if i did decide to try and up my fitness for long peaky rides id probably look at another zingy steel hardtail.

Up to ten bikes now so on a strict one in one out policy.
However, I did give my wife mt scalpel so I could buy a habit. Not sure I could swing that trick again.

Sensible wife has three.

I find it hard to let go, so have five.
I need closure on the Trek road bike and the trail separation from wobbling around on the BMX has been painless, literally.