New wheels

Last Friday, I ordered a new All Mountain (AM) bike from Diamondback. I haven't paid much attention to Diamondback since around 1997 when I was enamored with their OCLV technology during their Rocketboy Campaign. You know, the good old days of '95 & '96 when Travis Brown (and his famous side burns) was ripping it up on the XC pro circuit. At any rate, I was looking for a good AM bike to ride at Blue Mountain Reservation and the Mission 1 seems to fit the bill. The Mission 1 has 6" of front and rear travel, both adjustable and both have lock-outs. The components are roughly, mid level and nothing fancy but the bike is 100% ready to rock as is. I won't be upgrading any of the parts until they break or prove insufficient for my riding. I'm so eager to take big hits with this bike. I've been so careful on the Cannondale when riding at Blue Mountain; now I'll have a bike that can take a real beating! It should arrive this Friday. Below is a photo of the bike and an exploded view of the 4-bar linkage system Diamondback calls their "knucklebox" technology.

Excellent AM skills video

I stumbled upon this video the other day and really enjoyed it. In my 17 years of mountain biking I believe I've watched one or possibly two actual skills videos. Well, my eyes are wide open to them now. I actually learned a lot and found myself outside practicing my newly learned cornering technique. In this video Fabien Barel from the Mondraker Factory Team explains some really basic and helpful All Mountain (AM) skills in a way that is very easy to understand. The video editing is top notch providing many very clear visual demonstrations of each skill. I particularly liked the layering of videos showing Barel using proper vs improper cornering techniques at the same time. Techniques are slowed down and replayed for clarity and graphics point out where your center of gravity should be during each move. It's a lengthy yet excellent AM skills video showing how a little bit of correctly applied body movement can increase your ride's stoke factor. Enjoy.

The Bottle Ride - 2nd Annual Race

It's Monday morning and I find myself in the office feeling both sore and good, not unlike other Monday mornings. Recounting Saturday's race, I wash down a couple of Aleve with a sip of mediocre coffee from the kitchen here at work. In my cube, I shuffle my legs a bit to keep my slacks from sticking to the giant raspberry on my right leg. I loosen my tie in hopes of reliving a little tension from my shoulders. What an awesome race.

Above left: my left leg in 2010 after The Bottle Ride. Above right: my right leg in 2011 after The Bottle Ride.

Saturday morning I raced in the 2nd Annual Bottle Ride at Blue Mountain in Peekskill, NY (See last year's race report here). This time, I raced on my rigid single speed. Why? Because I love they way it rides: the flex of the steel, the direct connection to every impact that travels from the wheels up through the frame. Again this year, Georges's efforts in the race preparation, organization, and enthusiasm really paid off! Where else can you find a free race, comprised of a bunch of random cool cats, strong riders, prizes and on trails as brutally epic as the ones at Blue Mountain? Nowhere, mon frere. And so again, this year I raced.

So how did I do? Racers were sent off at 30 second intervals; the race followed the time trial format just as it did last year. Just, like last year, I started off aggressively, over excited and clumsily. I crashed hard, 50' into the race in almost the exact same spot as last year. The start of the course skirts off-camber, along the side of a steep hill and runs through a large rock garden. This is where I stalled, balanced for a moment, then slowly started to fall to the right, down hill. Looking downhill at my landing zone I saw nothing but boulders! And over I went, unable to disengage my cleat from my right pedal. I fell in an almost sitting position, still clipped in on the downhill side. Without a smidgeon of grace and with my arms flailing wildly, I plummeted downhill reaching out at the last second, bracing for impact. Luckily my upper body landed in a wonderful little soft patch of leaves while my hips and legs landed hard on the rocks. Adding insult to injury, my bike came to a stop on top of me.

Calm down.

While I scrambled back up the hill to the trail, I noticed my legs were scraped up but other that, they felt fine so I was eager to get pedaling as soon as possible. A race is no place for standing still you know. It's also not the place for hyped up, adrenaline fueled, clumsy riding. I had to calm myself down and ride smarter. A few minutes further down the trail and I had settled into a rhythm and started to feel very "on". My lines through the technical sections were precise and smooth as I lofted the bike over small rock patches, logs and slippery roots. I passed about 6 people in the first half of the race, and was able to stay ahead of the people behind me which was a really good feeling. My legs were loosened up and I was feeling great. So I began to push it. When I reached the long climb up Ned's Left Lung I just put my head down and chugged up the hill with a steady but ambitious cadence. I puked up a little coffee from earlier that morning, without loosing my focus and continued to turn the cranks.

Half way up Ned's Left Lung, I lost the ability to clip into my left pedal. The 2-year old wings in my Crank Brothers Candy pedals seemed to be stuck in the "open" position and would not close around the cleat in my shoe. I stopped half way up Ned's Left Lung, a grueling climb over loose baby-head sized rocks, grabbed a rock the size of a baseball and gave the pedal a few hard blows (TWSS). the wings snapped back in place and I was able to clip in for a few more feet before the pedal failed again. This time I just kept riding. Riding with only one foot clipped in is very aggravating. Every rock and log I hopped, had my left foot flying off the pedal, so I had to take them much slower than I usually would.

In the end, I think I did pretty well. The winner won with a time of 45:15. I suspect my time was probably somewhere around 60:00, but I won't know until Georges posts the times. Regardless of my time, I had a great time and even made a couple of friends who I plan on riding with. You can never have too many riding buds. Lastly, I want to thank Georges for all of the work he put into the second, Bottle Ride. Thanks G!

