When I was a kid I would get so sick of old guys always talking about the “old days” and it seemed to me that they were just past their prime and stuck in the past. Now that I am an old guy (by most of my readers calendars anyway) I tend to find myself doing the same thing, but now I think its because in some weird way I hope to impart some sort of wisdom that took me so long to learn. Information I wish I had back when I was younger.  

Like, how to make a Joe Rich Special. Does anyone remember what that is? I think back in Terrible One zine #1 there was a illustrated diagram of how to make a Joe Rich special. Its one of my guilty pleasures actually and involves eating at Taco Bell. That’s outright sacrilege in a town like Austin where there is so much great and cheap Mexican food so I usually keep this to myself.

Why would I eat such processed crap food? For some reason I like it. Take a tostada, flip it upside down, plop a side of rice on top of the over turned tostada and then break it apart with your spork. Delicious. Takes me back to the days of living in Bethlehem, PA riding trails all day and starving for some decent salsa.

Sandy Carson took me to the newish pump track up in North Austin for the first time. What a good time. The whole pump track concept is amazing. I love the idea of dirt jumps that every skill level can ride an enjoy. Most everything is rollable or table tops, and lots of berms. So cool. I got to ride with some of Austin’s OG riders there. Old men on kids bikes. But there was also some new kids, just learning and then Sandy and I had a great time too trying to link together lines and racing through berms. I recommend anyone starting out building trails to start with one of these. They are easy to build (since everything is smaller) and you will help create a scene of riders because anyone can have fun there. 

I stole this photo of Jeff Pearce from 9th st BMX. I’m sure you guys can sue Transworld/TimeWarnerAOL for like a zillion dollars thanks to my illegal usage of your image.  

Jeff Pearce was there and he’s been riding longer then anyone I know. Its so inspiring seeing people still enjoying riding after so long. Seeing Pearce reminded me about Austin’s original cruiser scene. Back when I moved here in the early 90’s there were as many riders on 24″ BMX cruisers as on 20″s. Maybe I’ll have to get cruisin’ myself soon as old age approaches. Bigger wheels do make things a lot smoother. 

It got me thinking of old Austin in general. This place was so mellow. Most of the riders didn’t read magazines or watch videos. The internet hadn’t even been invented yet. I think thats why so many of the dudes were on cruisers. They just didn’t even know they were abnormal in the BMX world on their big bikes. Everyone was just riding because they enjoyed it. Thats probably more or less true about anyone on a bike from any time or place, but the magical part about Austin was how laid back everyone was (in all walks of life).

Austin is still remarkably chill. I could do with out the new group of trail nazis that are starting to show up, but overall I think most of the people on bikes here have a true love of riding and still want to share it with everyone else. Take it from an old guy, don’t mix salt and BMX, its too fun to spoil. 

 

 

 

So sometimes I work hard on this blog and come up with some content I actually think is half way decent. But sometimes, its just complete nonsense. 

Here’s my dogs Roscoe and Monty trying to screw in a lightbulb… in case you wanted an answer to that age old question. 

Did you know I am the coach of the Austin Facial Hair Club? Despite despising the feeling of hair growing on my own face, its true. 

I also pulled off interviews on both Bicycle Union and BMX Union. 

Last night I picked up a little 11 month old Corgi (possible mixed with a Shelty or something) from a Corgi rescue service. 

Roscoe is stoked because it’s 24 hour party time now. They are so hilarious wrestling and chasing each other around. 

This is Monty Mihelich. 

Here’s a random post for you…

I’ve had a couple rainy days here in Austin and so I decided to work on a little arts and craft project. 

Building things like these wooden shelves and cat climbing towers is a guilty pleasure of mine. 

Whenever I grow up I think I’d like to be a carpenter and learn how to build these kinds of things the right way (straight, level, sturdy… ha!).

This one is doubling as my Christmas tree this year. Christmas is kind of lame in Austin. It supposed to be 75 degrees and its impossible for me to feel Christmas-ey without snow and fireplaces and such.

