Apparently there's one hell of a crack habit going around the neighbourhood I left it in (for an hour and a half, in a well-lit area). It's especially nice to know afterwards.

I think what I'm going to end up doing is fixing the frame I've got now. I'll throw on a nice fork and the only commuting it will ever see is to work and back (semi-suburban children's hospital. The bike rack is twenty feet from the security office).

On a related note, I found a completely un-ridable 15 spd in my mother's garage but the frame seems to be in passable shape. I was wondering how feasible it would be to turn it into a not-worth-taking singlespeed for downtown errands and whatnot. Could I just stop by the used bike shop and swap both gearsets for single sprockets, replace the brakepads and get someone to true the wheels?