40 ounces of smooth: arizona iced out trip 2015

ARIZONA ICED OUT TRIP 2015 from JBall on Vimeo.
this one popped up as soon as i was leaving the HQ so i didn't have any time to really look at it until now. it's got a ton of folks on it: congo, mike penrose, corey, matt spencer, steven jensen and jball. it's quite long, but it's got some slick bangers. everyone's got their own style, it's easy to pick out who is who- jensen is super tech, congo's got that heavy throwdown, matt spencer never bars is super flowy, michael penrose threads shit so nicely and jball is fucking jball. not only that, we have some 29er action going on with jball and corey.... and you know how much i love the wrong sized wheel. yes, it's 15 minutes long, but it's packed full of good shit.

shouts to SMC and WOLFDRAWN for making a killer joint.


jmik

the starting point of reasoning: the heavy pedal axiom

(via THP)
okay so i've been writing a bunch about to the folks over there at the heavy pedal, but that's because they're pumping stuff out like crazy. their next endeavor is the axiom which picks up where the zephyr left off. we all know how batshit crazy the zephyr was as it emulated a certain old school track frame that will not be named. but like that old school track frame, it ran a one inch headset. that's old school. here we have the axiom with a tight geo, higher bottom bracket, seat tube cut out, and (by golly) an 1 1/8th head tube. it's a little muted than it's brother in terms of color, but it's definitely going to be a heavy hitter when it comes to the fixed gear circuit. see more over here.

jmik

omgfrancisisbackonabike: day at downtown

DAY AT DOWNTOWN from Francis Roque on Vimeo.
i havent seen francis roque on a bike in a long ass time. but in this double feature with drabzong her, there he is... on a bike. both these dudes are mad talented, and come from the mighty mighty 209. i havent seen much activity from the area in a while, so it's refreshing to see that place pop up every once in a while. we all know francis is a bad dude, but i've never heard of mr. her until now. dude slays as well too with that like at :45.

jmik

many clouds of smoke: fyxation humboldt

(via fyxation)
fyxation and BHSK go way back. back when i used to throw fixed gear comps in college, they supported my stuff for a long time. i still run their bars on my FGFS bike. lately they've been creeping into the handmade goods, and i couldnt be more proud of that. with a ton of stuff coming from overseas nowadays, we need more stuff made stateside. the newest piece they're making is the humboldt- a rolltop bag handmade in brew city. named after a street in mikwaukee (sorry california peoples, it's not named after a certain county know for growing certain green plants) this thing is pretty damn good lookin', and pretty weatherproof. you should always support US manufacturing, and fyxation's doing a good job of keeping stuff in house. get to it y'all.

jmik

carbon fiber the world: heavy pedal tempo wheelset

(via THP)
i got a blurb from victor from the heavy pedal letting me know about their newest joints: the tempo wheelset. constructed of carbon and utilizing lightweight gran compe hubs these things are silly light, and provide ample aerodynamics with it's u shaped body. yeah they cost a little much, but come on- they're carbon high performance wheels. check em out in detail over at the heavy pedal.

jmik

all i feel is pain: godandfamous united in pain

(via gnf)
yup i'm still playing catch up. our familia at godandfamous has this weird thing for pain. deep down in all of us, we're suckers for pain. continuing with this theme and is the united in pain gruppo which involves a patch (you know how much i love my fucking patches) and a bottle. these things go fast and when they're gone, they're gone. join the pain fest and get you some now.

jmik

disco hits: matt reyes and devon lawson for premier fits

i'm still trying to play catch up through all the stuff that i've missed over this hiatus and for some reason i stopped to look back at some old joints- particularly ones that have matt reyes in 'em. no one really rides as fluid as he does in my opinion, and that's probably the reason why i didn't completely dismiss fgfs as a spinoff from bmx. in this most recent he teams up with devo for premier fits. first off, matt's always got the dope music in the background. these two could not be any more different when it comes to riding style, but when you put then both together you could see the styles blend super nicely- you even got devo doing super smooth slumworm-esque stuff, and matt doing heavy devo-like stuff. but in the end, devo hammered that last one like it was no one's business.

jmik

i didnt even have to watch it to know: steven jensen for spike parts

SPIKE PARTS | STEVEN JENSEN from Matthew Spencer on Vimeo.
yeah, so i plugged in the html code for the video as soon as i saw "matt spencer" and "steven jensen" in the credits. i already knew it was good. but i wasnt prepared for how good. i tapped play and realized jensen commits murder and matt's filming it all. i mean, we all know that steven is mad talented but who's gonna revive that curb he no footed nosed? because it's dead. he killed it. he even got some scoot scoot on and thew down some crank flips.

i fucking love crank flips.

jmik

this one goes out to the ladies: bombtrack 2015 line in video

now that i'm plopped in front of this computer, what's the first on the agenda? well let's take a minute and catch up with the bombtrack familia, shall we?

