Scary stuff. Cops all over the country are going to be targeting bikes like crazy now, so watch your asses out there.
And what does the public really think about the incident?
Of course, what this pic is missing is the driver who is shoving a bike off the road with his car. If you commute to work, you know the kind of ridiculous crap a cyclist has to put up with from motorists every single day, not just once a month...
I find it fascinating that I've been into BMX and/or skating since the mid-'80s, and yet I have never once watched any of the X-games. I guess it's because I'm mostly into super tech type stuff... I would much rather watch Rodney Mullen work a simple manual pad rather than see a bunch of corporate execs try to entice guys to get "X-treme" and go out and kill themselves...
Having said that, I think I'm going to get my X-treme on for the first time tonight. Unless it's nice out, in which case I'll probably go ride.
Walked into a bookstore tonight and everything was completely normal. Walked out about 15 minutes later right into a friggin' OCEAN of swarming bugs. Literally millions upon millions of them. Luckily I'm not too tripped out by buggage... had my wife been with me, she would have died on the spot.
You can see a nice wad of them below the light in this pic...
These things were thick for literally about a quarter of a mile square. This is one of the few times in my life where I was very happy to be in a car rather than on a bike. The road was covered with a paste of bug carnage... crazy.
John Chmiola's initial fame came from trying some of the gnarliest shit during Bootleg Sessions 2 with absolutely no hope of landing. Some you may remember this beautifully interlaced still shot that Burd had put on the website some time back.
John is a friend and a colleague of mine. I wanted to congratulate him on the notoriety he has received from the National Science Foundation for his research.
John Chmiola may have found a way for us to power our devices and still live green. Chmiola is a doctoral student at Drexel University and his advisor is Yury Gogotsi, chair of the university's A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute. Chmiola's groundbreaking work is on high efficiency energy storage devices known as supercapacitors. "Now that gas costs $4.25, I'd like to think that my work is essential," Chmiola says
Damn you, interwebz! (Note to self: move to Montana, live in a cave, and send letter bombs to Fortune 500 CEOs.)
Still though, I do take precautions when using my cell phone... I don't ever hold my phone up to my ear (I always use speaker phone) and I keep my phone in my bag instead of in my pocket. Apparently I'm not as skeptical as I need to be, but I can still be paranoid, damnit!
I personally know two people who have had brain tumors (both benign thank god, but still damaging) removed from behind their ear in the past year. Both were heavy cell phone users. Coincidence? I honestly have no idea, but it's definitely something to think about.
If you could have any one-and only one- bike in the world, what would it be.
- Gold anondized PK ripper
Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you're not working toward getting it, why not?
- I've got a bunch of old bmx bikes I love including a PK ripper, but its not anondized. Once they find an evironmentally safe way to anondize I'll chase this dream. I have all the parts I want to put on in though.
If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?
- Avalon, NJ to Cape May, NJ along the coast.
What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride to to do for the rest of her / his life?
- The rich people in India who have lots of poor people doing work and not making enough money to get a new bike. I've never seen so many people riding with flats before.
Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrowminded?
- I try to ride both. However, I have trouble finding time to ride mountain bikes as much as I would like. Often I commute on my road bike and I love that bike. I prefer road bikes where it stands.
Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent.
- Absolutely not, if lay-z-boy made a recumbent I would become an avid nerd. Possibly we could pioneer recumbent baseketball.
Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss?
- Floss sucks, but running sucks more. Also, my man boobs hurt just thinking about trying to complete a triathalon.
Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?
What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.
Q: Can Burd Philips slam dunk while trackstanding?
A: I think the world we feel the class shatter.
You’re riding your bike in the wilderness (if you’re a roadie, you’re on a road, but otherwise the surroundings are quite wilderness-like) and you see a bear. The bear sees you. What do you do?
One of the packages that I had waiting for me when I returned home yesterday was from Todd at Horroh, the guys behind the annual (and massive) Fixed Fight alleycat in St. Petersburg, FL. Todd sent me a sample of one of their new shirts. Very nicely done, reflective print on a black American Apparel shirt, and the subject is one that is very close to my heart...
