Like many of us, Brian Tunney’s life-long obsession with BMX started with FREESTYLIN’ Magazine. In this recent post to his website, he tells the story of seeking out the building at 3162 Kashiwa Street in Torrance, California where it all happened.

Here’s an excerpt:
Fast forward twenty years.
I’ve been visiting Southern California for years, still pursuing the BMX thing in one form or another, and often thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be cool to go visit the Freestylin’ building, just to say I’ve been to the place that started me on this ridiculous …

A wing is a bridge. Flight is a ride on that bridge from take-off to landing. Dinosaurs became bipedal, balancing their large bodies on two legs via counterbalancing tails. Eventually the same biological process—or set of processes between biology and environment—morphed wings, and thereby, flight. Using this transition as a metaphor is an trip we might do well to take.

Read the full post on roychristopher.com.

In “Wheels of Change: How the Bicycle Empowered Women,” Brain Pickings‘ editor Maria Popova reviews National Geographic‘s Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way). Both the book and the article tell the story of the bicycle’s role in equal rights for women.

And if you’re more interested in the evolution of bicycle technology and what it meant for women, The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (MIT Press, 1989) edited by Wiebe Bijker, …

I finally have a new piece up on the ESPN BMX site. This one is about the generational differences between first and second generations of riders. Heraclitus once wrote that generations turn over every thirty years. Well, it’s about that time.

You’re right, Roy, you’re hopeless. Hopelessly obsessed with a time in your sport that died a long time ago… — McGoo

Here’s an excerpt:

The experience of a BMXer today is much more likely to be mediated by technology than it was in the ’80s. Given the proliferation of technology into every aspect …

Ronnie Bonner just sent me a phone picture of a letter I wrote him from Seattle sometime in the 90s. The letter was written on a photocopy of a photo of Ronnie at the Ocala Skatepark in 1991. It originally ran in issue #43 (no joke) of my zine “Front Wheel Drive.”

Me, Ronnie, BMX: We go back like carseats.

Empire BMX is moving mad closer to the HEADUBE Headquarters, and we are stoked.

Just sayin’.

Traveling on a plane with a bike is expensive. Bicycles are one of those “special items” that airlines have “special fees” for. A long time ago, Chris Moeller claimed that S&M was going to make bike bags that read “Camping Equipment” on the side to avoid just this problem. I don’t know that they ever did, but Fat Tony does a good job of illuminating the options in this piece for Ride BMX. Here’s an excerpt:
Don’t ask me why, but if an airline knows you have a bicycle in your …

Our good friend Sandy Carson has another show of his photographs coming up soon.

Here are the details from Sandy:
I want to formally invite you to the opening of my first group exhibition of the year Storytelling at the L. Nowlin Gallery here in Austin. This exhibit, curated by the Austin Photography Group, features 40 Austin photographers and opens next Saturday, January 15th from 6-8pm. I shall be showing a piece from my Black Friday series from 2009.
Here’s a preview of the show. See you all there!

That is all.
Happy 2011, everyone.
[Art by Cartlon Reid]

For the literary-minded bicycle rider, I wrote a bit over on my main site about David Byrne’s new book Bicycle Diaries, and a book about him as well. Here’s an excerpt:
If you know me, you know that one of the only things I love as much as music is bicycles. Well, David Byrne’s own Bicycle Diaries (Viking, 2010) explores and explains why they’re so seductive in ways I never could.
This book was written almost by accident. That is, Byrne’s fascination with bicycles and writing about seeing the world from …