Copenhagen

Since I'm sure most of you were all freakin' the hell out wondering where my post about Copenhagen was - here it is finally. Settle down.

My special lady and I went to visit her brother, his girlfriend, and their daughter who live in a nice centrally located part of Copenhagen. Right on the corner near their condo was an intersection of bike paths with a digital counter of passing riders. Even in February on a weekday it read 800 or more by dinnertime. Cycling culture there is the exact opposite of cycling culture here in the states - simple as that.

At any time of day it looked like this -


Here is the Post Office vehicle parking lot -


And here is my special lady getting aggressively hugged by her brother outside a train station. Every station looked like this -


So bikes everywhere.

Just like in Berlin, we tried to eat as much different types of food as possible. One highlight was a "traditional" Danish lunch prepared by my bro-in-law Ryan and his girlfriend Karin (who by the way sings for the awesome post-punk band THE BEATITUDE - check them out) -

Every bite more or less is supposed to be followed by a shot of bitters and a pilsner chaser. We did what we were supposed to. You end up tanked just in time for cocktail hour, and there's a whole ceremony for dinner too. The Danes like their booze. And I like the Danes for it.


A big highlight of our visit was a night in CHRISTIANIA - truly an amazing place full of punks and artists and anyone else of all ages making a conscience decision to live as "grid-free" as possible. Totally functional and self-sufficient, we were jealous of the commitment.



We ate at a generator run vegan restaurant that simply had HOT MEAL or HOT MEAL WITH BREAD on the menu. Believe me, it didn't matter what the meal was, you wanted it because it was guaranteed to be amazing.


Also on the grounds of the former base was the CHRISTIANIA BIKES factory. Unbelievably, this small factory, run by punks as far as I could tell, has an almost 25% marketshare in Denmark right now meaning 1 in 4 new bikes is probably one of these. Considering that after taxes a Corolla costs 60 grand, many people and families choose these as the household car. They are awesome bikes for sure -


We also paid a visit to VELORBIS down the street from the condo. Ken, one of the founding co-partners gave us a nice tour and let us ride some bikes. He's more passionate about these types of bikes than anyone I've ever met and it shows.

These are true to the letter city bikes based off the original plans from Nottingham RALEIGHS and they are tough as hell but smooth like a room temperature Pudding Pop. Very cool.


Finally, we saw some castles -

Viking ships -

And the Cathedral where every single Danish King is buried - they were in tombs, the walls, and the floors. Pretty awesome building materials I guess.


At any rate, Copenhagen is an eye opening experience to a country that does just about everything right and the people are happy and beautiful and healthy as a result. Seeing that and then landing in Newark, New Jersey was like getting kicked in the head. Newark is a sweaty nutsack.

Classic Meltdowns

Out Until Monday

Heading to Colorado to go mtb'ing and bro down (or brah down in Colorado parlance)

pretty pictures upon my return.


hopefully Mark will pick up the slack for me while I'm out and keep this here blog updated.


xoxo
jeffrey

For all the tweedies in the house

ICNN

this is too good.


from AHTBM

Death Pedal 2 Midwest Premier this Weekend MPLS

The midwest premier of Death Pedal 2 will take place this weekend in Minneapolis


along with the premier Vinnie's throwing a contest at the St. Louis Park skatepark. I hear a bunch of Milwaukee dudes are coming up to spend the weekend riding street, wish I was going to be here.

Don't miss the film it's awesome and Torey absolutely kills the last section!

BMX Video Monday

Brighton Aint Ready / Mix section 1 from Seventies Distribution on Vimeo.

Brighton Aint Ready / Mix section 2 from Seventies Distribution on Vimeo.

Brighton Aint Ready / The Level from Seventies Distribution on Vimeo.

Frank Nitty.Trap Real Hard from Franklin Nittysworth on Vimeo.

via ASL

been missing Acid Sweat Lodge lately so I took a look around and pulled these cycling related images









*bonus photo
is this my beloved Grand Teton? looks like it to me. Anyone confirm?

Peacock Groove: Run of Five Voltron themed bikes

Looks like "the Jury" is on hold and Erik has something new cooking:

