I tried to reply to some of these this week from my hotel room, but I got an error message about not having a security chip.
So here's a reply to cover a couple of posts:
Yes, fit is uppermost on my bike buying agenda. I've had bikes that don't fit well and it was painful to go more than about 25 miles at a time. The first time, the lbs guy saw me coming. I didn't know much about buying a bike. The second time I had done some research but I lived in a small town. The lbs was great, but the owner really believed that the standover measurement was the only one worth doing. He was wonderful about trying to adjust, but nothing could hide the fact that the bike just didn't fit me well.
This is one reason why I'm considering going to a large shop with lots of proven technical expertise and will really help me find the right bike with a fit that will take me over the long haul (oops, no pun intended).
About the vintage bikes: fit is the issue why I'm not really in the used market here. I look a couple of times a week on Craigslist, and I've been to a couple of lbs's, but they are larger bikes. I'm very leery of going to ebay without the ability to really test it out.
I won't be able to go for another couple of weeks anyhow, due to a really crazy travel schedule this month.
Phredette