Tag, stop it, crap, sorry, here goes

I have steadfastly ignored about 10 people blog tagging me in the last couple of years. I am sorry. I am so overwhelmed with internal ideas for my blog that I don't have the blogenergy to respond to most of these requests, I barely have the time to do justice to the shitstorm of blog gold that occurs in my mind on a daily basis. Infact, I occasionally drink heavily so that the words "blog gold" stop appearing in my mind. Most of the people who tag me I like alot and I enjoy their blogs thoroughly and even enjoy their answers to their "tagged" stuff. But I never play along. But this time I will. kent tagged me for some sort of bike related questionnaire.

I will respond this time only as:
1. it is Kent who was at one point personally responsible for 20% of my blog traffic
2. Kent should wear rock star sunglasses as he is bicycle flavored rock star and one must respect that.
3. Kent actually tagged me with something that is related to my mission statement (bikes and cats in the high desert)
4. This finally gets me to address the whole tagging phenomena and say, please. stop. tagging. me. Tag someone who never updates their blog. Watch me how I do it at the end.

Ok, here goes:
If you could have any one — and only one — bike in the world, what would it be?
Easy. Single speed cyclocross bike with flip flop 36-18 on freewheel and a 36-16 on fixie and clearance for 700x45mm tires. Infact I have had this bike since august 1996 and other than some youthful steertube cutting exuberance, it is still perfect. It has done time as my messenger bike, mountain bike, cross bike, commuter bike, race mountain bike, loaner bike, broken bike, fixed bike, etc:


Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not?
I already have it and ride it 100 miles a year or less, mostly in cross races. It needs a longer fork. I am not 24 any more. With a longer fork and some luck it will make it another 10 years. It probably will break as soon as I start riding it more though, so it is dicey.

What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to to do for the rest of her / his life?
The logistics of getting rid of enough bikes so that I would only have one to ride are so improbable that no evil sickness or villany is capable.

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrowminded?
Yes. this is a dumb question. I prefer the bike I am riding.

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent.
I have ridden, raced and built high speed faired recumbents. I have no problem with recumbents but find them exceptionally poor solutions for my current cycling needs.
Me and three others built this thing as a prototype:


Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss?
Yep, lots of triathlons. The second part of this question makes me vow never to participate in a tagging exercise again.

Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?
Plain old mean. I would give up ice cream and seek vengeance on those who made me choose.

If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?M
Oakland, Royal coffee to claremont to tunnel to skyline, long cut on the fire road in Redwood park, back to skyline, hang a left at the intersection with Joaquin miller hook up with Redwood to pinehurst, twist about and then climb back up to skyline and then, hmm, probably back on skyline over grizzily peaks down the back side on that lomas encantadas road through the closed to cars (still?) bridge up wildcat and then down to berkeley for dinner at the pizza collective.


You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do?
Somehow this has not happened to me yet. This happens to everyone else around here though. I am pretty sure I would try to document it for the blog. "hot damn, Blog gold" I would think.

Now, tag three biking bloggers. List them below.
Ok, I tag anyone reading this who has not updated their blog in more than two weeks. Everyone else, ignore this. Finally:
Please. Stop. Tagging. Me.

Thanks