#FixieGameStressful

This is a rant post. I’ve delayed posting anything because this has been going through my mind since LA. I’m going to outline a few ideas that surfaced this weekend.

When did alleycats turn into sanctioned street races? Alleycats have very few to no rules. Alleycats shouldn’t have 17 categories to win from. Alleycats are thrown by the Race Organizer, not a bunch of people who feel the race is entitled to them. Alleycats are going to be free or cost something; don’t bitch about how much or where the money’s going to. I understand it’s important not to alienate someone because they like to ride a road or track bike, but it’s an ALLEYCAT. They’re unsanctioned, dangerous, and if you don’t like the rules, don’t go.

If it ain’t your problem, don’t bother being a voice. Riders who feel cheated can stand up for themselves; not the pit crew, not a blogger, not the fuckin birds in the tree. We’re adults and we can act like adults.

How you act will showcase who you are. If you’re going to air out the issues on the internet, BE POLITE. Don’t mouth off because you didn’t understand the rules. “But he said…” is the dumbest repeat. Learn how to race right and you won’t have to worry about it.

Some people take this bike thing too seriously. It's supposed to be fun, right? So who cares if you came in 30th place because I sure don't. If you're using your alleycat winnings to pay for your rent or leverage for a bike sponsorship, you're doing it wrong.

All this has taught me a lot about my role posting and reposting other people's shit, my desires from photography, and community outreach. I'm taking a vacation until next week when I'll decide where I'm going with all this.

Until then, keep your eyes peeled, your knuckles white, and rubber side down.

MAN UP! Pre Registration Party Tonight

GO. Terry's gonna be there shooting pictures. I'm gonna try to get kicked out.

NYC : Premium Rush Premiere

There were a lot of NYC heads that put time and effort into Premium Rush so they did it big when the movie came out. Check out Affinity's blog for more photos and JGL giving the crazy eyes.

Premium Rush Premiere SF Group Ride

Bidding a farewell to a friend last night means I will post one thing and one thing only. Premium Rush ride was fun especially with great friends. Check out the set here. Does anyone want to have Cheladas after work? My brain's killing me.

FWOD Sadie Hawkins Ride

Last Wednesday, I cruised out to Oakland to meet FWOD for their Sadie Hawkins ride. Only by invitation from a lady/transgender, I was scored by a babe the night before. A chill ride that consisted of 4 (or 3. My date had Rebel Yell) parks where we got drunk and played small games. The ride, the alcohol, and the girls are a blast. I hope to be invited on the next one; it's the only time in Oakland I've felt safe?

Check the rest out here.

Los Angeles : Bike Wash Alleycat

Saturday Labor Day weekend, those scumbags at Downtown LA's Finest are throwing a race. What is it about? I don't know, but there's wetness involved. start: HIGH NOON.

at where: START AT THE BIKE WASH FUNDRAISER (117 BIMINI PLACE, 90004)

required items: 5 BUCKS, EMPTY MESSENGER BAG OR EQUIVALENT and CLOTHES YOU DON’T MIND GETTING SLIGHTLY WET. PROCEEDS GO TO THE WEST SIDE INVITE LOS ANGELES 2012

note: THERE’S ONLY ROOM FOR 40 RACERS. FIRST COME FIRST SERVED.

Leave Lance Alone

If you haven't heard the recent news about Lance Armstrong, he is giving up his fight with USADA regarding doping. He's retired at 41, is not racing, and has given them 17 years of compliancy, but they continue to torment him. Now they want to strip him of his victories.

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Kym's Premium Rush Interview

Check out the homie Kym about her work in Premium Rush as Polly's stunt double. Big shout out to all the NYC cats that are promotin this. If it weren't for you, I would not care.

ReLoad Pockets

ReLoad Bags has some awesome stuff comin out soon. Made of scrap cordura and waterproof liner. You can hang them indoors or out. It's gonna be boss hanging terrariums from my walls out of these. What else can you use these for?

Lurk the Special Projects section coming soon.

Fixed Alp Cross

If you're a company and you want to set yourself apart, there's no gimmick or clever phrases that can out shin a fixed ride through the Alps. Put 400km (or 250 miles) and some insane ascent and descent in some volatile mountain weather, and you got yourself something to really talk about. Congrats, 8bar and team riders! Check out their haps at their Tumblr

Piece By Piece

If you're wondering, tubulars...
And if you want to see what it looks built up..

