Bootleg Sessions v.2 will be showing on Friday, Sept. 12th at the 3rd annual Memphis Downs event. A bunch of other stuff will be screened that night as well, and there are lots of other events taking place from the 11th through the 14th. Looks like this thing has turned into a pretty big deal... nice job, Cort!
Saw this trailer on the 3BANCHO blog for an upcoming video from the Osaka crew called "Trick Heads." Looks like it's gonna be a blast to watch. Now I want to go to Tokyo *and* Osaka...
Filming for our as of yet unnamed next project ramped up big time this weekend. The NYC and Philly crews got together and hit both cities hard. Luke Stiles, who is handling the bulk of the filming and editing this time around, is shown here nabbing some footy of Tom doing what he does...
Just got word from BSv.2 alum Laila Ghambari about a fully femme alleycat that's going down in Seattle on August 9th. If you live in the region and have girl parts, don't miss out!
Filming for our next project (full HD by the way) has officially begun. Below is a screenshot from some footage that I got today... a pedal jump over the frame linking two trackstand positions together (bigger). Stay tuned, this next DVD is going to be for real.
After we posted the pic of the new GOrilla frame a couple days ago, we received an email from Connor Ryan with an attached photo of this beautiful beast...
Connor's words: "I had Gene Spicer at Spicer Cycles build me a track inspired frame with a raised down tube to accommodate bar spins and some fancy track stands. Instead of a curve, he just went with a gusset for reinforced strength. Though I threw a BMW Gangsta Fork on, it wasn't really necessary with all the clearance Gene gave me. Nevertheless, the Gangsta Fork looks beautiful, I think. Toe overlap is essentially out of the question. I've been very pleased with the strength (tough as nails!) and the effectiveness."
One of the cool things about the Bootleg Sessions project is getting to learn about the different shops that have retailed our DVDs. One such shop is a place called PHANTACi in Taipei City, Taiwan. There is a feature article about this killer joint on Freshnessmag.com right now... PHANTACi
Look what we have wrought, and by "we" I don't mean just the Bootleg Sessions crew, but everyone who is into messing around on fixed gear rigs...
I spotted this on Tracko, the first bent tube track bike made specifically for doing tricks. This is a GOrilla concoction, and I must say that I'm impressed with the result. Looks very clean, and I think a lot of people are going to really enjoy riding these, which is of course what it's all about.
The Albuquerque premiere of Bootleg Sessions v.2 took place last weekend at a shop called "Fixed and Free." Our man Sam Miller hooked it up of course, and sent along a couple of photos from the event...
The NYC premiere of Bootleg Sessions v.2 (finally) took place last night as part of the Bike Shorts program. Thanks to Luke Stiles for getting this all put together!
Julie Benedetto got the hookup from Swobo recently. She sent this message along with a couple of pics...
"Fat Cat and I are excited about the package we got from Swobo last week.
Itıs got everything a girl needs to ride in comfort. Including soft merino
wool short sleeve Jersey's (my favorite), arm and leg warmers, padded
shorts, and wool socks. Light weight merino wool is one of my favorite
materials to ride in the summer, and Swobo is one of the few companies that
makes cycling gear in womanıs xs. So finally I have gear that fits right.
Oh, and Fat Cat was just excited to find something to sit on that didnıt
have his hairs on it yet."
The entire first issue of Fixed Magazine is now available for download! The Fixed Gear London guys did an amazing job with this mag, I am blown away by how well it turned out. Lots of really good stuff in there about people who are bent on pushing the fixed format to the limit. Check it out here.
The current issue of Ollie Magazine out of Japan has a small piece about Bootleg Sessions v.2, along with an interview with Kyoichi, Kai, and Daisuke. Unfortunately I can't read Japanese so I have no idea what any of it says, but it's still cool nonetheless. Thanks to Kyoichi for sending me a copy!
We just got in a new order of Bootleg Sessions v.1. It is a small run however, and most of them are already spoken for, so if you haven't grabbed a copy of the original flavor yet, then make sure you do so here!
