I need to get in on this…

With thanks to Andy Jenkins and The Skateboard Mag.

McGoo McGruther, no stranger to the small but influential world of BMX, recently interviewed Osborn for Chop Cult, and I’m happy to report that his spirit is as free as ever, and he’s still rolling tough on two wheels.

Well, the second giant Old School BMX gathering of the year hath gone down. From Nuno Oliveira and Defgrip:

I hit up the Old School BMX show in Bellflower, CA today. As you can image, there was Old School BMX all over the place, and I was on hand to shoot some photos of it. There was a great turnout, and a bunch of rad stuff being displayed.

Click through to check out the pics, and click HERE to check out more on Ride.

-Nuno

Many thanks to Nuno for the glimpses into the past. Check them out here.

For our first interview since evolving into the BMX Society, it is my distinct pleasure to present the profile of a very important BMX personage and an all around good guy. A man who should require no introduction, but since as kids we often just tore into new issues of our favorite BMX magazines, focusing only on the content and sometimes not even noticing the creators of what we were taking in – still deserves that introduction. Despite his marquee position, Andy somehow always seemed to remain unassuming and down to earth. None the less, we must acknowledge that this is a person whose contributions to the sport and indeed in a very real sense – to the way we perceived and experienced BMX during the peak years of 80′s Freestyle cannot be underestimated. So let’s be clear… this cat is one of THE most important names in BMX journalism – and that too from the pre-internet era when the magazines were ALL. The age when it can truly be said that the glossy pages not only presented, but definitely also shaped BMX culture. I am of course talking about one third of the legendary Wizard publishing trifecta of: Jenks, Lew & Spike, the ABA’s 1980 Utah District No.2, Freestylin’ Magazine’s Editor, MX’er, Skater, zine publishing maven, influential artist, thoughtful husband and rad dad – Mr. Andy Jenkins.

Roy Christopher: First up: Where are you from? How long have you been riding? What got you into BMX?

Kip Williamson: I live in Maitland, Florida (Orlando suburb). I’m originally from Angola Indiana. I moved to Orlando in 1996. I started riding 23 years ago. I had a bmx bike growing up like most kids, but didn’t have a real freestyle bike until 1986. I always jumped and raced with my friends around the neighborhood, but I was horrible at both of those things. One day in the summer of 1985 I saw this guy riding flatland on a Hutch Trick Star, and that changed my life forever…

RC: Tell me about Master Blaster Planet. Where did it come from and where is it going?

KW: Master Blaster Planet is my eBay store. I sell things I enjoy myself. I sell BMX components, complete bikes, sneakers, clothing, watches, sunglasses, wallets, hats, urban vinyl toys, and some Star Wars toys. I try to diversify my interests in terms of what I sell, so if one market goes bad or slows down, I have something else going on. I started off in 2002 just selling a few things I had around the house. I was amazed how much money I could get out of some of my stuff. One time I sold a Shadow Interlock chain for the same price as Dan’s Comp, and it got me thinking that maybe there was a market on eBay for high quality BMX components at normal prices. I worked things out with Sparky’s Distribution which is Shadow Conspiracy, Subrosa, and Sputnic and as those brands have gained recognition, my sales have continued to grow, even during a recession. Beyond selling BMX bikes and parts, I try to offer expert answers and advice, as well as good communication, and excellent customer service, along with fast shipping.

RC: Tell me about a few of these dope bikes you’ve been building.

KW: When I started riding in the mid 80s, it seemed like the bikes were as exciting as the tricks. I always loved the look of mags, even though I only rode them for about 6 months before getting my first pair of 48s which were a new concept at the time. While mags do flex a bit, it also makes things pretty fun! Just riding down the street they feel different. I enjoy taking a current frame and set up, and using mags to give it a retro feel. The integrated headsets, bbs, and the wheels are all sealed bearing so the bikes feel amazingly strong and smooth. I rarely do a custom build with brakes, even though I run 2 brakes on my flatland bike. I just enjoy the simplicity of the bike itself. Pegs and brakes are an easy addtion for anyone who is interested. Having all of these SHADOW and SUBROSA components to play with makes it fun because I have almost every color at my disposal when I’m customizing a bike. I just built up one of the Subrosa Pandora Double Top Tube frames with my Skyway graphite mags and it looks pretty dope! It’s the ultimate new school meets retro bike! Every time I complete one of these custom builds there is a smile on my face by the time I finish it!

I’m actually selling the Subrosa Pandora DTT frame kit I just put together. I’m keeping the mags for another build, so this sale is just a kit. Still shows the effort I put into my builds as well as my eBay auctions themselves. Thanks again for the opportunity!

I didn’t know it at the time, but apparently the pink ones are super rare. Most verions of this bike were white, chrome, or green, with the latter being ubiquitous in freestyle BMX from the bike’s release in 1985 until the sport’s initial downturn in the early 90s.

