Today I have reached my goal...almost

[winjohn]

I have spent the last two decades buying up 80s and 90s MTBs, finding them dirt cheap on Gumtree, fixing them up and selling on while keeping (too many) that I really liked. I mostly limited myself to Specialized, Kona, Marin and GTs at the start but drifted into Saracens and Orange too.

I ended up with far too many OK-ish old MTBs, well sorted but not nice enough for the space they were taking up so last year I started with a plan to downsize but go up in quality. I gave away 4 Saracens to charity, sold the Oranges, gave away the old Muirwoods and Bobcat trail but bought a Team Marin. Sold one Zaskar but kept one. Sold and gave away four Rockhoppers, kept my own original from 1990 but also kept the 2 Stumpjumpers and today I have put the last piece of the jigsaw in place and bought a 1999 Explosif. I now just need to see the two Cindercones and the Fire Mountain and one Stumpie and I will feel the job is almost done.

Happy to have a Zaskar, a Team Marin, an M2 Stumpie and an Explosif, that should be enough for anyone.

 

[PanoIgano]

I found that I can be content with owning 5 good retro MTBs.

I don’t have space to store more and I know (had I owned more) with my time restrictions and the bad weather I wouldn’t ride them as much as I would like. This would be a let down for me as the purpose I building is to ride the bikes as much as possible.

You need to find a balance and have enough MTBs to rotate so that you can enjoy their different ride qualities. That’s how I see it.

 

[joglo]

Hi, just want to highlight a different aspect, yes, I love to have a choice of rides to pick. Just to me the quantity of bikes at home never made a huge difference, other in space (and other negative things).
To me it's more of the pleasure of collecting and getting hands on "new" ones. This is the thing I'm addicted, I must admit...,
and sure this only works if you can also let go bikes and keep an good overview of your stock.

 

[Twozaskars]

bought a 1999 Explosif

Ooh, the one with the blue Manitou forks off the 'bay?

 

[winjohn]

Yup

 

[Twozaskars]

Thanks for that, I was actually quite relieved when the offer declined email came through
Saved me having to start piling half/unfinished bikes on top of each other.

 

[winjohn]

I have been after an 853 Explosif for a while and when I saw this in my size I put in what I thought was a cheeky offer and it was accepted!
Clearly I was not cheeky enough...
What time did you put your offer in?

 

[Twozaskars]

I did 255 at 12:52