I’ve been building these for a few years. I’ve built a bunch of free standing ones and ones with nice carpeted perchs for kitties to chill on. This one is in my living room for my roommate’s cats. 

This one is on the back porch… its an escape from Roscoe if they need it. 

Anyway, Joe Rich suggested I build an entertainment center to match the cat tower in my living room. 

It’s a fun project and when I’m finished I’m always amazed at what you can do with just one sheet of plywood and some basic tools. 

Jigsaw cutting and sanding…

Finish nail gun (or screws) and stain…

And there we go, my new entertainment center… complete with a stand for my totally swanky rabbit ear antenna!

I haven’t been posting much this last week because I’ve been downloading Top Gear seasons. I found them on a torrent site, but they are downloading sooooooo slow. I really don’t know much about the way those torrent sites work, but it took almost 4 days to download a season. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong. Totally my favorite show of the moment its not easy to get in the US unless you have the BBC America (which my rabbit ears can’t seem to pick up). 

The downloads are killing my computer though… and getting online is such a drag. Just now though, I realized that most of the episodes are on BBC’s youtube channel. Oh well…

 

Hope you all are having a good holidays. 

 

So a few post’s ago someone suggested I post photos of my old Barcodes. While digging around for old photos I just decided to go all the way… here is a tribute to all the great BMX steeds that have carried me through the years (or the cross section I could find photos of anyway). Two cheers to CHROMOLY!!!

( Complete with points of interest…) 

1974! Bikes didn’t come natural at first.

Free Spirit bike. This photo ran in BMX Plus and was a contest to guess which rider it was. Hint: It was me.

This was my first really good bike. Spent the summer of being 14 and 15 saving for it. Robinson Pro frame with all the coolest parts of the day. It got stolen 2 months later.

This isn’t actually a picture of my Kastan (Top ones are my Kastan, bottom close up is not mine- thanks mom for the photos), but after my Robinson was stolen my mom’s homeowner’s insurance payed off and I got to build another dream bike. These Kastan’s were really amazing (though they were forever tarnished by the Uni-Blade that also came out at this time). Too short and was stolen also.

Key point: Supposedly this entire frame was heat treated after it was welded. I don’t know if it was true, but it seemed really strong. Remarkably modern frame design don’t you think?

Also, Later when Linn Kastan built T-1’s for a short while I got so pissed at him over some production issues that I jumped in my car and drove 24 hours straight to California to confront him. He called me a boy who didn’t even know what chromoly was and refused to meet me in person. The shitty part was I was holding a chemical/ molecular breakdown from a testing lab that showed that the metal in question was precisely only mild steel. Dude invented the tubular BMX fork so I guess we owe him some respect. 

Again, can’t find a picture of me on one of these, but I did have about 6 of them in one summer (and all of the colors above). My goodness they were pieces of crap! You could break them in a couple days. Sure was fun bashing them into things, but I don’t think anyone ever really figured out anything too cool to do with that bash guard. 

Revcore frame. You’ve totally never heard of that. These were the days of ride anything you possibly could.

Key Points: Two different tires, two different pedals, two different water ski gloves, tie died Albe’s shirt. AND Funk Pelts stickers on the helmets… someone told me I was sponsored by Funk Pelts, but I never even knew what the hell it was.

Black spray painted S&M Holmes. I got a lot of mileage out of flat black spray paint and had about 30 S&M Holmes frames through the years. 

Key points: This photo was used by TNT as an ad. I was upset because I didn’t ride for TNT and they blacked out the Standard logos (who I did ride for). 

Also note the gusset behind the headtube. I broke so many frames back then. I would take my bikes to muffler shops and have them weld on any old plate of steel to keep my bike together.

Standard OG prototype. This was the first Standard. The frame weighed like 9lbs because no one knew how thick to make any of the tubes. I hated this bike because I was used to long ass race bikes, but I sure was stoked to get to test it. 

Key Points: Lemon juice cleans copper to a wonderful shine. 

Also, this is the frame (but not forks) that Jeff Crawn got hurt on. I don’t like this frame.

