NerdUnit

For me back in the day it was Intensity Skates. Cheap Skates second. We were kids we bought shit for the graphic and the shape. Either that or go to a bike shop and buy another Powell board with bone-ite. Lame. There was just a huge lack of shops around and if they had stock it wasn't the new shit. I remember thinking this shit is the coolest I can't get it anywhere around here. Skating was a California thing. Mailorder = exclusive. Now that shit is like whatever. Exclusive = $650 Nikes some Japanese guy had made in gore-tex courdaroy or some foolishness. I'm going to one of the newer shops in town today with a buddy. He's getting a new set-up. I hope this isn't douchebag central spot. I want a new board and these guys are one of two shops that sell what I want. The other shop is all super tight pants and I don't know if I want to make the trek over to emo town.

Ha ha! That video was funny. I usually don't care for the bicycle crack-pots but that shit was all right. What is the wheel behind his head all about?

Yo that shit is nice and simple. Shop or interwebz? Make sure the lock ring is tightened all the way. Kids were stopping into the shop I was at with loose lockrings out of the box. If you just got it in the mail tighten everything down. Manufacturers only put it together for shipping not out the box riding. Local shop ignore what I said and enjoy the new bike day. I just put together my old cross bike as a get around Mischief Machine. All the good spots are far apart skating or trackside.

Okay dude with crazy Butter issues. Here's the deal with Mongoose. Several years ago they were bought by a larger company. In an attempt to get a bigger market share the new owners started to sell Mongoose to department stores. This is a very bad thing for a quality bicycle brand only sold by independent bike dealers. Why? Two things happen. 1. In order to sell at walmart prices the quality of the bike goes down considerably. 2. #1 causes the brand to loose it's reputation as a legitimate bicycle maufacturer. The repercusions of this are independent bike dealers (local shop) can no longer sell a $1500.00 Mongoose or a $350.00 for that matter because walmart has em for $100.00. The loose there cache. $100.00 bikes last about a year with daily use. If you are a teenager shit will last half a summer. The first repair cost will generally eclipse the initial cost of the bike. So to hear you are on two years you are doing well. If you were to depend on that bike you would have been dissapointed a long time ago. I'm sorry to say you fell for the plan and bought what you thought was a Mongoose of old (the guys who made em' good) so the new guys could get rich. With that said you are having fun riding and the bike is lasting. That is good. I bet you take care of your possessions which is nice. You know the value of a dollar. If you ever decide to get more bike invoved come back and ask questions "bicicletas" is good for info. I'm not hating either. This may explain why doods were all Ha ha.

Soup: I feel you on the bike sentiments. Shit is rugged. When tough guy fools I know bust on me for racing and the tights they always shut up when I break it down. 60 MPH in a millimeter of lycra is serious shit. One mistake and its ICU for weeks. Even at 30 or 40 a crash is disaster. It's just like graff. You're on point or you pay the price. Some of the craziest and most psycho people I know are all about road racing for exactly those reasons. Don't know you're living until you're dying.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Put your self on rations. Don't sweat the racing. Get smart and stay fit. Bike racing isn't going anywhere. Oh yeah, don't get caught either! Ha. j/k.

Yo Joker: That is gonna be a serious Protour machine. Reynolds wheels are top notch. I don't know much about the Scotts but I can tell you the Look is a predictable and stable ride. Comfortable road racing bike geometry. But it is racing geometry. No doubt about it. I have assembled some older KG586's and the craftsmanship is amazing. The Look tubes are only stiff where they need to be. Each tubeset is different for each size frame as well. Comfort is a big consideration in a Euro road frame for the big mileage. US bikes are usually crit machines super stiff at all costs. Boooo. Cannondales are great racing machines but I think you are getting something special with the Look. Way more racing knowledge behind the Look marque. Yeah that SRAM is nice Force or RED. You will be posting the flicks no? I have a few I'll get around to posting myself. I have some cool racing machines. Somebody's goning to be a happy camper. Are you goning to assemble it? Have fun. I'm jealous. HAhAh.

Oh no worries man. I stepped in and sent Bob a check today.

Oh yeah I came in here to post this. Kids in the Hall - Courier jokes.

HELLO! Earth to Joker. BUY THE LOOK! Fuck all that Cannondale noise. Look has been making Carbon bicycles longer than just about everyone. Very nice stuff. You need a good mechanic to cut the post for you though. Buy the Look. Unless you want to buy American, but the Americans that will sell you one are jerks so forget them...buy the Look. You prolly have race wheels already. If you don't like DA sell it and buy Chorus or Force. My 2 cents.

Yeah that's what happened. I think all the wallrides out of the banks were putting a damper on things as well. The building was white and the whole place had sealer on the asphalt. Bad combo but wicked fun. You could have a real contest cause proof was on the wall! Good times. That shit was steep and tall too. It was 4 or 5 bays long. Roll in and push super hard across the bottom and you could get a good launch outta there. Blunt fakies and FS lip-slides were my favorties. It may be time to go skate soon. Boardslides on the ittinerary.

Word up on the Bank to parking block. I used to skate an awesome one in an industrial park. It was a series of loading dock doors and the parking lot sunk down below them but on either side were two huge banks with a block on top of each. That was an Olde Tyme spot when I started to skate there. We used to bump into Fred Smith once and a while. Rumor had it he brought the blocks. Boy that dude really ripped that spot. Those blocks were so worked in too! Like glass I tell ya. Eventually some kid split his wig and mommy bugged so party over. They put asphalt curbs along the bottom. Boooooooooooooooo.

I don't know? Not tryng to be elitist though.