The latest issue of Vapors Magazine has a ton of fixed gear related stuff in it, including an interview with John "Prolly" Watson and some pics of the oft-injured Wilis Johnson. You can read the entire thing online for free, which pretty much rules.
The launch party for the new Fixed Magazine in London will include a premiere of Bootleg Sessions v.2. Stoked about that. Here is the flyer for the event...
Spotted this little edit that someone made of footage taken after the Bootleg Sessions v.2 premiere in Tokyo. Pretty cool to think that we've inspired some good times...
Bootleg Sessions at the BFF! Vimby.com posted this vid about the Bicycle Film Festival in New York City. You can witness several Bootlegs riders and friends doing their thing, and of course Tony gets punched in the groin.
The Tokyo premiere of Bootleg Sessions v.2 went down last night, and apparently it was pretty crazy. Over 130 people showed up at JAN Market to watch the vid on a large outdoor screen. Amazing.
Kyoichi Ozaki has more details on his blog, including lots of links to other blogs about the event. Check it out here.
Our friend Andy from Fixed Gear London just sent me an image of the cover of the 1st issue of Fixed Magazine!
The inaugural edition will feature an interview with Superted, who appears in Bootleg Sessions v.2, a feature on John Cardiel, and an interview that yours truly did with Kyle from Tracko, among other things. And the best part is, it's FREE!
The magazine should be coming out later this month, and there will be a press release very soon that will hopefully provide details on how/where copies will be available.
The guys at Urban Velo have posted a series of vids about their trip to the Bicycle Film Festival in NYC last weekend. In the second one you can see some clips of Tom, Sam, Julie, and Wilis doing what they do at the Friday night Bootlegged Peel Sessions event...
I just returned from NYC, and I can't even describe how amazing it was. I'm not even going to try, because I'm sure there will be photos all over the place of what went down. Everyone I met was ridiculously nice, and I really want to thank all of the locals who made us out-of-towners feel incredibly welcome.
The only bummer from the weekend was that the premiere ended up not happening on Saturday night due to some apparent communication issues with the venue. Huge apologies to everyone who turned up to see it, but we already have the ball rolling on a proper showing that will hopefully be free to all.
And now for some photos from Friday night's Bootleg/Peel Sessions...
We just received an email from Christian @ Profile Racing letting us know that ProfileFixed.com is now live. It looks amazing, as does everything Profile produces.
Huge props to the Profile crew, they are one of the few larger, more well-established companies that is really making a strong effort to support and give back to the fixed gear community rather than just dumping products on the market in hopes of taking advantage of a perceived trend.
Bootleg Sessions got a mention in the new issue of COG Magazine! There's a good article about tricks in Tokyo, which of course features a couple photos of our man Kyoichi Ozaki. Read the full article here.
Thought this was pretty cool... Kyoichi Ozaki, who will be appearing in the Tokyo section of Bootleg Sessions v.2, is the main force behind 3BANCHO. They recently put out some shirts, and apparently they are being stocked in a shop(s?) in Japan. Here is a pic from a shop called "Shelter"...
The 3BANCHO shirt is the black one with the B on it. More pics here. Nice work, Kyoichi!
It seems that there has been some discussion about whether or not Sam Miller is actually running a fixed gear in the clip of him doing the curved wall ride in the Bootleg Sessions v.2 Trailer. I hate to disappoint the conspiracy theorists, but yes, he is indeed riding fixed.
Here is another take of him doing the same wall ride where it is easier to see how he pedals through it...
The truth is, Sam is an incredibly good rider, and the curved wall ride is only one of the ridiculous things he does in his part in v.2. In the future, if he does any more stuff like this, we'll make sure that we have a really, really expensive camera on a huge boom with football stadium style lighting so that we can capture his pedaling from all angles...
Bootleg Sessions v.2 will be showing at the Bike Jerks All-City Championship in Minneapolis, MN. Here is a trailer that the guys running the event put together for it...
Bootleg Sessions meets Peel Sessions, Friday May 30th in NYC after the first night of the Bicycle Film Festival. This entire weekend is going to be HUGE.
