This week I’m obsessed by dogs who love mountain biking:

Star Wars, unicycles, and kilts. I can’t wait to see a Luke Skywalker rebuttal.

Motorized vehicle on motorized vehicle VIOLENCE in the name of preserving bike lanes. To quote the Lithuanian Mayor Arturas Zuoka “what should the city do about drivers who think that they are above the law? It seems that a tank is the best solution.”

I would love to see what he would do with a RPG.

Q) You’ve been deemed a WRONGBIKE Hero, describe how you earned this
dubious honor?
A) As I recall, the essential components of my friend’s invitation were: downhill, mountain bike, Tahoe, weekend, camping, and bachelor party. I believe my response was, “Hell yeah!” followed by, “Where’s that Nishiki I bought 10 years ago that was on-sale, at the time, because it was a few years outdated?”

Now, having completed the Downieville Downhill, a mountain bike course of over 17 miles and 5,000 feet of vertical drop, I understand it to be the location of “the longest and most demanding downhill mountain bike race in the nation.” (See http://www.downievilleclassic.com/pages/downhill.html). Needless to say, the Manitoba was not up to the task. Here’s a picture of the Manitoba pre-ride.

Bike Pile

It’s the only fully-rigid in the lot, but I didn’t know what “fully-rigid” was. Here’s another pre-ride shot.

Paul's bike or that jacket what is more ridiculous?

I think I’m noticing the shock absorber on the front of everyone’s bike. Hummm?
The first 1/4 of the track was actually one of the best times I’ve had. I grew-up in the “909″ and by default, rode dirt-bikes during the formative years of my life. However, the last 3/4 of the ride was quite possible the most painful experience of my lifetime: the will to go fast was tempered by the incredible pain each pebble jolted through my hands and into my body.

Q) What do you love or hate about this bike?
I love the bike as a hi-tech beach cruiser, the beach cruiser being the last bike I owned prior to the Manitoba, and it is great for bar crawls like the one pictured below.

Paul charming the ladies

Q) What other bikes do you own?
A) I also own a 12-speed road bike called the Milano: apparently a promotional-type bike made for Filla Sports a long time ago (another WRONGBIKE story waiting to happen).

Q) Any more WRONGBIKE rides planned?
My WRONGBIKE story was very much not planned. On my next ride, the Cannell Plunge in Kernville, I rented a top-of-the-line Yeti, but my mountain biking friends told me that having a $12 peddle on a $230 crank was obscene. Oh well. Does a WRONGPEDDLE make a WRONGBIKE?

Q) If you could trade your WRONGBIKE for any bike in the world, what bike would you choose?
A) I don’t think I would trade my WRONGBIKE. We have too much history together. Also, my WRONGBIKE is the only witness to what happened the night of the bar crawl (pictured above) that caused me to do a superman over the handle bars and into the rear window of a car. I lost about 45 minutes of memory thanks to that incident. Nothing like that ever happened in Downieville.

Cheers WRONGBIKE.
Cheers to you Paul.

Most WRONGBIKE Heroes get the award for having a less than ideal bike for the situation. In this case the bike is fine, but the rider is legally bind! Matt few people ride this earth as inspiring as you.