Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Club White Bear T-shirt
Monday, April 29, 2019
S&M Bikes ripper Josh Stricker from "Please Kill Me"
You know how most videos today have a minute and a half of artsy urban footage, and then lots of slo-mo, and they show every trick three times, so you can really get the feel of it. Yeah, this segment has none of that crap. It's just 2 minutes and 22 seconds of S&M Bikes rider and Sheep Hills Local Josh Stricker pedaling fast at stuff and then doing insane gaps and tricks. It's just frantic street riding. You know, like a BMX video should be.
Looking for the latest bikes and components from S&M? Look no further, click below...
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Seth builds and rides the "Murder Machine"
For those who don't know, Seth's Bike Hacks is a really cool You Tube channel I don't check out near enough. Seth comes across as a very down to Earth guy, one who likes to try new bikes, weird bikes, unusual bike ideas, and then puts out videos about it all. I ran across his channel a while back, checking out cruisers to find a good "next bike" to have fun and lose weight on as I get back in shape. Seth is a good mechanic, a damn good rider, and funny as well. Subscribe to his channel after you watch this.
For this video, he decided to rebuild his favorite mountain bike in to a single speed to try "bad ideas" on. After a few little mechanical issues, due in part to trying to find parts on Christmas Eve, he gets the bike together, and the stars align. Then he goes for a ride a few places.
What many people, even old people like me, might not know, is that today's mountain biking began as a single speed bike activity. In Marin county California, that fairly undeveloped place on "the other side" of the Golden Gate Bridge, people started bombing down mountain roads on old, fat tire, beach cruiser bikes. That happened in the mid-1970's, and is one of the core roots of today's mountain bike riding.
Those early cruisers were single speed bikes, and the hardcore types saw single speed bikes as the true mountain bikes for many years after. So while we think of highly designed, multi-speed bikes with shocks as "mountain bikes" today, the roots of the sport were in bombing down hills on single speed bikes. True to history, Seth hauls down some hills on his "Murder Machine" single speed. Why does he call this bike the "Murder Machine?" You'll have to watch the video. He tears up some single track, a skatepark, and an MTB park on this bike. As always, this blog is brought to you by:
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Game of Bike: Kriss Kyle vs. Motorcycle Trials rider
When Rich Bartlett and I started talking about this blog idea a couple weeks ago, I knew I wanted to find things far beyond the typical street or park BMX video section to put in it. Those are awesome, but in today's media saturated environment, I knew there were a lot of video gems out there, weird, gnarly, unique, and other bicycle related videos and stories, to be found. This is a great one.
Every BMX rider has played a game of BIKE now and then, like doing trick shots playing HORSE with a basketball. Wait, why the heck do they call that HORSE anyhow? Weird. In the old days of the 1980's, we'd play FREESTYLE, which made for some really long games, especially when we had 5 or 6 riders. The point is, you all know the game.
Obviously, this one is different, Kriss Kyle leaves his comfort zone, and goes head to head against motorcycle trials rider James Dabill. I wasn't sure what to expect when I first watched this one. I also noticed the video is 18 minutes long, and thought it might drag and be boring. WRONG.
This is one of the coolest BMX videos I've watched in quite a while. Both riders are totally trying... AND LANDING, stuff totally outside their normal riding skills. I was hooked right to the end.
It totally reminded me of my own days hanging out at the Huntington Beach Pier in CA, back in the late 80's, riding with skateboarders like Pierre Andre, Don Brown, Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzales, and many more. I was always up for a game of SKATE on my bike, just because I loved trying skateboard tricks on my bike. It always gave me new ideas for bike tricks. I pioneered bike nollies (nosewheelie INTO A BUMP), half-Cabs, and no complys (footplant to 180) back when those things were all considered stupid (mostly because I was about the only guy doing them back then).
My point is, when you play a game of BIKE against a different vehicle, with different tricks and maneuvers possible, it opens your mind to completely new ideas on your bike. Anyhow, this is a bit long, but a great watch. Enjoy.
Friday, April 26, 2019
Go Fast, Pull Up: The Jimmy Levan Story...
I still haven't seen this yet. I don't have a DVD player at my house, mostly because I don't have a house. But you probably do. Jimmy Levan is one crazy cat. He's funny, he's cool to hang out with, he goes fast, and he goes BIG. This video/book set about his life is available, right now, on DVD or Blu-Ray at the Block Bikes Online Store, right here. Or you can read this post, and then buy it .
