For what it's worth:

Having two bikes is really nice, IMO. BUT, only if they are different. (ie, high end road & low budget winter/rain... or race bike & WW bike... etc...)

I have had up to three different bikes at the same time (ALL QUALITY ROAD BIKES) that were all in teh same catagory (two were high end, but not super ww & one rainy bike, but still nice )

I ended up not really riding two of them. In my experience you will always want to ride your favorite unless it is raining (how often does that happen..depends on where you live).

I endued up mainly riding one and the others sat around, it was nice, but I just lost $$$$ when I sold the ones I don't use and only got (at most) 50% of what I paid retail....

"In the end", ride what you want, but in my experience I enjoy riding my favorite bike with multiple wheelsets. (then just get a new favorite bike/frame every year or two )

P.S. I do think two bikes is a great idea. When one is needing fixing etc.. you alway have another to ride.
I do plan on getting a second bike (again) but from this point forward each bike will be for a distinct purpose. (I have a race build and then I am getting a total WW build....again... )

Best of luck.

One for the shops, one for the runs. At the mo my star bike has a puncture and I'm too lazy to fix it, so no 2 does a fine job for those after work errands. Makes no 1 more special having a few days off.

2 bikes are very nice to have. Parts swapping, maintenance, etc. Mine happen to be pretty darn similar...but I'll avoid that debate.

You might look at just picking up an allez frame, swapping all your roubaix stuff to it. and then buying a new roubaix, or building it up with high end components.

From those choices, second option.

If it was me, though, and I had $2400-2700 to spend, I'd shop around and just buy a high end frame. I'd keep the bike I had now as my main bike to ride this year, since we are now heading into the better weather season for most of us. Ride it in the rain, ride it in whatever (just clean it well after bad weather rides like I would any bike). Over the next 6 months to a year (might even take longer, depending on your budget), I'd slowly build up that frame to be your go to, high end bike. "Retire" your current bike to a training and bad weather bike when its done. Of course, same component manufacturer between the two of them. After I did this I'd save for another wheel set or two. Its a longer, but better payoff imho.

My second bike is a 1978 Peugeot. I ride it when my Litespeed is in the shop.

If money were no object, I'd build up a lightweight carbon bike for climbing. (It's flat here.) But, with kids still in college, it made more sense for me to invest slowly in upgrading the Litespeed over the years. It's not the lightest bike on this board by a long shot (but, then, I'm not the lightest rider); but it's just so much fun and comfortable to ride. And it's done me well on some serious climbing in the Rockies, Cabot Trail, and (medium) T de F climbs.

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"I can't understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I'm frightened of old ones." -- John Cage

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/phpBB ... 928#126928

As said before, buying seondhand should be considered, i bought a colnago ep fom a forum member here an i ended up with a frame i otherwise would never had bought, i mean some of those 'topend' frames go for big dollars.
Roughly a year later i bought a used super record groupset for less then 1/3of the new price.

I hace a used crossbike that i use for comuting and a shop every now and then, dont know what this fella 's here talking about but my bike is never in the shop ? Buy a book, check utube and fix your own bike its not that hard !(;

Good luck

I would suggest two bikes. One road racing bike and one cyclocross bike.

Road racing bike with top equipment should be used in nice weather.
Cyclocross bike with entry level equipment should be used for bad weather.

Every serious cyclist should have two bikes in the event of failure of one.

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Fahrrad isch misch Läbä

...if you can afford it, and you have been cycling long enough so you know that you're not going to quit any time soon.

It's nice to have a second bike so you can ride when the other bike is broken, but it's not worth going into debt or not paying into your 401k or living in a crap apartment with roomates you hate, etc.

When I was younger and poorer I survived just fine with one road bike. It meant that I had to be on top of my maintenance since if I didn't finish it that night I wasn't riding the next morning, but other than that it wasn't a problem. Neither was the "cheap" Shimano 600/105/Suntour combo of components I'd assembled.

Being able to ride is the most important thing. Everything else is insignificant in comparison.

Yes eric, I agree completely - if you can afford it.

Come to think of it that is an appropriate suffix for pretty much every thread on this board, and even the forum itself:

Weight Weenies: If You Can Afford It

The practices on this forum are not cheap, but by and large we're not a bunch of beginners, and prioritise bike spend over other things.

Agree you can survive on one bike, but those of us with very busy lives would be compromised and end up sometimes not riding doing that ... just too much to do to other than fix a bike up sometimes.

I commute to work by bike and don't belong to gym (as I ride) ... saving about £1500 pa between those things which funds my OPEX and some CAPEX on bikes.