Tom LaMarche gets a mention in a French BMX magazine! Imagine my surprise when I opened up the latest issue of Cream BMX and saw that our man Tom was referenced in an article titled "Versus Fixed Gear". Our friends from Fixed Gear London get a shout out as well!
Since this magazine (a great magazine by the way) is damned near impossible to find here in the U.S., I have scanned the article so people can check it out... Page 1 | Page 2
Below is what will most likely end up being the artwork for the cover of Bootleg Sessions v.2. This photo of Sam Miller is just so good that we had to use it. It was taken by Sam Adams... check out the Bikes section of his portfolio to see some more amazing shots.
Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines... I will be in NYC on May 31st for the premiere of Bootleg Sessions v.2 at the Bicycle Film Festival after party. I'm trying to get everything done and turned into the replication company by next Monday so I can have copies to pass out at the event. Not sure I'm going to make that though, still a lot of work to do. Stay tuned!
The new edition of Urban Velo Magazine is out, and it contains a piece about what they refer to as Fixed Gear Freestyle. Good article by Brad Quartuccio, with several quotes and photos from Bootleg Sessions alum... make sure you check it out.
The Indy Cycle Front, a group that was partially organized by Shawn Wolf, ran a pretty big alley cat in Indianapolis this weekend...
I helped out by operating one of the check points. It was my job to hang out at the top of a staircase underneath an old concrete railroad bridge and hand Jimmy John's boxes to the participants when they found me.
It was a lot of fun, but when you're running a check point by yourself, you find that you have lots of free time. I listened to some music, figured out a new tag, and eventually became fascinated by a group of urban stalactites that were developing where water was dripping out of a crack in the concrete...
Nothing makes for a better afternoon than some illegal bike racing and some 8th grade science in action.
"The Making of Bootleg Sessions v.2", the short that I've been working on for the Bicycle Film Festival, is finished. I sent a copy to the BFF guys and they were really into it, so we're definitely in.
Trust me, you do NOT want to miss this. If you live anywhere near where the BFF is showing, make sure you check it out!
Sorry for the lack of updates over the past few days, but I spent the weekend cutting about 18 hours of tape, so I'm sort of starting to lose it a little bit...!
Here are a couple more screenshots. This is Kyoichi Ozaki from Tokyo who did not include any 3Bancho stickers when he sent me the JAN tapes...
...and this is Julie Benedetto from Brooklyn who did send me some tasty samples from her sister's company, Raw Revolution...
Bootleg Sessions v.2 is going to be in the Bicycle Film Festival this year! I had originally submitted some stuff from BSv.1 just for laughs, but Brendt from the BFF called me a few days ago, and we worked out a deal where I will be putting together a special 5 minute short called "The Making of Bootleg Sessions v.2" that will only play at the BFF. And what's even better is the fact that the full length version of BSv.2 will debut at the BFF after party in New York! This is going down between May 28th and June 1st, so if you're going to be on the East Coast during that time, come hang out with us!
The R.E.Load April Fool's race and the East Coast edition of Cadence Fast Friday both went down over the weekend, and several members of the Bootleg Sessions project did very well for themselves. Here are some of the results...
Tom: winner in "Best Trick" and "U Lock Pickup" Wilis: winner in "Miss-N-Out", 4th in "Best Trick" Julie: winner in "Trackstand Twister" and "Footdown" Keo: 2nd place in "Best Trick" Tony: winner of the Fast Friday sprints checkpoint during the R.E.Load race
As for photos of the action, all you really need to see is this photo of Tony doing a wheelie with a Miller Lite box on his head...
The Indianapolis edit is pretty much done. We had some great weather over the weekend and were able to knock out all of the filming in one day. Here are a couple of screenshots from the session...
Another (fuzzy) screenshot, this one is of John from Philly who is right at the "Oh shit!" stage of a crazy, ninja style bail-out. Not only does he not die, he lands on his feet!
The profiles keep coming in... it's like a flood of fixed gear tomfoolerists! Today's profile is for Sam Miller from Albuquerque, NM. Check out this curved wall ride...!