I met Jimmy way back in the dark ages of the early 1990's. It was 1991, and Chris Moeller, the pro racer, crazy jumper, S&M Bikes owner, tapped me to make the first S&M Bikes video. Young Jimmy rode for them back then. On one trip down to Chris' tiny apartment, for a weekend of shooting video, I met these two kids, Jimmy Levan and his friend Barstow. Barstow probably had a real name, but I never heard it all weekend. So we crashed on the floor of the long, narrow, "Winnebago" apartment, drank a few beers at night, and went riding and shooting video during the day. S&M Bikes was run out of a single car garage then, and money was damn near non-existent. The sessions were fun, cheap, and gritty. But who cares?
We hit a ditch in Westminster, near the infamous P.O.W. House, we rode in the back of Chris' pick-up truck, and we hit the Santa Ana Civic Center, one of our favorite street spots in those days. Then we hit Magnolia in Huntington Beach, a sometimes soggy trails area in the wetlands by the H.B. power plant. That whole video, S&M Bikes Feel My Leg Muscles, I'm a Racer, had a total budget of about $250, including beer money. And it looks like it:
It was a fun weekend, and I'm the guy who shot all the footage in this section, which I'm pretty sure is Jimmy Levan's first ever video segment. That's another reason I need to see this video. Anyhow, in a taste of things to come, Jimmy jumps the Civic Center pyramid at 2:00 in the clip above, which is about 30 to 35 feet across, off of a really mellow bank. It takes some serious racer speed to jump that, and Chris Moeller, himself, was the only other person I saw do it back then. Even as a young buck, Jimmy let us know that he would rack up a bunch of frequent flyer miles on his bike in the years ahead. So enjoy this clip, and click the link below to grab your copy of Go Fast Pull Up.
It's Friday... B.Y.O.B.
In addition to the alcohol reference, "B.Y.O.B." is the opening song of this 1989 Vision skate video I worked on, Barge at Will.* The song is by Ohio punk band The Stain. I always liked that song it just has that street riding kind of energy and attitude. Yeah, this is a bike blog, but a lot of riders skate some as well. If that's the case, Bring Your Own Board. Its Friday, there are sessions to be had. Who knows, this could be the The Ultimate Weekend.
* If you pause this video at 46:04, you'll see Chris Miller and Ken Park both boardsliding the pool section of Tony Hawk's Fallbrook ramp. I'm the guy in white sitting on the rail in the background. -Steve
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Trey Jones from Shadow Conspiracy's "What could go wrong?"
So here's the deal. I'm an old guy. 52 in fact. Ancient. I was all about BMX freestyle (as we called it then) from about 1982 to about 2003. I wound up working in the industry, made videos, and stuff like that. But I've been out of the scene for over 15 years, and out of the industry for over 20. I watch videos now and then, but there are a whole bunch of riders who've come up that I just don't know about.
Talking about who to start looking at to get this blog off the ground with Rich (from Block Bikes Online Store), Trey Jones was one of the names he said to check out. So I found that clip in the last post of Scotty Cranmer and posse goofin' around on Trey's new ramp set-up. Yeah, that was cool. But not earth shattering riding. So I decided to go back and check out Trey's video sections.
Holy crap! Trey Jones is NUTS. And he can ride. It's not just like, "Hey, how 'bout I try to jump off this four story building, that'll look cool." This guy's got some skills. As an old geezer from 80's flatland, I dig the nosewheelies and front wheel G-turn to bank drop. Oh yeah, AND there's like 43 huge drops, many with gnarly bunnyhops over rails or chains. High risk stuff. You young guys know all this. But here in this section is a reminder of why Trey Jones is one of your favorite riders. And now one of mine, too. I'll stop rambling, you watch this clip. And you guys (and gals) know where to get your Shadow Conspiracy and Subrosa stuff, right?
Scotty Cranmer's Posse helps Trey Jones break in the new ramp set up
Highlights of this edit include the dog drop-in pictured above, a flair at about 4 1/2 mph, full pipe fakie challenge, Big Boy Ninja/caveman drop, and some cool lines. Subrosa rider Trey Jones... now a guy you want to visit and session with. Epic backyard.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
How bicycles change you
Doctor's told Anthony he was going to die. So he went for a short bike ride. Then a little longer one. He kept doing that. He's still here. Did you know bicycling has helped people with Crohn's disease, among other ailments? Now you do.
No cars in bike lanes
Monday, April 22, 2019
2-Hip Meet the Street: Brooklyn Banks 1989 - Part 3
Dennis McCoy is crazy. Let's just start with that. That's a big part of why we love him as a rider. It's probably a big part of why he's still riding at age 52, and still ripping. Or maybe he just REALLY wants to avoid getting an office job. The riding from the clip above is all from two or more years after the Brooklyn Banks contest, as far as I can tell.
