Sunday, April 13, 2008

How Many Bikes?

What a weekend. I can't believe it was snowing just over a week ago. It's 72F as I write this at 7:30 PM.
The streets and trails of Spokane were crawling with bikes.

It's short-lived, as mid-30's and rain is on the way starting tomorrow. Oh well, it was worth it: riding in short-sleeves and with no gloves or hat -- just for one great weekend.

I just got back from a ride and noticed that 4 of my bikes had gathered into an orderly stack over the weekend. Looking at them, I realize once again what a typical consumer I am. I see huge differences between these bikes, and I appreciate riding each one. And while there are much worse ways to spend your money, I have to remind myself how fortunate I am and how really unnecessary all of these bikes are.

I know a few few folks that attempt to have a single bike, but the middle-class daily cyclist with really, truly, only one bike is pretty rare. My "real" bike-count is at 7 right now. Not counting loaners. But I'm only riding 5 of them regularly.

I'll be adding a mountain bike to the pile this summer.

5 comments:

FBC Spokane said...

The tops of my hands are sunburned. I'm looking forward to more of that this summer.

joe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael said...

Tacoma was bike central yesterday, everybody was out riding. Summer can come back any time now.

My one and only bike went into the shop for its first major overhaul, I get it back on Wednesday. If you look at what I've got out of biking Vs. what I've had to spend/buy biking is a bargain.

When I bought my bike I intended it for light recreational use. But, fell in love with riding so now I'm starting to look for bike number 2 which will be a better fit for how I actually use my bike. I'm leaning towards a Jamis Aurora Elite.

John Speare said...

Michael,
The Aurora is a smart bike. You've probably already investigated the LHT -- it's a damn hard deal to beat for the built up version -- but just in case you haven't, here's the link: http://www.surlybikes.com/lht_comp.html

Sounds like you'll not be a one-bike-owner for long!

Klay said...

I'd like to see you ride five bikes right now...

We have 14 in the basement and only two of those are mine. They are all different and special in their own way, or so I'm told. There are worse ways to spend time and money.