The Fixed Fight Alleycat looks like it's going to be absolutely huge this year. Saturday, April 19th, St. Petersburg Florida. Lots of other events besides the race. More info here.
Thanks to my friends Joe and Mike @ Joe's Cycles in Indy, my new Milwaukee Bikes Orange One is now up and running. For full details, check the bike check.
I'll be getting the first tapes for Bootleg Sessions v.2 in the next couple days, so as of this weekend the new project will be officially underway. As I do the edits, I will be posting lots of screenshots of the action so that everyone can get a feel for what's going down, so make sure you keep checking back here next week!
Three more new profiles will be going up this week. The first one is for Kyoichi Ozaki. Besides being a killer rider, Kyoichi operates one of my favorite blogs about FGs and other things, which he usually translates into English for me. Except sometimes he doesn't. Like today. At which point I get pretty depressed. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Kyoichi!
When I got home from work today there was a package waiting for me on my porch... a beautiful new Milwaukee Orange One frame and fork. As of now, I will (obviously) be riding for Milwaukee Bikes, and "Milwaukee Orange" is officially my new favorite color.
Huge thanks to Steve @ Milwaukee for hooking me up and for supporting the Bootleg Sessions project!
Got a killer care package from Dustin @ Cadence Clothing yesterday. I'm keeping the two shirts on the right for myself (ha ha), and everything else will be distributed to deserving individuals at a later date, possibly as part of a random drawing during the pre-sale for v.2...?
Huge thanks to Dustin for his continued support, not only for us but for the fg community as a whole...
Bootleg Sessions v.2 will be going international with footage being submitted by riders from Japan, Canada, and England. The JAN crew will be representing Tokyo, and I'll be posting profiles for them this week.
Here are some photos taken by our friend J. Martinez at the side events for the Monster Track race that didn't happen a couple of weeks ago. I'm loving the setup of the guy with the Audi grill logo strapped to his bars... I think we may be seeing the beginning of a new trend...
Tony's profile image has been updated. We felt that this photo by Fritz Askew captures his unique style of riding much more effectively than the old one did.
We received a box full of tires and tubes from Continental Tires yesterday. Continental has jumped on as a sponsor for Ride/Relax and the Bootleg Sessions project, and we couldn't be more excited about that.
Our big thing with sponsors is that we try to hook up with companies that put out stuff that we actually want to use, and as you all know, there's nothing that gets used and abused more on an fg than tires. Huge thanks to Brett at Continental for working this out for us!
More results from last weekend... Tony Fast won the best trick comp at Monster Track in NYC, and he managed to do it without knocking out any teeth! Nice work, Tony!
I just saw on the Cadence website that our boy KEO has been announced as the winner of this year's Cadence Classic, which consists of a trio of different events that take place during the first three Fast Fridays of the year. Congrats, KEO!
Rumor has it that there's a chance that Fast Friday may be taking a road trip to the East Coast for the next installment...!
Yet another new rider profile... Ben W. from San Marcos, TX. Apparently he owns a horse named "Jim" who we're all hoping will be making a special guest appearance in v.2...
Another new profile has been added to the site... this time it's for Tom Mosher of Ontario, Canada. We'll be adding profiles for more of the riders who will be featured in v.2 in the next few weeks.
I received a couple of spy photos last night from the guys who are doing some filming for Bootleg Sessions v.2 down in Texas. This is Justin, doing things he's not supposed to be doing...!
We're going to be putting out some Ride/Relax logo shirts pretty soon, just for the hell of it. The design shows our two favorite verbs in perpetual motion. Here's the front...
...and the back will look like this...
Pre-orders will start as soon as we get the details hammered out. I was wanting to keep the price at $15 like we did with the DVD, but using sweatshop-free shirts is kinda pricey, so it looks like they're probably going to cost a little more than that. We'll still keep it under $20 though. Stay tuned...
Dustin @ Cadence Clothing has put out a one day only special to celebrate leap day. Check out the Cadence website if you want to snatch one of these before they're gone...