Standard Lenghty prototype 2. Again this one was too small for me, but this one was also much lighter. This was Rick Moliterno’s personal frame, but he gave it to me to use on a road trip and I got my first ever interview in both Ride and Dig Mags on that frame. 

Key points: At a contest this bike got away from me, bounced 4 or 5 times in long cartwheels and then smashed into a bench and dented the shit out of the top tube. I thought Rick would be angry so I tried to cover the dent with a sticker before returning it.

Also, Pacific Palm gloves at Twin Palms jumps! 

S&M Holmes again. I was on these frames for years. In fact most of the time I was on Standard, Hoffman, and Family I was just riding Holmes. 

Key Points: Masterguard bullet proof sprocket guard. And you wondered how Props got started. 

Also, twisted spokes on a GT Race Lace hub…. so awesome!

Also, front peg welded to the fork to save axles. Thanks Mark Murphy.

Another Holmes while on Hoffman Bikes. 

Key Point: Did you ever wonder why you have a 14mm axle in the back? Its because of that little blue hub in my back wheel. The very first hub with a 14mm axle. It was the Gack hub prototype. In the days of axles bending like butter this was the savior. Although, since no frame was made to fit it I spent many nights in hotels (while on tour) with a hack saw chopping up innocent S&M frames to fit. I rode this hub for almost 2 years before production ones came out. 

Holmes number zillion.

One of the first US made production model Hoffman Taj frames.

Key point: LAID BACK PRIMO ROD POST!!

I think this might be my all time favorite bike. In the days of bikes getting more and more over built I speced this Hoffman Taj out as a race bike with 36 spoke wheels and lighter parts. It was so amazing to ride. 

Key point: Blue Shimano DX pedals. Those pedals were magic. Not these modern day DX pedals that suck balls, these were the original real deal. Picked them up in Germany because even in 96 they were impossible to get. 

Also, its amazing there was room for a full Fox head sticker on just the bottom part of my rear dropout.

A Hoffman Taj, but this one was made overseas. So many of the newer bike companies owe a debt to all the hard work that Hoffman put into developing high end bikes overseas. They went through a lot to work out the bugs and made it all a lot easier for everyone else. 

Key point: There’s those pedals again. I wonder what happened to them.

I got on an early light bike kick back in the 90’s and started riding a Hoffman Flash (HB’s race bike) with race wheels and everything.

Key point: red TNT hubset was pretty sweet with the red alloy nipples.

Also, I wonder why I was riding in my Aunt’s kitchen with no shoes? 

After Hoffman days ended I tried to ride a King (too short) and eventually bought a Taj frame from someone (was it Aaron Bostrom… that would be weird). Eventually DK started flowing me bikes. Here’s a DK SOB. I love you Colin WInkleman (where ever you are), but that bike was one heavy beast and even though the geometry was based on a Taj, it was hard for me to ride. 

Eventually DK sent me their lighter General Lee. I think this is the bike I had on Road Fools 1, but then it broke once we got to Austin. 

Key point: Castillo bars, much to Robo’s dismay.

Also, the first ever T-1 shirt is pictured.

The first Terrible One Progression frame. Robo and I each had one to test and ride. This was a dam fine frame and ranks as one of my all time favorites. Even though the gusset is gross.

Key points: Note the hose clamp holding the bottom headset cup together. The first T-1 frames actaully came with instructions on how to put a house clamp on your headset because headsets of the day sucked so bad. 

Also, you can barely see a number plate. Thats because this photo was taken on a trip to Japan where they flew me over not knowing I didn’t race. I had to race a bunch of American AA pro monsters. They were so far ahead I didn’t even see their dust.

This is my quintessential Barcode frame. Tan with white forks. I probably had about 10 bikes painted in some form like this. 

Key point: Holy shit… look at the trick on the left! That is cool! I can’t even remember doing it, but I found like 4 photos of it from this time. Its like a downside crank slide. Going to have to try that at T-1. 

IMPORTANT: This is the earliest photo I have of riding a mini-gearing set up. 36 x 13 finally got that 46tooth dinner plate off our bikes. I had gotten one of the early Profile cassette hubs back in 98/99? Though, this photo must not be from that early because that’s a Kink sprocket that wouldn’t have been made in that size quite that early. 

