What do you keep?

[Bike Hoarder]

I enjoy the ownership of a collection, wether it's built or not.

Take a box of rear mechs off the shelf and rummage through, or sort through some NOS grips or brake blocks.

The building is the calming side of the ownership - bringing the parts together in some order or unison, like collecting ingredients for a delicious meal. Then simply just enjoying the movement of a perfectly setup canti brake, or an indexed gear clicking smoothly from one cog to another. Making the perfect wheelset, mounting a nice set of tyres, if only just to hang them up for the right time to come along.

I open my garage door and when it's tidy I like to just look, like an art gallery, enjoy the feast for my eyes. Is it the reminisce of 'that' bike shop, the feeling of wonder and excitement, maybe I just want my own 'shop', or my private studio for my art.

 

[PhillB]

I was just perusing the Shed Thread and it got me thinking about what I/other's keep when it comes to cycling. In the rest of my life I'm very orderly and alphabetical. My records are all alphabetical and my books are by type and alphabetized. If I don't use something other than tool's, books or records for more than 6 months I'm generally good at donating it or giving to a friend or houseless person. My beer memorabilia is all by type and size etc. Other than the shared spaces with the ADHD girlfriend where her piles engulf and swallow my organization, I'm really good about neat and orderly.

But damn if I can do it with bicycle stuff. My parts are a jumble and I'm trying to pair everything down to just the bikes I ride and the parts to keep them going. And I'm still keeping mid tier freewheel wheel sets I'll never use, frames that don't fit/don't like how they ride or old Campy stuff when I will always use a slant parallelogram derailleur and don't collect old bikes anymore Or I keep old rear derailleur cables because I can use them again on front derailleurs, bolts galore that I've forgotten what they went to, canti brake straddle cable holder's when I've switched to the Shimano one's because of convenience. Or how many Shimano Lx canti's do I need? It's not like they break... It's a bit disconcerting...

Anyone else have this problem? And most importantly, does your significant other approve or disapprove?

You see, I am completely the opposite, everything in my shed to do with bikes is highly organised, the rest of my house is a mess.

Although, of course that has nothing to do with me, as I spend all my time in the shed

 

[vtwinvince]

I'm a hoarder.....but I'm organised about it.

 

[Nothin-fancy]

I enjoy the ownership of a collection, wether it's built or not.

Take a box of rear mechs off the shelf and rummage through, or sort through some NOS grips or brake blocks.

The building is the calming side of the ownership - bringing the parts together in some order or unison, like collecting ingredients for a delicious meal. Then simply just enjoying the movement of a perfectly setup canti brake, or an indexed gear clicking smoothly from one cog to another. Making the perfect wheelset, mounting a nice set of tyres, if only just to hang them up for the right time to come along.

I open my garage door and when it's tidy I like to just look, like an art gallery, enjoy the feast for my eyes. Is it the reminisce of 'that' bike shop, the feeling of wonder and excitement, maybe I just want my own 'shop', or my private studio for my art.

I guess some of us are more along the lines or lack there of a Jackson Pollock type of artist... Although my bikes are mostly immaculate and rode harder than most.

But you might be on to something about "that" bike shop. My favorites were always those old ones crammed and bursting with old esoteric parts and characters. Wooden rims? Check. Cinelli stem in 110? Nope, but I have an Accles and Pollock Major Taylor stem we could adjust to the length you need. You know, a place you could probably buy a Mogwai at.

 

[LeeDevelopment]

I have a Frank Wadelton built frames fixation, that's all I will say here..... !

 

[Nothin-fancy]

I have a Frank Wadelton built frames fixation, that's all I will say here..... !

Pics or they don't exist...

 

[legrandefromage]

did the girlfriends piles ever get sorted?

 

[Stressed]

The more the merrier IMHO
It's a special kind of buzz when you unearth something you forgot you had!

 

[Nothin-fancy]

did the girlfriends piles ever get sorted?

Heck, no! Made a deal where I get to keep my all my bicycles till the piles get picked up. Fair deal in my opinion. Though I have been donating a bunch of nice vintage stuff to the local nonprofit bicycle co-op. A lot of case candy.

 

[Titiritero]

Like the OP, I also got a bit scared of some of the pictures in the shed thread. If I ever get to those levels, I would be overwhelmed. Right now I've even done a spreadsheet with all the family bikes (at home, by my parents, by the in-laws) and I'm slowly but surely purging one at a time. Currently 2 for sale, getting the 3rd one ready.

My target is the opposite of n+1, but rather n-1, so instead of thinking what I keep, which is harder, I check which is the one I like the least, and that's the one that goes for sale. It's usually hard at the beginning, the cleaning, the overhaul, makes me appreciate the bike again. But once the ad is live, that feeling is gone, and it's just another redundant item to get rid of.

I have a few nice but not rare classics I keep for when my kids are older. I was hoping they would think I was a cool dad to keep those bikes for them. But then, on the way to school, they love the shiny and showy budget 29ers some older kids have, so I'm not sure my strategy will work...