Nashville NBL contest, summer 1986. That's Kenneth Evans in the pink shorts, Gerry Smith with no shirt, and me with the Pink Haro.

I held up the pink Haro contingent for those two years, competing in every contest my parents would haul me to in the Southeast.

Backwards Infinity Roll toward the end of the Haro's days.

The frame has been sitting in the barn at my parents’ house in Alabama since its retirement in 1988. I picked it up when I moved to Austin last summer, and now it’s been relegated to decoration. The pink goes well with my kitchen though.

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On Friday afternoon, A.J. and I took a little trip eastward to the decidedly rural towns of Bastrop and Smithville, Texas. Neither of these places is actually worth stopping for — unless you happen to enjoy skateboarding or riding the freestyle bikes. We happen to dig both, so we totally went there!

I kept eating shit on my left side for some reason. We even got one of ‘em on tape. Maybe my right brain hemisphere was outta wack.

There is a certain liberation in the experience of pain. Easy for me to say right now since I’m on painkillers and beer and…stuff…but still…

A.J. never ate it once. He gets rad.

Here’s the less painful version of the thing I was trying earlier.

A.J. dropped into the deep end of the pool a few times.

…then we loaded up and headed for Smithville.

I hung my socks outta the back window so they’d be dry again when we reached our next destination.

The Smithville park wasn’t bad.

A.J. had a good time jumping a hip into the grass.

…and I managed to pull this one after a bunch of tries.

The end.

————

Many thanks to Jason and A.J. for this piece. Fun stuff.

This Tech 3 lever will have to go, but I thought I’d run it for old time’s sake until the new one comes in.

The Terrible One bars, stock Dyno stem, the 1″ threaded forks with 990 mounts I raved about earlier, and the one Hoffman Day Smith peg I always run (for fire hydrants, steamrollers, and hang-fives).

The classic Dyno Compe frame with its flipped GT downtube-as-toptube design.

It’s driven by a twenty-five-tooth S&M sprocket, Federal 175mm cranks, and Primo Tenderizer pedals.

A Nankai Freecoaster rounds out the drivetrain.

Many million thanks to Sandy Carson, Jason Childers, A.J. and Russell at The Peddler,  Mike at Clown Dog, and the Yellow Bike Project for all the parts and help. More to come.

In the early 90s, AT&T ran a series of commercials that posed some futuristic, technologically enabled task (e.g., “Have you ever borrowed a book from thousands of miles away?”), and then answered it emphatically (”You will.”), claiming they’d be the company to technologically enable such a task. I believe they’ve all come to pass except one. As Stewart Brand once said, “Technology marches on, over you or through you, take your pick.”

I can’t help but think that many of the technological advances we debate and marvel about were downright inevitable. In 1982, when I first got a computer, one of my main intentions was to get a modem and connect to databases. My eleven-year-old self wasn’t as hungry for information — I could’ve gotten the same stuff from the “database”  down the street known as “the library.” I was hungry for the idea of connectivity. The idea that I could connect my computer to other computers and exchange information. The idea was exhilarating.

Doesn’t that feeling, one that I shared with plenty of people by then, make the internet inevitable?

Didn’t your first unassisted ride on a bike feel like flying? Riding that two-wheeled bridge of balance is like taking off on wings of your own. In more sober tones, Marshall McLuhan (1964) aligned the two activities as well, writing,

It was the tandem alignment of wheels that created the velocipede and then the bicycle, for with the acceleration of wheel by linkage to the visual principle of mobile lineality, the wheel acquired a new degree of intensity. The bicycle lifted the wheel onto the plane of aerodynamic balance, and not too indirectly created the airplane. It was no accident that the Wright brothers were bicycle mechanics, or that early planes seemed in some ways like bicycles (p. 182).

Supposedly birds evolved the same way. Dinosaurs became bipedal via their large, counterbalancing tails. Eventually the same concept morphed wings.

Karl Popper (1968) called it “exosomatic evolution” (p. 238), adding that now we don’t grow faster legs, we grow bicycles and cars; we don’t grow bigger brains or memories, we grow computers. McLuhan continues, writing, “The transformations of technology have the character of organic evolution because all technologies are extensions of our physical being” (p. 182). Software and city blocks are as natural as ant hills and broccoli.

The argument that technology is organic begs the question of what to do about it: How do we maintain control over our contrivances?

The argument that technology is organic answers the question as well: We maintain control over our contrivances in the same way that we maintain control over our lawns. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t.

References:

Brand, S. (1988). The media lab: Inventing the future at MIT. New York: Penguin.

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Popper, K. (1968). Objective knowledge: An evolutionary approach. New York: Oxford University Press.

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And here they are, the AT&T “You Will” commercials from 1993:

]]> http://www.headtube.com/bicycles-and-inevitable-technology/feed 0 http://www.headtube.com/freestyle-contest-in-austin http://www.headtube.com/freestyle-contest-in-austin#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:40:24 +0000 Roy Christopher http://www.headtube.com/?p=216