Would you rather have a lot of bikes or just a couple that were wicked nice?

I love bikes and I want to have all sorts of different styles and configurations on hand to ride and tinker with, be they fancy or old and beat up. One of the coolest things about Bikeman HQ (a.k.a. Bath Cycle and Ski) is that we have the full spectrum of possibilities right under our noses. You can go from working on a $6k Trek Madone racing machine to rummaging through the boneyard trying to find a potential commuter bike frame for someone looking to become one less car on the road.

Being of limited means I have found that I get the most excited about finding a diamond in the rough, putting lipstick on a pig, polishing a turd, or what have you. A few years back I found a big grey Rock Hopper up in the rafters of the boneyard (the place where old, marginally mangled bikes go to die) and I transformed it into my grocery grabbing machine. I already had most of the parts and it felt good to give an old bike another chance. It's amazing how far a little resourcefulness, elbow grease, vision can go.

On the other hand I have 3 bikes that are very nice. There's the Kelly Bonestock roadie and 2 Gunnar 29er's, one geared and one singlespeed. I fondly remember the process of researching, ordering, and building each one. There is nothing quite as nice as sipping on a fresh beer and looking at your newly assembled steed from all different angles right after you finish building it up. Then of course there is the ride of a primo bike, they are expensive for a reason.

So I guess for me it's a bit of both...I like to have a lot of bikes, but a couple of nice ones as well. I'll never stop looking for cool old stuff, but I don't think I really need any more fancy bikes... except for that titanium snow bike or an Indy Fab cyclocross rig.

MV