2 new prints

So, I've recently scored these two awesome Shepard Fairey prints below. What's extra cool about them is that they're both prints are signed and numbered. The one on the left is the poster that ATP asked Fairey to make for the I'll Be Your Mirror music festival. I went to that festival (Though not to thrash & mosh, but rather to see Fairey's Revolutions show) and it rocked. So, I'm glad to have this print because I was actually at the festival and saw the Paramount Theater he incorporated into the print; pretty sweet. The print on the right was released for sale yesterday and I was lucky enough to score it before it sold out. Though I don't find it as visually striking as some of his other prints, I do really like the message. And as my sister pointed out, those bright red arrows at the bottom of the print force your eyes to see the "large transgressions"I think I'll be getting both of these prints framed so they can be hung proudly at phattire headquarters.

Oh hell yeah

Another excellent video by Marco Toniolo. Check out his videos on Vimeo, they're all excellent! This one in particular really makes me want to ride. This guy's got some sick skills!

Marco Milivinti's training track from Marco Toniolo on Vimeo.

Revolutions

Yesterday I met my sister Mary at her frame shop in Summit, NJ so we could drive down to Asbury Park and see Shepard Fairey's album cover art show: Revolutions. Asbury Park itself is an odd, sleepy little town. Ocean Ave is the main drag along the shore with a boardwalk on the ocean side and all sorts of odd sights along the inland side. It reminded me of Cherynoble: old funky hotels, half built structures with concrete pillars sprouting rebar high into the air and several empty parking lots. Still, the boardwalk seemed to have a some energy to it and when you glanced around the entire scene, giant Shepard Fairy murals popped out at you in the distance. We walked around the area taking pictures of the art Fairey had posted here and there and then popped into the gallery to see his Revolutions show. I have to say, seeing his work full size and up close was really amazing. The detail he puts into the pieces and his seemingly endless creativity continue to impress me. Mary and I both bought the latest edition of his book Supply & Demand and even got it for about $15 cheaper than it sells for at the Obey Giant website; sweet! Below are a few images from the day and here is a gallery of all the images.

I'll be your mirror

I scored this sweet new Shepard Fairey print while riding the crosstown bus through Central Park last night. Fairey was asked by ATP, to create this poster to help publicize this weekend's music festival: I'll Be Your Mirror. This print was released for sale yesterday but it had sold out immediately. However, there must have been a glitch in the Obey Giant website because when I checked back yesterday evening I was delighted to find it was still available! *Snag!* I think its pretty cool that Fairey incorporated the old Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park, into the print. Side note: I love the fact that I was able to buy this print using my iPhone; so convenient. Every second counts when trying to buy new Fairey pieces; they usually sell out in a matter of minutes!

Rather than describe the print myself, I'm going to cut & paste Mr.Fairey's own words here:

All Tomorrow’s Parties is a great independent music festival that does events around the world. I attended one in LA a few years ago to catch great shows by Iggy and the Stooges and Mission of Burma. ATP has a great concept of asking people or bands to curate the festival. They have asked people like Jim Jarmusch, Matt Groening, Thurston Moore, The Melvins, and for this year’s festival, Portishead. I love Portishead, so I was happy to be asked to create the poster this year. The festival is happening in an amazing building on the boardwalk in Asbury Park NJ, so I incorporated the building into the design of the poster. I’ll be doing murals, an art show, and DJ’ing as part of the ATP festival, so I’m getting to indulge all my passions in a concentrated way this week. Oh, Public Enemy is performing their classic sonic thunderstorm of an album “Fear of a Black Planet”… shake your rump and pump your fist!!!! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, improve your life immediately and get that record. Or, get to Asbury Park and check it out.

-Shepard Fairey

My sister Mary and I are heading over to Asbury Park, NJ this Sunday to check out Fairey's album art show titled Revolutions during this ATP event. He's created a lot of excellent album covers over the years, for some really great bands, to include the likes of the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Idol, Tom Petty, and 311. I don't think we'll take in any of the shows but I'm sure we'll be able to hear them jamming out. We're more interested in seeing the Revolutions show; it's going to be fantastic and I'm pretty stoked to check it out!

I also found this little gem where you can download a mix tape of tracks from the bands playing at the I'll Be Your Mirror Show this weekend. Enjoy! [click here to listen/download]

Death on wheels

Mixed in with my office mail this morning, was this screen printed patch I had bought on Ebay last week. It's a Shepard Fairey screen print from who knows when. He's not currently selling patches on his website and I'm glad to have scored this one. Looks like the future holds another trip to the Ecuadorian Shoe Repair Shop in my neighborhood. The guys at the shop have a sewing machine with a stout needle that can handle stitching through the thick rubber and Cordura material of my old messenger bag. It's always fun to pop in there and explain that I want them to stitch a patch on my bag. They're always happy to make a quick and easy $5.00.

Rock on

Last Sunday I ripped around Sprain Ridge Park for a few hours on my singlespeed. Trail conditions were a little moist from the rain we received earlier in the week giving them a tacky/grippy feel. As usual it felt fantastic to turn the cranks and dip & dive through the woods. Riding a singlespeed through a damp forest can be quite surreal in that it is a very quiet experience. Twigs didn't snap beneath my tires and wet leaves helped to muffle my roll. I played around on this boulder for a few minutes before moving on. I wish I had the skills I used to have; I was once so smooth!

Picture of the day

A combination of two images I took this past weekend while backpacking.