Any success with cycle consolidation?

[Pottsy]

A general question seeking people's thoughts on this subject and any experiences having done anything similar.

Has anyone reduced their number of bikes, an n-1 (shock, horror!) principle, maybe due to a reduction in storage space, free up some cash or to add simplicity to their life?

I like the look of some of the all-rounder bikes, for example Singular Peregrine, Genesis Day One, maybe even On One Pompinos. For general cycling, touring, commuting, light off-road/cyclocross, it's theoretically possible to have just one bike and then change tyres, gears, racks etc. to suit the next usage case.

Or would that just be a massive pain in practical terms? Too much time taken up swapping stuff and fettling? Would you end up with a jack of all trades and a master of none?

 

[postman]

Sold my Dawes Super Galaxy,i was not riding it due to loving the Spesh Sectuer Elite.It went to a good home in London,and it was used on the London to Brighton ride.
I used the money on clothes,cycle equipment and wasted the rest on reckless living.

 

[Hover Fly]

Now I just have 1. Steel framed, Rohloff hub, drop 'bars, however I do have a spare wheel for it, fitted with a single sprocket, and a front wheel so the dynamo hub doesn't get worn needlessly in summer.

 

[vernon]

I did an n-2

Shock! horror!

One bike, a Ridgeback Adventure hybrid, had not been ridden for three or four years apart from an abortive attempt to give it to my son as a replacement for a bike that he's had stolen. He rejected it on the pretext that it had tried to kill him by shedding its front wheel and would accept that it was down to him not tightening the QR skewer correctly. It found a good home at my local garage where I gave it to one of the mechanics whose BSO was in its death throes. It's serving him well as his commuting tool.

The second bike was a Decathlon tourer/hybrid that was displaced by my new Woodrup Chimera tourer. I sold it to a friend who then came with me on my summer cycle camping tour. He's very happy with it and it's getting regular use.

I now have four bikes left and they all serve different purposes.

As for multi use bikes - I wouldn't bother swapping bits. I had a Dawes Galaxy that I used for cycle camping, short day rides and 100km and 200km Audaxes. I never took the racks off and used Panaracer Pasela tourguard tyres as jack of all trade tyres. Very little fettling needed other than adjusting brakes and gears once in a blue moon.

 

[Drago]

Sold my mid 90's Raleigh Max Cromo - the higher spec 4130 framed one, not the cheapo one) a couple of years back cos I was running out of space. A lovely bike in superb condition with it's original purple poweder coat unmarked. Regretted it ever since.

I've since moved house and have more storage so it's less of an issue, but lesser used bikes, or bikes going into winter storage end up stashed round me Mum's house now. Would never go N-1 again.

 

[DCLane]

I've got to lose 2 shortly; the Carrera Virtuoso (being replaced by the Raleigh Airlite 100 prize) and the Ammaco Tony Doyle road bike.

So it'll be n-1 overall with 3 bikes; Secteur (best), Raleigh (winter commuter), Python Impact (MTB)

 

[MacB]

It's feasible and could be done to cover a wide range of versatility, depending on your needs. Though I don't intend to use it that way I did build this into a frame with basic design around Surly Crosscheck and LHT:-

frame itself has adjustable dropouts, brazeons to suit derailleurs or hub gears/rohloff, disc brakes, rack and guard mounts and clearance/beefiness of a 29er.

General use - with 390mm AtoC forks(Surly disc trucker ones) you have 75mm BB drop, tyres up to 700x40 with guards and trail in the mid 60s. Angles are 72/72.

Zippier use - with 370mm AtoC forks(common road length) you have 83mm BB drop, tyres to about 700x32 with guards, trail in the high 50s and 73/73 angles.

Heavy duty/roughstuff touring - with 410mm AtoC forks(custom option cost about £200) you have 67mm BB drop, tyres to 700x50 with guards, trail in the low 70s and 71/71 angles.

So you can have one frame that allows a wide range of uses by swapping out forks and a pretty wide range if you just stick to the general purpose forks.

 

[cyberknight]

Tends to be n-1 to make way for n+1, the number has settled at 3 for the forseeable future as they cover all the bases for me .
The only changes will be better wheels at x mas if santa is nice for the current weekender which will eventually be downgraded to the commuter when the current commuter/winter club runner dies.

 

[nick.b]

Van Nicholas Yukon, Full ultegra, rs80 wheels/ultegra hubs, itll take guards and a rack if i want it to, without, it looks sporty, its fast as hell and keeps up on rides no problem.

since i got this bike ive been selling everything else and i havent used them since the day this came home.

still, a small part of me does want anouther bike, but in honesty, i dont need one and not sure i acctually really want one

 

[palinurus]

I'm thinking about it. Give up time-trialling, that's one down- but I'll keep it another season to see if I want to start again. I need to lose the road bike, which means an all-rounder road bike for winter/ summer, light touring, trailer pulling and commuting. I'll use this to replace the road bike and my current commuter. I'll keep the 'cross bike since even if I don't race it's great in the snow.

Main reason is I want space in my bike store (a Asgard bike x4) for my bikes and Ms. Ps bike. rather than always having one of them outside under a cover.