Living For The City

I spent the day today at Flash In The Can which was pretty cool; I’ve been for the last few years and there are always at least a couple of duds but I usually leave the conference with some new interest or inspiration and this year was no exception. The good nature of the day, unfortunately, was set astray when I left the conference for lunch, looked across the street to where my bike was locked up and saw this:

Motherfucker! I don’t usually leave it locked up for extended periods of time and was pretty diligent in bringing a cable to make sure both wheels were secured, which I’m glad for, but it wasn’t enough. These pieces of shit just have to take something, don’t they? I had a funny feeling about it, too, while I was sitting at the conference and that funny feeling proved itself correct.

Like I’ve mentioned a few times before, I definitely think it’s important to “city proof” your bike and doing things like gluing ball-bearings into hex heads will definitely help slow a thief down but, as I learned today, you have to fill ‘em all. I figured blocking off the post clamp would be enough buuuuut nope.

No hole left unfilled, from now on. Sexy, right?

Luckily enough Rob @ Urbane was kind enough to lend me this “cooshy for your tooshy” (thanks Spark) saddle to get home on.

Also, luckily enough, I have more than one bike and often horde parts so getting another saddle on there wasn’t a big problem but I’ll be damned if I don’t feel completely violated. Let us also not forget that Brooks’ take some working in and that one was almost there! Sheeeeeeit.

So, if anyone tries to sell you a half-worked in B-17 Narrow- Antique Brown (oiled, almost black) or if you notice one turn up on an acquaintances’ bike (I hope none of you hang with cockholes, but you never know…) give them a punch in the nose, take the saddle and tell them that Thunder and Lightning are on their way, y’heard?

You all know what bike thieves get, right?

Now back to Bruce for more commentary.

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On an unrelated note; I hadn’t checked in a while but I just noticed that my rear tire looks like this on all but about 2″ of riding surface… Killer.

I’d really hoped to put in some good hours in the saddle this weekend, with the weather being what it was (nice ‘n hot), but the time quickly evaporated and the opportunity to get out for a long haul quickly dwindled. A bit of a bummer, sure, but I did make the most of the day and spent it casually rolling around the city with the budz. Long live the budz.

Long live eating Bacchus in the sun with the SUNDOG.

Long live (waiting for) Killen.

Long live Bevco factory chairs… Oh yeah, someone buy me some, please.

Long live old stuff. This little beaut was my father’s and his father’s before him – still chillin after all these years!

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The highlight of the weekend was most definitely the opening reception of A Disposable Art Show at The Baitshop presented by Freedom Fighter Skateboards.

It was Joey’s first show and he worked tirelessly to put it together (right up to the very last second) and the result was fantastic. The turnout was incredible, the vibe was wholly positive and the vast majority of the decks were super impressive.

I’m very proud of all of my friends that took part in the show and, as always, am in awe of how talented they all are; shout out to The Brothers McCracken (aka Doublenaut), Tami Noa Levi, Hayden Menzies, Andrew Pommier, The Brothers Dywelska, Matt Killen, Che Kothari and all the other artists that took part and turned out some amazing thrashable art.

Some of the decks sold at the show and some others are apparently spoken for but there are still some left to buy so if you’ve got some bucks and bare walls be sure to swing by The Bait Shop to check them out! Even if you’re not interesting in buying, if you didn’t make it to the show it’s still worth going by to have a peek while the show is still running.

Hayden tells us how he really feels

It’s ok, it wasn’t long before he was on the spot, himself.

So many amazing friends, both old and new, in the same place. Warm fuzzies all around. Yeah, that’s right, warm fuzzies. What?!

The man of the hour, Joey Clarke.

There are also still lots of shirts and Freedom Fighter spring decks available so be sure to get in touch with Joey if you’re at all interested.

The show also set the stage for a lovely little suprise that we cooked up for our pal Mike Wong in honor of his 40th birthday.

He’s been talking for at least 2 years about wanting to get back on a bike to help him stay in shape and to make his commute a little bit more interesting so we figured that there was no better occasion than this and no friend more deserving than The Wonger.

Thanks to Spark for being the organizational genie (and best dude ever) that he is, Sean and Bikes On Wheels for hooking it up and everyone who threw a couple bucks into the pot to make sure Mike would get a gift that will keep on giving for years to come. Big shout out to Dave, who for obvious reasons couldn’t be there despite how badly he would have liked to have been, who came through huge! Good lookin’ out, homie.

Let us not forget about the so-called 5th Beatle that didn’t quite make it to the show; the submission entitled “Chimps Like Us (Baby we were born to swing)” as presented by Sir Robert Blyth. It will be on eBay shortly with a BIN price of $10,000.00 – don’t sleep!

