I'm sure I've said something similar before, but I just realized:

I feel about bikes now as I felt about skateboarding in junior high.

I riffle through bike blogs, virtual page after page, from my office, like I did with skateboard magazines at school--trying to wring out every drop of information about the style, the culture, the best tips, the top gear.

I admire pictures of bikes like I had ogled over skateboard deck graphics from the latest CCS catalog.

I envy the commuters, tourers, messengers, and freestylers artfully photographed alone in a crowded city street; in a pack climbing a curvy mountain road drenched in the light of the rising sun...

I live vicariously through the stories and articles and epic photographic essays from behind my desk, both then and now, waiting, impatiently, to get back on the wheels that allow me to connect to my surroundings, but also brake free from the alternatives that are so pedestrian...