How many bikes do you need?

One of my favorite writers is Peter Egan from Cycle World, and one of my favorite articles of his is, "How many bikes do you really need?" In the article, he settled on five: a sportbike, a sport touring bike, a dirtbike, a great big hog, and an old crock. Similarly, I spend an irrational part of my waking hours trying to determine the correct size and composition of my bike fleet. I'm currently at an uncomfortable seven. They are (oldest to newest):

1. Surly Cross Check:

I've the CC about four and a half years, and it's done most everything: fixed gear, touring bike, cyclocross bike, town bike, etc. It's not perfect--I'd like to drop the bottom bracket, lengthen the head tube, and lighten the tubing up a hair, but it's so versatile and fun that it's earned its spot in my constantly churning fleet.


2. Soma Juice:

I've had the Soma only over a year, and it's mostly been a rigid/single speed mountain bike, with a brief foray into bike camping. Is it bad that my second oldest bike is barely a year old? Maybe I shoulda kept the Fargo...


3. Specialized FSR

As I mentioned earlier, I picked this up on a whim about a year ago, but I've really been enjoying it. Clearly, it's pretty much used only for riding single track. Quickly.


4. Soma Double Cross:

Currently set up as a child puller and around-town bike.


5. Rawland Nordavinden

My pure, geared road bike for those long, solo road rides I always think I'm going to do, but rarely actually do. Yes, it has toe clips--I ran out of clipless pedals. These things happen with seven bikes.


6. Specialized Globe Vienna

Another child puller, but a cheap one. And it's actually a dedicated hybrid, not a repurposed 'cross or mountain bike.


7. OS Blackbuck

Er, another rigid/single speed mountain bike.

(A quick aside to my wife: seven bicycles take up much less space and money than five motorcycles!)


I've long maintained to myself (and the few people who will stand around to listen), that I really only need three bikes: a mountain bike, a road bike, and an around town/utility bike. However, when I seriously think about my riding patterns, I could actually get by with just two: I'd drop the road bike in favor of the utility bike, since most of my road riding is actually just errands around town, short hops through the metro park, or pulling the kids around.  Forced to radically downsize like this, it would be the Surly as the town bike and either the FSR or the Soma as the mountain bike.      

Insightful readers will see the downfall of the two bike plan in that last sentence: I have to choose between the FSR and the 29er? But some days I want the pure simplicity of the single speed, while on others I want the speed and comfort and ease of the FSR. Selling one might just cause me to buy some variation of it back later, which isn't the smartest economics--I should know, as I've done this many, many times.            

So right now, I'm working on a plan to get down to just four:

1. Mountain bike: FSR--too much cheap fun. 26" full suspension bikes are at a sweet spot for buyers right now, with great technology at blowout prices.

2. Alternate mountain bike: Soma or Blackbuck. I say this like it's a tough decision, but the Soma will win. I'll give the Blackbuck a few more rides to somewhat justify getting it, then it's going on the block.

3. Road bike: Rawland--I need to do more road rides, and I want to try out the new brakes I just got for it. Also, it "planes" like a Chris-Craft. Whenever I get inspired by my issues of Bicycle Quarterly, I can jump on this bike in all its flexy glory (and none of its 650B silliness)

4. Town bike: Surly or Soma or Globe. Another easy choice: the Surly is the only definite keeper here. But then what do I do when I want a fixed gear ride?

Such are the the dilemmas I wrestle with.

#63 Intro: Specialized Glove Vienna 1

I mentioned earlier that I was thinking about a (gasp!) hybrid to replace my Double Cross for trailer pulling duties. Today's ride home from the S24O helped move me in that direction: I felt the bars on the Soma were too low for me, I've never really been happy with the fit on it, and I'm a compulsive bike shopper.

As it turned out, the #62 Canfield Nimble 9 had barely left my garage and it's replacement (to be announced) was already on the way. Literally, I was waiting to pay for the new frame until I got the money in my paypal account for the N9: it's too tempting to have any balance there. That frame hadn't even shipped yet when I came across a good deal on a hybrid on Craigslist. Sam and I ventured down to the sketchy parts of Columbus this morning and made the deal: $140 later, I had landed #63:

 

It's a 2009 Specialized Globe Vienna 1, size 61cm. Globe was barely on my radar as a bike brand, but apparently it's Specialized's sub-brand for bikes that are too nerdy to be a Specialized. I had been contemplating a Specialized Sirrus, but the Globe is better for me in several respects:

- a shorter seat tube gives me more standover clearance and that mountain bike look that I like

- a (20mm) longer top tube is a better fit

- slightly longer chainstays for better tire and fender and clearance

- it was $860 cheaper than the leftover Sirrus Expert I'd been eyeing.

Still, $140 bikes don't come without their issues. It looks like this one has been banged against every bike rack and lightpole in Columbus:

The crank is some weird Shimano "Hyperdrive" with a huge plastic goiter.

Is the Altus front derailer a step up or a step down from the Alivo rear?

I don't know what this strange lug is for on the rear dropout. Maybe some Globe accessory?

 

But given those, the bike actually rides really, really well. Coming from my steel snob bike background (for instance, I purchased a Rawland Nordavinden because it's 25.4mm OD top tube with only 7/4/7 wall thickness should allow me to "plane"... if this means nothing to you, please subscribe to the best bike mag around, Bicycle Quarterly) , I find this bike to be smooth rider and a competent sprinter. At least, it felt so in my lap around the block this evening. Even though my buddy Brian says I look like a real suburban dad on it, I'm liking it so far. And even with the kickstand, it was only 28.7 pounds as shown. Not too bad.

It also has all the useful braze ons, and decent clearances front:

 

and rear:

 

even with 38mm tires. (and what is up with that front derailer? It has more linkages than an erector set)

My plan for the Globe is to leave it as is for a few months and see how it goes. If I like it, I'll probably strip off the junk parts, strip the frame to bare aluminum (and maybe polish it), and reassemble it with parts from the Soma.

Will I actually wait a few months to do this? Maybe a few weeks.