Forever Three Wheels

shaved legs. what a bitch.

up in the cuts. There's another one of those big black long things I cut off too but I couldn't find it.

I read this book in just over two days. I had to make myself stop and take a break when he got to the part about being in the World Trade Center on 9/11/01--it was heavy. Bryan is a friend of mine and I happened to run into him last week. Talking to him made me feel smarter. I always thought Bryan was awesome but this book knocks that notion out of the park. Man crush? No. Creative envy. He was also the front man for one of my favorite Kalamazoo bands in the mid 90s, Fletcher.

Turbo Todd Britton reporting from the Sunshine state with some fun-looking trails and taunting me with this road side treasure. Somebody loan me 15 hundo quick! Dude, I fucking love this fucking thing.

Chrome don't get ya home.

The internet is wild. I came across this photo of Mat Hoffman throwing a very early backflip to fakie on vert, recognized the blue ramp and thought "hey, I judged that contest" and sure enought that is me with the orange-ish hair, complete with Lazer Chicken "big head baby" shirt that I printed myself. Wait, Mat Hoffman is doing one of his first every backflips in a contest, who cares about my stupid shirt....

Solan Foster at the indoor track in Greenville, MI.

Davey Coop. Stoled this from his facebook page. "Out in California, they're changing the world" My favorite Jim Morrison quote from The Doors movie. I wonder if he really said that? Davey is stomping out his own path and it makes me happy to see. Taking life into his own hands and running with it.

Here's what I posted on the Deliverance blog one year ago today:

And here's what it looked like yesterday (it's even worse now).

came across this slideshow from over a year ago....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42447110@N06/show/with/3912340705/

times like these can never be relived. Never ever. The slideshow starts in the middle. I can't seem to get around that but you can go either way with it.

I am the owl

Diamond Dave Riniger, last 2010 sesh at Birdland, 11/21/10. I wasn't even there, but I got some good laps in the day before. Hopefully 2011 will be bigger and better.

Noah Simon Towne comin' in hot on a really cold day. Vintage Redline Microline in action and NST's maiden voyage on a 20 incher.

Barnlife.

There are a hundred stories behind this picture and they are all good. It's been a couple of months since we lost Chris Yankee but I still think about him every day. The wild moves, the modest reactions, the laughter...it all lives forever in the hearts of those that knew him.

"It's like being a kid on Christmas eve you see the gifts but you can't open them until Christmas. The night before you're so filled with joy and wondering you can't sleep. That's how riding applies to me now. I know I can ride on the weekend but its the waiting, counting down the days and when it's finally here, I have butterflies and get all weak thinking of a new line or some trick."--Chris Yankee, 2003

Still here, I swear. Trying to squeeze in as much BMX time as possible with the super nice weather of late.

Get moto!

I don't know Mel Stoutsenberger, but this may be the greatest collection of early BMX (and MX) photos I've ever seen. Click here to see them all.

helmet laws suck

...but helmets save lives. There have been three widely publicized head injuries in BMX in the last week. Two riders in Vegas in comas. One rider in Oregon died. The horrible and sadly ironic part is that all three were wearing helmets. It has been suggested that full-face MX style helmets are the answer, but I'm not sure it is. I can't imagine wearing a full face at the trails. Your vision is limited and the weight of the helmet is a hindering. It's time to meet somewhere in the middle. I've long been an advocate of helmets but I'm going to take action....

VST

VST are the initials of my dad and this stem from SNAFU is a nod to BMX roots as deep as Vern's. I designed this gooseneck over a year ago and after a couple mis-fires in the early samples and a long wait for the final, revised production model, I finally got my hands on one. Of course, it was purple, so I had to give it the once over with some oven cleaner, scotch-brite, 400 grit wet-or-dry and Semi-chrome polish (the best ever), but it now "meets my approval" (something my dad would say). I want to thank my good friend McGoo for giving me the opportunity to create something that means more than I can explain in words. Seeing two different guys running the VST stem a week ago at the Vital Game of Bike in California and Jeremiah Smith with one on his bike this past weekend at the Dew Tour finals in Vegas (he finished 6th in park!) makes an old man proud. My dad will be proud when I tell him about it too...

See more of it right here.

Room with a view. Someday I'll see this up close.

A six-year old photo I'd never seen until a couple days ago. Mike O'Bryan was holding out on me. Read all about it.

After a couple of hectic, heavy weeks, it felt good to take some hot laps on the freedom machine today. What? Yeah, of course it's totally street legal.

Never sure what to say when someone you love passes away. Not sure what to do or how to act. The weight of sadness is immense. Chris Yankee was killed in a car accident last week. The world has lost a true individual. Chris lived on his own terms and saw the world through a unique perspective. He was a ninja on a BMX bike. He was a ninja every day of his life. If you met him, you liked him. Chris was a pretty low-key person, but the impact he made on our lives was huge. I could try to explain how funny he was or how clever, or how he seemed to see the world through eyes that were half 70s cartoon and half Bruce Lee, but I could never do Chris justice in words. There was much more to Chris than BMX, but it was a huge part of his life.

My heart goes out to Chris' family and friends, especially Solan Foster, his friend from beginning to end. Rest In Peace, Chris. You will never be forgotten.

Shitty the Clown, about to get shitty. Three wheels are more stable.

