Velo-Cross

This was a pretty fun course which had all the necessary features-bmx action and pump bumps-check, long ass run up check, sketchy pavement to asphalt transitions-check, 2 sets of barriers-check, a little mud-check, spray painted rocks on the single-track-check. I had a shit start and bad first lap-one crash, two dropped chains. I was in full baby mode for the next lap til I mentally got my shit together and just settled in to race my bike. After that it was fun. Short lap would have had me doing 8 laps but junior soul stealer Nate Morse caught me and that gave me a pass on the last lap.....

The "track" portion of this was not too exciting, but the infield was laid out well.


Those in the know said the course ran the opposite way so you had to get up this last year.


There was a lot of scary rear wheel in the air action. A lot of people were struggling with the concept "pump" and "rhythm". This is a fast way to end up "face down, ass up"....

One of the two sets of barriers

Berms

I thought these things got recycled?



railing it



For those of you who don't know what goes down on a bmx track check this out-and pay attention to which wheel is up....


I was running low on batteries so that is it for photos. took a lot of blurry throw aways today. Shedd Park tomorrow. Waffle hand ups? Four Loko hand ups? Be afraid!

couple more shots from eco cross

I wrote race report for this on the team blog, but here are a few photos from the men's 4 and the elite race. This is a rad event-where else is the elite field 50% current or former national champs? More people should do this, but I think they will need a longer lap if they get bigger fields.










more photos here

clearance

I see a lot of terrifying bikes and fixed gear conversions at my job. This was one of them(there will be no pictures of the drive train of this nightmare), but I was struck by how much clearance there was around the fork-even with long reach calipers. In related news there was a kid racing in Northampton this weekend on an old trek frame with long reach calipers.

Woodrup in DC

Whenever I am walking around in DC, I seem to stumble upon bikes that are too nice to be locked up, locked up on the street. For example this touring rig from Leeds England.
The wrap around seat stays are what first caught my eye.

Didn't want to manhandle the bike to get a better picture of it, but you can get the idea from that picture
Cool logo-also rad center pull brakes not mafac, but what can you do.

The full bike

The Brooks saddle reminds me of something else I saw.....

The value of the saddles in this picture is greater than the value of the bikes, but I guess they ride in comfort and style.
Did appreciate the file tread cross tires on the commuter, but is some bartape too much to ask?

DC always a good time for looking at bikes.

required reading

Big Bikes got me through the summer, but Cyclo-What is the fall favorite blog!

Dag Nasty with Shawn

So 2 of my favorite bands were and are Dag Nasty and Swiz. (Edge goes to Swiz who broke up before releasing some shitty records....). The fact that Shawn Brown started out singing for Dag Nasty should make this reissue a homerun. It is good and was released years ago as a 4x7" boxset. All the Dag classics in a rougher demo quality with SB belting out the lyrics. I think it works best on songs like Can I Say or Justification where the classic Shawn Brown vocal style shines though.
This is better than a nostalgia trip, but not quite a total power/total cool classic. Dischord has plenty of other gems in the vault they need to get cracking on releasing.

how to do it right

then



now

OFF! - UPSIDE DOWN from jake burghart on Vimeo.

this is a timeless formula for making a kick ass video.