Don't Believe (All) the Hype.

That photo above is of the Brooklyn Banks. Looks calm, right? No police tape, no d-tecs, no fights, no news crews. And that was taken early this evening, at just another mellow session at New York's finest spot. Coincidentally, we ran into Steve Rodriguez earlier, the founder of 5Boro Skateboards and THE reason the Banks are open in the first place. He's in continuous talks with the City and the Parks Department to keep the spot open, and to make it better—for skaters AND bikers alike. He's got all of our best interests at heart, so let's not allow the illest spot in the world to get shut down over something stupid.

The word of the day is RESPECT. Gotta give it to get it.

(All the same, be careful out there.)

And here's all that was poppin' off today: Nigel Sylvester, MirraCo/6.0/Animal/Skavenger (apologies if I forgot anyone), 180 to rollback up the bank to bars. On repeat like iTunes.

Blast From the Past

Seeing that I don't have anything new at the moment, here's some shots I took (with a crappy point-and-shoot digital) at the King of Dirt (Core Tour!) at South Street Seaport back in 2001. Riders include T.J. Lavin (of course), Corey Nastazio (ditto), Todd Lyons, Mike Parenti and John "Superfly" Skvarla. Among others. I suppose Ruben Alcantara may have been there, but I disremember.

One thing I DIDN'T get a photo of took place in the am prelims, when Grimaldo Duran borrowed my brakeless STA (after he flatted on his bike) and tried to backflip the second set. Things didn't work out so well—I was banging reddish dirt out of my grips and pegs for weeks.

Anyway...

20 - 10 = ?

With the Mongoose out of commission, Joey hits the East Village in search of a new ride.


Pink and white, coaster brake, padset, chrome bars, dropout-less straight-leg fork, peg- and caliper-free? Looks like we have a winner.

The Last of Fox.

Two sequences and a couple of random shots. I suppose there's a chance that I go back through the photos again later and pull a few more, but for now let's assume that this is the end and we can all go on with our lives.

• Sequences. Yet another Mike Aitken wallride (I definitely should have moved off to the side for one set) and a garden-variety Chase Hawk manual-to-wallride-to-180-to-backwards-carving-manual-to-back-in kind of thing. He tried a few different things before coming up with this finished product.

• Other shots. It's funny I just got the one of Allan Cooke. A bunch of dirt-jumper types were there—Cooke, Corey Bohan, Heath Pinter—but I didn't really shoot much of them. Oh well. Joey Piazza showed up on his Mongoose Villain (since retired for fork replacement). And Jimmy LeVan just decided to trip down from Louisville for the occasion.

The Time is Nau

What the hell, I might as well keep posting the Fox stuff now in order to maybe get to new flicks someday. Here's a couple more of those Darryl Nau bikeflip attempts (note the position of the bars—it would have been a bikeflip half-barspin) and another tabletop shot. I love tabletops. (I also re-ran the bikeflip shot from the previous post just because.)

Darryl grew up as a racer on Long Island, now he's just...awesome.

Just Another Mike Aitken Wallride Sequence

I realized, as I went through all the photos I shot at the Fox jam/demo/whatever, that I probably stood in one place for too long. It's a good thing I'm not a professional photographer, or I probably would have gotten fired. (As a professional writer, which I actually am, I probably shouldn't have used the word "probably" four times in this paragraph, but oh well.)

Anyway, I shot this particular sequence with my still-relatively-new fisheye, which I'm still getting used to. Obviously I wasn't close enough—until Mike bailed, at which point I jumped out of the way (missing what would have been a classic last frame of him looking back over his shoulder at me with a big grin on his face). He eventually did pull this particular maneuver, but i like the crash sequence better than the pulled one. Go figure.

