Huh?

When I refused to eat casseroles and other strange concoctions as a child, my mother would point out that I liked this ingredient, and I liked that ingredient, therefore I should like the casserole. I was fond of pointing out that I liked bananas and I liked ketchup, but I felt no need to mix them together. I love my bike. I like clearing snow from my driveway during winter. But I don't combine them.

There are things I just don't understand: Rap music. Voting for Bush. Why anyone cares that Kate Moss snorted cocaine. Who Kate Moss is in the first place. Piercing any body part below the neck. Singlespeeds. I remember the singlespeed bikes I rode as a kid. I spent years thinking hills sucked because it was so damned hard to ride up them. I do understand an attraction to simplicity. I'm not much into being a consumer, I don't watch TV and I avoid owning things with engines, like boats, motorcycles and snowmobiles. But when I want to pedal up a mountain, give me a a triple up front and a 9-speed cassette out back. I am One with the Granny Gear.

And rigid singlespeeds? Please. What's next, sun dials? Killing dinner with a sharpened stick? My first mountain bike was fully rigid with thumb shifters. That's what we all rode and we thought it was the greatest thing ever. And it was, until designers and engineers figured out suspension and better shifting systems. I still own a rigid bike for errands and town work, but that baby ain't ever seein' singletrack again with my butt on it.

And another thing I don't understand is these dudes. But their bike-riding skills are so amazing I don't have to understand them. All I have to do is watch the video and wonder how they do it. I stole the link from the only blog that makes me hum an old Blue Oyster Cult song: "Oh no. There goes Tokyo. Go go Gwadzilla."

Bye. G'bye. Bye Bye. Have a nice day. Bye by. Thanks for flying with Bicycles and Icicles. G'bye.