Bicycle Film Festival Presents Premium Rush Group Ride

I've been riding a lot before LA for Sean's Lord of Griffith on September 2nd and haven't been posting everything I've wanted, but I'm pretty stoked when Crihs sent me this. Our favorite film organization, Bicycle Film Festival, is setting up a group ride for the movie. If you're still reading this, then either you're interested in the movie, the group ride, or you're not cynical to scoff off the both in a sentence. This movie might suck. A lot. But seeing more cycling implemented into our popular culture should be supported and who knows, this might turn into a cult classic (but maybe not). Click here for FB event details.

London : Dklein Exhibition

Big ups to Dustin from Cadence for his exhibition in London this past weekend. With the most comprehensive Dklein pieces, you have until August 31st before you flat line on FOMO.

Pedalfest Starts Today

Pedalfest events start today with a track criterium in Sacramento. Click here for FB details.
Saturday, if they have that minidrome to play on, I'm there with tequila and a good time. Check out the flyer above and FB page for the rest of the events. I'd do it myself, but I'm hungover off tequila and white women.

Oh, and check the after party ride.

Campagnolo Tool Prints

Check out David Trimble's run of iconic Campagnolo tools. Limited run of 5, each one is different.

Cedar Cycling Bay Area Shirt Edition

Cedar Cycling has some new tees in stock. Based off Bay Area routes, this will make anyone that recognize it smirk.

Cop yours here and while you're at it, they're offering their Merino Wool baselayer in a bundle of 3 for only $175. Sick deal.

NYC : Pedal Pursuit

Strada Customs ran their first ever Pedal Pursuit outta NYC this weekend. For a company whose all about getting loud, they did it big for this race. Can't wait to see how they'll top this one out.

Good Food Lookbook 2012

The rest of US is on the verge of heat stroke and right now in SF at 4pm, it is 63 degrees. Normally, this is the shit, but watch this video and then get jealous that there are barbeques, endless summers, and a lot of booze that is pleading to cool you down. A solid video lookbook by the Good Food Crew and Stone Tone.

Bike Thief Arrested & Bike Recovered

Now here's a great story. Going under the alias Simon Jackson, a Portland resident had his $2,500 ride stolen. It pops up 2 days later via Craigslist, but in Seattle. So he does what any pissed off cyclist does; sets up a disposable number via Burner app, contacts the thief, set up a time, gets up at 5:30am, drives to Seattle, and confronts him. It does feel give a great feeling watching the situation unfold. So... watch it.

Stabilimentum Show : Dalek Invades Hurley Gallery

There is a lot of crossover between street artists and bike culture. Obey and Fuji, Shepard Fairey and Trek, Futura and Colnago, and of course, Mike Giant and Cinelli.

Hurley has a new recyclable swim shorts in an eye catching hi vis yellow/green and to promote it, held an exhibit at their gallery. While Dalek wasn't teaming up with anyone and showed off his art installations inspired by the shorts, LDG was definitely representing the bike aspect with their custom painted Aero frames.

Glad to see Dalek's still going strong and evolving one helluva lot as an artist. It's a long way from the flourescent weapons I once knew him for.

See below for the video.

Jay Tsujimura's Camera Jewelry

If you ever want to spruce up your film camera, check out Jay Tsujimura's jewelry accents. The collection is comprised of floral and lizard designs, all made of 925 silver. The range can be used on Nikon, Fuji X-Pro1, Fuji X-100, Fuji X-10, and RICOH-GR cameras, as well, next to the Leica ones of course. Some may consider it cheesy, but I personally like it. Fashion with function.

CMWC 2012 : Chris Dilt's Photoset

Chris Dilt has an amazing photoset from CMWC posted. Check them out here.

LOW Bicycles With Another Sick Build

LOW has a hot new build posted on their Tumblr. The white on red really makes the color pop against the muted tones of the components. I remember Eugene had a white on red KHS pursuit ages ago, and this is definitely reminiscent of it. A very ill build.

I Miss The Rain...

Only 3 more months left... Photo by Josh Hayes

CMWC Posters In Stock!

"Are there anymore posters left?"
"No! They ran out at the event!"
"What! I hate you, Christina Peck!"

That was my first conversation about them. Now, Ryan has been so kind enough to make a second run, but it's only limited to 30 and I've already bought 3. And if you were a fan of SK as a hot dog during CMWC, you'd snatch up as many as you could.

Get them here!

Justin's De Rosa Track Bike Recovered!

