Women's SS cyclocross, I love you.

Apparently all the women in the Singlespeed category in the Des Moines Jinglecross race this weekend decided to be the greatest people on the planet. And race in bikinis.


photo off of courtney hilton and taylor webb's facebook.


photo credit to dvdlee.


photo off of courtney hilton and taylor webb's facebook.


photo credit to dvdlee.


photo credit to dvdlee.

I'm so happy right now. Apparently it was about 40 degrees.

These ladies are hardcore, too:

photo credit to velogrrl.

Thanks to TJ over at Muddy Brown Masi for the tip-off.

To further this post for a moment, I had some interesting conversations with my mom and Jessica about girls in bikinis covered in mud riding bikes. I mentioned those words and they both shuddered, immediately jumping to a set of images in their mind where women are demeaned by their depiction. Porn, superficial entertainment, and other spectacles. I look at the women in these pictures and see precisely the opposite. I see people empowered by their strength who are exhibiting their bodies and kicking ass at the same time. I am impressed more than indulged. The first woman's poise blows me away. She's VICTORY, and dirty, tired, tense. She's earned that nakedness, as far as I'm concerned, and owns it. The fact that she's freakin' hot doesn't diminish her in my opinion either. I'm proud of her, jealous of her, want to know her story. In short she's more real, in a way, than all the other pointless, superficial lumps of flesh the internet contains. Read More......

First Cyclocross race attempt full of awesome.

After doing really well in Alleycat races I started to feel like a jerk. They're great, really fun, and I'll continue to race them, but taking all my competitive energy out on a group of my friends in a non-serious race seems unfair. So after MUCH deliberation I decided to try cyclocross for my first real competitive sporting event since... 10th grade lacrosse? (which was an epic fail). I dislike the idea of just pedaling...pedaling...pedaling until you want to die, which is how I see roadracing, and I suck enough at mountainbiking that I would actually die if I went into that competitively, so Cyclocross is the perfect compromise! It's a freak sport where you take a road bike and strap mountain tires on it then go really fast and fall over when the course is hard. Oh yeah, and when the course is REALLY hard then you're encouraged to jump off and run! I had a tremendous time, needless to say.

By sand:


Running around like a sissy:


Good ol' pavement:


I registered in the beginners category and did really well. I got off to an ok start and slowly gunned past people whenever I had a chance, never getting passed. After 2 or 3 laps of holding 3rd place they called the last lap, which I made it halfway through before getting a flat. I wobbled along on my flat tire and got passed by everyone I had worked hard to sneak around before. They were all super-nice though and asked what had happened, commiserating in my hobbling state. At the end of it all I got 8th.
Sadly bumbing to the finish:


Thanks to Tom for coming and taking pictures, and to Chris for trying it out (he hated it, but then again he knows how to ride a bike properly so that makes sense). It was a great way for the first race to go, I can't wait to do it again! Read More......

Heart of Darkness 2!

Today was so cool. Yesterday it snowed, and the temp dropped about 20 degrees. We thought for sure nobody would show up for the alleycat. I was optimistic, thinking about 25 people, Chris thought about 7. So imagine our surprise when there're 40 racers, huddled in the alley, patiently waiting for our filming shenanigans to end so they can tear it up.


A biker by the name of Alex Kim showed up at random and took some epic photos of the start, including the one above.


Al nailing the shot.


Chris making sure the character is real.


David Rice doing what he does.

The race went really well by all accounts, the filming as well. Really hectic, all over town, but I had a great time. Thanks again everyone for giving me all your time and energy to pull this project off.

Screenshots from the shoot:

Alyeska Triumphs!


The real racers cheer.


Entering the Alley.

Some quick stats:
Gary took the fastest time overall, finishing around 3:40 pm. The race probably started around 2, so that's pretty damn good. Patrick Beecroft was 1st fixed gear and 2nd overall. Lindsey Howard took 1st for the girls, and was the only woman to complete the race out of 3 or 4 who entered. John Moreton took 3rd. I think Steve Wassmund did pretty well, like 5th or so, on an Xtracycle. Well done.

The race took people out to 8th south and back for a false start, then started in ernest with a climb straight up capitol hill. Riders then had to hit up a series of downtown stops, go way out west to the airport gates and down south, circumnavigating the freeway (or riding on it, as the case may be), and tag liberty heights fresh before heading up to 11th ave and B street. It was pretty brutal.


Velo City Bags threw in a great top prize, their first extra-large messenger, complete with compression straps and a cross-shoulder support. Looks hella useful. The PAC Designs bag went to top woman. Clever 2nd and 3rd place winners snagged Cane Creek 110 headsets. A poor fellow named Markus Boyer got best crash, and with it a bag from MER. Thanks as well to FRESH Modern Apparel and Chrome Messenger Bags for their representation!

