As long as they don’t overlap more is better!

160mm FS
120-150 u-turn HT
Rigid SS HT (commuting mainly)
Road bike
Tall bike

Never in doubt over which to take out.

I really need to sell one. But it hurts so : (

Never in doubt over which to take out.

but there’s still a period of time adjusting to each bike, even if you’re using them on different terrain?

if I go out for a 2 hour ride I spend the first hour and half getting my head sorted out and even then it’s not perfect.

As I say, multiple bikes are ace but, for me, it turns out the chopping and changing too regularly makes me less confident in the bikes.

To be fair only the first 2 get ridden as proper MTBs and I’ve ridden them both so much I’m pretty much happy getting on and blasting off!

why get rid of the ht? I live in a 1 bed flat.

It’s a classic bfe, 4 months use. I’ll get chuff all for it, but i’ll probably never build it up. It’s gotta go.

I’m thinking the same currently

1 commuter
1 road bike
1 cross bike
2 FS
1 Hard tail

I’m think of going to 1 Hardtail, commuter/baby carrier + crossbike (two sets of wheels/tyres). I’ve just had my old 456 powder coated and built up and I’m going to ride it all winter. If i can’t see any reason to keep it the fs is going. Similarly I’m going to ride my crossbike on the road all winter and if i don’t feel its holding me back that much the road bike is going. The cross bike also offer miles more flexibility. The fact its a little slower than my road bike doesn’t matter when when your my weight and speed.

I look at it based on the trails I’ll be riding. On trails I know well – local woods or trail centres where I can be a bit of a hooligan, the Patriot is great. If I’m up in the mountains, when it can sometimes be steeper and rocker I might still take the 5 because it’s a better place to sit when covering the miles even though it’s worse on the descents.

However, with a view to the Tour Divide I might rob the groupset and other components and put them on a 29er rigid frameset. It’d be nice if I could make a bike that was fun and racy with sus forks but could also have rigid forks fitted for real mile munching.

As long as you’re riding different trails with the different bikes I don’t see a problem. I wouldn’t take my “xc” bike down dollywagon and I wouldn’t pedal my lakes bike around 40+ miles of bleak moorland. Normally only takes me 10-15mins to “dial” myself into the bike, admittedly I could probably get a bit faster or more technically adept if I stuck with 1 all the time trouble is my local rides are fairly tame but my preferred trails are a lot more tech so with 1 bike I’m either overbiked most of the time or underbiked when I’m trying to shred the gnar on my favourite-est trails.

1 fs
1 SS
1 hardatail
1 road bike
1 pub/hack bike

just add a commuter bike in there and that’s me (admittedly my hack bike is an FS but as it’s an ancient frame built from the parts bin it still counts)
Having said that I could really do with a cargo bike for shopping/child portage…and a fat bike would be nice 🙂

Wouldn’t you be better off having less bikes, but with the same overall budget i.e. better bikes?

Possibly, it’s accretion tho innit? I can afford to spend £X money on bikes per year so many years ago I bought a bike worth X, next year I buy X worth of parts, next year I buy a new frame and consumables (ie drivechain) and bodge together a parts bin bike, keep going in this fashion and after several years I have a few bikes. At no point do I have multiples of X in my wallet to buy a proper posh bike with.

Pared my collection right down recently, now just have a 26″ hard tail, AM full boingo, and the road bike. Adding a fat bike soon, but that might take the place of the hard tail. Im with the OP, been riding the hard tail a lot lately and its made me a better rider going back to my roots and actually enjoying the trails without having to pick funky lines to warrant the FS. the AM machine has had one ride on it since I built it 6 weeks ago! I should really take it out this weekend since the weather forecast is for glorious!

beater winter/turbo road bike
bling summer road bike
165mm FS MTB
125mm FS MTB
SS HT MTB
Fat HT

I have fun on 4 of them. I hate riding the winter road bike, mainly because when I ride it, it’s dark/pissing it down or it’s on the turbo, and no one likes the turbo.

And I haven’t ridden the fatbike yet.

i’ve got 4, think they are all in their own niche and anything else would be duplication..

proper semi posh road bike
bargain bin cx / commuter/ winter road bike
120mm 26 hardtail
140mm 650b FS

MTB wise it depends what mood i’m in and who i’m riding with, most stuff locally is fun on both either because its HT direct and all about nerve and line choice or because it’s super quick crazy line choice FS magic carpet ride. It’s nice to have a FS for days out on exmoor/lakes/wales

My perfect quiver of bikes would be the follwing

1 x Slack 140/150mm Hardtail
1 x 130mmr/150f Travel FS
1 x Downhill bike
1 x Touring bike

Gone down to two.

150mm susser
Rigid 29er SS

Covers most bases for the moment.

You lot with more than two bikes, do you have a family or partner? There is no way I could get my kids bikes, wifes and anymore than two bikes for me all in the basement.
I suppose my hatred for road cycling limits the amount I have.

I suppose one could have a downhill frame and a set of boxxers and just swap over parts when needed. So that would save a bit of space.

I have around 30 bikes and frames at the moment, mostly retro projects and bargain dalliances though. Ideally I’m wanting to get down to 4 mtb’s and 1 road with 2 of the mtbs being frivolous and could be culled. I’d also keep 4 or 5 of my retrobikes too amd mothball a couple of frames I don’t want to let go but don’t know what to do with them.

Wasn’t the original point that by having lots of bikes it means you’re never riding one for long enough to really get used to it & know what it’s capable of?

If it was, then I agree & that’s why I only have one mtb.

I compare this to toys. My daughter has so many that none get played with.

And I haven’t ridden the fatbike yet.

😆

it was john_l – I think it’s got lost in a list of bikes for different purposes justifications 🙂

Riding somewhere different every week on a different bike because ‘it’s a different type of riding’ would still have the same problem as far as I can see in that switching between bikes leaves you relearning their characteristics and ‘reprogramming’ your own approach and reactions to each bike.

I still want to have lots of bikes ‘cos I *really* like bikes 🙂

You lot with more than two bikes, do you have a family or partner? There is no way I could get my kids bikes, wifes and anymore than two bikes for me all in the basement.
I suppose my hatred for road cycling limits the amount I have.

Nope. 2 bikes live on the landing, 4 in my bedroom. If I meet a girl, were going back to hers….

To be fair PMJ, I only got it last Sunday eve, and work commitments have conspired to mean that the first ride is tomorrow.

I have
Slack HT
160mm FS
Winter road
Posh summer road
CX.

Other half (munqe chick) has
100mm HT
150mm FS
Winter road
Summer road
Ancient HT/hack/pub

And is shopping for a CX.

HTs probably ridden once in last year, mind you have only ridden FS once since the spring, its all been about road miles this year (see IronMan thread).

We have a double garage. It also holds a motorbike each so is pretty full…

I have:

160/130 forked HT
150 front/130 rear FS

Have been thinking of selling both and buying just one ‘do it all'(losing shit loads of money in the process)…but know I’d always want both and love them both, so it would just be stupid really.

I hear what you are saying. Five bikes to choose from but I tend to stick with one for a while, then another. It’s certainly weird going from an MTB onto a full-on roadie after a big gap and also finding out how much less grip a 2.25″ MTB tyre has compared with a 4″ HuskerDu. It can produce a bit of “excitement” where none was intended 🙂