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Update: Joey has uploaded a bunch of Viktor’s pics here, and they’re great.

Despite reports of rain for Friday night I volunteered to man a checkpoint for the Where’s Waldo / Amy’s Tooth Fairy Alleycat. I lucked out and ended up with the Bombshelter which basically meant hanging out, sippin’ on sizurp, handing out little paper teeth to racers as they pass through and spending some quality time with Zion & the boys.

The concept for the race was pretty rad; all riders depart from Trinity Bellwoods in search of the monthly Critical Mass ride which, in theory, could be anywhere in the city by this point. Once they find Mass, they have to locate Waldo (one of three, I believe) in the crowd who gives them a manifest – at this point the race starts and plays out pretty much like every other Alleycat.

Congrats to Mark Hayward who took home the W and to everyone who participated. Big props obviously to go Toby & Leah for coming up with such a fun and inventive race and pulling it off without a hitch. As I understand it, a good amount of cash was raised to help Amy with her medical / dental bills and a great time was had by all.

I really wanted to hit the Where’s Waldo afterparty / BBQ (which was apparently pretty GD incredible!) but tonight we were going to work on Hammell’s / Wonger’s bikes up at Bikes On Wheels so the wheels rolled north, instead.

On the way, Chris and I opted to meet up at the new Dark Horse location on Spadina which was unfortunately closed so we couldn’t have any of that black gold but fortunately for us everyone’s favorite barista, Sam, was just winding down and invited us in for a little visit. Best dude.

Does that inlay look familiar?

Maybe the remnants of a burnt out bowling alley in Rochester? Yeah, that sounds about right…

The rest of the night was spent building, tinkering, cutting and jamming until two bikes were rolled out of the shop in the wee hours of the morning… one for Hammell and the other for The Wonger which I’ll get into tomorrow.

All in all, a great end to a physically and mentally exhausting weeks.

It’s been a busy week, hence the lack of updates, but the weekend is here, the temperature is in the 20s and life is good. As long as the rain holds out, I’ll be gettin’ some good riding in this weekend – hopefully make my way out east to the bluffs if I have time…

Tonight
Amy’s Tooth Fairy / Where’s Waldo Alleycat
5:30 @ Trinity Bellwoods

Tomorrow Night
A Disposable Art Show
7:00 @ The Bait Shop

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I didn’t get around to posting any pics from my trip last weekend to Sudbury with Steph so, without further adieu, this is a Sudbury Saturday Night*.

I managed to get some good junkin’ in, while up North.

When we got back into town we spent a day running around the city collecting booty for the house – the collection is coming along nicely!

*Yes, I will post that video every time Sudbury is mentioned. If you don’t understand why, you’re probably not a real Canadian.

With the flood of trailers for “fixed gear films” hitting the interweebz, most of which are somewhat visually interesting but seriously lacking in interesting content, it’s refreshing to see someone doing something on a bike that seriously blows your mind. Don’t get me wrong; I certainly don’t have a problem with the 700cmx movement (or whathaveyou) and I can appreciate the level of difficulty involved in some of the fixed gear trickery which is getting more and more impressive every day but seriously, most of it just doesn’t look that cool. I like doing things that feel cool but I don’t need to watch them; I like watching things that look cool. A lot of other types of bike videos (BMX, MTB, Trials, etc.) are really exciting and awe inspiring but it’s been a while since I had to watch one on repeat the way I have with this particular Danny MacAskill* video. Enjoy.

*Trust me, I’m trying really hard not to make a punny dad joke out of homie’s last name given his choice of sport. Really, really hard.

I think this is more or less what a good deal of us do anyway but it would be nice to see it written into law in order to avoid fines for following the spirit of the law as opposed to the letter of it. Will it ever happen in Toronto? If history is any indication; no serious consideration of a shift away from motorized transport in the downtown core will happen within our lifetimes.

What I would have liked to have seen in this little video is an example of what happens when a cyclist arrives at a stop sign first – do they maintain right of way or are they to yield to motor vehicles under all circumstances?

I met Dan a few years back and have been lucky enough over that time to have spent time with him when he visits and am proud to hold the privilege of calling him a friend. I’ve also been lucky enough to have collected some of Dan’s work and keep it in the most sacred of places.

It’s only fitting that on Dan’s birthday (happy birthday, mate) he’s getting some very well deserved attention. As if working at High Voltage and appearing on LA Ink wasn’t enough, right?

Read more at Juxtopoz.com

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While I’m showing off friend’s work; I got an email from out west this morning informing me that Andrew Pommier has finally updated his site so do yourselves a favor and check it out! Andrew is one of my favorite current artists and a really great guy, I don’t see him that often given that he lives on the other side of the country but I’m always very glad when I have the opportunity to spend some time and catch-up with him.

