I own, try to maintain, and ride five bikes. I am limited to five by available storage space in our garageless house. My finances, income and willingness to maintain more than five bikes also limit me to five. I often wish I had fewer. Having said that, if I had more income and more storage space I’m guessing the number of bikes I was willing to own would increase. I love unique, handcrafted bicycles that are expertly engineered and aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
All five of my bikes get used. Each has a purpose with not a lot of overlap between bikes. I go more in depth on this in the link to “My Bicycles” in the drop down menu or link above on this website.
I’m at a comfortable place with the bikes I currently own. I enjoy riding each of them when used for their intended purpose. Each one of them stands out when used like this.
When one bike gets neglected for a period of time I find it extremely refreshing to get back on it. My Ellis is a recent example of this. I call it my “go fast” bike because it has the skinniest tires (700c x 32mm) of any my large wheeled bikes (as compared to my small wheeled Brompton folder). The Ellis is my summer fair weather bike as well. I avoid riding this in wet conditions. We’ve been having an unusually wet summer. I’ve been riding my A-train with an all-weather belt drive/IGH drivetrain more lately because it requires no cleaning or lubing after wet weather rides. This past Sunday it was a deliciously cool, dry and low humidity day so I took the Ellis out for a ride. After a month without riding this bike it was like falling in love all over again. The ride of this custom frame built for me by Dave Wages back in 2008 is silky smooth and very responsive. It’s a joy to ride. The time away from this bike made it so very clear.
The wonderful thing is this happens with all my bikes. I miss them when I haven’t ridden them in awhile. I’m very lucky to have each one of these five bikes.
four season cycling 
I arrived at my office early this morning, grabbed the Quickbeam, and headed to a nearby coffee shop for a pre-work coffee. As I glided down the street in the cool morning air, I had thoughts very similar to yours. I’ve got some bike stable overlap currently, but am working to resolve that. But…oh my…the Quickbeam is sublime.
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I do miss having a fixed wheel option amongst my bicycles. I imagine the Quickbeam to be just about the perfect bike for an early morning coffee run on a cool late summer morning.
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I feel ya. I have four bikes now, and I try to keep them distinct from each other. Though there is some degree of overlap, as three of them can/will be pressed into “daily commute service”, so those all have racks/bags of some sort. Maybe someday I’ll have something comparable to your Ellis.
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As much as I’ve dreamed of the “one” bike to replace them all, I do like having choices and options. I stated my bikes don’t have much overlap, but they do in one respect. Like yours, all of my bikes have some type of rack or ability to attach a bag to them. So they are similar in that area.
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