You'll Never Ride It? Periodicals Rack, Free to Good Home.

Left anonymously in the laundry room a week ago. I need a bigger fingerbike.

Lists.

Found this multi-page improvised pocket journal in one of my old camera bags this weekend. It's an index of stuff I had in mind to shoot for bmx is cute and didn't want to forget--things I spotted from the highway or in strange neighborhoods that I knew my memory would have no way to catalog, as well as various other video-related creative inspirations. I think the list happened partly as a manifestation of how little time I had to ride during the last semester of my senior year of college. It's satisfying to mentally check off all the spots that did get revisited and ridden before we left St Louis for Chicago, whether or not the particular trick worked out.

It's also cool, six years later, now happily pegless and a father of two, to feel freed from the psychological compulsion to toss my body down every rail that crosses my field of vision. (A related list would be the running spreadsheet I started in 1999, intending to document all the rails I ever grinded, but that file was lost in a 2002 hard drive crash.)

For the record, St Louis has the richest, most stress-free geographical density of street terrain of any place I've ever lived or visited.

Everyone has a list like this, right?

Portland Bridges: The Web Video.

Caleb and I had a blast collaborating on this project across the span of the continent. I'd get an idea while driving to Seattle in the middle of the night and pull over at a rest stop to send him a three-page text. A couple days later, he'd email back with his responses, make some aside about feeding the sheep, and link me to a revised version of the video. That said, for all the thought and work we put into it, it's a very simple video.

Hope you enjoy.



Filmers/editors/riders: Caleb, Ben, DBZ, and myself.

1/11/10.

The Silent Web Video.

I already have one, two, three active blogs in addition to this one, and it's a daily struggle not to start more. One idea that I've so far resisted would be a dump archive of web videos featuring the sounds of riding, the single most important choice made by an editor in my opinion.

The soundtrack-less "718trailer," embedded below, would be filed under "very well done."

As seen on the Holeshot blog (and a lot of other places, too). DVD available at Dan's.



Of course, I'd like to add that bmx is cute. did it three years ago (to less impressive effect).

Stranger than...

On the Burnside drawbridge, waiting for a passing tugboat, observed this fellow bicycle commuter talking to the air. BMXers will immediately identify the clear Odyssey Twisteds.

Point and Shoot: Nick Morris.

Lateral gap to handrail, care of Nick Morris, two Thursdays ago. (Caleb Evenson raccoon eyes in the background.)



Is it any wonder that Nick's broken wrist has yet to heal?

Improving on Perfection: Breakfast on the Bridges adds Bacon.

It just seemed like the right thing, to inaugurate Ben's first day back at work since the birth of his beautiful son Gus with donut holes and coffee on the Steel bridge. The sizzlin' fresh pancakes, sausage patties, and non-vegan bacon were an unfathomable surprise quickly embraced.

All props to the profitless BonB crew.



We loitered for a half hour or so, discussing work and bikes: Caleb is happily unemployed again, and assembling a touring bike for a winter voyage; Ben complained about commuting via bmx ("It's half the speed, and twice the work!") and resolved to get his road bike functional before Monday; and I smugly called attention to my new collapsible metal pannier basket, a twenty-dollar purchase which keeps the messenger bag off my back and doubles my investment in the sixteen-inch machine.

We finally parted ways for what I assume were excellent Fridays all around.

Point and Shoot: Portland Summer Thursdays...

Summer street rides have been going well for over a month now, but this was the first night of the season that the camera left my jeans pocket. Two shots:


Allen Burger, smith up the Lincoln High driveway ledge, bar height and then some. Good grief.


Visiting from Philly, Dan Bob, nose-to-180, waterfront warmup.
...

Portland summers start late but go forever. Check the Thursday night photos from late August and September of last year.

See you at Lovejoy Fountain, 9 o'clock, Thursday!

Chest hair like a lumberjack.

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deebodude, via the 217.