I found this old ticket stub recently while going through some crap. Swatch Impact Tour from 1988. Hell yeah. I went with my friends Dave Keery and Timmy Strelecki. I remember our seats were kind of far away, I’m probably more bummed on that now than I was at the time. The whole thing was crazy with choreographed BMX and skate on a vert ramp, lights, music…the whole deal.

We’re currently putting together an article for Ride BMX with a bunch of old photos from BMX legends’ scrapbooks, and there were a few photos from a Swatch Impact Tour show in Brian Blyther’s album. So it was an odd coincidence that I found this at the same time as putting the article together. It was cool seeing Blyther’s photos from it. I wished I remembered more from seeing it live. Alzheimer?s creepin’ in early…

I know I’ve been slacking on the whole blog thing. Shoot me, see if I care. Honestly, I feel the importance of spending every waking minute of my life on a computer posting, blogging, tweeting, facebooking, myspacing, emailing, flickring, and whatever else there is out there in eWorld to be rather sad. There’s a lot of pressure on us to do that sort of thing here at Ride BMX. Really, there is. Uggh.

There’s good, there’s bad. I love putting up great photos or content on ridebmx.com, knowing that a ton of you are seeing it and reading responses (positive and negative) is, overall, a great thing. I prefer magazines, but there is a cool satisfaction to putting certain things up on the Web. To date I have never tweeted. I fart a lot, but I don’t tweet. I’ve never had a personal myspace page. I’m on facebook, but I like to use it to keep in touch with friends, not to see a kid from Indonesia’s crappy Web vid. Sorry, there needs be some disconnect from work at some point. Overall, I don’t blog that often because I’m pretty damn busy, I’m not that interested, and I have no idea if anyone is even reading these. I also don’t feel the need to race to be the first to post something I think is cool that I found already on the Internet. Unless you’ve created it, you’re already late on it. I don’t find the every day happenings in my life to be so great that I want to share them. They’re not that interesting to me, so how could they be to you? Then again, maybe it shouldn’t be about me, maybe just things going on at Ride? Does this make sense? I don’t know. See here’s another reason or two; indecision, and difficulty getting the point across. I’ve never been that great with that. The thoughts in my brain don’t translate well to words. That’s why I picked up a camera years ago…

Where I am going with this? Nowhere. I had a few photos from a trip out to Raleigh/Greenville that I figured I could put on here. I was shooting some photos of Craig Mast for an upcoming article and I stayed with Leigh Ramsdell while I was out there. Any time with Leigh is a good time. The photos are nothing special, but I figured I hadn’t put much up on here in a while, so I might as well puke something out and throw it up for the world.

Shit, I’m sure there are things that would be interesting to you, so if you’re reading this leave a comment and let me know what you’d like to see in my blog. I’m not against blogging, but if I’m gonna do it, I’d like to know that there’s a purpose.

Anyway, here are the digis…

Leigh was watching this dog for a friend. My mind is shot, so I’ve already forgot the dog’s name. He (she?) was a bit camera shy and also kind of…special. I don’t know if it had a disease, was old, or just mental, but I really liked this guy.

This is Leigh and his wife Katie’s doberman. I forgot this one’s name and sex too. I’ll go with male. He was cool, too, and if you would put your digi camera’s red focus light on the floor he would try to get it and would stare at the spot on the floor long after it was gone.

Driving from Raleigh to Greenville, Leigh’s car had the shakes. At first Leigh thought it was only a low front tire, but it got violent and we pulled over. It turned out to be a rear tire that was shredding apart. Another mile or two on it and it would have been a bad scene. Here’s a happy Leigh pumping up the donut with a zebra wearing sunglasses T-shirt on. 

Pirate Up? ARRRGH! I wish I got to see the goon who drives this.

Sorry, I don’t have it. And I don’t get it either. Definitely don’t want it.

Here’s Leigh at his desk at Eastern. The guys at Eastern are awesome and it was cool stopping in and saying hi to Jon Byers and the boys. I always love visiting different companies in the BMX industry and seeing their setup. I was impressed by the tiny photo area (in the background) that Leigh had. For a really tight space Leigh makes it work. People tend to think you need a crazy setup to get good photos, but that’s not always the case. If you know how to use your equipment, you can make almost anything work and get great photos.