from the PG blog:
For a long time I have wanted to do special "runs" of bikes, at a slightly discounted price, and having the bikes painted and designed to pay homage to something that has inspired me in the past.
I have found what I really want to do.
This "theme" , I have wanted to do this for over 15 years....
It's time has come, and I believe it will be more than awesome. It will be very cool to have five bikes holding a theme together, to have five people i=on a bike that have a special connection.
Here is a basic rundown of what you will get: Track frame and fork. Fork will have a brake hole in it. No other braze ons.
Custom frame and fork made to fit you. Columbus "mega" down tube, ideal for the graphics to be applied. Custom limited to five head badges, only made for this run, never to be reproduced. Custom rear dropouts, once again only for this run.
Paint jobs to be all custom too. I have the logos and design ready to go. I will reveal the designs when all 5 are spoken for. Metallic mostly.
H + Son rims, painted to match, with some wicked airbrush artwork on them.
If I do receive more than five orders, there will be a "bonus" 3 to be made , all to fit in with the theme. All the work going into this should cost you over 3100 bucks ...
But- this will be an epic run of bikes. This will be an incredible deal and one of the most custom bikes around.
Now for the skinny, you will get a custom made to fit frame and fork, plus a pair of H+ Son rims painted to match.
1,500 bucks.
Paid in full at the start .They will all be built at the same time, to keep the "team" feeling to this project.
I will only do this if we get all five sold, but do not forget about the 3 "chaser" bikes to be had also. There will be a max of 8 frames sets made for this project.
First e-mail to me or Bob will get first color choice.
Colors to be chosen : Black, Red ,Blue, Yellow, and Green. And the 3 "chaser" bikes, most likely Brown, Black, and Violet. The three chaser bikes will start in order after the first 5 choices are taken.
Now... What is the theme?
Planet Arus need to be saved....
One thing said: " MEGA THRUSTERS ARE GO!"



f'ing nerd

William Spencer Gif

Corpse Paint

Slow news day around here. I've spent the weekend remaking the man cave, working on bike projects , and getting ready to leave for Colorado on Tuesday. First cross country trip in the van. super stoked to go mtbing.

So here for your pleasure is some information regarding corpse paint

Lemond Mountain Bike?

spotted this Lemond Mtb outside of Palmers. I've never seen a Lemond mountain bike, nor ever heard of one. Anybody got any details? Like maybe who the frame builder would have been.


columbus tubing, internal routing




og regal

Friday

Dose of Awesome

Bootleg 4

Check out Mike and Jesse in the Bootleg 4 Trailer.

Bootleg Sessions v.4 HD Fixed Gear DVD full trailer from Ride/Relax Productions on Vimeo.

MMI 9 Sunday

leaving day :(


there is something awesome (and incongruous) about a bike rack full of stupid fixed gears.

Bridgetown Hustle Video

Skate Video Wednesday

New Shirts Available: Total Jerks and Horses

The two newest designs now added to the Bike Jerks shop

Total Jerks

The second part in Brad's Metal Logo series. Total Jerks just might be the best thing we've ever done. Super stoked on this one. Only available on black standard American Apparel t-shirt.

Horses

This design is from a favorite folder, and no it's not Anne Frank. This design is stupid and awesome. Available in white or black t-shirt and if you're real nice to me I'll print a white one with hot pink ink.

If you want to be a badass, you know what to do.

Valleycat 4

Valleycat Preview from David Smuhl on Vimeo.

taking place in my former adopted hometown of Eau Claire Wisconsin. EC is the best drinking town in the world and home to the best bar in the land. I wish I could go but it's Almanzo weekend.

From Pennsylvania

shot by former Minneapolis fast guy R.Dreyer

Mini Bike Winter 2010

Mini Bike Winter | 2010 from Richie Thomassen on Vimeo.

Berlin

Mark from Milwaukee here. Finally getting around to posting some pictures from a trip to Berlin and Copenhagen a couple of months ago. I'll do Berlin first and Copenhagen soon. My super killer brother-in-law and soon to be sister-in-law live in Copenhagen so after 6 days there we got $60 dollar round trip flights to Berlin for a long weekend.

First thing I saw off the train from the airport was this -


Shortly thereafter I saw -


I was pretty stoked at that point figuring a weekend of new experiences lay ahead. I was very grateful to have a very good friend of mine from Rostock make the 2 hour drive to Berlin to stay with us for the weekend in an apartment my brother-in-law and wife and I had rented. STEPHAN (with the beard) is one of the sickest drummers I have seen. He plays in the grind band WOJCZECH - http://www.myspace.com/wojczech13 and is also one of my dear friends. It was good to see him in his country finally as he's been here to visit a couple of times.


We made a point to eat as wide a spectrum of food as we could as many of our vegan friends had mentioned great spots, but we all like country AND western so we found some real traditional German food too.
Here was HANS WURST - a pay what you think it's worth all made on the spot vegan cafe run by punks -


And here was a spot for the exact opposite - can't remember what it was called, and even though it was amazing, it's probably for the best -



We spent the majority of our time in former East Berlin, and it still felt as though it was catching up to the rest of Europe. There was graffiti and street art everywhere, crumbling neighborhoods and businesses almost fully squatted by punks and artists, and evidence of the old regimes "practical" and "productive" style of life -






We also got to hook up with our friends Andy and Hazy in one of the aforementioned squatted businesses - in this case a great punk bar -


One of the highlights though among many, and one that I'm sure you readers out there will appreciate most, was our visit to KEIRIN BERLIN - http://www.keirinberlin.de/ I'll let the pictures speak for themselves -




One of Koichi's bikes -


My lovely wife yelling "Holy shit this rules" -


And the mural outside -


All in all a droolfest of a shop. Gary, one of the owners, was a super cool guy and I'm sure full of immeasurable knowledge.

If all of that isn't worth a visit to you, then this surely is -


I would move to Berlin in a second. Next time I'm there will be in summer with a bike for sure.