The Road to SICX

Watch and enjoy the final cut of ‘The Road to SICX’. Thanks to all that helped and especially to Sara Kinney for graciously lending her editing and shooting talents to the project.

Last November I raced the singlespeed class at the annual Staten Island Cyclocross race (SICX). I prepped the Townie for CX duties. Knobbies, clipless, lower gearing, etc… Good fun.

I knew that I would never podium at SICX as my conditioning was poor, I lacked race experience and was only going to beat people who weren’t racing. With this mindset firmly in place, I thought it would be fun to make a short film about SICX.

Enter Sara Kinney and some other friends (Danny Casner, Nate Mumford, Colt 45 and Seltzer Water) to help me make it a reality.

We should have the final cut up later in the week!

This Friday! BE THERE

Suck a sick and legendary marquee.

May 19th from 10am to 4pm in Park Slope. Arrive early for the deals, stay late for the deals. See you there!

Orange Bikes has put up a video of a factory visit hosted by Guy Martin. If you’re not familiar, Orange is a long running UK manufacturer of bicycles with some of their production taking place in-house in Halifax, England.

Guy Martin is the bonus here. If you’re not familiar with him, he’s something of a folk hero in the UK and a personality in the motorcycle world. He’s a wicked fast racer who specializes in the treacherous Isle of Man TT (serious, look up some videos) and has more personality and energy than a 15yr old. I can only understand about 60% of what he’s saying but it all seems so colloquial, charming, and without guile (ex: he does the whole interview in a ratty jumpsuit.) We love him.

I’m a total sucker for films showing the production side of a factory.

Wearing our ‘Don’t Buy Upgrades, Ride Up Grades‘ shirt and posing with his sick new Rosko CX. Click the photo to go to the NYC Velo blog post.

This time a year ago, the outdoors were lost to us. I was a good 15lbs heavier, drinking Nutella, and had shoulder surgery on my dominant arm looming. The streets were filled with piles of shitty snow/ice making every step or ride an adventure. Everything was uglier than it needed to be. It sucked and it sucked hard.

Fast forward to now and the winter I have declared ‘THE BEST WINTER EVER’.  In the New York City area there have only been two notable (and minor) snow storms that melted completely within 48hrs. I can’t stress how awesome that is!  No snow, no ice?  Holy crap, that’s great for everyone.

More importantly I’ve really rediscovered my love for riding mountain bikes. The trails have been clear almost without exception and in great shape.  My weirdo friend Luke left his old white Santa Cruz Chameleon in my care when he moved out out of town and I’ve used it to  introduce people to riding dirt trails.  I think I’ve taken at least six people out now?

Best winter ever.

Mianus, CT (pronounced Myyanus)

Graham Hills/Pleasentville,NY

Jamaica Qns, NY

Required Listening: Fishbone; Fishbone EP

I took some time to myself and hit the trails with just my single-speed mountain bike and an iPod. At some point Fishbone’s eponymous EP came on and life got a ton better. I can’t say I’ve listened to their whole catalog but the EP is classic upon classic and is pretty fucking great.

‘Squad’ art on a black t-shirt. Shoot last month in between rain showers.

Squad-Dark

MSRP is $28.00 USD

Shot by Nate Mumford
Modeled by Nate Gogol