Aurora had a critical mass??!

YES yes, it's true. The little big city of Aurora, IL actually had a critical mass. A pretty successful one at that.

Now, the turn out wasn't what you'd expect from the Chicago one. Which completely shuts down the loop. But there were about 50 or so people of all cycling abilities. Some out on beach crushers, others on full carbon race bikes, even one tall bike was out there.

The local paper even did a quick write up about the ride. However there were less than positive response from the public on the paper's web-site. Most of the complaints where, "arn't there enough trails already?". True, the whole of the Fox Valley is very spoiled with it's trail system, which will take you from Yorkville, Il to the Wisconsin border. Which I did in the spring if you remember. This was not the point of this ride.
http://beaconnews.suntimes.com/1651790-417/aurora-bike-critical-lanes-mass.html


The point was the cyclist need to been seen and respected on the roads. Illinois law states that a car must give a person on a bike at least 3 FEET. The trail system can't take you every where. For many people, the bicycle is their only means of transportation. Aurora has one of the largest Hispanic populations, and many of them rely on bicycles to get to work to provide for their families, I mean who do you think cooks your food or changes your oil? It ain't white people with 40k SUV's I can tell you that. There are a lot of dumb mother f*#$ers out there, that think it's funny to drive at you! IT'S NOT.

Lets not also forget that at the last turn of the century (1900), the "Rules of the Road" where originally created for cyclists. Back then, the High-wheeled bicycle was in vogue. With the increase in manufacturing, more and more people where riding bikes. Due to the large numbers, they where spooking horses and buggies, laws were then put into place to create some kind of order.

With that said, the next Critical Mass will be on Halloween!

Day TWO

Day two:

After breakfast with grandma Guinnane, we headed out to a place called Panama Rocks. I guess it’s an accent sea bed of some kind. Anyway, it was AMAZING. There were huge boulders and crevasses to climb around, on, and in. We a lot of fun there….and of course I managed to wreck myself somehow.
I was in the process of left myself onto a rock, and I slipped. I managed to mess up my big toe. I’m fine, just sore.
After we had birthday lunch with Sue’s grandma. Sue just turned 30 hahaha, better her than me. I’m still in my twenties!
We also managed to go to the Labor Day festival…WOW. What a bunch of ugly, inbreed, Swedish, rednecks. It was the kind of people watching that made you feel dirty. On the upside we did run into this fellow we meet at Justin Cate’s wedding.
The night ended with me hobbling around Bimus Point and watching some band play disco cover songs and watching fireworks.

Day ONE

Day one,

Day one started a little slow. I forgot my belt and we had to swing past home after breakfast. After that it was onward to Glennwood Il. The site of Marshall (Major) Taylor. Most people have never heard of him, I recommend you Wiki him. In short, he was the 1st WORLD famous professional athlete. Not just US known, world know. He was a Black cyclist, and very unbeatable. He was he son of slaves and in 1901 made about 250,000!! That’s 1901 money!! Cycling was once a HUGE thing, to race and to beat on.
After that we headed out of the state. The Illinois/Indiana border sucks, and was the only traffic we came across in eight hours of driving. I’ve never really been to Indiana, I think I don’t really like it either.
There were only two highlights after Major Taylor. The first was driving right through Cleveland, which we plan to come back to on the way home. The second was the FIREWORKS AND KARATE SUPER STORE we passed.

Speaking of Epic...

...I'm finally going on my owen epic journey to western New York.

I haven't really been on a vacation since I was probably 10 or 11 years old. The only place we'd ever go was a resort in Wisconsin. I've never really been ANYWHERE. Sure I went to San Fransisco when I was 6, too young to enjoy, and Boston for my brothers wedding, never went anywhere other than the hotel. Those don't count.

Now I'm driving across like 5 states, camping, biking, tourist stuff, and staying with old and new friends! However there is one big problem I've come across here on the 1st day prior to leaving...WHAT BIKE DO I BRING?



Should I bring my road bike for epic long rides in places I've never been? Naw. Mountain bike, in chase there are trails? I'm also way slower on a MTB, so my girlfriend can keep up? Or maybe the Fixie, so I can roll smooth on bike paths and explore cites. The fixie is also my least expensive bike, hardest to steal, and my favorite bike.

EPIC.

This is Amazing. These guys are doing the 1st original mountain stage from the Tour De France that was done 100 years ago. Keep in mind, 100 years ago, these roads were not paved and they really only had tow gears. You had to take you wheel off, flip it around to use the other gear. Usually hard, and HARDER.
This is long, but fantastic! HARD MEN.

