NOV 10, 2008 – 12:00AM

As far back as I can remember, I’ve always been a bit of a collector.

I collected baseball cards, Star Wars cards, coins, stamps, nuts and bolts, wheel weights (insert lead-poisoning joke here) and, for one period as embarrassing as it is inexplicable, dental floss.

Used.

Don’t ask.

I really don’t know.

Though I still have my baseball cards, coins and stamps, all the other collections – yes, even the floss – are history.

Now the only thing I really collect is bikes.

Truth be told, that’s not really fair.

Generally, a collection is something squirreled away, enjoyed occasionally as a collection – you don’t spend you coin collection, for instance, or use your stamp collection to pay postage on your bills. My collection, at least, gets used for its intended purpose.

I have my regular fixed-gear commuter bike, a sporty road bike, a mountain bike and a cyclocross bike.

I also have two beater mountain bikes, one of which spent most of its time on the trainer in the basement.

The other was a pack mule to which I attached the kiddie trailer then, later, the trail-a-bike.

I also have two old – er, I mean, vintage – steel frames in the basement I intend to build up into fixies someday, and another cheapo road frame in the garage I’ll build up with castoff parts to replace the cross bike that has replaced a mountain bike on the trainer in the basement.

It’s not the full Roy G. Biv, but I have an orange bike, a green bike, a blue bike, a black bike, and two gray bikes. And a silver bike.

I had a red hybrid bike – one of my first big college purchases – but a few years ago I gave it to a down-on-his-luck guy who was going to use it in place of the car he couldn’t afford.

I’d like to think it’s still being ridden today, but I have no way of knowing.

I know I don’t need so many bikes, but I justify them because I don’t spend much on my car, and because each bike is suited to specific purposes.

My commuter is low-maintenance and tough, up to the rigors of daily — and sometimes foul-weather — riding.

My cross bike is my back-up commuter and better suited to really sloppy conditions, like snow or mud. It’s also a sacrifice to the hamster wheel in the basement.

My mountain bike is a truly bad-weather commute-bike backup; I’m thinking of investing in a set of studded tires for riding in the snow and ice.

And if I want to go fast (by my standards, at least) and far, I swing a leg over my roadie.

The to-be-built-up frames might be a bit superfluous, but I figure there’ll be a time and a place for them, too.

That said, I’d like another bike or two – if only I could afford it.

Or them.

I keep hoping I’ll stumble upon a nice vintage steel fixie to commute on.

I’ve had my eye on an off-the-shelf single-speed crosser.

Vowing to spend more time off road, I’ve noticed some nice new mountain bikes.

And my sporty road bike is starting to get a little long in the tooth.

There’s an old joke that the amount of bikes a person needs is a formula: N+1, with N being the amount of bikes a person already owns.

By that formula, I’m due for a new ride any day now.

But what do I know? At least I’m not jonesing to add to my floss collection.