Have faith, people. Justin's De Rosa was stolen 6 years ago, and he recently recovered it in Portland. All details aside, it's great to see him reunited again. If you have lost your bike before, be diligent; it takes a lot of time, effort, and patience to get back what you love. Small miracles.

CMWC 2012 Jerseys In Stock!

By popular demand, CMWC is restocking on their Chicago 2012 jerseys. If you missed picking one up at the event or wasn't able to go, but still wants one, here's your chance! Swoop them here.

Joh's Pink Kagero

"Fuck barbeque bikes, real men ride pink bikes." If Sky Boyer, Velo Cult, wasn't such an influential person, then maybe Josh Hayes would never have listened to him. Good thing that's not the case and instead, Josh comes out with this hot pink and white toned Kagero. It reminds us all a lot of his two toned Presto he was riding in MACAFRAMA.

Gage + DeSoto Water Bottles

Gage + DeSoto have some really awesome water bottles up on their page. Too bad it sold out almost immediately. Check them out here/complain til they're back in stock.

YNOT Gulper Bag On Sale

Awesome bags just got awesomer. YNOT is having a sale on their Gulper bags. Able to hold whatever you give it (that's what she said), they're now only 150 and 160. Snag them here.

Pedalhard : Track Crit

Who has the car? I got the gas, grass, or ass.

CMWC 2012 : More Photos

Check out The Bike Fed's Photoset at CMWC because there was an unsanctioned precious cargo race at a sanctioned sprint race. AMIRITE?

Dos Noventa Kits Available

Dos Noventa's got 2 kits available at their online store. Check them out here to swoop yours.

Ramon's Golden Tour Of The Coast

Ramon just posted these great photos of his fixed tour from SF to SD. Check the rest of the set here.

Roadrunner Bags

Brad at Roadrunner Bags made a commercial/edit/whatever that exhibits all his products in an awesome fun filled day at the beach. Brad's one of the easiest people to work with when it comes handling a bag to my specs and my fuck yeah bag was a great travel bag to Chicago's CMWC. If you're interested in a bag, check out his site here and browse his selection.

Italy : Marco Cremascoli Photography

Check out this Italy based photographer, Marco Cremascoli. His work got a great look to it and I definitely like his Official Masi set.
See more here.

Dos Noventa Runs NYC Trailer

Dos Noventa got a lot of footage while out in NYC during Red Hook Crit. I'm glad their footage is getting out there as the weekend was spectacular. I'm even in it with repping my LOW hoodie! Stoked.

CMWC Is Over & I'm About To Relapse

Congrats to winners Craig T. Etheridge and Josephine Reitzel for winning this years Cycle Messenger World Championship. Some of the best messengers from around the world came through to compete for title and their times were impressive. I loved Chicago. Sure, the city was great, but without people like Niko, the Peck sisters, and the BMA out there who dedicated so many hours to a very organized and well planned CMWC, I wouldn't have cared less about visiting. Internationally, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, and Canada were all well represented while the local cats tore it up. I already have FOMO for next year's Stupor Bowl. Thank you everyone for such an awesome time! While I collect my belongings (my bike is still floating somewhere in Chicago) and myself, I'll steadily post photos throughout the week from my trip.

"Messenger", A Movie by Daniel Leeb

Well respected NYC and global messenger community Daniel Leeb of Cinecycle has launched a kickstarter to raise the rest of funds needed to finish post production on Messengers. Daniel has been working on this for 10 years and every little bit helps! Check out these stills below.

2013 Cinelli Vigorelli

Damn. First look at Cinelli's 2013 Vigorelli. I can't tell if that's black and pink with a matte paint job. What do you think? Spotted from Ikram's Twitter.

Port Sprint Photos

Chad Illac has his photos posted from Port Sprints on Friday. Check out the set here.

Fyxation Photo Contest

The Fyxation contest is heating up. There's a lot of great photos posted up on Fyxation's fan page right meow and if you haven't gotten a chance to see them, go here and see what's going on. While this was a photo contest, Joe came out with an edit as well. Peep it!

2013 Macaframa Track Frames

Peeped from Prolly, he's got a good guess about the plain colorway of the frame. "If you’ve ever been to SF and seen aluminum trackbikes, you know the initial livery is not what people tend to display. Instead, stickers, paint markers and other things cover frames, from chainstay to top tube. So why even have a paint design?" Smart man, that Prolly.

Benny Gold & Jansport Backpack

Benny Gold and Jansport team up on this stellar bag. Plenty of modern details with a traditional look, Benny's individual bag experience will make this versatile enough for carrying around your skateboards, markers, 12ers, and everything else. What I wonder most is whether there's a secret pocket.