Monster Track is going down the weekend of March 8th, and afterwards there will be some fun stuff you don't want to miss out on. Tom, Wilis, and Tony "The Flying Circus" Fast will be there, so you know some serious shenanigans will most likely occur.
In case you haven't seen it on Trackosaurus Rex already, check out this clip of Matt Rice and Josh McDonald getting some solid work done in San Fran...
Our friends at Profile Racing are coming out with bright white fixed hubs. They look unbelievably clean and smooth, which of course matches perfectly with how they ride. More info here.
Now that the website is working properly again, we have made a few updates. Since Bootleg Sessions vol. II is ramping up, we're going to start adding profiles for the new riders as they come on board. This week we have added (or re-added actually) L.A. Kyle and Duncan from Vancouver.
We have also added Mishka as a sponsor. They have been hooking some of the crew up with various soft goods, which is always much appreciated. Welcome aboard, guys!
Our distributor in Hong Kong, Brian Fu of HKFixed.com, has his new shop up and running. It's called "Rodafixa," and it looks hardcore! Nice work, Brian!
This will not be a Bootleg Sessions news blog, all BS related info will continue to be posted on this site. It will also not be a track bike/fixed gear blog per se... we have lots of friends who have that covered already.
This will basically just be a place where we post everything else that we're up to, into, and down with as we're working on Bootleg Sessions vol. II.
What have we learned from the Bootleg Sessions project? That there is a great deal of positivity in the underground, and it seems to be growing. This revelation has inspired us to go ahead and start working on Bootleg Sessions Volume II.
If you think you have something original to add, now is a pretty good time to let us know!
Here is an interview that Tom and I did with the guys/girls at Broke Ya Neck. Huge thanks to them for hooking that up. Take a look at some of the other interviews on that site as well if you have time... there are some crazy kids out there. And I mean that in a good way.
Profile Racing has recently redesigned their website, and if you keep hitting the refresh button, you'll eventually see that our boy KEO is featured in one of the random banners that appear at the top of the page. Nice.
We were also tipped off by UK resident Morgan Gleave that he has a blog working that covers skating, big bikes, little bikes, and fun. I checked it out and have been digging it, you should do the same here.
Over the next couple of weeks we are going to be adding more rider profiles to the website. Today's addition is the one and only Shigeo, straight outta Japan, now living in Seattle, WA. Check his profile here.
There probably aren't too many people who abuse a track bike more than our very own Tom LaMarche, at least not intentionally. If you want to see how he gets away with it, take a peek at his bike check.
Our good friends at JAN Market in Tokyo hosted a premiere of Bootleg Sessions last Friday, and apparently there were so many people in attendance that kids were standing outside watching through the shop windows!
Get the full scoop on Kyoichi Ozaki's blog. Thanks JAN!
This is the 3Rensho that is ridden by Shigeo (aka "Shiggy") in the vid. I asked him to send me some photos of it because I really wanted to get a better look at it. I gotta say, I was a little disappointed to find that he swapped those super-high risers for a more traditional pair. Those things were crazy, but somehow they looked just right on Shiggy's setup...
Tokyo! Bootleg Sessions will be premiering in your city a mere four days from today! Our good friends at JAN Market are throwing down a big event on January 19th, so get into it!
The NYC Premiere of Bootleg Sessions took place last night following Bike Shorts. Our friend John Prolly posted some details on his blog, along with some killer multi-burst photos of a pre-show session here. Thanks John!
Hopefully we'll get some more details/photos from the event soon.
The Indianapolis premiere of Bootleg Sessions went down last night with great success. It was organized by local hero Shawn Wolf, hosted by the Alias Urban Art Gallery, and sponsored by Joe's Cycles. Check out some photos of the goings on here.
Our first review has been posted! The guys at Urban Velo Magazine checked out a copy of the DVD and had some very nice things to say. Check out the full article here.
We just received an email from Brian Fu, the man behind hkfixed.com (check out his excellent blog) informing us that he is opening a shop in Hong Kong called Rodafixa. If you happen to live in that region, I am jealous of you, because there's no doubt Brian's shop will be an amazing joint. And yes, he will have copies of Bootleg Sessions available.
