I have a problem.

Yes. I am admitting it.

I succumb to my impusles at least ten times a day. Yes, it's that bad.

My problem is this: I want another bicycle.

When I originally bought Dolly, I had no problems. It was my irst time buying a bicycle, and I was absolutely thrilled. I loved her, I rode her, and I gave her streamers. What more could a bicycle want?

Dolly and I, as previously posted.

I was happy, Dolly was happy. We were happy. Our happiness lasted about two years (this is about how long your "love pheromones" are supposed to last. I know this is true, because the woman on The Real Housewives of Orange County said so). It was about this time that I decided that, as much as I loved Dolly, I wanted to invest in something a little bit more... practical.

With Fidel's help, I purchased a 51 cm KHS Winner, which I never named.

The unnamed KHS Winner.

Now, I liked this bike; she (he?) was in decent shape, only cost me $80, and was a called a "Winner." Uhm, amazing. Unfortuntately, I could barely stand over the top bar, even on my tip toes. My toes were no where near the ground when I needed to stop at a stop sign or stop light... and thus I decided that I needed another bicycle.

I embarked on my Craig's List quest with intrepid bravado, and jumped at a $100 1980's steel frame Huffy that came up. Some quick research showed me that the victorious 1980's USA Olympic cycling team had used Huffy--before the brand Wal-marted out, that is--and that was a good sign. I showed up, the bicycle was decent, and Eileen entered my life

Eileen and I on Corey's front porch, the night of the Harvest Moon Cruze.

Now, Eileen is a decent little bicycle. She's a 10-speed converted to a single speed, but that didn't bother me so much, since I'd been riding a single-speed, coaster brake cruiser around for two years. In fact, Dolly was a big step up. Now, I'm not saying she's perfect, I've only been riding her around for about two months, and she's had her share of flats, and while she masquerades as a single speed, she lacks horizontal drops... but on my own end, I've drunkenly fallen off more than once and even ridden into a parked car. She's been a great learning bicycle.

However, Eileen is a 19 inch frame, which, according to the nifty converter on my Apple's OSX Dashboard tells me is equivalent to 48.26 cm. Here is the problem.

Buying bicycles is really, really fun. Really fun. Way fun. You should try it. It's like sex or potato chips or gummy bears or probably tattoos (although I have none). Once you lose your virginity or eat a Pringle or get a tattoo, you can't just quit. It doesn't work like that. And buying bicycles is the same way. It's like starting a relationship with someone you can break up with at any time with no hard feelings, and you'll never have to see them again. In the meantime you'll go through a lot together, share tears and blood and emotions or whatnot (okay, maybe you don't "share blood" in relationships), you'll either improve the bicycle or ride it into the ground, and the bicycle will either take you places and tone you up, or will flake out on you when you most need it. These things will determine your relationship. And like relationships, unless you're one of those crazy kids who's now engaged to your highschool sweetheart (I didn't even HAVE a high school sweetheart), you're going to want more than one bicycle.

This is where my problem comes in.

I want a new bicycle. I don't want a 48.26 cm bicycle, I want a 49 cm bicycle. And I want it to be purple. I don't care if it's single speed, fixed gear, or 21 speed; I don't care if it's men's frame, women's frame, or mixte; I don't care if it's American, Japanese, or Italian. I just fucking want it.

And this is bad. This means I spend at least an hour (okay, maybe not an hour) on bicycle craigslist every day. An hour total. Not at one time. And I know it's bad, because I recognized the bicycle my friend posted on Craigslist and asked him about it, before he even told me he was moving.

But it's just... buying bicycles already feels so good. I can't imagine how good buying the perfect bicycle feels.