suburbanreuben":3cd1b0uy said:
Whereas these appear to be all the same - just different coloours...
sort of but not quite. there were reasons for each bike originally
basically before i got back into retro stuff i had a modern hardtail and a full suss and a road bike and i was using the cougar as the winter bike, so that was 4 bikes with specific uses.
then retro happened when i got the 93 clockwork which i used for the shortcut ride to work at the time instead of the road bike. i thought the cougar was cracked so i got given (yes GIVEN!) the dynamo frame which i then felt was too good for winter riding in the full on mankness of the english winter! so i rebuilt the cougar anyway!!
then the retro mountain bikes started to multiply :shock: , not deliberatley to start with but i just kept seeing stuff i liked and thought, yep i can afford that so i got them as and when i could but i try not to pay over the odds for them, i'd rather wait for bits to turn up at sensible prices rather than pay daft money chasing that elusive part! these bikes are built similar but then positionally there gonna be built to fit me and that isn't gonna change so as a result they do have a similar build style, but each is a different orange model and i prefer some to others but i try to build them with a bit of a theme, whether that means by a specific groupset or theme colour etc. also i am very lucky to beable to afford to get the next bike without having to sell one of the others but you'll also notice there are no fats or yeti ultimates here cos even though i am an orange fan i realise that you can build 3 clockworks for the price of a yo eddy or whatever.
as far as the orange/lemon/lime bikes well the 07 clockwork is my main modern bike, then i got the cross bike and found it doubled as a good winter trainer as well as a good work horse bike but i hated the paint so i had it limed! the lemon was more because i can! and it completed the set! but it's built out of bits i got cheap via mainly ebay so that didn't cost a lot to do at all, was just for fun really, got the frame for £40 over 2 years ago and didn't do anything with it for ages, it will become my winter bike as since the cougar has been sorted i don't want put that through the winter anymore.
but i can tell the difference between the ride of them, and i choose a different bike depending on what i'm doing or what i feel like, if i want to bash some road miles in i usually pick the condor but sometimes i just want a nice ride and the cougar is comfortable, the d2 does get left out a bit but it rides really nice when i do take it out. the lemon i must admit i have bearly used yet but then it was only finished a few weeks ago. the modern bikes are a no brainer for wales etc, and i find the retro mtb's are fantastic for bashing in offroad miles in the new forest because of their aggressive xc riding position. also my evo2 is built slightly upright and rigid deliberately as that makes it perfect for winter riding as it means i don't ruin my suspension forks/shocks in the winter gunge.
being honest there are several bikes that get used more regularly but the others get restored etc but none are garage queens, they all get used at somepoint and if there is a retro ride on i always try to ride something that people haven't seen before. a new paint job doesn't stop me riding them! i'm not scared to use stuff that was NOS either! :shock:
also i tend to stick to retro shimano mostly as retro ringle/machinetech/zero/curve/pauls/etc is daft money and not really of interest to me as i'd rather it worked well than looked poncey!
i suppose you could call them a "collection" but it's a usable collection and they may be very similar in the builds but each is a different and from a different year so they ride quite differently
, also some get used more at particular times of the year and others get left dliberately unused during the winter.
hope that explains why i have so many and why they are built how they are.
) you must be proper chuffed? 