The 1910 Challenge from RAPHA on Vimeo.

RAPHA

These guys have the best rides.

Rapha Continental | Ride the Rockies from RAPHA on Vimeo.

check out their blog and website!
http://www.rapha.cc/

Bottle Traps.

OK, So it's been awhile. I've been super busy!

Anyway, a few months ago I got some Velocity Bottle Traps. For years I've been using the cheap standard aluminum cages that every hybrid bikes has. They suck. They get worn out during long road rides and break when MTB-ing. They also mange to dis-color my bottles and make VERY clean ones look like shit.

Not true with the Velocity ones. Yes they are made of plastic, but that's what makes them so bomb prof! I've never EVER used a bottle cage that holds a bottle this well. Trap is right.

They even hold my lattes with no problems or spillage. When I was in college I would ride to class with my coffee in my cage and it would rattle around something fierce. Everyone could hear me rolling into the Art Building.

These thing look great on the road bike too. For all you racer nerds, they don't weight a thing! Well I'm sure they way something, they do exist on the same plane of existence as the rest of us.

I highly recommend getting a few. Order some at your local shop or pic them up here on Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Velocity-Bottle-Trap-Black/dp/B0037NBTQG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1283264056&sr=8-4
You can defiantly color coordinate you fixie too, hipsters. A ton of different colors!

GET 'EM

Skate Shops.

While I was on my lunch break the other I decided to head over to this old skate shop I used to go to when I was in High School. Granted, I never really skated, but ALL of my friends did and that was the only place to get skate shoes back in the mid-90's. In my mind, BMX and skateboarding are the same thing, but that is a theory for another day.

So I finish my Popeye's and stroll next door to where the shop WAS.
"WHAT!!!@#?"
It was gone, sure the sign was still on the building and there were plenty of stickers all over the place. Empty though was the inside. I preceded to text some old friends who no longer even live on this side of the country. Everyone was pretty bummed out.

"I'll pour one out for the old SKATE SHACK"-M.Tsang
"I got my first board there"-M.Tsang
"RQ is gone too, only ZUMES now :("-F.Thom

Nowadays you can just head over to Zumes in the mall and pick up all your gear, and hey, they have dope girls working there too. It was pretty unheard of to see any girls in the skate shop.

This is a sad revelation. The skate shop used to be place not only to pay outrageous prices for t-shirts ($22), but watch videos, talk to the AM guys who worked at the shop, pick up free shit, and just be with your own kind. I don't really see this happening at the MALL.

Not to mention all the pros that you could meet while they where on tour, back when pros went on tour.

When did skateboarding stop being something for punkers, deviants, and outcasts. When did skaters become the "COOL" kids?

THE WORLD I ONCE KNEW IS NOW GONE.

Hardcore.

This is pretty amazing and intense. I wish we did stuff like this.

Hell Track II from Skitch Clothing on Vimeo.

BOTTLE TRAPS

Mmmmm...
Look what I just go from AMAZON.COM. I saw a quick write up of this on http://urbanvelo.org/ about a month a go. I'll write something up after I've used them for a little bit.

sk8 & destroy

I love adventures. Please enjoi this video as I have.

Riding The Long White Cloud - Trailer from friendlyfire on Vimeo.

Great Vid.

I just found this fixie video. I love it. Great music, shot in an artful way, and nobody is trying to grind or do any BMX tricks. Just smooth, classic, track tricks that are over 100 years old.

nice.

A Taste of The Toast from MikeL on Vimeo.

TERROR TRAIL 2K10

Untill about two weeks ago I had completely forgotten about this "foot race" I had signed up for with a budy.

Then I got a call, "Hey, wanna go check out the course with me?"

Oh yeah...that thing I signed up for at that place I crash on my mountain bike all the time.

The day before the race I was super cranky. Why the fuck did I sign up for running!? I ride bikes, I don't run, running is sooo stupid, I kept thinking and saying out loud as my girlfriend can contest. I was bitchy and unhappy with the little perpetration I had had. I knew the course, I ride it all the time, and I knew how hard this was going to be.

Time to sign in. As my buddy and I were standing in line talking with other people, some of whom were legit runners, others looking for a short race close to home. NOBODY had seemed to have been out to the course...EVER. They had no idea how hilly and rocky and just plan crazy this place was. Some of the switch backs go straight up, or straight down, loaded with roots and loose rocks.
As I explained the course to at least 5 different people I saw the rainbow of emotions. Joy, excitement, dread, and even a little fear. As I explained it, "it would be as if we ran through the parking lot, having to run up and down ever hood of ever car while softball sized rocks were tossed under your feet".