Leigh probably got this free with a meal at the local Bojangles’. They’re famous for chicken ‘n biscuits, and Leigh is a fan. 

That’s it for this one. I’ll see what else I can drum up…

?Keith

I was hoping for a check from the federal government, but instead I got a bunch of condoms from Trojan’s  ”Department Of Pleasurey.” How’d they know I was single? This showed up before I filed for my ‘08 returns…

We get lots of random and weird crap sent here to the office?things relevant to BMX like free Red Bull and Matador meat sticks (I say relevant because they sponsor riders) to completely obscure products and promotional pieces like watches and powdered performance enhancing drink mixes. And now rubbers. It’s pretty hilarious to me that something like this would show up to Ride. The press release paperwork was even written to me personally. I’ll avoid the obvious Magnum jokes.

I’m sure teenage boys are high priority on Trojan’s marketing list, but to target them through something like BMX is funny. Maybe the people at their PR agency actually know a thing or two about sleezy BMXers. Maybe they’ve seen Daniel Dher’s signature condoms from Albe’s and are scared of the competition?

I hit up the Long Beach swap meet this past weekend. It happens every other month or so and is mostly a motorcycle swap meet, but there are tons of bicycles and bike parts there too. McGoo and Bill Bryant from Snafu were there selling their Biltwell motorcycle/chopper helmets and parts and I ran into Timmy Ball from S&M, Greyboy and Truly Odd, Jeff Holt, and a few guys I know from the motorcyle/chopper scene. All in all, a good time.

I went with a pocket of cash and the intention of buying something as a project bike?not a vintage BMX bike, but maybe something fun to ride like an old Schwinn beach cruiser or maybe something outlandish and more on the circus side of things. I’m not really sure what I’m wanting to build up, really. Anyway, I didn’t pull the trigger on anything, but I did have a good time hanging out with Greyboy and Truly Odd, and walking around with McGoo, learning all sorts of BMX industry and parts history.

After spending about five hours walking around and looking at tons of junk, I’d have to say that if you’re looking to buy some vintage BMX stuff, eBay is definitely the best place to do it. Swap meets have some variety, but not much on the new or great condition side of things.

Here are some digi pics I took of BMX radness I saw…

Looking down one of the rows.

Some collectors bring some of their stockpiles of stuff that they don’t want in their own collection. This guy had a lot of pad sets and plastic pedals, sprockets and crap. Sweet pink mouthguard in there, too.

When will colored tires make a comeback in BMX?

Nice old Robinson, Red Line, and Sling Shot bikes. Check out the “Enjoy Tab” handlebar pad and the Vector bars. Selling for well over $3,000, I wonder if you get the stuffed animal monkey with the purchase of the Sling Shot.

Some classic pad sets. I was always a fan of the California Lite checkerboard pads. My first BMX racing bike (a Torker) had snap-on pads, and I even had a V crossbar on that bike, too.

I’m digging that yellow mag wheel. Always liked anodized rims as well.

McGoo is a walking encyclopedia of BMX information. He told me he once threw away an entire container of Motomags when he worked for Mongoose years ago, and he dropped some science on these Bendix mags for me. The container of Motomags would have made him a millionaire today, a container of these would bag him a few burritos and maybe some chips.

What does a seasoned vet of swap meets buy when he finds a bargain? A cheap welding mask, of course. McGoo looking hot under all of those flames.

Very nice Webco, complete with Motomags.

Look at this crazy thing. It’s kinda rad and completely disgusting at the same time. The lady selling it had no idea what it was. Check out that wild bottom bracket.

Your grandfather’s BMX frames.

One thing’s for sure, there’s no shortage of Schwinns floating around at the swap meet. This one was pimped out with a rearview mirror and sissy bar that went to the moon.

I don’t claim to know a whole lot about vintage BMX stuff, and I definitely wish I knew more. I’m sure there are some good stories and interesting info to be taught about these two bikes.

Another Schwinn amidst seat posts and rims. 

