The advent of Lance Armstrong caused a HUGE upsurge in interest in riding bicycles in the US. As is showing now Lance was no more guilty of cheating than every other top pro. And it's also showing that ALL sports are guilty of the same thing. Though several university studies have suggested that the professional bicyclists are tuned to such a fine edge that performance enhancing drugs actually have the opposite effect. Tour riders may believe in PED's and hence use them but they have little or even bad effects. Which sort of makes sense. Remember that originally they used alcohol to increase performance and now we know absolutely for certain that it damages performance.

In any case, because of this uptick in the numbers of cyclists, many of them are young and play-racers. If they aren't riding in very fast packs they are "training" by riding over the local hills and passing me like I'm standing still. Since they're usually more than 40 years younger than me it doesn't bother me.

But I've been noticing that they've all been riding solid black bikes.

I don't know how many of you know that I had a fall and concussion that knocked me out for two whole years. Finally my friend and brother got me to the proper doctor who prescribed the proper medication at the proper dosage and I'm me again. Though some may think that less than desirable.

So since I can't remember what's been going on I've been looking around to discover what these really fast bikes are. High end Italian? French? Even Japanese?

No - it turns out that they're Trek and Cannondale! Before I was knocked out these were considered plain. But now they look to me to be as good as the best in the world!

Any comments?