Heck Yeah!

They certainly do not make them like this anymore.

Inspired: Lines

Origins

House 365

I read an article today that talked about an art project called "House 365" Pretty cool tiny project home made of the scraps of condemned homes in the city of Detroit. Check it out, and read more about some of the art scene there here.

Sketch Stick Up

Working on some new hoodies featuring old school SE Racing colors. Bitchin.

Achtung!

Heavy Crew

Trash Dash 2006, Whitewater Wisconsin. Getting warmed up with some Kentucky Hammer Gel.

Cuban Thistle Crisis

I got this post card of Ernest Hemingway shaking hands with Castro today. It came to me from Cuba. The country Cuba, that is. It was sent to me by my globtrotting ex-pat pal, Weston. Weston is currently living in Ireland, but seems to be getting lots of passport stamps these days. He opened the correspondence by telling me as a writer and a drunkard I should enjoy it. He is right, I do enjoy it.

On Winning

"If listening to R. Kelly has taught me anything about life, and I think it has, it's that you can't be a winner merely by winning things, you have to be a winner in everything you do." -Colin Ehlert on winning his 5th MOTAB.

Cool

James Crowe's handbuilt motorcycle yesterday at Krugers Cross.

Bad Ass

Fuel

Big In Japan

The Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter

So rad that our Pump got hooked up like this.

Good Design

That there, dear reader, is a Fanno 2A Folding Saw. Scored it an estate sale last Saturday for $1.00. Simple, useful and priced just right. This will end up in my "I Love Weekends" pack and it'll come into play when it's time to build a fire or erect some shelter.

Where You Come From

The picture above is a mold from the old school Oakley motocross grips. Back before they company was big enough to own a tank, founder James Jannard traveled around the country selling grips at races out of his car. Crazy considering the mid 1970's weren't that long ago. Stick to something simple. Do it well.

BRRRRAAAAP!

Half Full Can Of Strohs

I've got several pals that know of my love for my hometown of Detroit. I love it like the dysfunctional family I never had, it is MY home...My buddy Pickens sent this article yesterday. More hope here than I've ever read about that old town...

Killer

Came back from lunch the other day, and this red pick up truck was parked in our lot!

Overheard

Walking to the start line of the cross crusade last weekend I heard a man say to a lady friend of his who he was obviously a.) happy to see and b.) trying to impress

"Would you like to embrocate?"

I'm pretty sure he was serious and that 'embrocate' wasn't some code word for something else.

It struck me as funny because where I'm from you would get a beating for using such terminology. It would be much more accept-able to inquire:

"Would you like to hit this J with me?" or "Do you want to kill this beer with me?"

Just an observation.

Best

Better

Worse

Bad

Seeds

So much good stuff on Acid Sweat Lodge...so many good ideas.

Grillin

Get Some

Found a great vintage bike pic site today. Check it out.

See It Again, For The First Time

Yep, it IS awesome. That kick flip blows my mind, and the tree flip at 3:09? Well...

Here To Stay

It has been worth the wait, but former my buddy Verge, the Rock Racing wrench came through for me. Big Time. Thanks dude, here to stay indeed.

Hell Yes

Glad to have this guy back!

Renagade Ride

This is my buddy Eric out in Portland. Happy lookin fellow, eh? He's got everything he needs there to keep the party going.
This pic was from this past weekend's NOISE ride. Sort of an underground one speed race out here in PDX. Took me back to the good old days of Blind Stoker holiday crits, and :24 Motabs, Santa Rampages, and Homie Fall Fests...makes a guy want to get out the tape and the scissors and cut and paste up a flyer for a new race series. In fact there has been a lot of talk the last few days about such things with co-conspiritors still on the ground throwing races, makes me homesick but happy. Keep up the good fight ya'll!

Back In The Day

If I had to guess, this would have been summer 2003? Man, seems like another lifetime when MOTAB planted its seeds in the Madison cycling community...

From Popper

Just got a package from THE BEN POPPER. Hell yeah dude, hell yeah. The lending library lives on.

Super Fanning

You can take the Super Fan out of Wisconsin, but you cannot take the Wisconsin out of the Superfan.

From Dirty Pictures. Cross Crusade at Rainer High School.

Hella Cool Hotel

Learn more over here or over here.

Coffin Bike

I saw this bike outside the Oregon Manifest party on Friday night. I should have taken a bunch more photos.

Behold

Just a little something I'm calling "The Gnarness Harness" for now. Stay tuned.

