There is a junk dealer near me and he sometimes puts bikes aside and I pay him a few bucks. I like this cruiser but it is a woman's step-through frame so I guess it will go up on CL once I have shined it up a bit.

And I didn't know there was a safety forum! I ride pretty unsafely, I will be the first to admit it but I've stopped going through reds now but I still cut off cars a lot, which is pretty dumb. When I am riding fixed, I am much safer since I feel that my stopping time is a lot lower. I think I suck at riding fixed, truth be known, but I like it and I have noticed in the last few years that I am a stronger cyclist all-around now that I ride fixed.

And yeah, at this time of the year it seems there are a lot of people new to cycling, fixed or geared. I sold a bike on CL a few weeks ago and it was a nice Raleigh mountain bike and the guy who bought it hadn't ridden a bike in 15 years but he wanted to get back into it since gas prices are so nuts. He got on it and rode around a bit (a little wobbley, but he was fine) and we were discussing the bike and I thought one of the strong points of the bike was that it had eyelets for fenders. I went on and on and on about how great fenders are and that you really need them in Toronto because rain can sneak up on you and the roads are really dirty all the time plus with fenders you can ride all winter and this guy is nodding his head during my whole fenders-thing and, as he pays me, he asks me "What are fenders?". I thought it was pretty funny. I shoulda used the term "mud-guards".