There was a girl I knew
She saw the prison inside
She cursed her keeper
And swore she'd get free

Every time I see
I got my hands wrapped around the bars
I want out right now

She led an angel's life
On angel's wings
Jumped out her apartment window

And hit the street below

Every time I see
I got my hands wrapped around the bars
I can't shut off my mind
And now I've waited, my hands are wrapped around the bars

I'm burning, my soul is pushed against the bars
The bars, the lies, the lies, lies, lies

Are trapped behind the bars

My mind hates my body
My body hates my soul
I close my eyes and fight
Inside my own black hole

Every time I see
I got my hands wrapped around the bars
I want out right now!

I've lived my life
I'm doing my time
I realize life's lie

Every time I see
I got my hands wrapped around the bars

I can't shut off my mind
And now I'm waiting, my hands are wrapped around the bars
I'm burning, my soul is pushed against the bars

The bars, the lies, the lies, lies, lies
They're trapped behind my eyes

I was peeing off the deck today (luxury of country living) and a hummingbird flew up, buzzed around for a minute, checked out the scene, then booked. It was rad.

I got this photo from my friend J-Z. Don't know the story, the origins or who it is. I do know that I like everything about it. The style, the hair, the shoes, the socks and especially the big Cheng Shin knobby. Pure BMX.

I love it when a plan comes together. This set is pretty far along in the "main line" and it dawned on me that it would be easy and awesome to build a hip landing to the right, which is "my way", by the way. I busted it out this weekend with help from my son Dylan. He was rolling down the face wall on his big wheel and getting stoked! Fall is trails season. I'm still cleaning up the weeds but they aren't growing back now. Not much time to ride but I love this time of year!

This ring would compliment my Tuff Wheel tattoo nicely.

Diamond Dave Rino and I hit the streets last week for a super fun old guy session. We rode WMU and the crusty old Super 8 banks. The gap to rack hop was the last thing on the list. This is the only shot I got. The one I missed was of Dave clipping his back wheel and going OTB in a heap. Still feel bad about that one. Sorry bro.

Fuel TV's First Hand show is usually pretty well done. The Ruben Alcantara episode from a couple years ago, for example, was a classic. The most recent First Hand, however, features Stephen Murray and tells the tale, first hand, as it is, from Stephen about his horrific crash that left him paralyzed from the neck down and his journey through life in the time since. It's heartbreaking to hear his tale but so very inspirational at the same time.

The above photo is of my friend Brian Miller. He had a freak crash at our local track in 1982 and has been paralyzed ever since. When it's a friend and in this case, team mate as he rode for my Dad's bike shop, you just don't know how to react or what to do. I remember going to see him in the hospital and feeling horrified and scared for him. He had a big smile on his face and talked to us like everything was going to be fine. Brian is still a friend and we stay in touch . He grew up and still lives very near where I do now and I even helped him dial his young son's bike in a bit a couple months back. Though I've been in touch with him for several years at this point (there was a big gap, pre-internet, where I didn't have contact with him), to be honest, it took me a very long time to even mention anything about his injury. We would talk about the pre-accident days or current topics, lots of BMX talk too, but nothing ever related to him being in a wheelchair. I finally got up the nerve to ask him if he knew about Stephen Murray. He didn't but he did the research and got up to speed about Stephen, what happened to him and what has happened since. Brian was impressed by the Athlete Recovery Fund and what it is doing for injured riders like Stephen, especially getting the van for him. Brian tells brutal tales of red tape and loopholes that prevent him from getting aid for such amenities as a new vehicle. I only wish the ARF would have been around 25 years ago. I can't speak for Brian, but he seems to be doing just fine on his own.

I don't know what I'm getting at here, but what these two guys have been through and the way they've handled the circumstances is a true inspiration. I've never met Stephen, but Brian's positivity--not just about his injury, but in general, is absolute motivation to never feel self-pity or think for one second about giving up.

Two days ago I rode Birdland, then worked on some of the jumps a bit. Absolutely sweating balls and an unstoppable army of mosquitoes. Tonight it was the light of a fire and a sweatshirt. If you don't like the weather, stick around for a minute. Coyotes at full howl and me swinging a sickle like a F-in madman, trying to put these goddamn weeds to bed. Miller High Life and desperate low life go great together. What moskitoes? who knows?

oh, the fucking wheels are turning in my head (all three of them)

Does it make sense to replace an 8 year old van with almost 200,000 miles with a 25 year old van with 179,000 miles? On many levels, yes.

My brother from a Portugese mother, Paulo Martins gets lippy slippy in his homeland. Check out Paulo's blog on DIG.

this pic represents the first 3 years of my BMX world

Jared Ball, Birdland 09

Son of a Gun...Smith. Missing the important part, but the box is cool.

Spliced wires and blown fuses and it's still not quite there, but getting close. It will be street legal by 2012. The butterfly may or may not have been a bad idea.

Hush now baby, baby, dont you cry.
Mother's gonna make all your nightmares come true.
Mother's gonna put all her fears into you.
Mother's gonna keep you right here under her wing.
She wont let you fly, but she might let you sing.
Mama will keep baby cozy and warm.
Ooooh baby ooooh baby oooooh baby,
Of course mama'll help to build the wall.

my first flame job. Bell Moto III

Buddy Best's best buddy.

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I loved this bike. Honda XL600. Hauled ass on the street and could climb a hill or blaze a trail through the woods. Facebook brought it to life. I had no other pics of this. That's me on the left with a full head of suspect-styled hair. Besides no longer owning either of the two subjects mentioned here (enduro and wig), my life is so much better now.