Sunday Early Edition

It's like starting off from scratch.
You walk into the LBS, not knowing about all these bicycles before you, never realizing that there are different types bicycles, and you must decide what kind of rider you are going to become.
That's sort of what it's been like these past couple of months.
All these bicycles and frames!
Wowser!
Well, not knowing anything when I first began riding, I chose a mountain bike, you know, just to get around.
Something I figured I could get some exercise on and not look too dorky.
Then two years later, I was sans mountain bike and looking all dorky.
Today, I'm not too sure exactly what I've become.
When I had my mountain bike, I felt pretty normal.
I mean most of the folks riding around out there are on mountain bikes, using them not to mountain bike, but to just get around.
Seems to be the entry level flavor of choice nowadays.
So I fit right into the landscape.
Then came the 29er, and all the upgrades and I realized that they make bicycle specific clothing for a reason and slowly came the shift toward dorkdom.
Still, there remains some residual of that rider that first took off from home struggling to do three miles.
I have four steel bikes here in front of me.
When I began this Quest for Frame(QFF), I started off looking for another road bike, one to replace the one that does not quite fit me right.
Well to tell you the truth, I started to look at all kinds of bicycles, not just road bikes.
That was my main Quest, the road bike, but just for fun I'd take a look at other types of frames too.
For instance, once I'm done here, I'm probably going to set my sights on some kind of trekking/commuter thingy.
Well what happened in my broad ranging sweep of all things bicycle was that I started to take another look at my bicycling habits and goals.
Where I fit in the bicycling landscape.
What exactly I do with my bicycles and where I go.
What I want my fleet of bicycles to eventually look like.
I figure I have three categories: road, mountain, and just fooling around.
Sort of like the question they ask you in the LBS when you first walk in.
Just what kind of riding will you be doing?
Since my answer back then was a definite "Idunno," and it's still Idunno, it serves me well to have a bicycle for every whim.
For me though, it is about a different state of mind for different bicycles.
A different state of being is what makes me choose my mountain bike over the road bike.
A need for potato chips makes me choose the Bike With the Funny Name over the road bike.
When I'm confused, I don't quite know which bicycle to use at all!
Looking at every bicycle available on face of this planet has helped me narrow my focus, define my bicycling needs and goals.
It helps that I already have the bicycles I need/want right here, so choosing another bicycle became more of a luxury decision rather than a need one.
That alone puts things in a different perspective.
The luxury thing I mean.
I took a long hard look at myself and my bicycles.
The bicycle I chose would be a replacement, not an addition, so choose wisely I had to do.
Or must do.
Still waffling don't you know.
What I'm getting at is that is has been an enlightening introspective journey as well as a maddening and frustrating decision.
One side of my brain is in constant battle with the other.
Need vs. Want.
I want all the bicycles I see.
I don't really need another bicycle.
Just what do you plan to do with this bicycle?
Just what makes this bicycle better than the one I already have?
In other words, where are you going that you already haven't been?
Well I never been to Carbonland, so I think I'd like to take a visit.
I heard Carbonland is a different state of mind.
Thinking about buying a ticket.
Round trip.
If you know what I mean.