When I ended the last post about the 1989, 2-Hip Meet the Street contest at the Brooklyn Banks, (on this blog), it was the Thursday evening before the Saturday contest. In the room Vision Street Wear Rich Bartlett and I were sharing, Dennis McCoy, Mat Hoffman, Steve Swope, up-and-comer Rick Thorne, and two other Kansas city guys, were picking their spots to sleep on the floor that night. they were also doing a little bike tuning. A few of us headed down to the street, without bikes, looking for food. There was a mini-mart close by, and I wound up with a big hunk of cornbread, a Coke, and some other snacks.
After munching in the room, we all headed back out to go street riding. Out of nowhere, I was roaming Manhattan with the two top riders on the planet, Dennis and Mat, and five other high caliber riders. Keep in mind, I had a room paid for as the Vision video cameraman, not as a rider. Also, I had sprained my ankle pretty bad about three weeks earlier. It was nearly back to normal, but a little sore and weak. I knew if I got sketchy and rolled it, even a little, I'd be heading back to the room. I had to spend two more days with a 35 pound betacam on my shoulder, which would suck with a bad ankle. So that stuff was in the back of my head. I also knew that if our posse got chased by security, cops, thugs, or a cop on a horse (the fastest threat), I was the slow kid in the pack.
All that mental baggage in my head, we headed out. Our hotel was in Midtown Manhattan, around 36th or 37th street, as I remember. We headed in the general direction of Greenwich Village, and the locals showed us where Washington Square Park was. That became our base, if one of us wandered away from the posse or locals, and got kind of lost, we'd head back to Washington Square and meet up later. Our spot for New York City pizza slices was near there, as well.
Here's the crazy thing. I can't really remember those rides. I know how crazy that sounds. I was riding with some of the best riders ever, on street, and I can't remember much. You know how when you go on a really fun vacation, or maybe spring break, and so much crazy stuff happens, that it all blends together? Things that on a normal day would seem epic, get forgotten, because even crazier things happen. That's how that New York trip was. Plus, it was 30 years ago, so that doesn't help.
In 1989, wall rides were happening, but we weren't grinding ledges much yet, and handrail slides hadn't been invented. Tailwhip jumps hadn't happened yet either, though I was doing clunky footplant tailwhips. But I was just weird then, no one else did them. Most of what we were doing could best be called "applied street riding." We were a pack of riders, just roaming, the kind of stuff Dennis and his Kansas City "street rogues" were known for. We didn't casually pedal to a spot, and then try a gap or a grind. Oh, the term "gap" wasn't part of our lexicon yet, either. More than anything, we were a pack of BMXers, riding at a good pace, hitting things on the fly. If it was in the way, we'd bunnyhop it, if there was a lip or curb jump, jump it and get some style in the air. Hop up and down curves, swerve in and out of moving traffic, bump jump little curbs, tire grind a curb or step. That's the kind of stuff we did, just non-stop.
Banks were big then, and bank to walls for wall rides. So if we found one, we'd stop and session it, doing nosepicks, abubacas, blunts (back wheel stall, an abubaca without vert), or a 360 flyout if that was possible. We'd do 180 bunnyhops, roll backwards in traffic, freak out drivers, then whip a 180 out and haul ass again. Nollies were a favorite of mine at that point, a nosewheelie at speed into a speed bump, low curb, or random 2x4 on the ground. It was just noon-stop rolling session without any real destination. That's probably why I don't specifically remember much. It was pure, hauling ass, in the moment, street riding.
When we got thirsty or hungry, we'd ride back to Washington Square Park, get a drink, maybe a slice of pepperoni, and eat. There were two weird asphalt humps there, too far apart to really double jump, and we'd do little tricks on those. We'd get flatland jam circles going with other pros, ams, and NYC locals at the Park. That's what we did Thursday night, most of Friday and Friday night, and Saturday after the contest. It was like all the basic bike skills, pedaling fast, foot out carved turns on pavement, bunnyhopping, all happening at warp speed. It was so much freakin' fun.
Around 10:00 pm or so, we gathered again, and headed back to our hotel room. More food and snacks were consumed. A couple local guys followed us up to our room. Bikes were tuned, and Dennis, crazy freakin' DMC, asked the locals, "Where's the worst place in New York City?" They threw neighborhood names around, but decided it had to be Hell's Kitchen. Dennis McCoy said, "Take me there." The locals said, "No way." Dennis kept on them. Eventually Dennis found a couple crazy locals, and they headed off to take him to ride Hell's Kitchen. We honestly weren't sure if we'd see Dennis McCoy again, that's how scary it was to the locals in those days. New York City was gnarly enough, and we were in Manhattan, the rich borough. Going to the worst place in New York seemed like suicide. But then, it was Dennis McCoy who wanted to go. How bad was Hell's Kitchen in 1989? Here's a video of it about crack addicts there from 1988. If you're an addict, this is a serious trigger, so pass this up and keep reading. If you want to see it, here's Hell's Kitchen (NSFW).
