I have been doing a lot of cycling this fall, and I have a couple more bikes in the garage.

My one and only bike was a ~1989-90 Diamond Back Ascent EX. I haven't put a lot of time on it since college and a lot of it is worn out. Two of the last three rides left me with a 1.5 mile walk because I didn't have the equipment to fix the flats. I don't know what caused the first one, but I didn't have a tool kit. The second flat was a blowout through the sidewall, riding on a smooth and clean road. The tire was paper thin and barely held in the tube. I had a tube repair kit that time, but I didn't have a dollar bill or the knowledge to put it in between the tube and tire so I walked it home.

So I went to visit relatives and my father-in-law let me carry off some bikes - a 1989 Peugeot Marseilles road bike and two 1993 Schwinn Crosspoint hybrids, male and female. I've never had drop bars and high-pressure slicks, but I'm hooked. The Schwinn is also a very nice bike but the straight handlebars give me wrist problems after a couple of miles. I got around this with bar ends on the Diamond Back, I might move them to the Schwinn.