No Graveur needed here.
Rule #12 is a luxury of passion; the #1 for good weather and epic rides or races, the Nine Bike for bad weather, the Graveur (which is neither a cross bike nor a road bike), a ‘Cross bike, a mountain bike, a townie, a track bike, a time trial bike. Add in steel, carbon, titanium – a bike for each material and a material for each bike. The only logical conclusion is that we all need – need – a bare minimum of somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 bikes. Columbo couldn’t poke a hole in that case.
On the other hand, there is something to be said for just riding your bike wherever you happen to point it, in whatever weather you happen to be riding in, on whatever kind of road you happen to have at your disposal.
We should collect as many bikes as we can love, but we should also remember that bikes were meant to be ridden, not pampered. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
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My first post, First I thank thee for providing a special place for cyclists to post. Yes I must agree Frank, there is nothing like a healthy obsession. Why are our brake cables on the wrong side in oz?
On my recent 30 day meditation course I was able to map out a 5 year plan for filling my bike cave with 7 bikes:
1) Nairo - carbon frame epic day out,
2) Fausto - current modern steel frame racer
3) Serse - aluminum fast commuter / winter trainer / 9 bike (Serse is Fausto's gregario brother)
4) Burro - steel utility / non-training commuter / light tourer
5) Roger - classic steel (but newly made) frame for recovery / fine weather commuting and cruising
6) Corriere - single / fixed speed for popping up to the shops etc...
7) Greg - my Dad's classic 1980 carbon Graftek with Super Record which I will inherit some day
I can see the Velo-cave these steeds will be stabled in and the sequence of acquisition, financing, gruppo/components cascading from one frame to another.
To be honest this was an obsessive, craving laced distraction from the actual meditation work I was meant to be doing. Let's not kid ourselves - Rule #12 is a form of suffering.
But hey, thinking about bikes is healthier than other subjects, and I could easily spend the money on 1 car that would not last half as long as the bikes nor provide near as much joy.
Oh yeah then there is 8) Space Cowboy - Moots Vamotts with electronic group-san and hydraulic disc brakes. The suffering is endless!
@rfreese888
Let me get this straight. You spent a month pretending to meditate on the noble truths (i.e. desire is suffering) while actually plotting how you would suffer to fulfil said desires? Sounds legit, but you wasted money on the course that could have been spent on bikes.
Already/only(?) have 4 bikes (new #1 to arrive next week, the 33yrs old steel #1 becoming the Nine Bike, a mountainbike, old steel Raleigh townie), plus I also bought a Koga for the VMW->VMH, so have reached my S-1 for now. Still need to decide which bike will get the inside-trainer-tube... Life's full of difficult questions.
I'm not known as a bike pamperer
@pistard
Yes in my 'weaker' moments I was rolling in desire for bikes instead if observing the truth of suffering - but after a number of obsessive N+1 hours I could see quite clearly, 'This is Dukkha' - so I now have some level of equanimity with Rule #12.
Also it was cheaper for me to sit than daily life 'on the outside' so in good shape for N+1 transactions :-)
I have a dozen bikes I could ride at any given time, but I seem to mainly ride one.
@the Engine
Ivor, we're not tri-athletes, comfort stops are allowed.
@Oli
What is the story with these bikes named Benson? Someone had posted a snapshot of their orange Benson on the bike thread the other day. I've not heard of Benson and a google search across the inter webs doesn't give me any clue. Dang, red is a great color for a bike. If I didn't like black so much I'd have a garage full of red bikes. Black with a little red? maybe perfect. Cheers
@Oli
I can understand why, that is a stunning bike in a most understated way.
I'm currently at n = 3 but that a slightly simplistic way to look at it as 3 = r + m + b where r is road, m is mountain and b is bmx.
I've had the mountainbike on ebay a couple of times recently but suspect that it was too close to Christmas. I'm not in a rush to get rid of it but if I got a decent price for it I'd put the cash towards another road bike. As for the bmx, I should probably put that on ebay as well an look for a cheap second hand cross bike.
12 might be Frank's magic number but I suspect that for most of us a realistic maximum would be 3, the #1, a dual purpose cross/graveur and a nine bike. Or the #1, a cross bike and a dual purpose graveur/nine bike. Or combinations thereof.