[herr_oberst]

John, you should do this for sure.

My neighbor gave me an old road frame.

(Canadian, called a Gardin. Never heard of it, but it's a nice, tall frame, fits me pretty well)

I turned it into a budget hot rod, but I'm not buying wheels, not for this bike. I just leave it in one gear and pretend I have a single speed.

Blue frame, blue saddle, blue tires, rat trap pedals with no clips or straps, flat bars.

It's a pretty steel Columbus frame, nicely decorated lugs, chrome fork, horizontal dropouts, but, man, is it a flexy-flyer. I bet you can move the BB 3 inches side to side when you stand on it. The tubeset is Matrix, which is hardly Columbus' top o the line.

It's basically a cruiser to get me to the store or my girlfriends house, I can ride in flip flops.

(But my commuter bike is festooned exactly as yours is, it must weigh 65 pounds when it's loaded, ha ha.)

(And I have a steel Basso for long, fun rides)