After being shuttled to the course on an old school bus, I began to run, I was amazed that I was ahead of most of the heat. We ran about 2/3 a mile down a road until with hit the single track, and I knew once I hit the dirt I'd be way better off than running on the pavement. Once in the woods my buddy took off and I was left to witness all the blood splattered decorations the race organizers had lined the course with. I thought I was doing OK until I hit a fork in the road. Rather than going right like I was suppose to. I kept going straight, until I realized there were no markers. SHIT. Turning around and running like hell to get back to the fork, I another racer. I made it back to the right spot, having burring too much energy to get back I took it easy most of the way back.


Turns out, I got second in my division! Crap, I thought, I was just happy to be out there. On the drive home it hits me, I would have won if I had not headed down the wrong way. The fellow race I had found ended up winning. O-well.

I had a blast, met some really rad and fast people. Tons of great food after. Not your usually health nut stuff either. I'm talking BBQ meatballs, hot dogs, and some really good guacamole!!

GOOD TIMES, I'll be back next year.

ART & BIKES ONE.

I'm sure this won't be the only kind of art & bike thing I post. Well I guess it's not, being that I posted that seat a few days ago. I love this kind of thing. Really simple, music is tolerable, and it's not really trying to be anything.

404 Beach from Carson Ting on Vimeo.

Cyclocross...haha

HAHA I actually have this issue. The pics are super rad, Tim Johnson doesn't look to happy though. Whatever, get over it.

Men's Journal Magazine May 2010 Cyclocross Fashion Shoot from Dylan Coulter on Vimeo.

Little 500.

I completely forgot this race even exsited. It's a strange race held ever year at the University of Indiana. Think hillbilly rely-track race. Each person does a few laps, trades off to a teammate for 500 laps.

The bikes a single speed road bikes with coaster brakes, sorry kids no fixies here. It's a pretty rad event. You should all check out the movie, BREAKING AWAY. That race is in there, it's a classic. Plus you can see the new Freddy Kruger as a teenager, he's the super short one.

Looks like someone set up a Flickr for this too. GO CUTTERS!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48693442@N02/

CUSTOM SEAT

A few pics of a seat I just made.

CO-OP

This place is pretty rad and there is a place like this here in Chicago, called working bikes, http://workingbikes.org/ I'm really happy places like this exist at all. From my experiance working in shops, a lot of old slightly out dated stuff gets either forgotten about or tossed out. I can't even count how many bikes I could have made from all the spare parts.

So if your a shop, please donate old stuff to these places.

A bike is a bike.

Bike Church Web Profile 1 from The Cinematic Syndicate on Vimeo.

Here is some bike type art. I'm working on a custom painted seat right now. Maybe that will be up by the end of the weekend.

Mmmm...Trek?

This is something I've had for a while now. I thought I should share with the rest of the world.

As I've spent half my life working in various bike shops through the invention of grip-shift, to the commonality of carbon-fiber. One things seems to have remained the same. Customers coming in acting like they know bikes, asking "well isn't Trek the best brand? Aren't they all made in America?"

NOT HARDLY. Trek is a brand just like any other company. They have good a bad products just like everyone else. NO, they aren't made in the good 'ol USA. In fact they were probably one of the 1st companies to be out sourced to GIANT Bicycles. Who make like 75% of everyone's low to mid range frames.

This picture is just shows that the major companies are generally manufactured in the same place. Notice the Trek/Specialized tire a friend received over the winter.

Stop asking if Trek makes the best bikes, they just felt sorry for what happened to Lance when he was on Cofidis. Really I think their bikes are kinda ugly, bad logo,no sense of industrial design.

BURRITOS!!!

I've known about things like the burrito project for a few years. I think it's an awesome idea, and I'm sure it's appreciated a lot.

However, we never see any videos of the bums talking about the burritos. No one speaks of the flavor, or any pain they might experience in the lower intestines from them.

I'm not so sure I would trust some kid in skin tight jeans with a bad mustache and a funny looking bike to give me food. I suppose it's better than not eating all.

Keep up the good work guys!!

Burrito Project from Jon Chou on Vimeo.

OH NO DOOM!

These guys are super rad and in Chicago. Go check them out if you can!

OhNo!Doom Grand Opening & Rock the Future! from OhNo!Doom on Vimeo.

