Flatland Jam Part II

10 more photos.

The most amazing thing I saw—and I don't think I got a shot of it—was the guy on the yellow Strowler pedalling standing up with no hands. Think about that for a second, or even go try it if you like. But I'd recommend padding up first.

Flatland Jam

There was a flatland jam in Tompkins Square Park yesterday. Probably 20 riders, many of them rolling and spinning all day—one doing so despite a fatally-tweaked frame. They gathered from all points in the New York metropolitan area, obviously, but also from Pennsylvania and Canada and elsewhere. It was not a contest.

I brought my camera. Here's 10 shots for now, with more to come later this week.

Down With The King

My laptop is.


And I'm posting from it right now, which is surreal in a not-very-surreal kind of way.

Name every sticker on there and win absolutely nothing.

400 Degreez

Man, it's hot as hell out there.

Take Me to the Top

I may write SPRFLS (updated daily!), but at heart I'm just another trend whore. So when I saw that topload stems were making a comeback, and thought about how a little more rise would help my 37-year-old back, I went digging in the crates:


Much better.

P.S. I'm gonna try and start updating this on a weekly basis, at least. It might not be much sometimes, but what the hell.

Flickr.

Started a Flickr page where I'm just going to start uploading everything, riding or not. We'll see how long THAT lasts. It's over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/russbengtson/.


Not gonna quit this blog quite yet, though. Then again, if it keeps raining every day, I might never take a riding photo ever again.

How I Roll.

Sometimes I leave the backpack home and just ride around with my little point and shoot (a 7.2 megapixel Casio Exilim EX-Z70). It's slim enough to fit in a pocket, and takes decent photos as long as you don't want to shoot action. And if you don't need a flash. Or much of a zoom. Half the time I forget I have it and don't use it at all.

Anyway, lately I've been just randomly shooting down/across at my bike as I roll down the street. Maybe it'll be a summer-long series. Pavement! Crosswalks! Sidewalks! Grass! Cobblestones! (Maybe not cobblestones, I wouldn't be able to focus on anything, and I'd probably drop the camera.) Here's a couple just for the heck of it, taken somewhere around Spring Street and Broadway:


(Shorts by Zoo York, sneakers by adidas.)

Seeley Gets Luc-E

Can't say I know Jake Seeley all that well. Or at all, in fact.

What I do know is this: a) he's on Sunday flow, and b) he Luc-E'd to turndown 180 the Pace ledge, which has seen a lot of action over the years.

Other things worth noting are that this took place on June 24th, that he didn't pull this particular attempt (but did pull the next one, which I didn't get a good shot of, so it's still plenty legit), and that he would have given it another go but security decided we were done for the day.

I suppose I should have shot the rollout, but I wasn't using the flash (in deference to the video cameras) and the frames-per-second rate was pretty slow. Not like anyone checks this blog anymore anyway.

Kevin Robinson High Air in Central Park

I can't believe it's taken me so damn long to post these—I meant to do a long post about the whole scenario over at SPRFLS, but Supes's post over on Super made me reconsider. If Mat Hoffman was there, and he signed off on it, who am I to question things? Nobody, that's who.

Honestly, I only had two real problems with the whole event : 1) The Red Bull wasn't free, and 2) the ever-annoying NYC Parks Department didn't provide a place to park/lock bikes, and actually harassed people for locking their bikes to park railings. Um, it was a BIKE EVENT. A little common courtesy (and common sense) would have gone a long way.

(Also, I'm not convinced Kevin cleared 27', but I promised I wouldn't talk about that.)

A nonparenthetical aside: Can we please refrain from calling Kevin Robinson "K-Rob"? That's a lazy "nickname" that should be restricted to basketball (T-Mac) and baseball (A-Rod) players. Hell, it sucks for THEM. Kevin deserves a real nickname if he's going to have one at all.

As usual, it was good to see the NYC BMX community, both past and present, show up in force. Things may be fractured now, but at least we can all come together for a corporate-sponsored televised event. Power to the people!