In case you would like to grab a copy of Bootleg Sessions but you're not the sort to order things online, there are a few select shops who will be carrying copies on their shelves...
We would encourage you to pick up your copy from one of these shops if you can. If they have their ear to the ground enough to have heard about a project like this, then they are definitely the type of place that deserves your support...
John Prolly, Luke Stiles, Julie, and Anthony all came down from NYC this weekend for an FDR night session and some Sunday morning riding. Great times were had, thanks guys! More here.
The DVDs are DONE! We'll start shipping them out next week once we receive all of the packing materials. You can expect another trailer in the next couple of days as well. This is what you will be getting in your mailbox very soon if you have already ordered your copy...
The World Premiere of Bootleg Sessions has been scheduled! It will take place at Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on January 13th as part of Bike Shorts 4. If you live in NYC, you must attend. The Philly crew will undoubtedly be there to represent, and where they go, action (and injury) will most likely follow.
For the final weekend of the holidays we went up to York, Maine and stayed at the in-laws' vacation house. I keep a folding bike stashed there and the weather was unusually mild and sunny, so I finally got in a good long ride. Along the ocean no less. Needless to say I'm feeling a little better today...
I'm currently in the middle of a 12 day visit with my in-laws in Boston. I have no bike. I haven't ridden in over a week. I'm starting... to feel... a little... crazy...
OK, so it's not quite that bad, but still, it isn't good.
For Nolan, the official Bootlegs mascot, today is New Bike Day. He now has as many bikes as he has years (three). Here's hoping you are having a New Bike Day as well!
We got the art proofs back from the replicators today. Most of the graphics will use a photo by J. Martinez of fatlace.com that really struck me as being symbolic of the attitude behind the Bootleg Sessions project.
Daisuke of JAN Market in Tokyo has been kind enough to take care of distribution for us in Japan. He is planning a premiere/release party, more details on that soon. Thanks Daisuke, and thanks to our friend Kyoichi for helping us get this hooked up!
The DVD is DONE. I'm watching it right now as I type this. It is 100% ghetto goodness. Hopefully the materials will be sent out to the duplicators tomorrow, and everything should be returned to us in time to ship in early January.
Tom and I started talking about putting this project together in mid-August, and now, only 4 months later, it's finished. Thanks to everyone involved for working so hard!
Unfortunately some of the riders that we had hoped to include were unable to get their parts finished in time... Duncan, Kyle, Sean, we'll get you guys in volume 2, right?
In other news, you can check out some photos from special Japanese edition of Cadence Fast Friday here. There is also some info about the event on Kyoichi Ozaki's blog.
Well kids, the editing is done. After a long week holed up in the cutting room with nothing besides a box of stale goldfish crackers to eat and a french vanilla scented candle to battle the stink, everything is finished.
We're now going to take a week or so to watch the thing about 400 times a day to make sure everything looks reasonably good (again, we're not film school students!), and then it's off to the duplicators. Everything is on schedule, so stay tuned!
We have just completed a distribution agreement for England and the rest of Europe through Fingerprint Distribution. This is a new organization and they're still working on their website, but they are now available to take pre-orders for Bootleg Sessions. So, if you're in their region and want to save on shipping costs, hit them up!
Dustin Klein, Jason Maggied, and PJ, all who have parts in Bootleg Sessions, are heading over to Japan for the premier of David Rowe's Fast Fridays documentary at the Bicycle Film Festival in Tokyo this weekend. Sounds like it's going to be an amazing event. I'm sure we'll see tons of photos of what goes down on our friend Kyoichi Ozaki's blog.
FG poster boy Tom LaMarche is now featured on SAG Life's website. Here is what they have to say about him, run through some sort of online translator...
"Tom which I came across when ICHIGO went to U.S.A. alone.
skill and style are owners of the ability to enter TOP 5 SAG CREW thinks even if I look at the world piste scene in a standard.
His riding-style that is completely opposite to his cool expression is only the thing which is tricky so that piste motorcycle looks like BMX. The person who looked does not think, and honesty is not ordinary to the height of the bunny hop as a sigh is given...."