Look for more from these guys in the near future...
A friend of ours from New York City is on the trip of a lifetime. Heather's blog documents her solo trek through the Mediterranean in France and Spain. It has been a good read to date and looks like an amazing experience. Take some time and check out some of the awesome sites she is seeing. http://www.heatherbikes.com/
The ferry rides and mountain top views seem a little more serene than bombings and power outages in Bangalore.
After a month of solid work, I now own Super Hang-On. All of the scores on this screen are mine except for 4th place. It's damned hard to key in your initials on some of these old games and I screwed up a few times.
Now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of my life...
I had a set of old Odyssey Jim Cielencki pedals with no reflector tab/ toe clip tabs on them. I drilled out the pin holes a little larger to fit the bolt I had through them. then i drilled through the toeclips.
The JAN crew, smoothing it out for their upcoming DVD project. After seeing the Fumikuri short at the BFF in NYC, I'm super excited about seeing the full length...!
I'm a big fan of EA's "Skate," and one of the best things about it is the fact that you can put together your own edits. This one is a pretty killer combo of real footage and "Skate" footage... super creative if you ask me.
Looks like the kids in Seattle have started a new monthly event following the demise of Cadence Fast Friday. That's good to know. I had a blast when I went out there for FF last July, and I'd hate to think that all of the people who showed up for that event were just going to give up now that Dustin has moved out East...
I know that company Nooka makes some different watches but these Tokyo Flash watches blow them out of the water. I am obsessed with the idea or representing times and dates in a different fashion because they have been so well structured for so many years.
Bad, bad photo of something that drives me insane... grip slip. This problem is of course easily solved by having grip stops installed, but I've been too lazy to put them on this particular beater for some reason. I really need to get a pair (my favorites are Easterns) 'cuz this crap pisses me off to no end...
Bikes serve a number of purposes in Bengaluru ranging from fruit stands to transportation and wheelchairs to wheelbarrows. For the vast majority of “cyclists” out here the environment isn’t the least of their concerns. However, amidst the smog and noise pollution emanating from all the vehicles Rohan Kini and Nikhil Eldurkar are trying to rev up the cycling community into what would be seen in more developed countries with their project Bums on the Saddle. They are promoting cycling as an alternative transportation source to a new generation with a strong take on improving both people’s lives and the environment.
The only bicycles available in Bangalore were hunky steel bikes from brands like Atlas and Hercules until Bums on the Saddle came into existence. The company started from Rohan and Nikhil being fed up with inefficient and unreliable bikes that can bought around here. They contacted Trek and Firefox to become one of the only shops in all of India to import bikes.
Bums on the Saddles (BOTS) home base is on the rooftop of Nikhil’s home just south of the main center of Bangalore. Nikhil graciously invited me to come by and hang out on Saturday to see what BOTS was about. I arrived at Nikhil’s a little bit before the shop opened and his mother had made a delicious home cooked Indian breakfast. The mint chutney and curd was absolutely delicious. After breakfast we went to the shop which is perched on a rooftop with an awesome view. Several customers from all over the world came by to either check out the shop or buy a new bike. All the test rides are conducted on the roof. It is bar none the best environment I have ever experienced in a shop.
Later on in the day, BOTS tech Nelly came by. It was really awesome talking to Nelly who had a vast knowledge of all kinds of cycling solely based on his own research. He brought over his BMX bike which we were riding that on the roof. His BMX bike was something out of Ride magazine circa 2000. It was this heavy ass Dirt Bros bike that felt solid as hell. Some of the other BOTS helpers came by including Kaddy and Simba. Everyone was really nice. After we closed up the shop, we all had lunch with Nikhil’s family. I don’t know how I can repay their hospitality.
Bums on the Saddle are definitely a little green. However, the customer service that Nikhil offers and Nelly’s tech skills offer a solid backbone to what could be a very progressive company in this country. Sadly, Rohan had to leave for New York City earlier this week. I think he will learn a lot about what a real cycling community is like and will be able to bring that back to Bangalore to make some major improvements on what is already proving to be a great endeavor. Hopefully, the great media publicity keeps coming in and some companies become willing to take a chance on these guys into building a solid project in a developing country.
