3.31.2008
3.29.2008
Benga Killed It
Head hurtin and all that pt 2. Jesus man. Never have I ever been to such a bangin' show. Benga dropped the future of dubstep hard last night...
3.28.2008
Fatty Merckx
Kind of an old pic, but here's the Cannibal in his plumpest state ever.
He is putting the miles in again, which is way cool. But then again, if he said "Fuck all y'all...I won everything ever and now I wanna eat nothing but donuts for the rest of my life and hire someone to blow on my balls after every time I get near a bike", I'd be all, like, "Yes Sir, Mister Cannibal, Sir. As you wish, Sir".
Mishka NYC Spring 2008
Mishka has their lookbook and online store up for their Spring 2008 line entitled Hell Rides in from the East.
Check it out here and their store is here.
I have to say the new windbreakers are awesome.
F*** Your Fixie
Rob, the proper name is pennyfarthing, not highwheel. You're correct, that track bikes are fixed gears - great observation. Glad you did some research on your petty little rant. Oh and fuck your do-rag whitey.
New Bike Day
Well, soon. Frameset, rear Campagnolo Chorus derailleur included. Just need some wheels to get her rolling [I have purple Michelin Pro Races too!]
3.27.2008
Cut 3 Year Anniversary TONIGHT!
Save this date! Thursday March 27th Cut 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY & Institubes Paris Terror Club Tour Featuring: Para One Surkin Bobmo and The Trouble & Bass DJ’s
$10 in Advance! Get Your Tickets Online Here
Studio B 259 Banker St. Between Meserole & Calyer Brooklyn, NY 21+ to Enter G train to Greenpoint Ave.
Sponsored by Missbehave Magazine and Mishka
Bicycle Messengers
Check out this video I found on Reel 13. We've all seen movies and documentaries on bike messengers, but this one puts a nice spin on the subject....
"BICYCLE MESSENGERS is a short film in which all of the messengers are animated and all of the backgrounds and environments are live-action footage shot in Midtown Manhattan. By juxtaposing the animated characters on top of the live action, the film highlights the peculiar relationship between bicycle messengers and the modern city in which they operate."
Bike Shorts!
Bike Shorts!
We have lots of fun stuff this time. A beautiful montage of Mo from
Berlin's trip to Japan, para-Olympians, the most belligerent polo
player in New York, Kissena's hour record holder and more!
Buy Into Benga
One of the most well-know dubstep DJs in the UK just released a new LP. Benga hails from Croydon, south of London and brings the heaviest hitters to the crowded dubstep joints all over. [He's also playing at the Trouble and Bass party this Friday at Love!]
His new CD, Diary of an Afro Warrior, is worth the purchase. If you're like me, you've probably already heard most of the singles or own the EPs, which includes about 70% of the album, but it's nice to have them in completed form with no mixing or cuts. I will say however that it does take away from the element of surprise a bit.
Bottom line is, go grab this album if you're in Dub, electro or dubstep, I think you'll like it.
Here's his video for the song Night co-produced by Coki
NYBD
Head over to Memes tonight to check out NYC Cycling photographer Tak's opening reception party. Free Asahi beer and a ton of great pictures from the NYC scene.
3.25.2008
Sweden or Bust!
Cross-posted from the Bloglin because I am jetlagged!
Last week I flew over to the Nordic Motherland known as Sweden to wade through tall fembots and snowy streets. I was told that I had missed the "nice" weather by a week and since it was Easter and the Swedes celebrate the fertile bunny rabbit-holiday like it's Christmas, most of the shops I wanted to check out were closed. Luckily for me, the Mishka family in Stockholm is strong. A lot of shops carry Mishka and since Greg and Mike were just over there a few months ago, the shop owners were familiar with the NYC crew. They took us in like family and showed us all the local spots.
Luckily for me I had met a dude who works at Caliroots and has ties to Odd Number, Stockholm's only Track Bike boutique. Richard took us to all the essential shops and showed us around on his day off. We hit up Weekday, Caliroots, Six Feet Down, Black Market, Sneakers n Stuff and a few others. Our last shop was Monkey Bizz and after we spent about 30 minutes looking for it, we found it. Tarek, the owner, was a great host. Monkey Bizz carries a lot of NYC brands and other staples like Flying Coffin and Actual Pain and Tarek had put Greg up in the crackhouse a while back, so he had a lot of stories.
Enough chitter-chatter, here are some pics!
A restaurant called Bauer
Parra x Caliroots
Six Feet Down
Nike's Be True
Monkey Bizz!
Garlic and Shots' HUGE fucking burger...
"hey man"
Haberdashery, another Mishka account with the finest selection of denim in Sweden!
... and these Mackdaddy x Madfoot collaborations!
... my last night there Tarek took us to Pelikan for fist-sized meatballs!