Oh shit! I hope we don't go past step off shove its! I just got those back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 But I have the up the curb ollie dialed at any speed now. Ha I'm old! Are you guys gonna be bummed I wear Lakai's. They were free and if this makes it cooler they were samples that nevah' hit the market. Yeah that's right I got peeps on the inside!

I was on the youtube and found this piece of history. Cool old Safety film. Check out this guys Pumas and Santa Cruz board. They even have some sidewalk surfing with wipeouts. Skateboarding has changed so much. Cool to see the old shit.

Yeah word. Maybe some people can't surf in the city or whatever and want to carve down some hills and shit. Function trumps fashion always. Remember stupid micro wheels and boards with no concave. Lame. Shit went backwards for a min in the early 90's. You were fucked if you followed fashion. Couldn't even ride across town on wheels like that and that's all you could buy! Arbor boards are pretty cool too. They make some nice Snowboards as well. They make longboards that are like street boards with nose and tail. Check them out.

"put the lotion in the basket!" Ha HA

Oh yeah, just got in from a nice short ride in the first snow of the season. I really miss racing cross this year. This is the time of the season I really start to do well with the cold and bad conditions. All those years as a courier were good for something! HA! Not this season.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That's some cool old school cross style. Drill a hole in the seatpost and get a straight cable line. Nice. Eliminates the need for a hanger too. You can fit a little ferrule on the exit hole. Very clean. Yo Soup if you hit NAHBS this year go check out Igleheart. That's my framebuilder. I do his ads and shit. He sponsered my team last year. incredibly talented steel builder. He works with lots of stainless. Old school MTB guy. Got his start with Chris Chance making segmented forks.

I'm gonna break down the general reasoning behind this because you got half the picture with the tire advice. Most shops will tell you that to keep flats to a minimum. Not a bad thing. Max PSI reduces the chance of flats (the tire shoots things out instead of deforming over them) It is also the fastest ride you can get out of the tire because it's really hard and has the smallest contact patch possible. The trade off can be a harsh ride but that also depends on the materials and construction of the casing. Like anything the more you spend the nicer the ride. But that is getting into the fine details and nuances. The other thing you can scarifice at the max pressure is some traction. Most tires pretty grippy at the high end even so they only gain traction as you reduce the pressure. A few pounds less can get you a great deal more tire contact and only sacrifice a bit of speed. But this increases safety considerably though. Okay your tire has a range of PSI rating. Prolly 100 - 120. Anything below 100 and you are looking at potential flats or handling issues. Sluggish. Good PSI depends on a few details. How tall heavy are you? How wide is the tire? 700x23c I would guess. In general in the rain I run less in the front than the rear. I let air out of both tires though. More specifically I pump them up to the PSI I want before I go out. If you are going to depend on the bike and ride in bad weather I would suggest riding a 700x25c tire or 28c if you can fit it. It is still good to get used how the tires feel at slightly different pressures as it can be of great benefit. With that said: Regardless of PSI a wet tile is gonna take out anyone who turns or leans on it.

Oh yeah I forgot. Tiles marble granite metal plates and manhole covers all have to be treated like ice when wet. As in leave that shit alone! Boston is a nightmare for construction plates. I hate when you're riding over one and wondering how the backwheel is passing your front as you're still moving forwards! No Bueno.

So when cornering in the rain or at high speed you want to weight the outside pedal and make sure it's in the 6 o'clock position. This will counter-act the bike wanting to slip out inthat direction. As for tire choice most road tires are pretty grippy there are some rain tires that have a softer compound but most tires with a different color on the edges is sporting a soft compound for cornering. As for tire pressure this is key. If the tire is rated at 110 max that is for a dry day and fast riding. To get more grip in the rain or a smoother ride on rough roads go with about 10 lbs less. So 100 is a good starting place. If you are very heavy then any less may lead to pinch flats. Never go below the min PSI recommendation. Is molded into the sidewall (I bet you know this from motorcycles though) Only other advice I can give is learn to corner with your body more upright and the bicycle leaned in more than you. SO on a dry day you might want to dive into the corner and really lean into it. Chances are you could corner the same but with you body more upright with all your weight going into the outside pedal at 6 o'clock. Just make sure you look where you are turning just like the moto. The weighted pedal will keep you on line. I think that may have been repetitive, but it should help. Hope you are okay injury wise. Slideouts are usually no biggie.

Bruce What are the physical requiements for an EMT? If you're still in high school man you have many options and choices. Don't forget that the surgery could go very well and it may not turn out as bad as you are thinking. If you dwell on the negative possibilites you are very likely to end up facing them as you have ruled out any positive outcome. Life is about adapting to adversity. Right now your choices are being limited. A physically challenging career may not be in the cards now. Start thinking about brain power. I rode around on a bicycle for over a decade delivering packages 'cause I thought I wasn't capable of much more. I learned a lot about life but I really wish I had the courage to man up and try to realize my creative potential earlier. I did it a few years ago man it was really hard but it was out of necessity. Life threw a lot of wake-up calls at me during that time too. But I couldn't see any of them. So I'm not saying your plan was bad, maybe it just wasn't the direction you should be going in? Don't sell yourself short before you even get started, no matter what people are telling you. For real.

Yo sorry to hear that Bruce_1nR. Are you good with the computer? I assume you write so what about applying those skills in another manner. Web shit Flash and CCS are in demand. Or the other end like IT or some shit. Would you takes classes instead of the 4 years. You're on this thing anyway use it to poke around and check everything out. I'm not dissing the trades either just thinking why stand on the foot all day right? That route can be very profitable too though. Stay positive man.