I have no idea what any of that means, but the last line is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read.
Almost all of the tapes are in now, and I am currently up to my dome in editing. I received a ton of footage from Luke Stiles on Monday, and I have stayed up past 2 AM the past two evenings working on it. When you have to get up at 6:30 for work, this makes for a pretty short night.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. The stuff I'm seeing is electric, and more importantly, it is easy to see just how much fun all of the riders have riding bikes together.
In my opinion, that's going to be the best thing about this project. It will make you want to find other people to ride with and hang out with. Sounds a little strange I know, but you'll understand what I mean once you've seen the final product!
Good news for those who live in the Southeast Asia region! We have just worked out a distribution arrangement with hkfixed.com that will make it easier (and cheaper) for you to get a copy of Bootleg Sessions. Hit up their website for info on placing a pre-order!
Another shop that will be stocking Bootleg Sessions is the legendary Trackstar in NYC. I'm sure most of you know everything there is to know about Trackstar, but just in case you don't check out their website here.
There are a few killer shops in various cities that will be selling the Bootlegs DVD. One of these is Pedestrian in Philly. These guys have an outstanding lineup of clothing brands, including their own brand (modeled by Tom below), and loads of other stuff as well. If you happen to find yourself in Philly, you gotta check this place out!
Another shop that will be stocking Bootlegs is Super Champion in Vancouver. This is a relatively new shop, but holy crap does it look stunning. If you're looking for track bike gear in BC, this is definitely the place to go.
I was working through some of the pre-orders today when I realized that one of them was from Kyoichi Ozaki, a killer skateboarder who lives in Tokyo and the man behind one of my favorite blogs...
Kyoichi's blog has tons of great fixed gear info, and lots of other good stuff as well, so I sent him an email and asked him to write in English as well as Japanese so I can actually understand what it says. He agreed to do so when he could, which rules, so make sure you check it out!
J. Martinez from Fatlace went along with the Philly crew while they were filming last Sunday. He has put together an incredible photo blog of what went down, make sure you check it out!
We received the DVD duplication details today and all of the numbers add up, so this project is officially a go. As such, we are now accepting pre-orders.
The first run will be limited and we're going to try to include some goodies with each purchase. If you want to make sure you get a copy of the DVD, the best thing to do is to go here.
The tapes are flowing in now, and I am currently staying up late into the night locked in the editing room, which is awesome. The stuff I'm seeing is incredible. Expect an official Bootleg Sessions trailer in the next couple of weeks.
In other news, NYC's Luke Stiles has been doing some filming for us, so make sure you check out his other projects here, and his doc about NYC bike polo here. Thanks Luke!
Our friends at Profile posted a news item today about their new fixed gear flow team, which includes Tom, Dustin, Keo, and yours truly. Check it out here.
I can't even begin to say enough about the support that these guys are showing for our community... please return the favor and show them some love!
So yesterday I picked up the latest issue of my favorite BMX magazine, Cream BMX Lifestyle, and as I was flipping through the pages, what did I see? A huge photo of our boy Dustin Klein riding fixed! The pic was part of an article about the Bicycle Film Festival in Paris, check this to see the full image. Nice job, Dustin! World famous!
More Photos from the "Peel Sessions" thanks to J.Martinez of Fatlace:
http://negativo.org/gallery/Peel%20Session/index.html Full write up of the night also on John Prolly's Blog: http://johnprolly.blogspot.com/
Thanks John & J for showing Philly a great time.
The Peel Sessions comp went down in NYC last night. Tom/Tony/Wilis were in attendance, and I received a message from "dangermouse" that she won the female best trick event. Congrats!
The tapes are starting to come in from all over the country. Highlights from the Philly crew include harassing and then being attacked by drunken pedestrians, destroying public bridges, ninja shopping, and even some bike riding!
We all went up to NYC this Sunday to wrap up filming and ride with the NYC dudes. John Prolly put together a video to give you an idea of what went down. Thanks!
