1. Sounded like a fun challenge.
2. Wanted to recapture the joy I felt as a teenager on a bike.

Succeeded x2. Never looked back -- in fact, not long after that, I let my then-estranged wife use the family van during the day when I dropped my daughter off on the way to work, pulled the bike out of the van, and rolled. Two years later, the last car I owned went belly-up; I junked it, got back on the bike, and rolled.