Like Scott Campbell who I featured the other day, Andrew has been kind enough to donate his time and talent to Joey’s upcoming Disposable Art show.

Edit: While perusing Andrew’s new site I took a peek at his brother Scott’s website and boy, do I ever want a motorcycle.

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One thing about having more wall space is that you have to work a little harder to fill it. I got it into my head yesterday morning that I was going to make a little series to hang above my dresser with little black ink illustrations of staple clothing; old plaids, jeans, sneakers.

After a couple of doodles I realized that I’m kind of a sucky illustrator and decided to try something a little different so on the way home I stopped off at Woolfits, picked up some frames, cut some mat board and headed home to get my artiste on.

I had some left over stuff from the shelving project so I set to task sanding, priming, painting & waiting…

While the paint dried I got out the old sewing reamer and dug through old / thrashed clothing et voilà!

Registration at 5:30 in the bowl at Bellwoods park.
$10-ALL proceeds going to help Amy get her beautiful chicklets fixed after a terrible spill while riding last weekend.
Not planing on joining the “ride”? Donations still welcome! Lots of love for Amy!
BBQ after at Shane and Peggys @ 471 Shaw (just north of College)
They have the BBQ so just BYOFood & BYOB.
*And of course a couple of bucks to help out everyones favorite lady, Amy.

Word on the street is that she fell victim to one of Toronto’s many gaping potholes last weekend and lost a few teeth in the process – I’ve been lucky enough to avoid any injuries as a result but have suffered pinch flats and dented rims a plenty.

I’m always really proud when I see communities like ours pull together to help out when one of us is in need. Even if you don’t plan to race, swing by and throw a buck or two into the pot if you can spare it, yeah?

The city, for always seeming to be working on something but never really fixing much of anything, gets The Gas Face.

Should you be reading this, Amy, heal well – your pals got your back!

The temperature barely climbed above 0° which made for kind of a bummer of a long weekend but the sun was a shinin’ so I made the most of having an extra day off and spent as much of it outdoors as possible.

Friday: Yardwork / fixin’ stuff before heading out to Mississauga for dinner with the fam.

Saturday: Hit up the market to check out Sean‘s new Opus Roadie. Pretty sharp!

The shop recently got in this nice little Park SS tool. I love all the portable single speed / fixed multi-tools like the Trixie and the Jethro that are hitting the market nowadays – yes I’m aware that some have been around for some time but… well, shut up.

I would love to get my hands on one of the Portland Design Works 3Wrencho tools (as recently reviewed by Tracko) which looks like a beautiful little piece of equipment!

I’ve seen this Bob Jackson around the city a few times. It’s nice and big and I’m nice and big so should the owner happen to read this, if you ever decide to sell it…

Jon Roth came over to give Robbie a much needed haircut and I’ll be the first to say it; he needed it. He was starting to look pretty ridiculous! I mean, who wants to see a balding buy with long hair anyway? I heard that he was even trying to pull that shit into a ponytail! Ridiculous!

I, on the other hand, already look amazing.

Grown Man Business, right thurr.

While Roberto was getting his shit lined up, my main man Sparkles along with hardcore/punk heavyweight Stephe Perry and his British (you know… for legitimacy) brother in law Tim were in the other room recording a post TFC match podcast as a part of Sparky’s soon to be launched project, Red Nation Online. Check out the Podcasts here.

Sunday: Work out, clean up, ride bikes.

It’s too bad that Ben couldn’t join us – he had a little construction mishap which put him out of commission. Hope you’re feeling better, homie, next time!

Robbie is too cool to get all spandex’d out.

Toby is not.

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I’ve made reference to Scott Campbell‘s work in the past and I think the pics that Supertouch just posted of his Make It Rain show in Miami might just turn me into a bona fide fanboy.

Check more pics from the show out here and be sure to check out some of Scott’s handywork at A Disposable Art Show on the 25th at The Bait Shop.

Prolly’s post about the cellular nature of the Speedvagen track ends showcased at NAHBS reminded me of this little video of Sacha White talking about some of the technical innovations he’s made with the Speedvagen track bike.

Sacha has been building some of the most beautiful bicycles in the world, as far as I’m concerned, with his imprint Vanilla Bicycles for the last ten years and his purpose built Speedvagen bicycles are every bit as impressive as you’d expect them to be, coming from that particular workshop.

I’m hoping to make my way to Portland later this year, I’m a little nervous that I’m going to come back with my name on a waiting list. Eeps!

New Doublenaut Jimmy Jammers – cop ‘em while their hot!

House Update: Contractors chosen, budgets established, kitchen purchased, finishes almost chosen, permits will hopefully be in this week and then the real fun begins!