It’s hard not to just buy a bunch of stuff and build up a bunch of bikes for the hell of it. Maybe we should have a swap meet bike build-off. Cap the amount of money you can spend, and see who can come out with the wildest/coolest/wackiest/raddest bike. Fudger, you in?

Greyboy and Truly Odd had some space and had a good assortment of stuff for sale?some cool like the Hustler frame, and some not so cool…

Greyboy and Truly Odd’s sidehack wasn’t for sale, but it sure did get a lot of attention.

Greyboy’s neighbor was chillin’ with this rad bike he build up. It’s decked out with Odyssey parts and has inspired me to build a street machine of my own. 

I remember a kid at my local track in the early 80’s who raced with a Sling Shot. We used to joke that with one snip of some cable cutters it would all be over. This 24″ was dialed with an Elina seat and a healthy portion or red parts. 

Plastic Addicks sprockets, a nice Mongoose vinyl pad, and a new set of Zap Pads. Racers used to rip the teeth off of those sprockets. I raced with one once when I was 7 years old. After I was leading the main at the local race and it fell off over the first jump I never used it again.

My new best friend.

The trails by my house are as dry as a bone and it’s only March. We’ve probably seen the last significant rains for the year here in California, and give it a couple of months and it’ll be 105°+ out here. With no water source close to the jumps I decided to take a trip down to Home Depot and buy a backpack sprayer to help give the lips a chance of surviving. People normally use these for spraying weeds or insects, but I thought it would be perfect for the jumps. It holds four gallons of water?just enough to wet every lip at the place.

Anyone who has trails should seriously consider getting one, as well as having every one of their crew get one too. I know a garden watering can only costs a couple of bucks, but there’s no good way to transport water in it without it spilling all over the place (and they hold a couple gallons less water). With this I can fill it up at my house and ride to the trails with it on my back or put it in the back of my truck and drive to the jumps without spilling a drop. At $86.17 it’s expensive, but totally worth it and a smart investment. I now consider it one of the most important trail tools you could have.

The handle on the side pumps air into the tank to give it pressure to spray. It comes with a coupe of different tips for the nozzle. The flat spray one seems to work best for quick and even coverage.

There was a meeting at the etnies Skatepark of Lake Forest last Friday night to discuss the expansion of the park. Now, I know most of you reading this don?t live in southern California and could care less about it, but since this is my local park and it?s associated with etnies, I thought a little write-up was in order. And really, it?s about the big picture of getting bikes into parks.

The etnies park already allows bikes (albeit a measly three times a week, for a couple of hours each session), so the purpose of us going was to make sure that whatever new stuff they build in the expansion of the park is 100% bike friendly?not off limits to bikes. The park already has a bowl with pool coping and a granite ledge that bikes are not allowed to touch, so it was important, to me, to go to this meeting and see if we could prevent more of the same with the new additions.

In typical BMX fashion only about a dozen riders showed up to the meeting. Pathetic. Why is it so hard to rally bike riders together for a cause? Tuesday morning sessions have over 20 people at them and the two other sessions have between 60 and 80 riders at them. The turnout bummed me out. And of course, they held the meeting during a Friday night skate session, so there were plenty of little skate rats there.

The company who built the park and who will be doing the expansion is Site Design. I?m not as up to speed as I probably should be on the different park builders out there, so this meeting was good for me education-wise as the Site Design team had a slide show of many different, and well known parks they have built (including the Chandler bikes-only park). They also showed lots of photos of different park features they can build, which was cool.

The Site Design team, believe it or not, has a bike rider working for them. His name is Jeff and I got to meet him and talk with him that night. Jeff actually went to school for architecture and design. It?s good knowing there?s a bike rider in the mix, for sure. Jeff was super cool and listened to all of us and our concerns.

At the meeting they had surveys for everyone to fill out, rate different obstacles you?re into, give suggestions, write comments, and some other BS. They also had layouts of the expansion area and things you could cut out and paste down to help with the design. It?s hard to know if all of that was just for show and tell or if they?ll really use any of the input. Ultimately, though it?s going to come down to a number of things that are out of our control when a final design is submitted and building time comes.