After Dennis and the locals left, the rest of the posse, Mat, Steve Swope, Rich, Rick Thorne, and the K.C. guys, got ready for the late night session. Like I said before, I knew I was the slow kid in the crowd, mostly because of my sore ankle. So I sat that session out, and hung out in the room and watched TV. Those guys came back at maybe 2 am or so, with stories of dodging security guards, and police, crazy tricks, and off the hook, high speed street riding. One security guard tried to corner Rich, who was a body builder and a pro racer, and Rich gave him a pro elbow so he could escape. I knew I made a smart move by not going, a couple guys almost got caught by security.
Dennis McCoy wandered in around 5:00 or 6:00 am. We all woke up, and he had stories of Hell's Kitchen that even he thought were crazy. So we listened a while, then all crashed out again. We had two more days of New York City riding ahead, sleep was needed.
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Got an old BMX bike and some fabrication skills?
It's too late to throw one of these together this weekend. But there are a lot of weekends coming up. Ride responsibly. Set your beer down first so you don't spill it. This is NOT available at...
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Not beef jerky
Beef jerky is something that keeps a long, long time, and is good to eat on camping trips. It's also something you should taunt a sasquatch with. Bjarki, on the other hand, is a new Subrosa am rider who is freakin' amazing. And you know where to buy a Subrosa, right?
Friday, April 19, 2019
Brian Foster Living the Dream
Here's some really good riding for Good Friday. Fit bikes legend, Brian Foster, from late 2018.
Apparently his long, on the down low transition into a physical therapy doctor hasn't affected his bike skills. Want to hear something crazy, when I was roommates with Brian at the P.O.W. BMX House in about 1993, he used to ride a place called Jones Track, in Riverside, a lot. Way back then, trails were a lot smaller, and dirt jumping, as its own sport, was just hitting its stride.
I remember Brian several times, coming back from an afternoon's session at Jones Track, both exhilarated and frustrated. The thing about Jones Track was that most of the jumps were only a foot or so tall. I could jump a lot of them. But they were set up in really weird combos that just jacked with everybody's rhythm. They were just these straight lines of little jumps in a field, but weird combos of little jumps that made them hard as hell to get all the way through. Top riders, even B.F. himself, would head into a line, get 2/3 through, and get squirrely and jump off to the side.
But that was the whole point, small and technical, like when jumpers learn flatland tricks and blend them into their riding in new ways. I just wanted to tell that little story, just to remind people that even though Brian has been defying gravity for years, and putting together lines of rhythm that a Jazz drummer would be proud of, he really is human. There was a time, long, long ago, when one foot high jumps could frustrate him.
So hang in there, ride everything you can, and build all kinds of skills. Some day you may ride like Brian Foster. OK, not really, ain't nobody that rides quite like Brian. But you can still be pretty damn smooth and flowy. And if you're looking for a Fit bikes of your own, check out...
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Brooklyn Banks Meet the Street '89- Part2
Yes, this is a skate video, and some stylish skaters for the day, too. The reason I'm using this clip is that the second part of each rider's section has the exact area used for Ron Wilkerson's 2-Hip Meet the Street, at the Brooklyn Banks, in 1989. The contest was either late August or September 1989, so this video is the same time period as the contest. In the videos from the actual contest, it's so crowded, that you can't really see this area, but this video shows it well. The jump over the Jersey barrier at the end was in play as well.
In the last video, I told you that Vision Street Wear rider Rich Bartlett and I (VSW cameraman) were sharing a kickbutt hotel room for this contest. Because the corporate money, and even most of the bike industry money, pulled out of BMX freestyle earlier that year, many top riders lost their sponsors. So I left off where we were at the contest site (seen in the clip above), and I'm pretty sure it was the Thursday before the contest. After sessioning a while, Rich and I met up, and he told Dennis McCoy, Mat Hoffman, Steve Swope, up-and-comer Rick Thorne, and a couple other Kansas City guys, that they could crash in our room. I thought, "Cool, this is gonna be a crazy weekend."