I have already mentioned the fact that the world renowned BMX company FBM is building (beautiful) fixed gear frames now. Rumor has it that they may be kicking around the idea of building a frame specifically designed to withstand the stresses that people like us frequently put on our rides. Let's hope this turns out to be true!
At least a couple of the songs that will be found on the Bootleg Sessions DVD is going to come from bands on the Joyful Noise label. This is partly because they are pumping out some incredible stuff at the moment, and partly because I know the guy who runs the label and he has promised not to sue our asses for using their property. If you don't have much going on, take some time to browse their catalogue.
The Brooklyn Machine Works crew recently opened up one of the new Profile hubs and thoroughly examined its guts. Check out their blog to see what they found.
My Profile hubs have also arrived. I went with the classic silvers, which at the risk of sounding like a shill, are absolutely beautiful. Beautiful, and burly as hell. Burleautiful.
Word on the street is that Sean's part for the vid is being filmed by his friend Joe. Joe is also responsible for filming the Black Mags video for the Cool Kids. Awesome.
Tom LaMarche's profile has been added to the Riders Page on the Brooklyn Machine Works website. Our boy is quickly becoming the Ryan Sheckler of the fixed gear world!
Profile Racing is on board! The long time manufacturer of superb BMX componentry has worked out a sponsorship agreement with both myself and Tom. We will be rocking their new fixed gear hubs and testing to see how much stress they can handle (prediction: tons).
Big, big ups to Profile for both supporting the fg community and for always wanting to make sure their parts are top notch. Check out these beauties!
BMX companies are really starting to jump into the fixed gear market. SE Bikes has the Draft, the Lager, and the Premium Brew. Volume Bikes has the Cutter. And now FBM is coming out with the Sword. Nice looking bike, definitely my favorite one of the bunch thus far. Hopefully this trend continues, and hopefully these companies will support fixed gear riders in the same way they support BMX riders...
Rule #1 when making a bike vid... always take a camera with you everywhere you go. I was riding at Pan-Am Plaza today and Shawn Wolf showed up with some super-tech new stuff, but I couldn't record it because I had forgotten my camera. Then we got kicked out by a rent-a-cop. Not the best day. We'll get Shawn next time though...
Filming at any cost: Tony gets busted by a Park Ranger! "Bicycle violation. Violator failed to yeild to oncoming traffic on bike path. Near Collision."
Brooklyn Machine Works has been added as a sponsor due to their support of both Tom LaMarche and Wilis Johnson. Check out their site, they have some amazing stuff.
The Battle of the Brooklyn Banks went down this weekend and was a huge success. Our boy Tom LaMarche took the top prize on his brand spanking new Brooklyn Machine Works rig. Congrats, Tom! More photos here.
KEO's profile has been uploaded, so go check it out and learn more about the enigma that is KEO. He called me yesterday and let me know that he had destroyed yet another frame, his Zeus. For anyone who knows KEO, this is not surprising. The man is massive. He looks like he could be crushing quarterbacks in the NFL instead of track bikes, for real.
We have two more riders who are planning to be involved in the Bootleg Sessions project... Matt from DC and Duncan from Vancouver. Profiles will hopefully be up soon...
Kyle's profile has been added to the site. I love that photo because I can't count how many times I've walked next to this wall along the edge of lake Michigan and thought about riding it. Kyle doesn't think about it, he just goes out and kills it.
I have become obsessed with grips lately. I tried a pair of Ourys because people talk so much about how great they are, but after two months of heavy use I had to cut them off. Hated them.
After some trial and error I went with some Odyssey Team Grips and a pair of Camacura stainless steel bar ends. Ahhh... my hands are in love...
I have been filming Shawn Wolf over the past couple of weeks at an incredible spot... Pan-Am Plaza in Indy. It is a field of smooth red bricks, flat as hell, with almost no pedestrians wandering around. For those familiar with Red Square in Seattle, this place is very similar. Check it...
Well, the webpage for this project is now up and running. Obviously. As of right now, we have 9 riders on the docket for this thing. Hopefully that's the number we end up with. Rider pages are done for Tom, Wilis, Burd, and Sean. The rest should be finished sometime soon. Onward and upward...