Mid-west ridding

I don't know how familiar any of you are with the mid-west, specifically ILLINOIS. So let me paint a picture for you. It's not totally flat, little hilly here and there. Further north you get patches of thick woods made of skinny ass trees. Run down farms everywhere, juxtaposed with brand spanking new empty strip-malls every where. For the most part, the area is open farm land. Open to the elements.

The weather out here hits all the extremes. -10 winters, 110 summers. Snow in June, and 90 degree days at the end of November. Because of this, the roads are torn apart so bad, it's like ridding down the back side of a cheese grader.

...and then there is the wind. Coming from all direction, often changing in the middle of a 40 mile ride. Mmm...head wind both ways. The wind can be so bad, your better off wearing goggles as opposed to sun glasses. I can still feel the tears running like rain down the side of my cheek.

I think the mid-west has the capability of producing riders just as "hard" as the Belgians or the northern French.

There is no real point to this, or anything I write. I just like the sound of my own voice, or keyboard as it were.

http://www.thefixfixfix.com/fix/index.php/2010/04/guess-whos-back-kylee-kross/

love this site.

Crew Jones

Remember BMX. I do. My knees sure as hell do. For what ever reason, the bicycle industry never really fully embraced BMX. Especially with all the $$$ to be made there. Kids will always buy what the pros got, no matter how ridiculous or the coast. It seems BMX is more like skateboarding than cycling. I guess that's fine, but all the freeride and fixie kids still reject that all they are doing is just another form of BMX. Dan Kelleghan said it best, "get a fucking BMX bike."



Who would have guessed road bikes would be the "new" bmx. I can't wait to bomb drop a 12 stair with 700x23c wheels, cant' wait.

Bootleg Sessions v.4 HD Fixed Gear DVD full trailer from Ride/Relax Productions on Vimeo.

A.M. ride.

It's hard to go out a get a decient ride before work. Especially durring over time when I have to be at work an hour earlier. Just a few shots of my AM ride on Friday. Yes, I know it's not cool to have a bottle cage on your fixie, but fuck you I'm thirsty.

Spring is in full effect around here in the mid-west, and riding on the river trail you get to eat your fair share of bugs. Wither you like it or not. Mmmmm... protein.

The NYPD Rules!

The NYPD Rules!

Posted using ShareThis

CYCLO.

Geekhouse Cyclocross from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.

PINK, BLUE, AND GREEN NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD.

@WORK

putting the Illustration degree to good use.
me!

this is the program change process.




Here is a little of what I do at work.

Broken Homes.

Recently a friend of mine posted something on FACEBOOK about marriages not lasting. Granted her point was that people say homosexuals getting married would ruin the institution of marriage, when anyone and everyone could ruin it.

This really bothered me though. Fuck you and your broken homes, I say. Stop making new ones too.

My parents where together for 40 odd years through cancer, bankruptcy, kidney disease, a hart attack, and a quintuple by-pass. The only reason the marriage ended was because of my fathers passing. "Till death due us part"

That speaks volumes about the kind of people my mom and dad were. Hell even all the friends I have, there parents are still together. I think we tend to make friends with whats familiar. Which is sad then.

That means that everyone from a broken home, keeps hanging out with each other, and dating each other. You begin to think this is ok...it's not.

I don't' have any answers, I just want you to know that the easy way is defiantly the best way. Work it out shit heads.

Just a few shoots of the shop. That green bike is going to be the Farmers Market bike...get it, it's green. Old blue went to Lake Geneva Wi and back, epic ride. I'm thinking the next one I do will be from Aurora Il to Chicago and back. Can't wait to ride through Maywood.

It's Funny...

The 1st thing I posted was "The 1st time is the worse". Today I rode with a new group of guys, all kinds of different skill levels. Of course it was some one's 1st time out on a road bike.

Now this fellow was not it bad shape by any means, it just happens to be the 1st time he did more than 10 miles in the gym.

It was the best and the worst for him... with only about 3 miles left you could look back and see him rubbing the cramps out of his legs and a face that we've all had at some point. Pleasure mixed with pain. I could tell he had a blast! Even though the wind was blowing than Thor's hammer on Loki's head.

But the ride took it's toll on his body, knees where shoot and he was starving at the end...the 1st time hurts the most. I guess that's why we always remember our "first time".

1st time is always the worst.

Going to go on a group road ride with a bunch of BMX kids... mmm.

I started this to complain about everything and give adise to anyone who wants it... most for bicycles. My life advice isn't very good. I also plan on creticing things, art, music, movies, hamsters.