Bombing on a BMX

Forget road bikes, track bikes, and FGFS bikes. Shred the gnar by bombing a hill on a BMX bike. And it looks like the road is Conzelman Rd in Marina.

Rafi's Raphael Cycles Track Bike

When designing a frame, the aesthetics are every bit as important as its function. So when Rafi set out to design a track bike for himself, he had to make it good. Take one look at Rafi's logo of Atlas holding the weight of the world on his shoulders. Go ahead. Take a look. Awesome, right?

Check out my favorite shots below and my Flickr set for the rest.

LA : Stolen : 1950's Cinelli Track Bike

I'm really sad to hear about this one. Rene Acosta's 1950's Cinelli Track Bike was recently stolen from Sherman Oaks (Riverside Dr./Van Nuys Blvd.) and he's about to fly out to CMWC next week. If anyone in the LA area has any information, email me and help him out!

Huckleberry Bicycles Safe Cracking Party!

Huckleberry Bicycles Safe Cracking! Straight from HB's site :
We found a locked safe in our wall.
We are going to crack it and you could win half of its contents!

$2 dollars a ticket. Buy 10 or more and receive an invitation to the Safe-Cracking Party, where safe-cracker extraordinaire Ken Dunckle will crack the safe. All proceeds go to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

Tickets for the drawing are available at our store, or here. Tickets on sale now through July 31st. Grand prize winner receives half of the safe’s contents. In the event that the safe is empty, or its contents suck, a sure-to-please back-up prize has been set aside for the grand prize winner.

Thanks for the support, and good luck!

Fixed Soldiers : This Is My Night

Puma Social comes out with another mini webisode, but this time to highlight Juanma's efforts in Barcelona. Part owner of Dos Noventa and CREAM Bikes, he talks about why he enjoys riding, how fixed gear started and grew in Barcelona, and why it continues on.

"Why Do You Like Riding A Bicycle?" with Tyler & Walton

Tyler M Johnson and Walton Brush are asked "Why Do You Like Riding A Bicycle?" Tyler lays it down plain and simple; it's fun. But Walton says it best.

"If I want to be alone or if I want to hang out with people or if I'm sad or if I have excessive energy, it kind of helps for anything. If i'm sad or i want to be alone or if i want to explore something new or you know, somewhere you've been a thousand times, it's kind of the perfect way to do that."

The North Race 2012

I don't care that most of them are plain clothed schmucks that looked like they stepped out of Uptown bar after day drinking and hopped on their bikes.

What I do care is the epic journey planned around riding their bikes down some epic scenery with no distractions, but the beautiful outdoors. Well done.

Chas & Crihs Riding Through Singapore

Aren't they cute...

Victor Archive's Rafael Cycles Cyclocross Bike

Victor, a friend and a great craftsman, recently built up his custom Rafael Cycles cyclocross bike. The details are gorgeous and the only thing that can eclipse the lug work is the OS stem.

See more at my Flickr set.

Fixed Mag #12

Kelli Samuelson made it on Fixed Mag's 12th cover! Congrats!

CMWC 2012 : Buy This Artwork!

This artwork was done by Ryan Duggan will be available for purchase at CMWC this year. One talented illustrator, his rap sheet is long and impressive (Bring on the jokes, guys) and can't wait to own my own print of this trip.

Fixed Fest 2012 : Duraath's Photos

This shot of Clary leading the Peloton out of the crit was shot by Duraath. He's got some solid photos out on his tumblr so be sure to check out the rest here.

Benny Gold & Jansport Bag Contest

I have been working on a set of signature bags with Jansport. The collection came out amazing and I am really proud of them! They were designed from the ground up based on the lifestyle of design, skateboarding and travel. The Benny Gold Mission Park Pack launches on August 1st and we’re giving you a chance to win this limited edition pack on Twitter NOW! It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3! 1) Follow BOTH @JanSport and @BennyGold on Twitter 2) Tweet a picture showing us WHERE you would take this pack. Whether it be at your favorite skate spot, the beach, hiking or around the city, we want to see how this pack could fit your lifestyle. 3) Include the hashtag: #JanSportBennyGold The best photo submission on Twitter will be named the winner! Deadline: Wednesday, August 1 – 12:00pm PST

Chrome & iMiNUSD Delta pack Launch Party

Greg is really proud in bringing Chrome and iMiNUSD together on this project and I'm proud of him. If you're in the SJ area, come check it out!