OK, I'm gonna horn in here, even though I'm not a roadie; I ride MTB for everything, with a HT SS on the planning board for the next couple months. My present and primary ride is a FS/AM bike with 5.7" at each end. Haven't found anything it can't handle; in fact, I quit before the bike does!

Cycling has transformed my life like practically nothing else, even marriage; becoming a father at nearly 38 was the only match to it.

There is NOTHING that will come between me and the bike; the only thing that conceivably COULD would be a kidnapper demanding I choose between my child and my bike. Since I'm a poor guy, i don't see us being targeted....

Joy; passion; the release from 'fitting in', or the need to (a need that was put upon me, not my own need). The ability to do things I couldn't do as a teen or young adult (faster across town now on the FS/AM than I was at 16 on the 10-speed); personal capability is just off the scale!

I can leave behind being ordinary; shed the weight of 'responsible maturity' without being irresponsible.

When I roll those two wheels, under my own impetus, I am as free as I've always wished to be; I am... home.