So this BMX posse of 8 of us started riding back towards our Midtown Manhattan hotel. But we had Dennis McCoy in the group, and the New York City BMX locals loved them some DMC. That's all they could talk about, Street Rogue #1. As we started to ride off, half the freaking contest crowd started to follow us. Some of them were other well known riders, heading to their hotels or crash pads, and a bunch were NYC locals who wanted to ride with Dennis. All told, about 40-45 riders took off, and we soon stretched out into a block-long-string, weaving and bobbing in and out of traffic,on sidewalks and off, through Manhattan. I was near the back of our group, which was leading the pack. We weren't riding fast, but going more of a cruising speed, coasting standing up or dropcrank half the time.
I'd ridden with the Curb Dogs/Golden Gate Park scene in San Francisco for a year, and we'd get groups of 15 or 20 riders hitting the Embarcadero at times, and street riding a bit. But this huge group of BMXers riding through NYC was a whole different thing, just crazy for that time period.
One or two of the better locals helped us figure out where our hotel was, and we all pulled up and stopped on the wide sidewalk in front of it. As the guys from the back of the group got there, they were all yapping about something. Now New York City BMXers, as a whole, were not rich guys, and some were pretty shady as well. We learned that it was common at the time for them to ride by an outdoor grocery store, and grab and apple or something as the cruised past. They also were really adept at snagging food bags, or a pizza box, from delivery guys, and riding off. As a fairly honest guy, that blew my mind. But for the rest of the weekend, I kept thinking about it, and realizing just how much stuff could be snagged by good rider. Of course, if you got caught, there would probably be a beat down coming.
And that's what the guys were yapping about. We passed a grocery store, maybe ten blocks into the ride. It look a lot like the little one in the Seinfeld TV show, if you remember that. There were outside fruit displays, and one or two riders grabbed an apple or orange as the back half of the huge BMX mass rode by. But the store owner, well aware that BMXers, and other bike riders, stole stuff at times, watched our posse close. He saw fruit get snagged, and ran after the riders, grabbing the last one. Unfortunately, the kid he grabbed was Ruben Castillo, at least that's what we heard. Ruben was one of the youngest guys in the national freestyle scene then, 14 or so, I think, and a small dude. NYC locals circled back to help out, but our group, half a block in front of them, didn't know anything had happened. So we kept riding.
The locals said Ruben was kinda freaked out, not knowing why he'd been grabbed, cause he didn't steal anything. There was shouting and yelling and pushing and shoving, the story went, and they got Ruben out of the shop owner's hands, and everybody made a break for it. By that time, most of the group was blocks away, and those guys took a different route, and Ruben and brother Robert, so I heard, went to wherever they were staying.
Meanwhile, our group, down to 25 or so, circled around in front of our hotel, standing over our bikes, or sitting on the eats and top tubes, talking about BMX stuff. We talked for half an hour or so, as the sun went down. The NYC locals told Dennis stories and asked him questions mostly. Yeah, Mat Hoffman was right there, too, and Swope and Thorne and us. But Dennis was the guy held most in honor in NYC. One or two at a time, the locals peeled away and headed home. There was our 8 guys, and three or four more after a while.
Finally someone said, "What's with that family over there, by the other end of the motel? I thought they were taking a photo, but they haven't moved the whole time we've been here." A few more of us had noticed them. They were in the evening shadows, maybe 50-75 feet away. Then we all looked at them. Finally someone rode over to them. It turned out they were bronze statues. Just normal looking people that someone made statues of. New York is weird.
Finally, our group of 8 walked our bikes through the lobby of our cool hotel, which even in New York got a lot of looks from other guests, then into the elevators and up to our room.
There were two beds, in corners of the room, which Rich and I got, cause it was our room. That was standard BMX freestyle protocol in those days. Yes, even Mat, Dennis McCoy and Swope Dog slept on floors when needed. Our room had this insanely huge closet, which became the bike garage, all parked upside down, shoeboxed back and forth, to save space. There was STILL room for 3 or 4 guys to sleep on the floor of our closet. I'd never seen a closet that big, mega closets in houses weren't a thing then, it it seemed posh as hell. It was bigger than two or three of the bedrooms I'd had as a kid. The others claimed floor space in the main part of the room, bikes were tuned, and myself and a few others went down, found the market next door, and looked for cheap, but good, food. They had big chunks of homemade cornbread, which caught my eye, and I lived on cornbread, Coke, and New York pepperoni slices for the next 2 1/2 days.
As always, this blog and this post are brought to you by Block Bikes, Rich Bartlett's shop, and specifically the new:
Check it out...
Document the stupidity...