3.18.2008
Doom's Day
Pretty good. I'm impressed guys.
council of doom: official full-length trailer from wolfgang on Vimeo.
council of doom: official full-length trailer from wolfgang on Vimeo.
Randall's Island Tracklocross!
Dear friends, charming acquaintances, reliable accomplices, and occasional enemies - it gives me great joy to announce the funnest spring race series that you will compete in. It will leave you tired, sore, possibly intoxicated, with a solid alibi, and with smiles all over your face and mud all over everything else:
MUD, SWEAT, AND TEARS
Featuring:
Saturday, April 12: Team Wreck Stuff Presents, Sludgement Day: The Day of Wreckoning.
.....Randall's Island Circuit Racing. Rat Pack Hustle sprint competition. Skid-hockey, mudsprints, grasstrackstands, and other tomfoolery.
Tuesday, April 22: Randall's Island Tracklocross
.....Evening Grasstrack Races on this weirdly quiet island. Because falling down is more fun if you do it on the grass.
Tuesday, April 29: Randall's Island Tracklocross
.....cause Grasstrack racing gets a little easier the second time around. But dammit if you don't look good covered in mud!
Saturday, May 10: Harlemegeddon Cyclocross Alleycatastrophe: The Uptown Beatdown.
.....An alleycat featuring some tough-to-find checkpoints, garunteed to leave you muddy, lost, and possibly sold for parts.
Winners for each event receive points toward overall standings. The use of fixed gears is strongly encouraged. Feel free to bring out bikes that are made for this sort of idiocy, but good luck winnin’ shit from our awesome list of sponsors, which currently includes:
Continuum Cycles, Affinity Cycles, Mer Bags, Fabric Horse, Laek House, Mishka NYC, Ghostship Clothing, Taliah Lempert/Bicycle Paintings, Profile Racing, Keirin Culture... with more coming as time passes and we get stupid enough to be thinking how awesome this is going to turn out!
We’ll be prizing winners, hardworkers, best crashers, muddiesters, most fun, awesomest high five giver, and most charming. And maybe some more categories, too.
Feel free to bring beer!
NEWS AND INFORMATION? tracklocross.blogspot.com - we'll be updating this as time goes along.
GOT SOME QUESTIONS? EMAIL: tracklocross |at| gmail.com
... and if that's not enough, Dan Bones is working on this sick artwork as well!
3.17.2008
The 1x1 for the on-the-go fixie pilot
So I'm sure you've seen this floating around on the internet this past week. Well, my friend Nick James translated it...
Here it is:
Left Side:
Cheeky hat made of imitation denim with wannabe sponsor logo
Insect-resistant and stylish "nose-bike" (slang for sunglasses)
Model: Mandy Whorehole
Alternative: Eyepatch or "wood-eye" (like the eye in a plank of wood)
Weight-optimizied acceleration baby-beard
Model: booger- and snot-retardant "respect beam" (I think this is more unusual slang for mustache)
Alternative: None, really. Ah, well, maybe black sharpie.
Nitto NJS handlebars & stem
(limited edition anodized = powerful penis enlargement)
NJS-stamped track components generally increase the style and standing of fixie-pilots and will give your rivals even worse penis envy and make them salivate uncontrollably.
Alternative: Forget it, kid.
Tri- or Aerospoke front wheel
Most important is that it is made of plastic and is usable (I could be wrong if Platik isn't a typo for Plastik)
It doesn't make sense, but hipsters don't give a shit.
Trispokes and Aerospokes ride steady. End of story. ("ride steady" is a guess)
Alternative: Preferably a colored deep-V
Model: (no idea here) Accelerator, Scumpagnalo Pasta or Clammy Nippleator.
Funny stickers, postage stamps or pornographic images emphasizing urban appearance and uglification (theft deterrence), as well as the personalization of your fixie.
Right side:
Grandpa's stuffy flannel shirt from storage
Model: Desert Fox. Warms and protects the urban fixer from incipient semi-sunshine and spy attacks (?) from crazed freewheelers.
No mess bag, no credibility.
Fixie-pilots use the mess bag to distinguish themselves from the masses of ordinary bike riders.
Model: USA (Balkan model, if need be) (maybe)
Ghetto blaster casually balanced on the arm
Music: Punk, Oi or Ramones
Anything else would not be plausible.
Alternative: Riding no-handed with a turntable in each hand.
Bunch of keys dangling flirtatiously from a belt-loop.
Spares the dope in pants pockets and heralds the sweaty pilot precociously.
Cloth pants Model: Dixie ShootMeDead in doodoo-brown.
In a pinch: BiteMeBlue, hand-shortened.
Original Japanese NJS Keirin frame.
The holy grail of every fixie-pilot.
Spoke cards. Imperative.
Spoke cards are the poser's license plate.
The more license plates, the more... something.
Track pedals with double straps.
Double straps, double acceleration.
Battle scars. Boosts urban credibility.
Cloth sneakers with soft-as-shit rubber soles.
