September 26th, 2009
HNIC
I’ve found that there are two types of people in the comsumer electronics world, those who love Sony and those who loathe Sony. I know, you thought that Mac vs. PC was the big CE battle, no, it’s Sony vs Everyone Else. But even those who love Sony fall into the superset of those who are annoyed by Sony. You see, Sony desperately, desperately wants to rule the world through proprietary standards. sometimes they’re, admittedly, superior to the competition and fail due to sheer hubris (Betamax). Sometimes they’re marginally successful, but don’t actually replace the existing standard (Blu-Ray). Usually they’re just annoying and provide no advantage over the competition and exist only so that Sony can try to lock you into its ecosystem for the rest of your natural born life (MemoryStick).
Yeah, MacNeil. I’m not sure who’s idea it was to go back to the 22.2mm seat post/tube, but stop it already. “Lighter and stronger” my ass, you’re talking grams of weight savings and if it’s lighter it’s weaker (that’s the way tubes work, if you decrease the diameter of a tube, you have to increase the wall thickness to keep the same strength, unless they’re using higher grade steel for the seat tube). But, let’s call a spade a spade. Unless other frame makers jump onto this idiocy, the only people selling 22.2mm posts will be MacNeil. It’s not a lot of money, but times is hard, a few extra dollars per frame might add up to real money in the short term.
Maybe it’s not a naked money grab, maybe it’s just another case of a BMX company hoping that metallugical science will make up for the fact that modern BMX bike design is about aesthetics and scales above all (I’d like to head off anyone who says that the modern BMX bike evolved to a double diamond design because the triangle is nature’s most stable shape. The triangle IS geometrically stable, but I’d like you to compare the front end of a bike from 5 years ago to the front end of a bike from today, smaller tubing has resulted in a front quadrangle).
Who am I kidding, it’s probably both.
Jay Miron still remains my second all time favorite rider (behind Fiola, above Bestwick). I hate to see that his latest trick is shark jumping.
Young Mr. Smillie is apparently going to SLC to the Dew Tour/Free Flow Tour finals thanks to this video. It’s not embeddable, so you’ll have to go to the Ride site to see it. In order to not spoil the congratulatory mood I won’t even make fun of him. Good going, D.
Jesse James has managed to do a lot of stuff in his relatively short life. He’s built a bunch of motorcycles. He starred on a show where they turned cars into..cars. He managed to get the phrase, “direct descendant of,” redefined to mean “nephew” (Jesse is a direct descendant of A Jesse James, but THE Jesse James is his uncle). He married and (allegedly) become the deadbeat baby daddy to one of the biggest pornographic actresses in history, then he left her and married good girl actress, Sandra Bullock. He also produced a movie you may have seen called “Joe Kid on a Stingray,” and publishes a quarterly hot rodding magazine called “Garage.”
The thing about Garage is the guys who run it are SoCal guys in their 30s – 40s. Which is to say they all grew up skating and riding BMX bikes. This month they had some sketches from Jason Jesse and an interview with Gary Turner which is interesting in that there’s absolutely nothing he said about the founding of GT that wouldn’t be said by any of the half gajillion riders who would go on to found their own companies in his wake. One thing that caught my eye was that Gary’s contribution to BMX was the introduction of 4130 and big tubes. Apparently he found out by talking to his car fabricating friends that he could increase the strength of frames by using tubes with paper thin walls but large diameters and made out of higher quality metal. Looking at modern frames, we’ve got 2 out of 3. I can’t be the only one that misses fat downtubes.
Anyway, the current issue also includes a ride along with everyone’s favorite BMXer turne cop. No, not Brian Blyther. No, not Robbie Miranda, either. Stu Thomsen. It may be stuff you’ve already read, but it’s still a good read and it’s nice to know that he’s never stopped riding bikes, even at 51. They even took him out to the track and he still looks like STU FUCKING THOMSEN when riding.
