I have been away from riding for a few years (as long as I have been back in grad school) and I am starting to get back into it. I am a 4 year cancer survivor and while I do Tai Chi, run, hike and such I have not been using my bike as much as I used to. I am about 80% car independent but I do have a car and quite honestly I like my car as it gets me into the backcountry to hike and backpack. Its an old Subaru that I keep going by scavenging at junkyards. I typically walk or take the bus in town (I have a four year old that LOVES taking the bus). Now my son is starting to get interested in bikes so I am going to pick one up for him and we can ride together. I am lucky to live in a small city in Washington State that has many miles of bike trails and a good bit of really nice singletrack.

Within the next year we will all be moving up to Vancouver BC (my wife is in school there) and I will with some luck be starting a doctoral program at UBC. I want to go as close to car free as possible (both my wife and I have older parents that will be livign on the U.S. side of the border so we can't give up the cars entirely but while in town I want to keep the cars parked.

I have been riding a Klein Pinnacle with slicks. I like the bike but the frame is a bit too small for me and I am getting to the age where the aluminum frame is beating me up when I ride. I tried a Softride suspension beam bike (I used to work for them) but I could never get used to it. I am about to pick up an older steel MTB frame as a project bike and move all the components over from the Klein to make an urban commuter. I typicall ride with a messenger bag or a backpack (I go back and forth in search of the ultimate bag)and from time to time I use a rack.

I found the overall forum quite by accident looking for info on vintage frames and saw this living car free forum and thought I wanted to maybe participate in the conversations.

Oh yeah, I REALLY like riding a bike. Makes me feel like a kid again.