Afternoon Sequence

I'm not sure if Ruben Alcantara was banged up or just didn't like the Banks much, because he didn't really ride on Saturday. He mostly took part in the impromptu T1 reunion (along with Joe Rich and Garrett Byrnes), got his photo taken for a RIDE bike check (prototype Fly everything!) and sat and watched alongside the rest of us. I don't think he even did a single tireslide.

However, he did hit Aitken Pillar™ a couple of times, and I caught one of them. An ordinary wall carve by an extraordinary rider.

Even More Fox (Morning Update)

So I finally got through all the photos—all 359 of them (why I didn't shoot one more frame to make it an even 360 I'll never know). This isn't all the rest of it—I prefer to keep stretching it out for whatever reason—but there's some good stuff worthy of further explanation. I suppose.


• As stated earlier, Mike Aitken OWNED this wall. Pillar. Whatever. This was one of his early attempts (when the light was still good), a basic carve that I would cut off my right arm to be able to do. (Of course then I definitely wouldn't be able to do it, but that's beside the point.)



• Brian Foster walking his bike back up the bank after either a) riding the back wall, or b) carving off that little wedge and airing into the bank. BF is like the Tony Hawk of BMX or something. He's pushing (or is ) 35, but still absolutely kills it. And has a great time in the process. Hey, at least in this shot he's in focus.



• Scotty Cranmer, flair attempt. Yes, I probably should have used a flash—or at least gone to manual mode to wash out the sliver of white and bring everything else up. But I didn't, and as it turns out I think this shot looks kind of cool. Or maybe I'm just telling myself that. Regardless, Scotty's flair may have been THE most ridiculous thing I've ever seen at the Banks. More attention, please.



• Towards the end of the day, Darryl rolled up to me and said "I think I've got something I want to try." When I asked him what it was, he wouldn't tell me. "I don't want to call it out and then not do it." Not five minutes later he's speeding up the bank to try this—a bikeflip flyout. He never did catch it—a lip would have helped—but it made for a rad series of photos anyway (more to come later). Yes, I learned my lesson and used the flash.



• I knew Robbie was gonna be on this trip, and since I'd recently built up an old Trail Boss similar to the one he used to ride (and knew I'd be shooting more than I'd be riding) I figured I'd bring it out and let him see it. Obviously he was stoked (as was Russ Barone in the background).

One More Sequence Today Because Waiting Until Tomorrow Sucks

If you go back through the archives of this blog, you'll find a post titled "Josh Stricker is a Sick Motherfucker." Something like that, anyway. The point of it was that he'd done something never-before-seen—wallriding the back wall of the Banks out of the Banks themselves. It's a 10-12 foot gap to get to the wall, and you need to be going roughly nine million miles an hour to hit it. I got the sketchy sequence, and Scerbo got the footy (which, if I remember correctly, appears in the new Etnies video that isn't even officially out yet).

Now, late in the day of the whole Fox thing, Brian Foster started looking at that same back wall, only closer to the stairs. There was this little triangular wedge up against the wall, and his thought was to ride the back wall, then use the wedge to roll off. Two or three bitch runs just to measure up, and he was ready.

Well.

It didn't look like he was going as fast as Josh was, but BF flew off the bank, connecting with the wall at least a foot or two higher than Stricker did. He dropped off the wall—missing much of the wedge—and hopped back into the bank. Easy. Afterwards, he joked about calling Stricker that night. At least I think he was joking. BFF, man.

(Stricker, for the record, is still a sick motherfucker.)

Of course the next morning, when most of us were fighting brutal hangovers, Scotty Cranmer came back to do the same exact thing—and tailwhip out. Riiiiiight. (They at least HAD footage of it on the RIDE site.)

More Fox.

Single photos today. And just some general comments/observations:

• Darryl Nau, he who brought the world Blacken and "Seek and Destroy," is the mayor of BMX. Dude knows EVERYBODY (and has the, um, most unique sense of style of anyone on a 20-inch bike—sorry, Sean Burns). He can also still ride like a man, as evidenced by his 40" showing in FBM's bunnyhop contest (in the rain...on a 35-pound STA with 44/16 and 14mm 48s front and rear) and something else I'll post later. I'm sure Darryl has heard about technological advancement, but wants no part of it. Darryl is awesome.