So, there you go, if you feel like getting some old school jollies, pick up a copy. It’s good stuff.
I’m not sure if this is a cool triumph of a small family business with a dream made reality, or just what you need when you absolutely, positively, MUST prove to your neighbors that you’re hung like a baby’s pinkie toe. Either way, it’ll seat you, half of your friends and every bike ever made.
In case you couldn’t figure it out, the bed tilts to make a ramp to load stuff on the roof.
[Via Autoblog]
So, fuseproject, working under commission by the government of NYC, is trying to promote bicycle helmet use by making the helmets look more fashionable. While I applaud the effort, uh, yeah. More in link.
George Teneyck posted this up then linked to it on his Facebook page. I haven’t had time to watch it yet, but, come on, the 1988 Haro Freestyle Team. There’s no way this one won’t contain nostalgic goodness.
Team Haro Freestyle, Circa 1988. BMXDigital from T/n/m/ Group on Vimeo.
I hate golf. Hate may be a strong word, but I don’t get it. The Mrs. says that I would enjoy it if I tried it. I don’t think she’s right. Still, this weekend I tried out one tiny part of golf and I have to say, it’s brilliant.
Golf shirts. No, seriously, the kind that are designed to wick sweat from your skin. Those, in a place where a low of 90 and three hundred bajigazillion percent humidity are not unheard of, are a godsend. BMX clothing manufacturers. Get on making those. I’m pretty sure that roadie jerseys* are already made of that stuff, it wouldn’t be the first time BMX has stolen technology from another area of cycling it professes to hate. Seriously, chop chop.
*This is not an endorsement of dressing like a roadie. No one should dress like a roadie, ever. This is a call for polo shirts emblazoned with BMX logos and made from materials that keep me
Found in Moophisto’s photo stream. Also there, some pretty nice pictures from the World’s including a great Wilkerson shot which I cannot post here.
I heard a rumor this morning that they’re closing down DeShong. For those of you not from Atlanta, DeShong park is the “street plaza,” wedges, ledges, rails and stairs no transitions to be found. But apparently plenty of drugs and underage drinking. Which, from what I’ve heard, is why they’re talking about plowing the whole thing.
How awesome is that?
Growing up, as I did, in Alabama in the 70s and 80s I remember seeing pictures of Dominguez, Fiola and Blyther battling it out a Del Mar and The Pipeline and I had. Nothing. Maybe familiarity breeds contempt. Lord knows that the kids at the skateparks around here don’t even pretend like they’re looking after the space. Maybe it’s because they’re stupid, maybe it’s because they’re kids. Either way, what the county giveth the county can taketh away and DeShong might be on the short list for the latter.
Damn shame, but not surprising, if it’s true.
So, a new Mike Aitken video came out a couple days ago.
While I was watching it I couldn’t help but thing about how much Aitken looked like Jason Becker when he has his traech.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Jason’s story. In the 80′s he founded an instrumental metal band called Cacophany with a similarly young Marty Friedman. When Cacophany broke up Marty went on to join the Rust in Peace era Megadeth (version 3? version 4? Does the version with Kerry King on guitar that lasted for 30 seconds even count?) while Jason got the most coveted sideman spot in all shreddom, replacing Steve Vai in David Lee Roth’s solo band.
Top of the world, right?
Right after he found out that he had the gig, he found out that he had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Lou Gherig’s Disease. ALS results in complete physical paralysis and in many cases, death. Jason’s already way outlived predictions on his life, but the paralysis thing…much like Stephen Hawking Jason communicates through an eye activated computer. He still writes music, but he can no longer play it. He can’t talk and on a good day he might be able to shake a finger.
Aitken went down on a trick that he could do in his sleep in a place that he’d ridden a billion times. He wasn’t doing anything crazy, just riding and he had to learn how to walk again. He was, honestly, lucky.
Next time you’re thinking about going out without a helmet, check the video. It’s worth it as a reminder.
