How many bikes do you need?

Late last year my wife and I bought a new house and sold the old one.  During the sale preparation we went through the process of de-cluttering the house and garage.  The question came from my mother in law - "where are you going to put all the bikes?".  It also turned out that a lot of feedback from people who viewed the house (including nosy neighbours) was "what a lot of bikes!"  And then the odd question such as how many bikes do you need?  Do you ride them or collect them?  I was happy to inform people that, yes, 9 out of 10 of the bikes are ridden at least once a week.  Not a bad effort for a single car family of 6.

The garage at our old house (which could never have fitted a car given all the bikes) was home to 10 rideable bikes, 2 project bikes and 5 scooters at the time. Having good bike storage is important  when you've got that many bikes.  It means being able to securely store your bike, have a space to work on it and still be able to move around.  Getting out the door to ride was easy. Walk 10 steps to the garage, open the roller door onto the laneway, slip on the bike shoes, pull on the gloves, clip on your helmet, saddle up and away you go. 5 Minutes to school, the park and shops, 10 minutes to two cinemas and numerous cafes/restaurants, 15 minutes to the city or the MCG, 50 minutes to work.  All door to door with zero parking hassles, fees or fines. But I digress,

If you ever want to raise the ire of a cyclist and put them on the defensive ask them this question and watch them take the bait.  It wasn't the first time I'd been asked the question how many bikes do you need?  Back in the early days of our relationship Mrs Self Righteous Cyclist asked the question.  Apparently 4 bikes was pushing the relationship boundaries and I relented by letting one go to a good home with her cousin who still takes good care of the silver steel framed Ricardo 10 speed I bought as a 15 year old with money I'd saved from my paper round.  I did my first 100 mile ride and my first triathlon on that bike, so it held a lot of sentimental value.  As I collected road bikes for triathlon and training, it was ridden less frequently and relegated to the "pub bike" or the "ride to the footy bike".  It's always been important to have a bike where it doesn't matter if it was left locked up outside a pub or left on the street for the night.  

Being a big advocate of having the right mount for the ride, next came the need to have a comfortable bike to ride 5km to work in the city which could provide some fun on the weekend, so a mountain bike was added to the fleet.  It's about 16 years since I came home with the bike and the reaction at the time was "you spent how much?!"  The bike provided me with great services for 9 years of commuting and 16 years later it's still delivering great service every week and has repaid me many times over.

As we all know, want and need are two completely different things, so I feel I've been quite restrained with my current range of 2 road bikes and a mountain bike (plus one bike frame).  However I'm looking forward to turning the old road bike frame into a fixie and restoring my personal fleet to four.

Getting back to the question, I see that the answer is almost as complicated as Einstein's theory of relativity.  A quick google image search lead me to understand the great man may have also grappled with the exact same question, for it seems he too was a cyclist.  Although his choices may have been more limited than mine.

The best answer I've read to this proposition came from the On Your Bike cycling blog in the SMH in response to the blogger struggling to justify buying another bike after falling for the attractions of mountain bike riding.

you can't cry about already having two bikes. As we all know the correct number of bikes to own is between N+1 (N being the number you currently own) and D-1 (D being the number which will get you divorced).

stopthatastronaut: Location Sydney: Date and time March 11, 2013, 5:27PM

Clearly this is not a single person's problem.  I can't wait till my kids grow up so I've got more spare change and time to spend on bikes.  Just look out for me at the velodrome, at the cyclo-cross and pedaling my new tourer. Perhaps the question should really be how many cars do you need? Go on, just one more bike won't hurt (just don't let your partner know how much they cost!).