Heavy

The above image is of my old buddy Colin. He is a Lansing, Michigan cop. We go way back, close to 20 years back. We played high school lacrosse together. Lots of good clean fun, some highjinks as well. Kept playing together some in college as well. He was in fact, my first mountain biking buddy. The first dude I knew who got a job at a bike shop. We used to rip single track all over mid-Michigan in sleeveless t-shirts and without helmets. When I turned 21, he was the first person that bought me a drink. Fucking Prairie Fire. I spent a weekend at his house one time, we drank only Molson Canadians, and everything we ate was meat cooked on a bbq. It was pretty awesome. We spent a hell of a lot of time listening to The Smashing Pumpkins "gish" album and playing disc golf at Grand Woods Park.
We drifted apart after I left Lansing in 1998, at the time he was a cop in Charlotte. Last time I saw him, he told me if he ever saw me on his beat, he'd run me in...never knew if he was kidding or not.
Last Saturday morning, he took a bullet in the spine. He is in the hospital with two collapsed lungs, and from what I've been told, is paralyzed from the chest down. I wasn't there, so I don't know what exactly happened. What I do know is that the shooter was his wife.
I also know that personally, this is the most fucked up situation that has ever happened to anyone I know. The knowledge of the event kept me awake last night...it is heavy.
He and his family are in my thoughts.

creative energy

I'm not blogging much these days, and I'm sorry for that if you are stopping by and not seeing much. As I just described myself to Roy, I'm just some dude talking about some nonsense on some obscure blog, so you can probably get your fix elsewhere.
The above bike build has been what I've been creating lately. Our show bike for Interbike this year. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

so little time

Interbike looms, so much to do in the desert this year. Excited to bring PDW to a bit bigger stage and re-connect with industry types I only see once a year. You gonna be there?

This Guy

Pump Track

Rode on this pump track up in NE last night. Hopefully going back on Wednesday. I'm totally hooked, and now I want one.

New Digs

Like the new living room rug, really ties the room together, doesn't it?

The Flow

I saw this write up I did on The Flow trail in Marquette cycle through on the Bike Mag site today. Love that they team it with the above Derek Frankowski shot that he took during the Monster Park weekend back in 2004. That shot also ended up as a cover of the Mag. So cool to have had the opportunity to write about one of my favorite trails.

Hey You

Lewis River Trail

Took a great ride this weekend with Jen, Cheever and Brigid at the Lewis River Trail (#31) in the Bronson Pinchot National Forest Saturday. Okay, so it was the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Either way, that trail is awesome from start to finish. 98% single track. Tons of climbing and ripping. Huge trees, clear cold river, water falls, stolen beers, oh and yeah, the bone pile pictured above. After wards had a great meal at the Cougar Bar in Cougar, Washington. Hopefully we'll be getting back up that way in a few weeks to ride around St. Helens (Ape Canyon-Plains of Abraham).

Stoked.

C-c-c-c-c-c-an't stop the music

Man this stuff is giving me the shakes...

Hey You

Consider this a phone call from a long lost buddy. It is that time of year, Ya'll! Although the heat won't let me think too much of fall, the calendar is showing me that we are closing in on fall. Getting it right in our sights...

Wanderings

For the last few weeks we've had a steady stream of visitors staying with us. The passing of time has been punctuated with wanderings in new places as we've played tour guide. Sometimes stumbling your way across town is just the best way to find yourself in a place you never thought you wanted to go...

Stumped

Went for a hike in the Coastal Range yesterday with Jen and her brother Nathan. Rained damn near the whole time, muddy as hell too. But I'm a fan of the temperate rain forest that is the Oregon Coast. This was one of the bigger stumps we saw...

The Next Level

Entertainment

Speaking of entertainment, just started reading this.

Motivation

I picked up a copy of The Ride Journal #2 at Reading Frenzy last week. Reading Frenzy is a pretty cool little zine store right around the corner from Veloshop in SW. Speaking of which, I'm headed back there tomorrow night for a ride with some of the contributors to Boneshaker #3.
So yeah, The Ride? Pretty much the best bicycling pub I've picked up in long time. Start to finish, it is solid.
I'd really like to get something published in it, and lets just say the ball is already rolling.

Wheel Building

Not the best picture, but above is a shot of the Phil Wood spoke cutter down at the Veloshop. That simple machine sees use just about everyday. I've only used it a handful of times, but yesterday, I felt like I'm really getting the hang of it finally. So different than the days at BBC when touching the spoke machine was off limits to damn near everyone...

The Future Is Now

So, a few weeks back, four designers from Nike came by to visit us on an Inspiration Tour. We talked for a few hours on what motivates us, and our design process. We were invited out to Nike for a look at the inner workings of their design process, and a tour of their campus.
I've long harbored mixed feelings about Nike as a company, all that "evil empire" stuff. However, from a small brand owners standpoint, to see the other side of the universe as far as manufacturing/branding is concerned. I was very impressed with their facility, and the level of professionalism there. As part of our visit, we did some "shopping", and I picked up the pair of Lunar Glide running shoes pictured above. By far the lightest shoes I've ever owned. Apparently they are from the "nike plus line", so you can sync up the shoes with your Mac for various activities.
This will not be a shoe reveiew, however, I'm excited to try them out.