Culling the fleet!

benjabbi

Bontrager Fan
I've recently been thinking of sellling off some of my bikes, but am struggling with it. While I realise my collection is modest compared to some, part of me thinks having 10 or so rideable bikes is a bit silly. The other part says it's taken years (and a not insignificant amount of money) to accumulate all the various bits and that if I sell I'll regret it! Anyone else been in this position? Did you sell up and regret it? Sell up and forget it? Or just kept everything and the collection's grown out of control?
 
there's always frames that i regret selling, but back in the day i had to sell the old bike/frame to help pay for the next one. i topped out at 33 bikes in total, when i got made redundant in 2014 i started selling some of the fleet, frankly i don't miss any of those bikes, that said the ones i can't bring myself to sell are ones i have had painted, mainly because i know i have put strong money in to having that paint done, also because those are the bikes that got XT/XTR builds etc.

so the more generic, unrestored stuff that's not sentimental got sold, and with those ones you tend to not lose too much money as most of the time you can sell those for similar money to what they cost you. what i would say is consider selling frames only if you have good componentry, say for example you have a full m900 xtr group, you could just box that up and stick it in the loft, sell the frame it was hung on if you're not fussed about that frame, then if by chance a cool frame pops up in a couple of years then you have the parts to build it up. frames move around a lot, but componentry can be hard to find and expensive

what i will say is i barely ride my retro stuff these days, the modern stuff is better for everything i want to do on a bike so the retro stuff gets used as show off stuff on the weekly 4 mile round trip to the brewery with some other bike mates, so truth be told i wouldn't miss riding them if they were all gone but i'd miss just having them, i quite often have them in the shop and they can be useful sales tools when showing an older rider the difference between new and old geometry etc.
 
I’m clearing out all my collected retro components to buy a modern road bike… it feels great! Space in the garage, cash in the pocket. I sold all my retro fleet a while ago just leaving one bike, I don’t regret it. The bike I kept rides better than all the ones I sold.
 
One of mine (and I don't have that many) may be going soon - sometimes an offer is too good to turn down.

It hasn't been ridden in a few years - might as well give someone else a chance to enjoy it.
 
Loose 1 and see how it makes you feel. I’ll guess now, you’ll feel great and then reinvest the dosh back into something you want/need more.

I’m tempted to cull a couple that aren’t getting used as much, whilst I’m pretty tidy as it is.

new bikes still seem way over priced to me. The new bike I’d like is circa £5k, that’s way more than all my retros put together and it’s usage would be limited by comparison.
 
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@BlackCat actually it's the Ti Lite that I'm struggling with the most. It's a beautiful bike to ride, own and just stare at!
I think part of the problem is that once they are finally as I want them, that's a big part of the whole process done and dusted and boredom sets in. Whilst I ride them all (granted some more than others) and a few for various reasons (Stumpy, Giant, Explosif and Orange) are going nowhere. I just wonder if I sell for example the Ti Lite would I be happy that I have had the chance to own one or pissed off that I had one and foolishly sold it on?
 
Which are the least comfortable to ride? Which are the least special ie you have a pretty good chance of picking them up again one day if you really wanted to.

I've never had any lasting regrets with moving anything on. Minor nostalgic pangs from time to time - but that's it. Nothing is forever. Another way to think about it is if not now, then when will the time be right? 10 years time? 20? 30? 40?!
 

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