Recently, I fixed up an old Huffy mountain bike that my community association got from the Police. Every year we give police bikes away to neighborhood kids for the holidays. These bikes are typically in extreme disrepair, so I and some other guys volunteer to service them. (BTW, I highly recommend this if you like to tool around and want to do some charity, police departments collect a lot bikes in urban areas, too many end-up in the dump).

Anyways, to test it out, I took it out for a ride instead of my 3000 dollar bike. I enjoyed the bemused WTF looks from the regulars I encounter when riding my usual wheels. One guy asked if my nice bike had been stolen.

It was kind of liberating in a way, even though the bike was too small and too heavy and I could not make the shifting very crisp. It was a zen experience. I almost felt guilty for owning an expensive bike. I thought about all the people that use bikes such as the Huffy as their primary transport-- with proper maintenance, riders of such bikes can have cycling experiences that are as good as ours.

I seriously think that a light, durable, intelligently designed single speed bike could be made for less than the cost of a cheap-frilly walmart bike. Its too bad manufacturers think the market won't take such bikes.