The DASH 2015 from WeMakeThings on Vimeo.
now i'm sure just about everyone who frequents this blog has seen this one on the internets. low and behold, this is a wolfdrawn joint disguised as a teaser for the bombtrack dash. and you should already know about the dash as well as the guy at the helm, elliot milner. so we wont really get into it. just sit there and enjoy it.


The SCRIPT 2015 from WeMakeThings on Vimeo.
now this fucker i want in my stable immediately. the script is bombtrack's aluminum track monster. it's sexy as fuck. tapered head tube, sram omni-nomnomnoms, a female axle front wheel with buttery smoothed out welds all over makes me want to take this thing out to dinner and kiss it goodnight.

to say i want this one is an understatement.


The NEEDLE 2015 from WeMakeThings on Vimeo.
actually no, i want this one in my stable. if the script is the sexy one that flirts with you all the time, then the needle is the one that keeps it real. this one is all new for 2015, and it's right up my alley with the reynolds 725 tubing- yep. it's fucking steel. and all of it is steel right down to that 5 piece fork. it's the blue collar beast and it even has a place where you can put that chris king headset you've been sitting on for ages.


The ARISE 2015 from WeMakeThings on Vimeo.
still staying within the singlespeed realm, bombtrack brings us the arise. this one we've seen photos of before but not much else. another steel offering, this one ventures off into the wild as a SSCX bike. but it's not so simple. you see, this one has a derailleur hanger, removable cable tabs, a built in singlespeed chain tensioner..... hell the thing has rack mounts if you really want to get into it.


The HOOK 2015 from WeMakeThings on Vimeo.

this is the part where things get rad. the hook is a full on cyclocross bike. it's a straight up, built to fucking kill, cyclocross bike- and a damn good one too. we're talking sram rival, avid discs, mavic wheels, all strapped to (wait for it) columbus tubing. holy fuck. i was gonna type something witty and funny here but all that comes to mind is "holy fuck that's built ass bike"


The OXBRIDGE WOMEN 2015 from WeMakeThings on Vimeo.


The OXBRIDGE MEN 2015 from WeMakeThings on Vimeo.
and now for something completely different. the oxbridge is bombtrack's mild mannered city bike. we're talking, full fenders, box rims,  gum wall tires, and everything old school. oh and ladies? you got a version of the oxbridge as well.

two bikes that haven't seen video treatment yet are the divide and zone. the divide is the "old school" 700c FGFS on which bombtrack is recognized for, and the zone is an urban super commuter that features a shimano internally geared hub.

it's crazy to see how much the bombtrack fam has grown in a matter of a few years. they may have a few more in the garage but the focus has still remained as their offerings have the common thread of being badass rides with top shelf stuff installed.

jmik

the photo that brought me back: james madarang hits the stockton rail.

(via alxgonzalz)
so, a whole lot of shit has happened. i stepped away from the blog for a long time because of a lot of things. at one point, i kind of lost faith in fixed gear. seeing all these uninformed fixed gear idiots on the internet and in real life took a toll on me- so much so that i started riding mountain bikes and bmx a little more. hell, i even took up rock climbing and went with that for a while (well actually i still do that but whatever). then about a week ago, this photo surfaced. the bhsk fam alex gonzalez captured the younger madarang hitting a double peg on the infamous stockton rail.

why is this even relevant?

first of all, alex is a rad dude and so is james. james kills it, and doesnt give a flying fuck about it. funny thing is, james is known for his classic style focused on flat riding. he also rides a 29'er, which is basically a "fuck you" to both the fixed freestyle elitists and bmx riders alike. as soon as i saw this, all the politics and bullshit that plagued me went out the window and i (almost) threw my laptop at the wall because i was so stoked over this.

that, and because i forgot to turn off automatic payments for my URL.

oh and follow alex on tumblr and make him famous or something.

jmik