Internet, blogs, and social media... because in 1904, this guy just couldn't go viral. In his day there was no chrome-moly steel, no Bell Moto helmets, and no emergency rooms. We all have crazy friends. That's why every phone has a camera today. This friendly reminder brought to you by:
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
This is why you became a fan of Chris Doyle
Chris Doyle. Nearly every rider I know, which is mostly old dudes like me, and guys from the 90's era, has a high opinion of Chris Doyle. But since I was outside the industry from the mid-90's until now, working as a taxi driver much of that time, there are a ton of great riders I just haven't seen videos of.
In my mind, Chris Doyle has been a amazing and super smooth trails rider. That's most of what I've heard of him, without watching full video segments. Talking with Rich (Bartlett-Block Bikes owner) yesterday, about riders to feature in this blog in the near future, Chris' name came up quick. But for some reason, I have just never seen much video of him. I checked out one amazing video yesterday, and realized just how good of a street rider Doyle is along with the trails riding I expected. But I decided hop in the Way Back machine (old guy reference) and watch an early segment of Chris, and remind all of you why Chris Doyle is given legend status by people these days. This clip was uploaded in 2006, you know back when YouTube was a little over one year old. Think about that. You watch this clip, to remind you why you're a big fan of Chris Doyle, and I'm going to go watch more of his videos to catch up on all I've missed while I was sitting in a taxi getting fat for 6 years.
One more thing everyone, Rich and I are both totally stoked about how many people have checked out this new blog. It's had over well over 500 page views in less than the first week. I'm a long time blogger at this point, and that's freakin' amazing. We just want to say "Thanks" to everyone for the interest and for checking it out. This blog is brought to you buy Block Bikes, who is expanding with the new online store. So keep that in mind as you check things out, and I'll keep looking for great stuff to share. The Blog's BMX heavy, but "all things bike" is the idea, so I'll mix it up as we go along with a wide variety of stuff about two wheel life.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Brian Foster and Van Homan Fit the East Coast
What happens when I find a new video featuring Brian Foster and Van Homan that only has 279 views? I slap it up here, tell you guys you're missing out if you don't watch it, and say lets double that view number on this puppy. There's even a cameo by Chris Doyle, if you're hesitating.
Brian Foster has been a favorite rider of mine to watch since we were roommates back in this place called the P.O.W. House in about 1992-93. That's back in the the olden days when we carved our bikes from a maple tree, and had to walk four miles to the skatepark, on our hands, in knee deep snow. Up hill. Both ways.
Brian's older brother Alan was a great jumper and also pro racer in those days, but Brian just had that style, even way back then. Nobody really flows like the Blue Falcon does. Van Homan just plain tears it up anywhere you put him, from what I've seen. In this video they flow through the legendary Catty Woods and other East Coast trails, invent new gaps at a skatepark or two, and blaze new lines at FDR. It's well worth ten minutes of the time you're supposed to be working at your job to check this video out. And 279 X 2 = 558. So I want to see 558 views on the video by tomorrow.
Sure, it's doubtful you Fit the model of the pro trails rider like Brian and Van. Maybe you just don't Fit in. Maybe your jeans don't Fit anymore. Maybe you're prone to having Fits when you case the doubles. We can't help you there. But if what you want is a Fit bike, Block can handle that one. Click the link below to check out the full line from Fit Bikes.
Check out Block Bikes Online BMX Shop
Later the same day... OK, I figured out this video isn't new, I thought Brian had mostly moved on to being a physical therapy doctor. Still a great video I hadn't seen before...
Monday, April 15, 2019
Brooklyn Banks Meet the Street '89: Part 1- The scenario
The bigger part of the Brooklyn Banks, about 28 (?) years after the contest I'm talking about. Here are the Animal guys making the most of some of the finest brick laying work anywhere. Even now, with a whole lot more street experience (of all kinds) under my belt, this place looks as gritty and urban and street as about anywhere I've ever seen.
BMX racing surged in the early and mid-1980's in it's second wave of popularity. BMX freestyle was in its infancy during the mid-80's growing from two trick teams in about 1980, Bob's Haro and Morales with one, and R.L. Osborn and Mike Buff with the other, into an actual sport. BMX racing and freestyle blew up in the late 80's as corporate money from outside industries piled on the "fad." Then in late '88 and early '89, the outside money started looking for other fads. That's what big money does, but we didn't know that then.
At the big bike industry trade show in January of 1989, I walked around, and I actually heard industry guys, in booth after booth, saying, "BMX is dead, mountain bikes are the new thing!" The ten or so manufacturers who had trick teams touring during the summer of 1988, dwindled to two or three teams out in 1989. Sponsorships, even for the best riders, were pulled away. BMX freestyle was dead... to the world. But not to us hardcore riders, we just went underground. When the big money pulls away, the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) kids come out to play.