And for DFL? A brand fresh loaf of artisan bread, from Liberty Heights Fresh!

Thanks everyone! And come by the Dada Factory for our final shoot next weekend, saturday, the 21st, for the Boing House Cafe and music. Kicking off at 9 PM, be on time plz. Dress crustily, or like a burner. Read More......

Break from movie for.... BMX!

Had to throw this up here. Loved the vid, then realized it was filmed right here in the SLC! Wooooord! can't wait to meet these kids someday. Read More......

Giovanni Progress: First weekend down.

It's been an insane set of days.
We orchestrated rooms full of people and assembled crane shots in a tiny, meticulous house. We filmed bikes racing across town and shut off traffic for an hour using some traffic cones and a flashlight with a piece of orange gel taped on it. We lurked in Liberty park with a hipster, an anarchist punk, and a drag queen, yelling swear words at the top of our lungs. I worked myself to exhaustion, Al stopped talking, and Chris is probably gonna fail all his classes. Not to mention the 5-10 core people who showed up tirelessly to every shoot they could and stayed up all night doing menial jobs because they believed in the awesomeness of the project. I'm humbled by that kind of selfless devotion to the work I'm trying to do, and I hope someday to do you all justice.

The results have been so great. I'll edit all week and have a better idea of what we have, but I am so impressed, and I began with unrealistically high expectations.

Thank you all. So much.

Some sneak previews, unprocessed:


Giovanni flees the scene of the crime.


Leo stands up to Giovanni.


Giovanni has anger management problems.


Sam does it right.

Not to mention a whole new character to introduce, the fabulous Elvira played by Scott Allen Curry:


Stay tuned. Filming a braveheart-worthy Alleycat on Sunday the 15th at 1:00 PM, be there on time, and join the madness. Read More......

Seriously Cool Bike

I love all my bikes, always have, always will. I think they're beautiful, and attention-worthy, but they're essentially replaceable tools, to be exchanged for the perfect combination that will both meet all my transport/fun/nerd needs and last awhile. But today (or yesterday, whatever) marks the completion-ish of a project that will test my resolve in regards to resisting material object lust and excessive use of superlatives.



This bike began over a year and a half ago, when Lindsey Howard decided she'd pursue frame building. She was 18 years old at the time and largely taught herself how to build, reading a ridiculous amount and apprenticing at the shop of a semi-retired hobby builder. She's brilliant at most things she tries to do, and manages to cram much more into a day than most. Lindsey wants to build bikes that are long-lasting and practical rather than flashy and expensive, she would like to learn a ton so she can teach people to build their own bikes and have things purpose built to fit rider needs for a long long time.

So she started by building me a completely impractical bike. A true Bicycle Quarterly enthusiast and fan of racks, fenders, and gears, she gritted her teeth and built a brazeon-less track frame with tiny clearances. Sorry, Lindsey.

She ordered some heavy-gauge Reynolds 531, that butts from 9 to 6 to 9 rather than 8 to 5 to 8 (i think?), and joined it with 74.5 degree lugs. The fork is still unfinished, it'll be taller and overbuilt straight-blades, set into a Henry James raked crown.

I thought Lindsey's skill at brazing was extremely impressive for her second frame, and I figured this thing would be around for a while, so I had Greg's friend Lance powdercoat it clear so all the bike's braze, flux, and heating marks show through over the bare metal. I love it, he did a fantastic job. I know the thing's new but I just stare at it, in different light, it has all these subtle underlights and luster from the polished metal.



My cameo on the frame was getting to file out that triangle in the seat lug.

It got my main Brooks Professional seat and the Nitto Pursuit bars I've had on all my fixed gears, which are a little long, so they may change in the final build. I shellacked the bars as an experiment and really like them. The wheels were Chris Ginzton's idea, as the bike's starring in my Don Giovanni movie. He ordered 2.0-1.5-2.0 DT swiss spokes with this amazing rifling on them and we laced my Miche hubs to Mavic open pros for a very light, strong wheel set.

This bike still needs its new fork and a brake to turn it from movie prop to daily whip (for me), but I've never been more enamoured with an object.

Thanks. Read More......

Second Shoot: Bobsled MTB Trail

One of our most technically difficult and rigorous shoots for an awesome scene. Coming together very well, we got screwed out of time by Daylight savings and hiking to the top of the hill so only got to shoot for 2 hours.



Still, the rough edit looks great, and we'll pick up the rest of the scene Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Giovanni got hisself photoshot last weekend:

Here are my photos, and


here are a couple of Greg's.

See ya'll this weekend! We're moving the Saturday shoot from Gallivan to Liberty Park, cause we won't get kicked off there (I hope). Read More......