bike check: one, two. one, two.

I know these photos were taken in 2006 or 2007, because that's our old Chicago apartment building. But I can't be surer than that, because 2006 is the last time I bought a bike part. This is exactly the bike I'm riding today, except the rusted spots have continued to bloom.




Frame: Metal Kizz. Apparently this was Jeremy Davis's personal rig for a short time. I paid eighty bucks for it in 2002 (I think), after my Kink Empire was stolen. Most of this bike is the same charity parts, actually. There are temper tantrum hammer dents in the down tube, presumably inflicted during a difficult bottom bracket installation. I may cut the mounts off.

The forks came off a Hoffman Dirty130 complete. Paid twelve bucks. I don't tend to bend forks.

Castillo Bars. I fell in love with low, narrow bars at age sixteen and haven't run two-piecers since the stock bars on my Mongoose Decade. More on the four-piece fascination here.



S&M Redneck. This was originally part of a Holmes custom complete, built in the bike shop where I worked in 1996. The kid never liked the way the bike handled, and he soon quit riding altogether. The stem design is so old that it's not even gyro compatible. Very pointy corners. Blue face plate is from the quill Redneck that I once ran on my 1" Standard Shorty. I'm planning to switch to an Odyssey Elementary at some point.

Profile SS Cranks (bent).

Pedals: Odyssey JC's. I like these a lot.

Chainring: TreeBikeCo 36t. Still straight, even after shearing off the bashguard.

Seat/post/clamp: Mangled GT plastic with the nose cut off. This was the original seat on my Shorty, I think. Unearthed it in a tool box a few years ago. Primo Rod post and Primo Viking two-bolt clamp, cut in half. These parts are the weakest link in my setup, and I hate them. I'm planning to switch to some kind of Pivotal.

gSport Vandal hubs. I never cared the name gSport or Vandal, but I've been passively obsessed with G's products for some time. These hubs have double-thick flanges to resist damage from grinds. A sensible design choice, but I hardly even grind any more. 48 spoke.

Peg: I threw away all my rusty metal pegs a few years ago, in anticipation of Plegs. But I got impatient with Odyssey R&D, and one day when I was in the mood for hang 5's, I dug this ThickBikes plastic peg out of a tool box and installed it. It's been there ever since. When I originally bought these, the shop only had one pair for sale. If they'd had two pairs, I would've taken both. But I never could stand the asymmetric look of two white pegs, so these didn't get used much beyond the first week. If you want to grind aluminum rails, they do work really well. I think I paid $45 for the pair. Crazy. (This photo taken today.)


Tires: Ruben up front (love it), Odyssey Path in back. The Path is comically bald at this point, but I just keep duct taping the inside whenever I find a new thin spot. The technique is so effective that I wish I'd never started.

Rear rim: Sun Big City. I can't believe the durability of this rim, and it has completely eliminated pinch flats. It was originally black but is oxidizing towards a shade of copper. I kinda like it.

Front rim: Hoffman Highroller, from the first batch of Taiwanese Gack wheels, circa 1996. Still somewhat round. I'm not entirely comfortable with the ugliness of the flaking chrome. Whenever a new flake starts to go, it makes a whizzing sound in the wind.

...

On a related note, I recently acquired a good condition Standard Trailboss frame in exchange for a beat-up old Holmes--actually, the very same Holmes the Redneck came from, mentioned above--and I'm contemplating what to do with it. I don't know if I want to switch all these rusty old parts over or just build up a second bike with new modern stuff. I wouldn't mind sacrificing ten pounds of excess metal, and I don't have any kind of artistic or political commitment to old technology, really. But the Kizz just keeps on running, and the accumulated memories just keep growing. I guess that's called nostalgia.

...

Recent, related, excellent items you've probably already seen:

Taj recalls all his bikes
and
Russ recalls all his STA's.

virgin terrain.

Yesterday, as an alternative to dealing with scattered showers and slippery pedals, I went out with my camera and a cup of coffee to photograph some spots around my new hood that, to my knowledge, have never been approached by a bike. I post these images for two reasons:

1: The simple pleasure of spotting an obstacle and picking out lines.
2: The fantasy of seeing these spots taken care of by another, better, ballsier bike rider. Both these spots are in the Portland suburb of Oregon City. Hit me up if you need help finding them.