• Joe Rich had a bad back (and apparently jacked his ankle up riding trails later in the week), so he didn't actually ride the Banks at all. But it was still like royalty showing up. If that sounds gay, call me Sally.

• Mike Aitken (as evidenced from the sequences I put up last night) would have been well within his rights to uproot that particular pillar and take it back to Utah with him. Brian Foster killed it as well, but Aitken's on another level.

• Had someone chosen to blow up the Chipotle all those bikes were stacked in front of (photo above—name all the pros bikes and win nothing!) it would have been the worst day in BMX ever. At least since Standard went out of business.

• Wait, Standard's still in business?

• Robbie Morales is definitely at mayor status as well. Not sure if I understand his riding an Edwin with a slammed seat and wide bars, but hell, I think he's earned the right to ride whatever the f**k he wants. Always good to see you and the Long Island crew.

• Besides Aitken, Brian Foster and Chase Hawk KILLED it. Scotty Cranmer was ridiculous as well—maybe even a step above everyone else—but I feel like his riding is so out of reach and so impossibly dialed that it's impossible to even judge it against anyone else's. With BF, Aitken and Chase, you're like "oh yeah, I see how you could do that." With Scotty, your brain just shuts down. Flair off half a tire laid on the bank? Whip to footjam to abubaca? F**k outta here.

• Enough from me, here's some more flicks.

Holy Crap, It's An Update!

So, uh, hey. What's been going on? I've been meaning to update this thing for a while now, but you know how it goes.

Anyway, this is the start of what will probably turn out to be a week-long series of updates chronicling the Fox field trip to the Brooklyn Banks on June 2nd (as mentioned in a little preview post over on defgrip—thanks, fellas). Since you've waited long enough, figure we may as well get straight into some of the photos—the sequences shouldn't need much in the way of explanation (if you're looking for stories, the whole trip was covered pretty thoroughly on the RIDE site—although I'll tell some tales as the week goes on). Enjoy. We* apologize for the delay, and hopefully will be updating pretty regularly throughout the summer. Holla.

(And you know what? Let's just go with all sequences tonight. Four of Utah's Finest (sorry, Fuzzy), and one of Scotty "What, No Tailwhip?" Cranmer—which is right at the top just in case you missed it.)

*I

STOLEN BIKE

I was gonna drop a lot of stuff here, but I might as well just keep it simple.

Deep breath.

My bike was taken at the Brooklyn Banks tonight. It was around 6:30, still light, and the guy who took it approached me as a friend. I didn't remember his name, but he's one of those guys that comes through now and then, riding a scrapped-together bike asking about different stuff. Tips on how to nose wheelie, whether anyone has any parts for sale. Anyway, he asked to try my bike, and I made the mistake of saying yes. Haven't seen it since. And of course I let my renter's insurance lapse.

A lot of people at a lot of companies—people I TRULY consider friends—helped me piece this bike together. (A few of you might even read this post, and if you do, thank you. Again.) A few parts, including the seat and post and the tires, weren't even a week old. As I can't afford to build another new bike right now, I'm going to be asking a lot of those same generous people for help again. Feeling like a fool. All because someone decided to abuse the rider-to-rider trust that's usually solid. A rider should know better than ANYONE not to steal another rider's bike.

I'm mad right now (my bike was finally set up PERFECTLY), but most of all I'm just disappointed that it's come to this. I've ridden little bikes my whole life, and BMX has meant a lot to me. It still does, but obviously things have changed. Whether I get my bike back (a long shot) or I build another one (which might take a while), I'm not gonna be as trusting or friendly anymore. And that's kind of sad. Part of me doesn't even want to ride BMX anymore, let alone take photos or write about it.