Another tan Barcode, but a good bike.

I gave this Barcode to someone, but I can’t remember who. The usual gold painted rims.

Key point: This bike was made with sweet ass internal cable routing for the dual cable gyro system. It really worked well, but we never made them because we were worried it would confuse too many people.

Also, I think this one of the first bikes I had built with thinner then normal tubing to make it really light.

Barcode. Gold painted rims. Primo days. I was a little nuts with the gold paint on the rims for a few years. 

Key point: Check the homemade sprocket guard. Helped a lot learning crankslides. I made it from an old 44t kink sprocket by cutting the teeth off.

Another one of my all time favorite bikes. I guess its a Barcode with a Garrett post on it. Not quite sure what the camera mounted on it was for. 

Key point: Testing one of the first 25 x 9t Profile set up. I hated how un-smooth it was and predicted no one would want to ride it. Ha…. ooops. 

Also, something about Dr.Pepper can colored bikes makes them ride a little faster.

I only rode this T-1 Barcode for one contest, but I won the contest, got free stitches in my lip and gave the bike away in a raffle at a Backyard jam. 

Another tan with white forks Barcode. Always classic. Hmmm…. maybe this picture is older… that sprocket looks pretty big.

A really really expensive Barcode. I had this one made out of titanium as an experiment. It was really light, leaps and bounds lighter then any frame of the day. Now though, normal steel bikes are getting close to this 3.8oz frame.

Key point: This bike sucked to ride. It was so mushy and flexy it felt like the frame was made out of rubber. It sits silently in a box in the T-1 store room to this day.

I never really had as many bikes as people thought I did. I just really liked to paint them. Here is one bike with 6 paint jobs in just one day. Sandy and I tried to set up a photo on the ramp where I would be in 6 different spots on the ramp on 6 different colored bikes. It never worked out. 

Oooh.. this blue Barcode is pretty sweet looking (except for the taped together seat). I like the subtleness of the dark gray grips and tires. 

Key point: I ran one of those Nokon metal cables up front for a while fused to a normal Slic cable. Kind of gave the feel of a regular cable, but with the benifit of a compressionless cable for tailwhips and stuff. 

I have absolutely no memory of riding a yellow barcode with brown metallic rims, but it looks pretty sweet.

 

This T-1 Ruben was pretty amazing. I worked really hard on the tri-tone paint job and it looked really good with the smoke chrome rims. The cranks were my first flow part from Odyssey. 

Key point: Got to help Ruben test out his sample tires on this bike. 

Also, this might be my last gyro bike.

T-1 Barcode. Please excuse Dave Parrick who is doing something strange and painful on (to?) my bike.

Key point: I rode for a couple months with no back brake but with a front brake. It was really quite fun.

This Ruben frame was set up with my first full factory Odyssey package. I had just gotten on the team and the new limited color of the time was that minty toothpastey green. Never felt very at home with this machine and the colorway was not for me. 

T-1 Ruben custom frame. Don’t know how I got hooked on orange, but I have had a bunch of orange bikes in the last few years. 

Key point: Director forks have arrived.

My first Giant team bike felt crazy, it wasn’t until later that we found out it had been built with the complete wrong geometry.

Giant Method Team. Now we’re talking. This bike’s geometry came out perfect and Giant made me 4 of them. Same batch as the frame I’m riding now. 

Today’s bike. I’m thinking the skin wall tires don’t really look right on the orange. I bet they’d look good on the green frame. I might have to build it back up.

 

And to all the bikes I’ve sent to the recycling plant, rest in peace my brothers…

I can’t deny that there is still a 14 year old kid inside me who is utterly infatuated with BMX and loves the idea of helping test products and getting to ride prototypes. Its the coolest! I still wish I had gotten to be part of the BMX Action test team. Maybe Odyssey could start an official test team that I could be a member of just so I feel like I’ve accomplished something with my life. I picked up a couple new exclusive high tech toys on my last trip. 

