bmcer

just a couple comments...

In younger years, I was a licensed pilot, soaring pilot, that is, real pilot according to some. Powered fight is like acting in the movies. Flying a glider is like acting on a live stage. Just the idea that nothing more than the interaction of the sun and sky and earth could be harnessed by something so simple as a few hundred pounds of gracefully sculpted fiber glass to carry a man tens on thousands of feet into the air, covering hundreds of miles while leaving nothing in my wake but mildly ruffled air is so magical. Almost enough to make you believe in angels.

So I understand the Robin Williams comment very, very well. Perhaps better that most. I don't have the vision to hold a license any more, but trust me, I fly all the time. Just on wheels instead of wings now. Oh, and I don't think it's a coincidence that powered flight was first achieved by two brothers who were bicycle makers before they became aviators.

Secondly, I can't agree that how a bicycle is ridden, how far or how often defines a "cyclist". If you understand and at some level believe in the magic that is a bicycle ridden for shear pleasure, you qualify regardless of your attire.

Finally, I've heard all the raucous blathering about how much money a person should or should not be spent on a bicycle.

Balderdash and Poppycock!!

If a bike speaks to me, and I can afford it, no one is going to tell me I can't have it. No one!