A Vehicle For The Times

"Yes, it's true that those expensive carbon-fiber bikes aren't exactly flying off the shelves these days as the lycra-clad, ectomorphic road warriors decide that maybe they can live with last year's model.

But it's a pretty good business to be selling lights, fenders and even bike bells to people who are hauling their old bikes out of storage or bringing home cheap two-wheelers from Goodwill. Now that dozens of cities around the country are starting to see cycling as a serious form of transportation, it's become more inviting than it used to be to bike to work, the store or the neighborhood pub.

A lot of folks, of course, started picking up the cycling-for-transportation habit a year ago when gas prices shot up to $4 a gallon and keeping your car parked whenever possible took on new cachet.

Filling up with unleaded is not quite so dear now, but since just about everyone is feeling at least a little poorer now, the bike is taking on a new aura of recession chic."