Myself, I hung out at the Huntington Beach Pier on the weekends, riding with more skaters than BMX freestylers, guys like Pierre Andre, Don Brown, Ed Templeton, and even Mark Gonzales. I'd heard tales of the Brooklyn Banks, one of the very few places, like Love Park in Philly, that were famous East Coast spots. When word spread that Ron Wilkerson was going to have a 2-Hip Meet the Street contest at the Brooklyn Banks in New York City, everyone was stoked.
Personally, I was stoked because I had become the cameraman at Unreel Productions that year, the Vision Skateboards/Vision Street Wear video company. Vision Street Wear was sponsoring the 2-hip contests, and I got sent, all expenses paid, to shoot video of all the comps, vert and street. There was no way I was going to go cross country without that help, I wasn't that great of a rider, and it would have been an expensive trip. I wound up being one of the luckiest guys that weekend, having airfare, an awesome room, and meals paid for.
As the event got closer, I heard that Vision was sending pro racer/jumper/street rider Rich Bartlett to ride, me as cameraman, and BMX team manager "Hollywood" Mike Miranda to... well I'm not sure. He only had one rider to "manage," but it was a weekend in New York. Can't beat that for free. Mike took his girlfriend for a long weekend in NYC, made the most of it, and Rich and I were sharing a room. So we flew there, met up, and Mike drove us all to midtown Manhattan, where we had the best hotel room I've ever had, before or since. It was about three miles or so from the contest site at the Brooklyn Banks.
I'll be honest, New York City scared the crap out of me. It was huge, tall, people rushing everywhere, sketchy ghetto areas, and most of the buildings looked similar from street level. I was seriously afraid of getting lost and dying in some sketchy way. But that just added to the intensity. We got there, I think it was Thursday, with the street contest happening on Saturday, and then a King of Vert on Long Island on Sunday.
Rich and I got settled in, and I felt weird, but cool, walking my bike through the hallways of a swanky New York hotel, down the elevator, and through the lobby. Rich seemed to know where the banks were, more or less, and we headed off to find the contest site. We rode pretty mellow, on the sidewalks, and eventually found the Brooklyn Banks, and maybe a 100 or so freestylers there already there riding.
We just sessioned that afternoon, and as evening started to set in, I talked Rich. He said something like, "I told Mat and Dennis and a couple guys they could crash in our room, OK?" I said, "Sure." As crazy as it sounds now, in September of 1989, Mat Hoffman and Dennis McCoy didn't have sponsors, and they, and pretty much everyone else, paid their own way to New York City. It was customary then to crash on the floor of the motel rooms of guys who had sponsors, and Rich and I were about the only ones who did. OK, I was a cameraman, not "sponsored," but, close enough. So Rich Bartlett, me, Mat Hoffman, Steve Swope, Dennis McCoy, some new kid named Rick Thorne, and a couple other Kansas City street rogues, all started to ride back to our hotel room...
Part 2 in a couple of days... meanwhile, check out the new Block Bikes Online Shop .
That's Rich Bartlett's new deal, and that's who's brought me in to make this blog rock.
Story shared by Steve Emig/The White Bear
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A Cambridge, Massachusetts ordinance that helps future bike lane building
In this article from City Lab, they tell how a future looking city ordinance helps ease the "bikelash" to people who oppose bike lanes in their city. It's a new idea that could be used by bike activists in other cities.
Sunday, April 14, 2019
(How to) Ride Like A (really fast) Girl
In a land down under, Paul the Punter decided to ask MTB pro Tracey Hannah for some tips to improve his downhill riding. What she told him is something you've probably never heard before. I'm not even going to spoil it. If you want to progress, just watch the video.
Saturday, April 13, 2019
100 seconds of Brandon Semenuk
This is probably my favorite bike video of the 21st century. The director doesn't think he's Steven freakin' Spielberg, boring us with two minutes of non-riding garbage at the beginning. It's just a short, quick, tight, fast-paced video of absolutely amazing riding.
Morgan Wade and Drew Bezanson shredding the woods
As a Has Been industry guy, outside the industry for several years, I caught bits of riding on TV, You Tube, and the occasional BMX DVD. Morgan Wade has been a favorite guy I liked to watch for many years now. This video is simple in many ways, but just stepped up everything huge and progressed riding.
Then a quite a while after watching this video for the first time, I came across this old photo, which I think is from 1904. In 1904 there were no chrome-moly frames, no Bell Moto 4 helmets, no Red Bull to pay to build the ramps, and no emergency rooms if things went bad. How crazy was this guy, that it took a rider of the caliber of Morgan Wade, 105 to 110 years later, to repeat this trick?
