indestructible velocipede

well, the snow's almost gone. i managed to put in a complete week of biking which, to be really honest, i didn't expect to have happen given that we are experiencing a "normal winter" this time around. biking next week may be sketchy as there is some snow forecast, the temperatures will be a couple of degrees cooler and so the snow might stick around but we'll see. the roads themselves - well the hastily filled potholes have unfilled themselves with the result that the holes have become gaping maws capable of swallowing smart cars let alone bikes, and there is a fine salt and sand dust on the roads that gets raised every time a vehicle passes over it. needless to say, my sodium intake is fairly high right now as i breathe it all in!

anyhow, i went bike shopping the other day in the hope of seeing something for my dawsonboy and i for a planned mega excursion this summer and stopped for a little while to look at some of the mountain bikes. these things are amazing - ugly but amazing. built like tanks but weighing next to nothing, you can cross almost any terrain in some of these bruisers. so on that subject i did a little scouring online - and no, i am not getting a mountain bike, i'm actually looking at a touring bike - and i came across this variant on the mountain bike theme that i thought might appeal to those of you with a penchant or taste for the different.

have you felt a recent uncontrollable urge to jump out of a plane, land somewhere kind of rugged or out-of-the-way and then get on a bicycle and go somewhere? if your considered answer is yes, then i think i can solve the issue of how to take a bike with you on your big trip! or perhaps like me you're struggling through the dog days of year 'round biking - ice pellets mixing with rain into an indeterminate substance that at one point lets you ride in a straight line and then just as quickly sends you skating sideways as a fourty to sixty kilometre per hour gust grabs your scrawny body and shoves it in the direction of the curb - and looking for a tank-like means of transportation that isn't going to underwrite the death-spiral of our home-planet's environment.

of course it can't be just any bike. it has to be strong, and it has to be compact. if those are your criteria then you might like to take a look at this indestructible velocipede.

click on the image above to see what this bike can do!!!

interested? if you want to know more then read over these tech specs. the "paratrooper" sells for just shy of a thousand euros which i figure makes it a two thousand dollar plus bike . . . . not exorbitant and it does seem to be pretty high-end. plus you'd be the talk of the bike shop if you hauled up in one of these camouflaged beasts!