If you hear anything, or see this bike (I took the picture TODAY), let me know.

I'm also half-seriously looking to move out of New York. Too expensive anyway. If anyone knows of any writing/editing gigs in a town with a real BMX scene (and a pro basketball team), let me know. There's nothing holding me here.



FRAME: 2007 Fit Edwin, 21" (original version with chainstay wishbone and plate seatstay brace)
FORK: 2007 Odyssey Race Classic
CRANKS: Odyssey Wombolt 175mm
SPROCKET: Odyssey Vermont 28t
WHEELSET: Odyssey cassette/Hazard Lite 36 (LSD), Odyssey M7
TIRES: Odyssey P Lyte 2.1s
PEDALS: Odyssey Jim C mag
SEAT: FBM Rumble Seat
POST: FBM Web Post
BARS: Animal Bob Lite
STEM: Animal Jumpoff
GRIPS: Animal Edwin
BARENDS: Animal
PEGS: Odyssey Jpeg Lite (4)
HUBGUARDS: FBM rear, BSD front
HEADSET: FSA Impact
CHAIN: KMC 510hx



Be careful out there.

The calm before the storm.

Riding had to happen on Saturday—not because it was particularly nice out, but because the coming week was going to be so bad. The 10-day forecast said rain, rain, and more rain.

So, the Banks. And the first time I actually tried to shoot any riding with my new fisheye. It's going to take some getting used to, because you need to be MUCH closer to your subject if you want to use the whole frame. And I don't want anyone's wheel hitting the lens. It'll probably take a good bit of practice.

Well, I ran into Ralph Bury for the first time in a long while, so he was a natural test subject. Only the one whip photo really popped (and since he didn't land it, I probably shouldn't even use it—but it's not like he's never done a whip before). And I had to take a shot of his mangled Macneil SL. It's broken in half, the padding is gone, AND it's completely covered in electrical tape. Sort of a Macneil Junior. (Someone send him a seat!)




I wanted to link directly to Joel Moody's bike check on the T1 site, but apparently I'm not l33t enough to figure out how. Anyhoo, Mr. Moody's bike is rad—and he's a good dude to boot. You can (and should) preorder his latest work now.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning

Not really. I just wanted to use the title of a Friday the 13th movie on Friday the 13th. (My all-time favorite Friday the 13th flick remains The Final Chapter. Crispin Glover, Corey Feldman, and hot naked twins. It honestly doesn't get much better than that. I think I still have it on VHS somewhere.) And I know I've said it before (and lied) but I really do intend to update more often.

SRSLY.

Anyway, it's in the 50s, so I might actually go ride (!) today, but first I wanted to post up a few items of interest that I've run across. (And a random fisheyed photo of my now-disassembled Sunday—I put my Edwin back together for the longer rear triangle.)

• Remember the Sunday Vinnie frame I posted about yesterday? Now you can win one. I don;t really condone ordering from Dan's Comp (Empire 4 lYfe), but winning contests from them is fine. Free is free.

• The 2007 Bicycle Film Festival is coming up on May 19th (well, that whole weekend). Plenty of BMX stuff going on—the premiere of Etnies new epic, "Grounded" (click that and this to view the RIDICULOUS trailers) and an FBM-sponsored bunnyhop contest in the street outside the theater. And you can submit your own short video as well. But the deadline is Sunday, so you might want to get on that.

• Brian Tunney's oddly named blog is home to some great interviews he's conducted. The Vic Ayala one, particularly (everyone who rides should read and learn). Taj is good, too.

• If someone were to send me a 21" white Stricker frame, I wouldn't be upset.

OK, time to go outside.

Spring? Please?

Got back from Arizona (where I was visiting fam) early this A.M., and landed at JFK to find rain and sub-40-degree weather. What the hell is going on here? I was tempted to get right back on the plane and make them take me back to AZ.