For all the good, we’ve had a couple of bads…

The front porch crumbled under the weight of Hammell’s neck.

The 2nd floor toilet leaked water into the kitchen on each flush. A couple of bucks up front would have saved me a couple hundred in the end. Mike Holmes would tear the previous owners a new asshole somethin’ fierce!

How to you fix a rotten subfloor? Stick a piece of carpet under the flooring, apparently.

Water in the basement; we knew that there was some moisture down there but didn’t anticipate puddles. I’ve fixed it temporarily but will need to find a more permanent solution down the road.

The thermostat always sucked so I was going to replace it eventually but right as we got that cold snap last week it totally shit the bed…

I spent a couple of days in the cold before finally sucking it up and installing a Honeywell 8500 Touchscreen that I had at my last place which is the jaaaaaaam! Well, as far as thermostats go, anyway.

Even still, these are all pretty minor inconveniences given that this house is going to be incredible when it’s done, it’s just hilarious to see what kind of mickey mouse shit people will try to get away with when they are selling homes.

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I showed up at work this morning, poured myself a hot one and then spotted a little package from a furry little friend. It’s going to be a good day.

Have a great long weekend, y’all.

Saturday, on Andrew‘s recommendation, we visited a great little book shop in my neighborhood called Monkey’s Paw to pick up a copy of King of the Road: An Illustrated History of Cycling.

I haven’t had a chance to really dig into it yet but it’s got a ton of information going all the way back and the illustrations are pretty awesome.

This last little cartoon reminded me of this Marcel Dzama piece that I saw at the AGO on Friday (InViVo Field Trip!) and liked a lot – too bad his little root beer paintings are waaaaay out of my pay grade.

Next stop – Bikes On Wheels to consume Burritos and hang while Aner outfitted his bike with some new bits and bobs that were collecting dust in my parts cabinet and will find a great home on his bike. Lookin’ sharp!

On Sunday; the temperature made it’s way into double digits and we took full advantage by taking a ride out to one of my favorite destinations. You can see from the size of the CN Tower in the last photo that we’re good distance from home but not so far that you couldn’t be home and back (from the Parkdale / Beaconsfield area) in about an hour if you felt like zoomin’. Although, we weren’t zoomin’ by any stretch, after a late night out celebrating our boy Joey‘s birthday.

Speaking of Joey; he’s putting on an art show on the 25th of April that I highly recommend checking out. He’s lined up some really great artists from across North America and across the pond that have put together some really fantastic one of a kind skateboard decks which will be available for sale on the night of the show. Check his blog for details as the date approaches.

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My mood today is worsened only by the fact that’s it’s Monday, I have heavy deadlines and that the weekend was nice enough outside to convince me that we’d had enough of this shit. I’ve been duped!

April 06, 2008 – Barcelona

April 06, 2009 – Toronto

You may not be able to tell from the photo but today is the mail carrier’s worst nightmare; rain, sleet & snow. I’m moving.

Killer Killen, fresh off a Cuban vacation, and I met up with the Devil Strip Rollers Wednesday evening for a little jaunt around the city before hitting up the Jet Fuel 17th Anniversary Party.

I didn’t take very many photos inside and the ones I did take didn’t really turn out but to describe; the entire place, including the back patio, was ram jammed full of locals and bikesters and the free beer was a flowin’. Thanks for a good party, Jet Fuel, happy 17th birthday.

Pre-Barf Toby

Post-Barf Celebration Toby

The ride home was a bit of a hammerfest. Bugs splattered on my face as if I were a car barreling down the highway. Nick Brown likes to go fast – he should train and race, I’d put a couple bucks down on this caffeine fueled speedster.

Last night I popped by Curbside to check out Dan’s new (to him) Merckx which was beautifully restored by Noah at Velocolour – she’s a beaut!

…Let’s talk about the troops! The first Devil Strip Rollers group ride of the season is ON for tonight!

You know the place (Victoria & Gould).

Bring lids and lights. And layer warm, there’s supposed to be a chill.

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Things have been a little hectic ’round the homestead as of late; between contractor selection, permit application, budget crunching and sketchy previous owners we’ve had a lot on our plates but I’m happy to report that the new kitchen is in – thanks Steph!

Egg MockMuffins, anyone?

Didn’t think so. Oh well, more for me!

The best Fuji Track in the city?

Thought so.

Happy belated birthday to Hammell, SBD & Wade.

Happy belated birthday to me.

My good friend Rob has been working on his bboy documentary, All Out War, for the better part of the last 5 years (it’s going to be incredible) but I bet in all the hours of footage he’s compiled he has yet to come across a dance crew as formidable as the Black Shadow.

So sick.