But first, I got two of Fly Bike’s flatland company Suelo Bikes new grips… or wiggly tubes or whatever the hell they are. 

Despite looking like a cool pair of numchucks or some kind of sex toy they actually have a great unintended purpose as a set of track bike grips. 

They go from bar end to stem in one grip and make an awesome alternative to the terrible fixed gear trend of riding on cold ass handlebars with nothing on them. 

The first of the sweet prototype products I am getting to test out are Odyssey’s PC JC pedals. 

I seriously think this is the most ingenious pedal ever. Lighter, stronger, grippy, grindable, skateparks can’t complain when you drop your bike AND simple!…. its got everything! You can see more of how it works here.

Such a cool design! So stoked to get to ride it. 

Next on the sample/ prototype front is a test of an Odyssey Aitken Pivital seat. Its my first pivital seat.. pivotal? Pivatal? I don’t know how to spell it. 

This Giant frame I’m riding is also a prototype and it has a little bit weird sized seat tube. Its caused me to break a couple seat post clamps ’cause I have to pry them open just a bit to make them fit. Now that I have the Pivotal thing I am getting to try out a wedge post and do away with the seat post clamp entirely. Hopefully this will work ok ’cause it looks real clean. I’m not quite sure why we used to have to ride a Viking Double Seat Post Clamp to keep our frames from breaking back in the day.

A few months ago Ryan Corrigan was working out in LA building the ramps for the X Games Superpark contest. He spent many days in the X Games warehouse and while there he stumbled upon an old Hoffman Bikes Taj bike that looked exactly like mine. He brought home pictures of it and we both racked our brains trying to figure out how one of my old bikes could have ended up there.

On a recent trip I got to stop by the warehouse and low and behold there was an old bike of mine straight out of 1996! I had no idea how it ended up there, but there was no mistaking it. It had my old sponsor’s UGP and Airwalk stickers in all my usual places, and they were hand cut out to fit the bike in a way that only I could have done sitting bored somewhere in the winter. Something wasn’t quite right about it though and although the frame was for sure mine, I wasn’t sure about the rest of the bike. 

After some hunting I found out that the bike was actually Steve Swope’s. Apparently I gave him the frame after only riding it for a short while. He thought that my bikes were pretty good, so he set his bike up to be more or less identical to what I was running. 

Here’s a shot Jeff Z found of me riding almost the exact bike from sometime back in the 1900’s. Its funny to think that we used to use 46 tooth sprockets on BMX bikes. It looks like a freaking spare wheel.

And for comparison, my modern day bike. It probably ways 15 pounds less then old bike and is way more sweet. 

Jim Bauer’s Plate
I had a fun last day out in LA. Went out to the Santa Ana Civic center and rode the banks there for a bit. The young guys were filming, but us old guys were just chilling and rolling around. Nice and mellow.

Mike Suftin’s Plate.
After that I went to the Nike Lighting Bolts Art show. That was pretty fun. We watched the Nike BMX video on the big screen and mostly just pinballed around from person to person saying hello and catching up with old friends. I mostly just carried my camera around looking stupid all night, but I took a few…

Brian Blyther.
So honored to meet and know this guy! LEGEND!!!! And one of the all time best BMX riders ever!
I don’t know if this is true, but someone told me that while on duty as a police officer Brian Blyther had to shoot someone in the leg because they were trying to rob a train with a bow and arrow? WTF?

Jay Miron and Dave Mavro

I haven’t seen Jay Miron in years! Do you know that when I was 17 Jay invited me on a GT tour to fill in for Dave Voelker? GT gave me a bike to ride in the shows which I promptly broke in less then 2 hours. Albe’s warrantied it for me and got me an S&M Holmes. At a show inside 12 Oaks mall near my home town in Michigan Miron did the first ever back flip over a spine. It was crazy. The day before at Scrap Skatepark Jay did the first ever tailwhip 360. Wild times.

Dave Mavro is a film maker working on this:

Got to sign an old plate right under Bob Haro!

My plate is for auction right now here… nice and cheap for the right person….http://www.mycharitablelife.com/auction_details.php?auction_id=100392