Danny MacAskill's Wee Day Out
I first encountered trials riders when I got sent to shoot video of America's Sports Mom, Gale Webb, at an early mountain bike event at Mammoth Mountain, in California, in 1988. Mountain biking was pretty new then, as a sport, and most of them didn't have much in the way of bike skills. Former BMX racers ruled the downhill, and former cyclists ruled the cross country. But they also had this crazy trials course set up by the lodge that weekend. Hans Rey, a GT rider all of us BMXers knew of was there, but a guy named Ott Pea, from somewhere in Europe, was The Man. He blew my mind with his riding. Even so, bicycle trials riding was considered highly technical, but kind of lame. They got no respect. That bummed me out, because the stuff they were doing was super hard, AND super scary.
Personally, I was stoked to see Danny MacAskill come along several years ago, doing trials mixed with mountain biking, and some freestyle, and blowing it up in popularity. I decided that after that first introductory post above, the best thing to do next would be to share some of my favorite videos that just make you want to go ride. Though I'm a huge fan of Danny's videos, I'd never seen this one. Like all of them, it's amazing, gnarly, funny, and, more than anything, makes a bike rider want to go ride. Enjoy. -Steve
Friday, April 12, 2019
It's all about having fun on bikes... First 2-Hip Meet the Street in 1988
It's funny how things work out. This contest was in the spring of 1988, behind a shopping center, in Santee, California. The location was chosen because it was one of Dave Voelker's favorite street riding spots. Nearly every major rider was there, and many of us every day California BMX freestylers, industry people, and street riders, as well. NorCal Curb Dog and street pioneer Dave Vanderspek, BMX Action trick team entrepreneur and 1988 "Old School" rider, R.L. Osborn, mid-80's street legend Eddie Roman were all there. Then a new breed took the day, San Diego local Dave Voelker, and English bloke Craig Campbell blew everyone's minds. BMX riding completely changed because of this contest. Street riding, as a genre of bike riding, exploded that day.
Street riding, on BMX bikes and mountain bikes is world wide today, there are contests, highly paid pros, and high caliber videos. But more than anything, there are just a lot of people out there, all around the world, having fun on their bikes in all kinds of different ways. And that's what it's all about.
I'm rode to this contest in the back of a VW bus, driven by Unreel Productions cameraman Pat Wallace. He shot this footage. I later edited this clip for the 1988 2-Hip video, the very first 2-Hip video, put out by Haro pro freestyler, trick team owner, and contest promoter, Ron Wilkerson. At 3:07 you see me ghost ride my bike into the wall. I wasn't used to riding that big of a lip into a wall, and couldn't do a decent wall ride that day. Then at 3:13 you see pro racer, hardcore jumper, vert and street rider, Rich Bartlett bust a cool line over the box jump. Rich does a big wall ride earlier, and then tries to pull down the big General banner from the wall later. This new blog, the Block Bikes Blog, is the product of Rich and me connecting and working together again after 31 years.
Rich has been hardcore in the bike industry this whole time. He owns Block Bikes, an actual bricks and mortar shop, in Lancaster, CA, north of L.A.. He put out the Block Bikes brand, he's been riding hard all these years, and rides road bikes, MTB's, and BMX still.
As for myself (Steve Emig), I've worked in the BMX and skateboard industry, then got into TV production, and then burned out in 1995. I went off on my weird philosophical journey to figure life out. I read hundreds of books, and worked lame jobs, like being a furniture mover. As a philosophical type, I, of course, became a taxi driver. There's nothing like dealing with crazy drunk people nightly to put life in perspective. Then I became homeless as that industry collapsed because of new technology. I began blogging, worked to figure out how to be a functional writer in today's world, and wound up a blogging Sharpie artist somehow.
So Rich and I connected online recently, started throwing ideas around, and I'll now be doing this blog and some online marketing and social media work for Block Bikes Online Shop, as it grows. We're both really stoked on this, it seems like a great fit, and we want to help keep BMXers, and everyone who rides bikes of some kind, hyped on riding itself.
For those of you who follow my personal blog, I'll keep it going, sharing my Sharpie art, and tossing out my ideas on the economy, the importance of small business in America these days, and stuff like that It will have an old BMX story now and then, still. But I'll be sharing a lot of my old school stories in this blog, as well as covering many other aspects of bike riding. This is all being brought to you by Block Bikes online store, so it'll help if you all click over and buy 8 or 9 bikes right now. Buy them for the whole neighborhood, get them kids away from Fortnite. Get the kids back outside and riding.
Stay tuned, there's a lot more coming...
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