Reason: see Trispokes.
No bar tape. Bar tape is gay.
Alternative: Bar tape.
Socks are also gay.
Trouble and Bass Brings BENGA!
T&B seems to be bringing the best of the UK Dubstep and Bassline scene to NYC. Their next two parties are going to be insanity. First off, it's Benga on 28th, then Rusko on April 25th!
If you haven't heard these artists and would like to, check out Benga's Myspace here and Rusko's here.
Side Events Video
Tricks on asphalt that's covered in motor oil and water are fun. Right? RIGHT?
Well, we made the best of it!
Franco put this video together from last weekend. Enjoy!
3.16.2008
Shellac
So I've been on a classy bike-nerd kick. I got some 3TTT Pista bars a few weeks back and wanted to shellac the cork Cinelli tape I picked up. I remember seeing the owner's bike of my old LBS back in NC having a fly-fishing twine wrap at the end of his
bartape. I figured the Casati would be a perfect ride to do this on.
I drank some red wine by myself and cleaned up the Surly because it's been nasty for a while now. Instead of using the Cinelli bar ends, I plugged the bars with the corks. Put a coat a day on them for 3 days and they dried matching my Brooks Swift perfectly.
The pictures are horrible. My apologies. It's not as glossy as the pictures make it seem.
Now, I just need to strip my Salsa and get it painted to match the bike's Root Beer color. This is the final color and texture. Click the image to view it larger!
Green Green Green
More sustainabile ads in the NYC subway. I haven't taken the train in a very long time, so I didn't know these were circulating. I think it's a great campaign. Yes, the bike needs foot retention and maybe the saddle is a bit low, but you know what? If it gets someone ON a bike and out of a car, I don't see what the big deal is.
image from catfish, via the boards
colored toilet paper
colored toilet paper
Originally uploaded by SINCEAGAIN
Amanda snapped this in Stockholm. I want the orange rolls!
3.14.2008
Hahn Dolo
Kinda NSFW.
The Post had the high dollar hooker, Ashley Dupre in the studio for an intimate photo shoot. As Mikhail Misha points out... she's the new Jessica Hahn.
At least Spitzer went out with a BANG, a $3,000 bang!
Short Sleeve Surplus
If you're in need of some new Tees. Head to Trackstar and grab these Myles Karr designed shirts too!
3.13.2008
3.12.2008
3.11.2008
S U P E R F L O T
My office is located in NoLIta [North of Little Italy for you non-NY'ers] in an old sweatshop. It's about a 3,000sqft space with multiple offices sharing the space. The founders named it "Lucky Studio".
Mostly Architecture studios have set up shop but there are web designers and trend consultants as well. One of the trend consultants is a girl named Titania. I just found out today that she makes clothing accessories out of old bicycle inner tubes. Similar to the freitag wallets, or explorations of "material misuse" made more popular by design firms like Lot-ek, the wallets are hand-crafted and very durable.
She also makes belts and arm bands AND uses what appears to be a HED3 in her logo.
Check out the products here!
SUPERFLOT's wallets and accessories are handmade from used inner tubes sourced from local bike shops, making each piece unique, vegan, and eco-friendly. inner tube rubber is an excellent alternative to leather: both flexible and durable, it has an attractive surface that starts out whitish and matte, developing over the years into a smooth black patina.
3.10.2008
3.09.2008
MONSTER TRACK WEEKEND!!!!
picture by Blake
Man, I am beat. Exhausted. Windburnt...
What a weekend. Seriously. This is why NYC rocks. A week ago, Carlos and Squid "canceled" Monstertrack via teh internetz. Kids from all over's hopes were crushed while the organizers scrambled to recover the energy and organize a "word of mouth" race.
Friday was Goldsprints. I've never done this before and was quite intimidated by the whole ordeal. You're essentially on a stage with a huge projection screen behind you. There are two of you, two bikes, two rollers and your forks are locked into a bracket.
The organizer yells "GO!" and you spin your ass off for 250 meters. About 250 people or so showed up, 75 raced and it was a 5 hour event.
I went 5th and got a 16.53, which held onto the 4th place for most the night. Then a few dudes came in and resorted the boards, bumping me down to 6th which is where I stayed. It came down to Pablo and Chaz from Portland. Chaz beat Pablo in round 2.
The next day was the side events. Sprints, long skids, trackstands and freestyle. The main race followed afterwards and we all met up at Rockstar Bar for the Awards.
Sunday was Velocity where Messengers, City Riders, New Jacks and Seasoned Track Riders were pitted [heh] against each other in 20mph headwinds and 30 degree temps.
Ultimately, at the end of the weekend, the "Dart" guys did pretty well:
Wilis got 4th in Monstertrack. It was his first NYC Alleycat and his first time racing MT.
I held 6th at Goldsprints
Tony won the freestyle events
Luke won a few of the track events and ultimately finished 2nd overall
I got 2nd in my first track race