Italktocats--I loved the old one before I had a new, better one. The old one still shifts poorly (possibly fixable, though we've tried), sounds like an eggbeater when I pedal (new chain might help), is unwieldy and wide through the handlebars, and is less comfortable to sit on than the new one. It was a $300 msrp bike in the mid-late '80s, so not crappy, but my husband was already buying bikes that cost two and three times as much. Also, I do really like having at least one bike with baskets (sometimes I carry shovels and loads of tomatoes to or from my community garden), and making the old one lighter would probably mean giving those up. Otherwise, that probably would be the most obvious solution, though switching to a pannier system would probably save me 4 lbs. or so over the 2 steel baskets I've got.

And Aaron, you're right. I'm not in a hurry--I'm mostly looking at the vintage road option so I can enjoy rides to downtown that might entail locking up for a few hours and not obsessing that I'm leaving a big chunk of change vulnerable on the street. I'll move the Japanese brands up on my radar--I think my husband liked his Miyata. I hadn't even thought about drops on a steel MTB, though I've thought about drops on my old CityLite, if I wanted to really strip it down and change it.

I think it will be a while before I know the good vintage bikes from the average ones--I'd be thrilled to have a great-feeling, quality, right-priced bike like Blue Belly's--and all the better if it has some serious urban camouflage in the way of ugly paint and a few dings.