Anyway, eight photos. All in chronological order. To be honest, I was more impressed by the flip than any of his "record" (sorry!) runs. Feel free to use them elsewhere (now that it's only two weeks later), just credit me. Or the blog. Whatever.

Red Bulls**t

Unless you live under a rock (or don't follow BMX at all) you probably know that Kevin Robinson allegedly broke Mat Hoffman's high air record on a custom-built Red Bull ramp in Central Park last night. I say allegedly because, from the viewpoint of the ground, it looked like he came up a couple feet short. This feeling was widespread.

I'm gonna write more about it on the blog I actually update, but for now here's the best flick I took all night. Think this was his second-to-last run. Poaching flashes rules.

BET Cats

Hola, hovitos. Been a minute, huh? Again.

Not that I'm one to make excuses (even though I am), I've just been slacking with the camera and spending more time on the new blog. But hopefully you'll see more posts on here as it continues to warm up outside. Pretty sure I even saw the sun this week. Gangsta.

Anyways, much going on. Edwin, Tyrone AND Nigel all have new shops opening (or open) in BK, Manhattan and Queens respectively. Power moves. I've got shots of Rone's shop—Dah Shop—that I need to sort through and post one of these days. It's down on Division Street, right near the Manhattan Bridge. You know they come correct with all the latest Animal stuff, as well as all sorts of singlespeed gear. They built up what I'm pretty sure was the first FBM Sword to hit NYC. And they already got mentioned on BikesnobNYC, so it's official. Here's the flyer:


I went down there the other day to see what was going on, and to drop off a copy of "Dead Bang," which Rone hadn't seen yet (and you should absolutely own by now). As it turned out, he was supposed to head down to the Banks to meet up with Edwin and Nigel in order to shoot something for BET. Seeing that it was a gorgeous day and I was actually carrying my camera, I figured I'd tag along. Also, Edwin's bike was unavailable, and since I ride pretty much the same setup he does, my bike would be a pretty good backup in case he needed it.

So we get there, and the crew is already in place. Nigel threw a few barspins (shocking, I know):



And then he posted up in different places and answered questions as we all rode around behind him. If this does ever air, look out for me—I'll be the white guy.


P.S. This spot is right around the corner from Dah Shop. Nothing I love more than old grimy-ass storefronts that haven't changed since LaGuardia was the mayor, not an airport.

Spring has sprung.

Spam! Tabled fakie at some spot you've never heard of. His frame is lighter than yours--I'm pretty sure if you hold it up to the sun you can see through it. Shot with the lousy point-and-shoot (and mildly brightness/contrast modded in Photoshop) because I didn't feel like lugging a bag around. If I were a Photoshop expert, I would have considered erasing his bike and turning it into one of those "invisible bike!" images. I'm not, so I didn't.




The bridge is not over.

You Can't Bring Me Down

Springtime is the the air. Can you feel it? Sure, it's still in the mid-50s (at best), and you get strange looks when you wander out of the apartment wearing shorts (well, at least I do), but it's coming. Spring! When the streets fill with scantily clad would-be models in search of employment (Coffee Shop is right down the block, ladies) and the wonderful smell of boiling garbage. Oh wait, that's summer. Spring is random thunderstorms, freezing-cold mornings and busload after busload of suspected tourists. Regardless! April showers bring May mold and whatnot. Psyched! I can't wait to start leaving Pleg residue everywhere like a spritzing dog. Is that even grammatically correct? I don't care!

This post is brought to you by Canada Dry seltzer and the exclamation point. And a chickadee.

My camera bag is actually dusty at this point. Didn't even think that was possible. With luck, I'll start posting some new-new flicks soon.

Is This Thing On?

Apparently there have been questions as to whether this blog is still alive. It's a question I've asked myself, to be honest. And I'm not sure whether there's an answer yet. This could be an extended winter break, or this post could be an epilogue. I suppose I just haven't had anything to say.