After 4 trips to bike shops and 7 test rides, I went back to the first store I visited (twice yesterday and twice today) to buy my new love. This “starter” road bike possesses strength, radiates beauty and invites all, who pass by, on an energizing yet not exhausting 40 mile ride.

This is my third “pure-bread” bike (that I didn’t pick up off the side of the road) and I’m looking forward to a long-term relationship with it, unlike it’s 2 predecessors. My first, a lower-end Fuji roadster, and I were together for a year before heartless thieves ran off with it. A few months later, only last fall, I picked up a Gary Fischer and complained about lack of comfort. So I left it in Missouri, while on my winter/spring road trip, for my 14 yr old brother to ride. (I still get updates on how awesome it is: it’s only 2 minutes slower than a car for going across town!)

So now’s when I ask locals for all their fabulous bike ride recommendations and invites.

“In the End, Everyone is a Loser.”
- Andrew Ross Sorkin (new york times) on today’s/tonight’s Charlie Rose show.

Some may argue he was talking only in reference to the botched Microsoft-Yahoo deal, but the twinkle in the wunderkind’s eye illuminated omniscience.