So...yeah. In the meantime I'm waiting on some new stuff to beautify my ride (since I can't, you know, RIDE IT), and surfing the Net. The usual stuff.

(Big ups to Vinnie Sammon, by the way, for getting some signature love from Sunday. Been a long time coming.)

And here's a lovely self-portrait of me from the Grand Canyon. The first two people who commented on it said it looked fake. It isn't. Nikon D50 with a 10.5 fisheye. Sunglasses were $5 at Wal-Mart. Holla. And note the T1 Garrett shirt. I was gonna send the photo to Joe actually, but then I thought, no, that's stupid. Is it?

Mike V

So, the weather finally took a turn for the better (and then another turn for the worse, but whatever). March 13th was one of the first good days of 2007, which required a trip to the Banks. After spending a good portion of the afternoon there, things seemed to be slowing down as the sun went down.

Then a couple skaters showed up, coming down from the East side. They were carrying videocameras and—yes, a generator. Interesting. The first good night of the year, and some out-of-towners (assumed: they arrived in an SUV) were gonna shut down the Banks for their own purposes. They started to set up lights across the whole bottom of the Banks. Everyone was skating Element decks, so at least we knew who to blame.

A couple of the guys were just skating, including one hessian-looking dude with long blond hair, a baseball hat, and a denim jacket with some sort of crest on the back. One of the other riders I was with poked me. "That's Mike V!" Sure enough, a closer look revealed that it indeed was Mike Vallely. Which meant no one was gonna disturb this particular session. BMXers can be pretty stupid sometimes, but no one's THAT stupid. He started hitting the bank, sliding sliders and popping bonelesses. Pure '80s style.

Since I had my camera, I figured I'd try to poach again (look back for my post about Mark Gonzales to see earlier efforts). Well, I was in a bad spot, and maybe the flashes weren't going off as long. Regardless, I only got one semi-useable shot. And here it is. (I actually really dig the shadow.)


Anyway, I once again apologize for the long absence. Now that spring is actually in the air, I plan on being out a LOT more. And I have a Nikkor fisheye on the way that should make for some really cool photos. So stay with me.

Why isn't it spring yet?

It's times like now when I start to wonder about the whole global warming thing.

Not really, mind you. I haven't seen Al Gore's flick yet, but I don't need to see a movie to know we're fucking up the environment something fierce. And it WAS 70 degrees in early January. But for the past week it hasn't been above 30 much—mostly in the teens with a chill wind—and my bike has been just sitting there mocking me.

All my bikes, for that matter. And that's a lot of bikes. Anyone who's been in my apartment can attest to that. And they keep growing. Just today I got a brand-new-from-1994 raw Standard STA frame (I didn't even know they MADE STAs in '94), and just the other week I built up my first-ever Trail Boss.


I always wanted a Trail Boss back in the day, but was always convinced that I needed to be riding an STA. I'm not entirely sure why—I never broke one, never even came close. But every time I bought a new frame, it had to be Stronger Than All. But when I saw a complete Trail Boss on VintageBMX for $400, I had to jump (no pun intended) on it. I changed over a few things (crank/sprocket/pedals, wheelset, bars) to make it more Robbie Morales accurate, and plan on riding it some just for the sheer fun of it.

Just as soon as the damn snow melts.

PROJECT: TANK

I know, I know. Don't even start.

Anyway, yeah, back in action. It's winter, so it's not like I've been riding much. Or taking photos. Or doing much of anything else bike-related, for that matter.

Well, except this. Project: Tank. Something that's been in the works for damn near a year now.


The object was this: build the heaviest possible BMX bike using all commercially available parts. It was an answer to the lightweight silliness that's been going on lately (not that ALL lightweight stuff is silly, but stuff like the Grim Reaper and the Drive fork are ridiculous). As word of the project spread (both locally and through BMXboard.com), offers of donations came in. After all, it's not like anyone in their right mind was gonna use this stuff. I had to buy a few things on eBay (the cranks, the pegs) but pretty much everything else was either donated or already in my possession.