I?d like to say that I feel good about the expansion and that everything will be built with bikes in mind as well as skateboards, but I have my doubts. Unfortunately the only city council member who was there is a skater with bias and an agenda.

So where does it go from here? Who knows? I?m glad they had the meeting and are open to input. I?m going to do my part as a bike rider and as a Lake Forest resident by writing to all of the city council members to voice our concerns. It can?t hurt. I?ll also be researching when the town meetings are and will try to go and make them aware of the issues.

I?ll keep you posted?

Jeff from Site Design Group (above left) sits with our crew as Ben Snowden, Koji Kraft, John Povah, a guy I don’t know, and Lawrence Werrell fill out the surveys.

Nuno from Odyssey, Ride ad sales guy Bill Dies, and a few bikes at the meeting.

Happy New Year from Ride BMX and our new interns.

I’ve been home sick for a couple of days and I’m losing my mind from vitamin C overload. That really has nothing to do with this blog, but I felt like I needed to laugh a little, so… here are a couple of Fudger drawings that crack me up. I thought I’d share.

This one was done by our former copy editor Dave Clucas. Clucas seemed to really dislike Fudger, but he was really into himself and his cowboy rock music band.

I drew this one a month or two ago. Fudger and I were looking at photos on the lightbox and I did this quick lizard-sketch of him while he was sitting next to me. It really doesn’t get much more realistic than this. Makes me laugh every time.

2/5/09. New addition: Fudger in a red chair giving me the finger. I imagine when he wakes up in the morning and looks in the mirror, the scene is similar (sans the red chair). He’s wearing a DC camo sweater. Fudger’s girlfriend told me he hates camo. Flies are swarming around him and the dates on the side correspond to X Games events.

2/9/09. This one has been on a dry erase board in the office for years now. It depicts an almost lifelike rendition of Ryan and his BMX, but also shows what is usually on Fudger’s mind; his VW that never runs. I think the credit goes to Dave Clucas for the drawing.

3/13/09. I came across this on someone’s facebook page and instantly thought of Fudger when I saw it. Even though it’s not technically a drawing of The Fudgeman, I think it fits in perfectly for this art collection. Whoever was the artist obviously doesn’t know Ryan because they would have written “Fudger in Escape From LA” instead of “Lincoln.”

3/13/09. Stoked on this one! Last time I updated this blog with a couple of new sketches I hit Fudger up on iChat to tell him about it. As fate would have it, it wasn’t Fudger on his iChat account, it was his girlfriend Rachael. Knowing that Rachael likes to draw and paint, I suggested that she do some Fudger portraits to add to this post and she was more than happy to contribute. A couple of weeks went by and this mixed media rendition was hand-delivered to me. Thanks Rachael! This one’s getting framed.

I know I’ve been M.I.A. from the amazing and oh-so-important blog world for a bit, but I’ve got some good reasons and some lame ones, too. Sorry, no apologies. Oh wait…shit. Anyway, lots to catch up on in this department, but I’m on it.

So what’s with the Hacksaw Jim Duggan photo? Well, I just had one of the most frustrating hours of my life trying to take my bike apart for tomorrow’s trip to Utah. Yes, simply take it apart. A mallet, hammer, vice, lubricants, smashing, bashing, cursing, and a whole lot more just raised my already high blood pressure. I’m not going to call out the company or the product, but a certain part on my bike was just hacksawed off and will not be replaced with the same of its kind. Over it. Done. Later, you pain in the ass.

Hooooooooooooooo!!!!

So yeah, Utah. Tomorrow. Psyched. I get to see Mikey Aitken for the first time since his injuries happened in Pennsylvania. I absolutely can’t wait to see him. I can’t begin to tell you how many weird dreams I’ve had since the whole thing went down. It will be great to see him back in Utah, with his friends and family, and see how much he’s progressed in his recovery. One of these days, if I’m feeling up to it, I’ll write about the whole experience from my point of view, but it’s going to be difficult. It’s definitely shaken me in ways I couldn’t have imagined it would. I’m just glad that Mikey’s making progress and things aren’t worse than they are/were.

Start checking back here again, I’m planning on posting again…