some mean ass tools

these are straights. and were talking some straight straights. no curves. no nothin. and chrome. oh yeah, and those things on the end? those are for scratching cars.

Product Design & Those that are Suckers for it.

i think, on many levels, that these little doosies, these trouser-saving ankle clips are just totally awesome. although ive reposted from a thread on londonfgss about a different subject, the whimsy involved in these is just amazing to me, and needed a repost that focused solely on them.



designed by Gijs Bakker, one half of the founders of the Droog Collective, these bad boys hit a number of sweet spots, product design wise; they achieve their goal (save trousers from grease / wear & tear); they provide slightly more safety (as they are reflective) and they toss in a dose of whimsy, a la Mercury. although they are made of a single polymer (making manufacture and recapture easy), on the downside, they are made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) a big no-no these days, due to the fact that any product wears down with use (abrasion), and this one will release chlorine - that which kills life.

available from terrance conran's online store.

bikes not cars.

shot in the streets of Munster, Germany, below is an image i found off of core77, comparing the relative volumes of the same amount of people traveling by car, bus and bicycle. no wonder LA is packed with cars, yet so vacuous.

First Annual Bicycle Film Festival Bike Polo Championships

Brendt, the Bicycle Film Festival creator, thought that they should mix up the last day of the festival with some on-steed action, namely with Polo championships (including teams from all over the UK), a game of HORSE, a live performace by The Spokes (missed them, but i can see from the photos that its like choreographed bicycle riding, me thinks) and lots of drinking. The event happened without a hitch - save a few bruised egos and scraped elbos, most of which were owned by me - and it was great turnout; id say at least 100 - 150 bicycles, plus at least 30 walkers

heres a shot of the crowd...


the zombie army



inbetween the finals for bike polo, a game of FIXED (HORSE) was organized, which matt and i were promptly conscripted into playing. simply enough, the game goes like: one person sets a trick that all everyone follows, and for every failed attempt you get a letter, with the first loser completing the word of the hour (in this case FIXED condensed to FIX). for losing (and quickly) we got vision street wear shirts, vans stickers and cute little dangly mini-vans slip on key chains.

heres team A cold lamping while somebody performs their ever increasingly difficult trick set.



notice how the players on the right side are not paying attention? yeah, thats the losers circle. so we focussed on beer and conversation instead. i can proudly say that i took a little air time while botching a leg-over-bars skid properly, thereby gaining my X and propelling me to the losers ring... and in front of 200 people. now by back is tweaked and ive bruises on every corner and limb of me body and i couldnt be happier.




heres roxy doing her superman trick set - a trick hard to manage when testicles are involved, so every guy out there (every sinlge person playing, save her) had to struggle with this simple but potentially fatal move.



yorgo, of zombie army, busting his trade mark skids as his trick set...

9inth Avenue to get Bike Lane

what i wonder, tho, is, are there other streets that intersect with ninth, that also have bike lines? i mean, bike lanes are good, but if they dont connect, a lot of good they'll do. it would seem, logically speaking, that if the city did indeed have a meshing network of bike lanes, then adding SEVEN BLOCKS of bike lane would not warrant an entire article in the New York Times. yet there it is, implying that, yes it is the lone bike lane, straight and true. course, it doesnt go anywhere else, save for SEVEN BLOCKS of ninth, but hey, its the gesture that matters, right?

Recent Lookers, from FGG

nice contrast of frame and background, nice build


nice eighties homage


nice photography



nice punk rock take


nice sexy beast!





nice classic fav of mine

Quote of the Day

"[J.R.R.] Tolkien completed The Lord of the Rings in 1948, close to a decade after the first sketches. During the 1950s, Tolkien spent many of his long academic holidays at the home of his son John Francis in Stoke-on-Trent. Tolkien had an intense dislike for the side effects of industrialization, which he considered to be devouring the English countryside. For most of his adult life, he was disdainful of automobiles, preferring to ride a bicycle."

- from here.

Sets our Blog to Bed

have you ever dreamed of heavy metal playing loud, as an unborn - as of yet - sport you participate in is documented, edited, and posted on youtube, and then used as leverage to get you sponsorship from a pretty much nonexistent company?

nor have i.

but it happend, yo. it happend.



this video was shot by cadence, a fixie-biased company, but it directly got this 19yo a sponsorship from "charge bicycle co" whom i know nothing of, other than jody wants the 'duster mid', one of their offroad rides...

Bikes & Beer, in Brugges, Belgium, BABY! YEAH!

One Hundred Friendly of Arnold Circus / 29.07.07

in the spirit of "take the power back", a local group of do-gooders went to reclaim a down-trodden, trash adorned, gang member hide out, and restore it to its former glory, when it used to host live brass bands, and was the center of a neighborhood. the place in question is a (probably manmade) hill, with a road encircling it, sporting a number of hundred-year-old trees, a stepped terrace flanking its sides, and an old band shell / bungalow, which, altogether, is lovingly called "arnold circus." this coalition, calling them selves "friends of arnold circus", have since organized its clean up (the gardening team sweeps through on tuesdays, the clean up crew on saterdays) and hosted a number of community oriented events, the latest of which was the "sharing picknick" day, hosted but a few days ago. of the events planned, one was "100 laps arround arnold circus."

at about 16.30 gmt, i get a call from rose, informing me of the ensuing race, and recommending that i come down to watch. within minutes i was standing at the byway, wondering "what and why." minutes later, there i was standing IN the race, waiting to begin, not knowing why i just signed up, but sure i would drop out after a few laps.

about an hour twenty after that, and i finally got to stop pedaling, knees aching, back soar, and alltogether worn out from doing 100 laps of .12 miles, at about 10 mph average. i couldnt find any good photos of the circus it self, so i scanned a little flyer that communicates both the neighborhood-like environment that encircles the circus, but also the loving sentiment these neighbors attach to it. they gave everyone these A5 paper things that had a big 100 on them, said "one hundred friendly revolutions of arnold circus" and then had your entry number tastefully scrawled on them; after mine got a bit worked by my back wheel during the ride/race, i thought it might look good semi-preserved for posterity (and anyone else who might look at my back wheel), so i swung by work and had that sucker laminated - spoke card!

Gangs with Bangs.

when stephen and alex were on their way home from the arcade, gumballs in pocket, sleeves rolled, sunglasses rockin, they felt pretty good. alex had just scored 1,420 on the shoot-em-up game, a new record for him, and stephen had beat the shop boy at a burping contest, so they were both feeling pretty good, pretty hard, and pretty invincible.

and then they took the wrong turn.

suddenly, there they stood, face to face with what looked like an army of the toughest gang members theyd ever seen, who were staring back at them with almost as much shock as the two boys.

thinking quickly, the boys started to chat to them, hoping a quick friendship could be forged, which in turn might allow them to pass, to live another day.

but just then, stephen drops the ball, and admits to having recently had his nails done.

the girls wouldnt stand for it.

seconds later, stephen was a smear on the street.

the streets are mean these days.

doesnt help that youve got gangs like these, trolling the streets, causing mayhem and destruction on every street they haphazardly turn onto...

The Hammer Headset

k, its not a head set, but it is awesome.

here

2 parts Water, 1 part Pothole, 1 part Bicycle, Mix Vigorously.

THATS THE SPIRIT!

bringing "bike porn" to a new level.

BMX-Inspired Track Bike Show

before i comprehended the title on the below link, i was looking at the bikes going "man... these look like... i dont know... something... what is it?"

from here

i really dig the bright colors, and complementing color schemes... good job builders! (notice on the purple frame with the white fork, they actually shot some little matching purple stars onto the fork making it match so perfect!)