backyard blam!

Backyard Blam!!! 9/13/09 from Justin Bailey on Vimeo.

Just went to the latest backyard blam! event, and it was sweet. That video is from the last backyard blam! but it gives you an idea of the event. The only difference was that the first event had around 50-75 people, and about 500 people showed up on Friday.

Art show, weird looking people on fixies, free beer, track sprint races, and a bunnyhop contest. It was pretty sweet. I got to ride this sweet new whip for the first time:

















With 26's for the first time and a new bike, I was pretty surprised and stoked when I got 3rd. I think the all time high bunnyhop for the night was 36", which is retarded. Results looked like this:

Chester Blacksmith
Shad Johnson
Chaz
Landon
Patrick and Long Distance Relationship Kyle.

Pretty rad group of people, pretty rad event, good times.

Good riding/bad talking

If you want to watch about 7 minutes of world class riding on the best downhill track, and you don't mind listening to some french (note the lower case spelling) funny-talk babbling, this is the movie for you:



Freedom isn't free,
-Chaz

Blogistics/Party/Tips on partying

I really like the Tonic Blog. Like us at Team Robot, Landon sometimes has trouble keeping up with the stresses of blooging. Really good write up on bloggin and why the MTB industry sucks:

Howdy Folks.

I’ve not exactly been the most prolific blogger / news updater recently. Fortunately it is not for lack of action. I’d like to exclusively blame an abundance of action, but that’s not true either.

I’ve spent the last few years vigorously updating the Tonic News, and usually I’ve done so with genuine enthusiasm. It’s also taken loads of time. Blame my editorial process, and flimsy grasp on technology as main time sucks.

Recently, I’ve had a hard time mining the inspiration for this blog. Can’t say much bike related material has held much interest at all. The bike industry is fairly simple circus. Somebody either won a race, did a cool trick or is getting paid to blow their horn about a “new” product. On this note, the weirdest one for me are the corporate dudes at Interbike who refer to products with out a definite article. They’ll say something like, “Boxxer is strong and light” rather than THE Boxxer is strong and light. When did the bike industry get a pass on the word “the”?

And how many times do I have to hear about a bike being capable a “day at Whistler, and a 35 mile epic the next.” Isn’t the real question…Am I? Believe me, if that was my riding schedule, the bike would be about item 5 on my Top 3 Things I’m Concerned About.

The best thing about bikes remains riding them. By far. That said, good lookin’, good ridin’, well made bikes are something I get excited about.

Blah, blah, blah…


Team Robot and Tonicfab will be here tomorrow night. Be there or be... gay:























Tips on partying:






Pics of my new helmet and bike coming up soon...

-Chaz

Backflip death

Sweet

Sweet picture of lesser known pinner Bernat Guardia, as seen on TV:

The Bobs

Abe parties, Abe likes to party

Abe Rowland, Welcome To Jefferson State from Marcus O'Brien | POWSBMX.COM on Vimeo.

Solid riding section from somewhere around Redding, CA.

Michael Bay

I just watched Transformers: The Movie again this weekend. We played a fun game called "Spot the Product Placement."

I bring you now, in chronological order, the products and brands featured in Transformers:

HP
Camel Cigarettes
Apple
Cisco
Porsche
Ebay
USAF (US Air Force)
USA Today
Ding Dongs
Burger King
The Strokes (the band)
Dewalt Tools
Chevrolet
G-Star Clothing
Blackberry Phones
Key Lime Phones
Hummer
Pontiac
Cadillac
GMC
The Misfits
Ho Hos
Nokia
Energizer
Radio Shack
Wells Fargo
Furbee
Mercury
Mountain Dew
Oakwest Footwear
USPS
Bank of America


I hate Michael Bay.

Flying with bikes

I've been trying to figure out how to fly with my bike. Shipping bikes is retarded expensive when you use a bike box. Mine is 26 pounds empty, so you're looking at around an 80 pound bike. That also nixes airlines, too, as it's overweight and oversize.

So with a bike box, you're looking at about 175 to about 300 bucks in fees each way. bummer.

SO, I can cram every single part of a bike into a normal piece of luggage, except for one thing: the wheels. Bummer. Even with tires off, an MTB rim is about 24". And even thought there's plenty of luggage that's 24" or more tall, no one on the face of the planet makes luggage that is 24" by 24". Bummer.

And then it hit me:

Drum bags.

So I watched this whole video:


If you watched that whole video, your life also sucks. On the bright side, though, you're that much closer to flying with a bike.