Gap, over the rail and across the chasm. Definitely do-able, just a matter of speed and commitment. Decent runway and landing, all things considered.

If, instead of hucking the gap, you were to descend the stairs...

...you'd find yourself in the Willamette river.

Never seen this setup before. Grinding into the water appears physically impossible at first glance, due to the right turn at the top of the stairs and the monstrous dimensions of the rail. But I think there's a chance. Examine the picture below. See that little flat platform halfway up the middle stage? There's actually more than a bike length for run-up, and the rail is just over axle high there. It's possible. A second cool line would be to drop from the pipe into the bank and hop both rails into the river.

Next location: ledges. Get your steel pegs.

Seventeen steps, thigh high. I'll probably go back and hit this myself on a dry day. Gap to ledge ride to gap across the walkway into the shrubbery. This ledge on its own wouldn't warrant a blog post. But it's got a little brother around the corner...

...94 mossy steps. Start your feeble...

... Emerge from the trees, hop from grind position up onto the ledge, and gap to the final 17-stepper.

Reviewed: Yo Guy! by Brian "Crossbar" Histand

According to this bmxboard thread, the cover art for each Yo Guy! dvd takes "about three minutes." I haven't concluded whether that is fast or slow, but it's cool to think that this disc spent three minutes in Brian Histand's calloused hands.

You've seen the trailer, right?



The trailer and the cover art should give you a fair idea of what to expect: this is a straightforward rock-and-roll scene video, with emphasis on quality riding and not on elaborate production.

Ten bucks, shipped anywhere. Buy it.

It's hard to believe that in such a tight crew of non-professional riders there can be this much variety: the ratio of street, park, and dirt footage is pretty much perfect, as is the ratio of tech, smooth, and burly riding. The burly moments made my joints ache; Histand assured me he does have health insurance. That he would let his poor mother watch the video blows my mind.

My [constructive] criticism: top-notch riding needs top-notch terrain, and too much of the video felt like it was filmed in the suburbs (as I think the trailer shows). Don't settle for a 540 down stairs at some featureless elementary school--find a stair set in a location with some kind of character. Please!

That said, I'm psyched as hell on these guys producing a bangin' dvd while holding down jobs, school, and family. When time is scarce, it makes sense to quit exploring and just start riding. Can't fault somebody for that.

I won't be surprised if this video leads to some serious sponsorships. Histand could use a pair of cranks, I'm sure.

To order Yo Guy!, paypal ten dollars to mrgoose33@yahoo.com.

Here's the Yo Guy! MySpace.
...

Btw: interview with Histand and another review at NoBikes.

brake pr0n monday.

This is how you shoot bmx with a macro. Looks like TJ Henderson got a new lens for Christmas.


What a fantastic image. More at The217.

And on the same day, Ben Ward, of pdxbmx and Odyssey, posted this image of the new Flatware fork and brakes.


Actually, I confess, I'm not quite sure exactly what's what here. But the setup looks tight, and Od'sey HQ looks like a bmx paraphenalia fantasyland.

Familiar Manifestations of Other People's Cabin Fever.

Ha!

Following two similar posts in a row here, this appeared on the Deliverance blog last night.


Creativity's gotta go somewhere. At least his posts are somewhat bike relevant.

(Cute kid.)

bilding.

As predicted, here's another tower of blocks, assembled over the course of a very lazy New Year's Day.



I didn't quite use up all the blocks in the bin. Perhaps the next one will be taller. It's pretty satisfying when the tower gets high enough that you can just stand and build at eye level.

Snow day.

I liked my first tower better, but it fell down. That red triangle block in the bottom right was on top of the green rectangle but got knocked off while I was taking the picture, I guess.

There will probably be more of this stuff.

Lobsterspine = the Real Steven Hamilton?

The video below, reportedly edited by Steven Hamilton himself, has been viewed almost eight thousand times since its internet debut two days ago. Responses to the video on bmxboard, the Come Up, and T.V.O.'s Life? were split, tending either towards strong disappointment or strong enthusiasm. The comparisons to mid-90's LSD-influenced video producer Ells Bells seem absolutely appropriate.



There are eight more Hamilton-related videos from the same Youtube user, Lobsterspine, some of which are measurably easier to watch, and none with more than eighty views to date. These include parts one through four of some project called Inception 2. If I understand correctly, Inception was the name of Hamilton's high school video project.

