N+1 they say, you can never have too many bikes.
Today I stared down the barrel of my collection and it made me feel a little uneasy. Not because I didn’t get the ‘I love that bike’ feeling, but because I saw 11 bicycles I own all within five feet of each other. I thought to myself ‘when are you going to ride them all?’ ‘You are going to need a diary to organise that’ ‘I want to restore that one’ ‘that one needs a bit of work’ ‘I need to break that one for spares’, the collection then became something that required management. Which in turn becomes work, the single biggest turn off for a relaxing hobby for me. Owning and riding bikes is supposed to be fun! Don’t get me wrong I love building and tinkering, but it’s a little more than that!
I currently have:
1974 Carlton Corsa
1954 Rotrax Vel D’Hiv
1970s F W Evans Mixte
1972 Mercian King of Mercia
1994 Kona Lava Dome
2010 Charge Plug Racer
2012 Ribble R872
1978 Raleigh Misty Mixte
Charlie’s Trek Sky
1980s MBK Mirage
Seeing as I want to buy a bakfiets in the new year, and maybe a new road bike…….. I think I need to get a little grip and plan how I want to move my collection on, and making it more useable. With time a precious resource for my cycling passion I can’t spread it too thinly across restoring and riding…….
Let’s get this house move done, garage sorted, then start in the new year!
BC
BOURNEMOUTH CYCLIST 
That’s quite the collection! I hope you’re moving to a new place with a luxuriously large garage to store them all. I didn’t have quite as many, but it was still hard to “cull the herd” when I moved. I got down to three bikes (which is not enough).
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Ha, thanks. Mostly old crap! I need to slim it down…..
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