Be on the lookout for some BOTS sponsored cycling advocacy events kicking off in Bangalore.
Bums on the Saddle sign Nelly and a BOTS saddle bag Inside the Shop Nikhil and some customers Simba and Nelly View from the rooftop
I could sit and pick through the Graff page all day. In fact, I often do just that on slow days at work. I also like some of their threads... particularly this shirt...
...but I slept on it and didn't get one when they first came out, and they ran out of sizes that I could wear pretty damn quickly. They just got some new stuff in though, and I'm thinking about nabbing one of these...
I kinda dig wrap-around stuff, though that logo on the back is pretty huge...
You know how I'm addicted to reading blogs and such, well here's another one I'm keeping my eye on... the Zlog Blog, run by our man Zach from Seattle. The first time I met Zach was when I was visiting Sea-town in July of '07, and he bombed this huge hill with the Macaframa crew and ate some serious pavement...! We also hung out in NYC in June at the BFF where luckily no dining on asphalt occurred.
Check this latest entry from the blog, a killer clip of BSv.2's Tyler Johnson...
Saw this on the 3BANCHO blog... I think it's Justin from Seattle hitting up one of the 3BANCHO crew's favorite spots in Tokyo, but I'm not 100% sure about that because Kyoichi didn't translate it for us for some reason. Gotta keep on him or he starts getting lazy!
...who reminded me of Mars Blackmon, Spike Lee's bike messenger alter ego from the movie "She's Gotta Have It" and, more notably, the Nike Air Jordan commercials.
I did see quite a few of the "Brooklyn" cycling caps, however, and Jason Maggied was rocking the oversized glasses, but since he's from Seattle, I don't think he counts.
I like to think of the Bootleg Sessions videos as sort of the Maximum RocknRoll of fixed vids... they don't leave newsprint on your fingers after you're done watching them, but like MRR, they ain't pretty, they're just straight ahead down-n-dirty scoops.
That's not to say that I can't appreciate things that obviously have much more thought put into the filming itself rather than the riding (or in this case the skating)...
File this into the "things that everybody else probably already knew but I didn't" category... I was at my favorite local shop in Indy a couple of weeks ago bitching about how I couldn't get my chain tight enough when employee Shawn Wolf whipped off his shoe and yelled out, "shoe wedge!"
It works absolutely perfectly. Instead of using my own shoes, I usually sneak one that belongs to my wife because she tends to wear skids with a thicker sole than I do. Please don't tell her...!
Saw this interview with Ian Schwartz (BMXer and ex-messenger from Columbus Ohio) recently, and I think a lot of what he has to say is relevant to the whole us vs. them thing that seems to start happening around anything that is different and fun. Here's the most interesting quote from it...
SFBG: This is another fortune-telling thing. Do you think there’s going to be a rosy future when bikes and skaters will just accept each other and get along?
IAN: Um, well, I couldn’t even say. If I had to take a guess, I would guess no, probably not. Just because the way everything is in life--that’s just human nature. People tend not to like things that they’re not doing.
Ain't that the truth. How do you solve that problem? Try everything at least once.
I know what the guys at Freeman Transport are doing right now... they're sitting around staring at their newly completed prototype frames and thinking, "Holy crap, I can't believe we made these." I personally love it when you find out about something that you think is a really good idea, and then when you see the final product, it turns out that it was an even better idea than you could have possibly imagined. Check this rig out...
Of course, as unbelievably killer as the Freeman Transport bike is, it's still not as impressive as this other photo that they randomly sent to me...
For some reason I hadn't seen any of these yet... the Nike "Major Taylor" series. The brown hi-tops look OK, but what in the hell is up with the light blue, red, and yellow over black things? Are they trying to say that Major Taylor was colorblind? No offense if you own a set, ha ha...
Not sure why, but this reminds me of something... back when I used to ride/skate/etc. in the late '80s, my friends and I would always buy Converse Chuck Taylors and then use a Q-tip and bleach to write shit on them, draw pictures, etc. Anybody else do this? I think I'm going to get another pair of those and do that again, just for old times sake...
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