I finally got the damn thing rolling last week—I was waiting on the fork, which came all the way from England—and when I took it to the nearest shop to blow the grips on, I took the opportunity to weigh it. This was without any pegs, brakes, chain tensioners or barends, mind you. It came in at 39 pounds, or thereabouts. Which was depressing. I figured it would be over 40, easy. It would appear that the 50-pound mark is out of reach, but I'm not giving up hope yet. Further suggestions for added weight are always welcome.

But for now, here she is:


Note the custom hammer dents in the downtube. Aerodynamics!


Chain tensioners would help.

FIEND!



Monster drivetrain.


G-Sport fork dropouts. Don't ask.

And I may as well give the parts rundown. Any company that has excess heavy stuff, feel free to send it to me.

FRAME: Eastern Hercules (A partially hi-tensile steel version from a complete—would all chromoly be heavier? What I REALLY want is a pink chromoly Pork. I also beat the crap out of the downtube with a hammer when I was having trouble installing the cranks. It dented something fierce, but didn't seem to weaken anything.)

FORK: G-Sport Prong (You might know G-Sport as the Odyssey affiliate who brought you such items as the Marmoset hub and Wombolt cranks. Well, before all of that, when George French was making stuff in his basement laboratory (poetic license), he came up with things like these forks. Canti mounts, wide-spread legs, HUGE dropouts with dual-position slots. Scary.)

CRANKS: Profile SS 170mm (I believe SS's are actually heavier than Solids. Although Solids would LOOK heavier. And I really should get some 180s.)

WHEELS: Haro Heffer hubs laced to Alex Triple Walls with 12-gauge spokes (Absolutely ridiculous. 48s, of course. The hubs use 14mm bolts instead of a traditional axle, with socketed heads—like Primo Jewels. The bolts MUST almost meet in the middle, they're so long. And the bearings are like crank bearings. The Alex rims speak for themselves—somehow this is the first set of them I've ever owned.)

PEDALS: DK Iron Cross, sealed (Amazingly heavy. Each one weighs about as much as a pair of Jim C's.)

BARS: Hoffman Love Handles (Lots of welds, lots of chrome, 1" grip tubes. Cut down, but not much.)

STEM: Standard (I really need an XL Casket. Or a GFR Redneck.)

HEADSET: FSA Pig DH unsealed (When tightened down enough to keep the fork from shifting, it pretty much seizes. Makes riding it an adventure.)

SEAT: Odyssey Business Class (Jim Bauer's done a lot of great things for Odyssey—this seat was not one of them. Massive, and EXPENSIVE when it was new. Like, $70 expensive. But hey, that's only $35 a pound.)

SEATPOST: Hoffman (I think. Whatever, some sort of uncut Primo Rod clone.)

SPC: Primo Viking (A Mongoose triple-bolt would be heavier, I guess. But it would also be Mongoose.)

TIRES: Primo Wall 2.10 (Eventually I'll double up, either with two more Walls, or a pair of Hoffman Skidmarks. The thought that I used to double up ON PURPOSE—and not just to add weight—is scary.)

SPROCKET: Profile Blackjack 44t (Mainly because it fits on the SS spindle without an adaptor.)

CHAIN: Kink/KMC 415h (Only until I can get a 420 or 520.)

PEGS: Kink El Guapo (The creations of a vastly troubled mind.)

GRIPS: Primo Chad DeGroot (No real reason.)

FREEWHEEL: Regular ol' Shimano (Soon to be swapped out for a FatClaws.)

MODS: Massive hammer dents in downtube and driveside chainstay due to anger, Dan's Comp sticker collage on toptube, thornproof tube up front.

TO COME: Kink chain tensioners (assuming I get a different frame), brakes (probably AD-990s with original Modulevers), Odyssey Hammerhead barends. Possibly a Solid fork and Solid cranks if I can find them.