After years of reading Bike Forum posts, I finally thought it would make sense to join. Thanks to everyone whose questions, ideas, and observations have entertained and informed me for all this time.
I endure Atlanta GA, the city voted worst in America for cycling. Thanks to Google Earth, and the Atlanta Regional Commission's cyling suitability maps, it is actually possible to commute to work, despite the local bike hater culture. Things are improving, too. It may someday happen that people will stop thinking I'm out of my mind for riding 54 miles roundtrip between the northeastern suburbs and downtown. (They may still think I'm crazy, but not for riding my bike!) In the next decade, the Beltline should provide lots more safe and useful routes around town. There is already a reasonably good system of bike and pedestrian paths in a few areas in and near Atlanta.
My bike collection is a nice compromise. Not as many as I'd like, but more than my lovely wife would like. The bikes: a somewhat upgraded 1985 Schwinn Voyageur for touring, and sloppy weather commuting; a very upgraded 1987 Trek 400T Elance that I set up as a randonneuse, but which I most often ride to work, or for long dayrides; another all original Elance that I no longer ride, because the pressure to sell it is, well, pretty intense
; an Eddy Merckx Corsa 0.1 for pretending I'm still fast, and riding with my brother (who is still fast); a Cannondale F2000 heapmo single track bike that I traded for my first IBM laptop many years ago, but which I hardly ever ride (really need to learn more about off-road riding!); a Burley Rumba tandem that my wife and I ride whenever we are both available. The tandem is the one that Sweetie doesn't want me to even consider selling...unless I happen to come into posession of a Santana! I also still have the Bador Vitus 979 frame from my 1980's racing days, but the Campagnolo parts were all sold off it when we had a financial crisis a few years ago. Someday, I'll rebuild it! Why? Hmmm...I don't know; I just know I will.