FAQ's

An image I randomly found on the Google, which somehow manages to sum up the title of this blog perfectly.

Some Questions You May or May Not be Asking About this Blog: 

 Why is this blog called "4 Wheels Bad, 2 Wheels Good?"

• With this being a bike blog, it's probably not terribly hard to make the connection between the inference that four wheels, i.e. cars, are "bad" and two wheels, i.e. bikes, are "good." There are many obvious reasons for that.
• Bikes are less expensive to own, maintain, and operate. In addition, bikes are much healthier, both from an environmental standpoint and a biological standpoint. I personally lost about 40 lbs. within the space of about 8 months when I first resumed riding bikes.
• It's also a much more enjoyable way to travel and, once you figure traffic into the equation, it's often not that much slower to get somewhere than driving is within the city.
• Often I refer to the title simply as 4Bad2Good just because that has a nice ring to it and I think it kinda sounds cool. The short version is also the blog URL.
• Finally, the name is a homage to one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. Although it is transposed to reflect the relationship of car wheels to bike wheels, the title is a reference to the revolutionary rallying cry of the animals in George Orwell's story "Animal Farm."

Why do your bikes have names and why are they such weird, foreign sounding names?

• A lot of cyclists name their bikes usually for whimsical reasons. I don't actually use the names much in the real world and they rarely come when I call them by their names, but it's kinda fun to refer to them by names on the internets.
• My original road bike, a used Schwinn Prelude that some douche stole, was named the "Blue Bomber." Mostly that's because it was blue and I didn't put a lot of thought into it. But I did bomb down the road on it on a daily basis.
• The Specialized Allez that I got to replace the Blue Bomber is named "Nicola Bartolomeo." This is a name that I have used in the past and on rare occasions still do as a pen name. It consists of the first names of Sacco and Vanzetti, two immigrant laborers that were murdered by the government because they were Anarchists.
• "Kropotkin" is my Tommaso Augusta Ninja (that's right a ninja!), that I use for commuting. It's an all black, stripped down fixie that lives to do the hard work. So it's only appropriate that it should be named after Petr Kropotkin, who Emma Goldman referred to as the "Godfather of Anarchism."

What's the deal with all the Anarchist references in this FAQ:

• Well this doesn't really have a whole lot do with cycling, but I am in fact and Anarchist. If your interested you can read some of my political musings on my personal blog: EYEAM4ANARCHY. If not, that's cool too, I pretty much intend to stick to cycling for the most part in this blog. So political references should be few and far between and should be bike related in the few instances when they do appear.

Why are you planning to ride 100 miles in one day during the "Tour de Cure" on April 27th?

• I'm riding in the Tour de Cure both for the personal challenge of completing a "century," which is essentially the cycling equivalent of a marathon, and because of the importance of finding a cure for diabetes. Diabetes is a terrible disease that doesn't often get the attention that other deadly diseases do even though it ranks right up there with the worst of them.
• My mom had diabetes and died earlier than she normally would have due to the complications associated with it. I very much miss her and want to help the American Diabetes Association raise funds for research toward a cure so that other people, their friends, and families won't have to suffer its effects.

How can I donate to your "Tour de Cure" fundraising total?

• You can go to my personal fundraising profile page at this link to make a direct donation to the American Diabetes Association: My Donation Page
• If you live in Las Vegas, you can contact me and make arrangements to give me a check or even cash (I would much prefer you use the online link above, if at all possible).
• I'm trying to set up some other fundraising options such as the ones where you go to a certain restaurant and they donate a portion of the total amount people eating there within a designated time spent. The obvious advantage to this is that the only money coming out of your pocket is what you would pay for the meal anyway. Stay tuned for future announcements regarding this option.