Inception 2, part two. Trails down a fricken' gully like nothing I've ever seen! Where is this? I guess it goes without saying that footage of Ted Van Orman is always great.



Parenthetically, here's the only evidence of Inception 1's existence that I'm aware of:



It would appear that Lobsterspine is Hamilton's personal account, or that of someone close to him. I can't think of another pro whose mind is better suited to Youtube as a creative medium.

...

Related: The Complete Steven Hamilton Youtube Discography

Flashy

Cool post from the hard-working boys at Street Phire, detailing a clever, low-budget radio slave mod. A satisfying read, even though I've never shot with off-camera flashes. When user ingenuity trumps planned obsolescence, I always smile.

Also recommended: the Street Phire "My Bag" galleries, which document the contents of camera bags of different bike riding photographers and videographers. I like how Robin Hunter's particularly exhaustive bag check even mentions which items have Nikon or LowePro printed on them.

Reviewed: Four Corners by No Bikes

The No Bikes crew released Four Corners almost a year ago, and they're well into production of their next video, so it's fair to say this review comes a little late. Four Corners was already out of print when I first contacted Aaron, but he sent me a burned copy with a No Bikes sticker and a cover collaged from tourism brochures. Awesome.



Two trailers for Four Corners:





The trailers represent the video fairly well: solid riding from kids you've never heard of, riding spots you've never seen, peppered with the occasional pro throwing down burly moves at some familiar skatepark. For the record, that shot of Travis Sexmith's table air is one of my favorite clips from any video ever.

It's tastefully edited and well filmed and paints a fantastic portrait of the riding scene in Alaska. Good vibes. No bike throwing. I want to go there.

There's a ton of great trails footage, which kind of feels like the heart of the video and the scene, but nobody has brakes, and the dirt footage is balanced by equal parts street riding and park. (Way too much park footage, in my opinion, perhaps the result of trying to get a clip from every single rider in Alaska.) The highlight of the video for me was Matt Lindsey's part, self-filmed via tripod in what appears to be Russia or China or perhaps Hawaii??? It left me pleasantly baffled, seeing all the incredible communist architecture so unlike anything in the states, including axle-high ledges that might rouse Joe Tiseo from his grave.

Alaska bears no resemblance to California or NYC or any place in my mental catalog of bmx images, and yet there are kids there putting in work, and that's what I love about this dvd. Check this ancient Youtube gem. A comically rickety portable ramp, set in places that seem absolutely arbitrary, but not (apparently) as any sort of joke. I'm just so happy that it's all real.



Four Corners is chock full of this stuff. Watch the No Bikes blog for progress on their next video, which I have been told will document some of their wilderness riding excursions, which gets me really, really psyched. I invite you to hassle Aaron for a copy of Four Corners with a custom cover. I don't know if he'll say yes.

...

December 19 edit: updated with an excerpt from Aaron's response to this review:

One of the things I try to do with all my videos is be as inclusive as possible. Scene videos, to me, aren’t just putting together the best tricks from the best riders in town. Back in the day we always had local contests to bring people together; since video is the new medium that we “measure” people’s riding by, I think the scene video is often missed as a scene building tool. Videos give everyone something to work together on; I try to shoot with as many people as I can and get anyone involved in production who is interested in that kind of stuff. This year I got to plan three awesome trips to shoot for this video, and got to know more Alaskan bmxers, there’s really nothing else I could ask for from the process. So yeah, I was trying to film everyone in Alaska, glad you noticed….

We are very happy that Alaska is as unique as it is. There is plenty of stuff to ride up here, and even more to see and experience (where else can you ride trails after midnight). I wish more people would be curious enough to come up here. Rooftop and the Samurai guys had the right idea, but I don’t think they really found any of our spots. I would never want to come up here again if one quarter of the spots I rode was the Wasilla skatepark.

I made a trailer for the next video, but have to add some audio clips in with Steve before it’ll go online. Look for it in the next couple weeks. Ryan Hiebert has been working hard on the team video as well, so get pumped for that (if you haven’t been reading this blog for long, there will be a documentary about riding in Alaska and a team video featuring all of our friends from her, BC and anywhere else).

Pumped.