I love seeing behind the scenes photos, especially when shot in film. FOAD has some photos up on their Flickr. Check out the full set here.
Yesterday, Adam from CycleEXIF and I rode down to see Tarn at Primate Frames. Our route took us from the coast, through a dry arid region, up a temperate forest in a mountain range and finally, back to the coast. It was beautiful and long, considering I came under-prepared.
More on this later but these three photos show what we rode through. Nice huh?
Yesterday I got stir-crazy. It's been raining since Tuesday here in Sydney and I couldn't stand to not be riding in this gorgeous city. I met up with some locals on their Tuesday hill ride and had fun, but wasn't feeling 100% so I went back and tried to find the same route by myself. I have a Garmin, but the maps aren't loaded for Australia (how do you do that by the way?), so it was like riding blind, which sometimes is fun.
The pouring rain, aggressive drives and my bald rear tire mandated the pace for this ride, which was perfect because I'm still in sight-seeing mode here. Ranking in at exactly 20 miles and 1,000' of climbing, this was by no means a hard workout but riding's not always about hammering.
Oh, did I mention already how Sydney has some of the raddest vintage autos I've seen?
DJ's in Portland, spending his free time on the bike and he sent over this photo of him blasting a table at River City Bicycles. I've seen this spot in person and that's impressive.
Photo by Matt Lingo
I hear Oscar is going back to Cali to hang with the #FixieFactory guys for a while. The last time he was in California, he met up with Matt Lingo, who caught him mid-air, hand extended in a local park.
Shit weather means shitty, slow rides. Rather than sit indoors all day, I headed out on a spin around the coast in the pouring rain. It felt great to loosen the legs up and sight-see, so no complaints there but once I returned home, it was quickly apparent that nothing will be dry come morning. So it goes...
Ryan from Aloha Fixed has been a part of the fixed blogosphere for almost as long as PiNP has. People often forget the role that site's played in FGFS' early days. I met Ryan when I was in Hawaii last summer and it was great to get to know him a little better. Head over to KVibe to read up on how he started out.
Oh and how rad is that shirt?
Photo by Erika Diana
Fixed Gear London just posted up this photo of Oscar crank arm sliding a pretty high rail. This is the kinda shit i love seeing on a fixed freestyle. So ballsy. I'm very curious about the 29r BB17 frames. They look like a ton of fun.
Photo by Matt Lingo
Matt's got the multiburst composites on lock, just like Boothby and these tire grab x-ups.
I didn't shoot a lot of photos yesterday but when I bumped into Eirlie, she told me about Bike Babes, so I swung through for the meet-up. This group ride is a weekly event, which usually is on Tuesday, but next week it'll be on Wednesday. Make sure you roll through if you're in town.
Photo by Leo Furmansky
AJ can switch pedal feeble as good as he can regular, so this was no big deal for him. While the LBC kids were in town, Leo got this slick photo of AJ doing what he does best: big ledges. Slick.
Photo by Finn Zygowski
I was just chatting with Tom on Facebook when I saw this sick photo that Finn shot in Montreal. That's a proper rail hop. You remember this from his Specialized edit right? It looks much bigger here than in the video. So sick.
Photo by Matt Spencer
I was going to post this during "Matt Spencer week" here on the site but I figured I'd give it some space. Since first meeting Joe back in 2010, I was a big fan of his riding. He's got the ability to mix the big, hucker riding with precision and style. This wallride on a fence photo for Unknown came out so sick. It's gotta be one of Matt's best photos. Check out more at Wolf Drawn.
After our ride today, I took it easy at home until dinner time. We decided to take the ferry to Manly for mussels and pints. On the way home, I caught some great sunset photos over the Sydney harbor. It was the first time I have been out on the water here and it was the perfect time of day. What a great city.
As per the norm, there are tons more at my Flickr, so go check them out.
Today I finally got out on a decent road ride. The whole time I've been here in Sydney, I've been jonesing for some miles and elevation. A long time reader named James came to town from Canberra to ride. Neither of us knew where to go, so we headed to the coast and meandered through the coastal roads. It's damn beautiful here and the riding is quite relaxing, once you get over the heat.
We ended up doing around 30 miles and barely breaking the 1,800' mark in elevation. Not too bad. I've been told that north of the city is where the real hills are, so that's where I'll be headed tomorrow.
Australia has a mandatory helmet law in place. Like many of their policies, they sacrifice a personal choice, or responsibility for the greater good. You have very little rights when compared to the States. Case in point are their gun control laws. The result is a safer country with fewer gun-related domestic disputes. Also, the liquor laws are very strict. The pours are weak and bar tenders can lose their jobs, or be fined for serving a drunk customer.
The resulting scene is not what you'd expect coming to the country. I don't know about you, but my general impression of Australians were that they were party animals, mostly based on my previous experiences with them. The bar scene at night is surprisingly calm. There aren't drunken idiots pouring into the streets, no one is puking all over and even on Australia Day, I was surprised how calm it was, compared to say, the 4th of July.
That brings me to my point, do you think mandatory helmet laws should be enforced in the States? It's surreal to ride around town and see 99.9% of the riders with helmets. The one time I didn't wear mine, I was getting yelled at by drivers and pedestrians. It was like I was pissing in public. For some reason, I don't mind wearing a helmet, especially if everyone else is.
How do you feel about sacrificing personal rights for the greater good? Studies show that helmets save lives but is that enough?
Are you guys enjoying these daily photo journals? I hope so. Today we continued our cyclo-tourism around Sydney. We headed to Robo Cog for brekkie, then to the market and finally rolled over to Papillionaire Bicycles to see an internet bully named Harry. Sydney seems to be big on the Linus-style bikes and the rides they have built up at Papillionaire fit a tighter budget without sacrificing functionality or style. Lauren liked one of the models so I gave it some lens love. Other notable observations: holy hell, there are a ton of VW's here and I still can't get over how good the coffee is here.
Check out more at my Flickr.
Photo by Anthony Furlong
It's not everyday that you see a bicycle portrait like this. Nice one Anthony!
Yesterday was quite the adventure. First thing in the morning, Lauren and I met up with Yogi, one of the oldest bike messengers in Sydney. I met Yogi at the CMWC in Japan back in 2009, so it was great to catch up. We didn't have any distinct plans, so he took us on a tour of the city. We had Yum Cha, went to the harbor, over the bridge and through Centennial Park and to Bondi for some brews.
There are a ton of photos of us riding around the city at my Flickr. Head over to check them out!
In case you haven't seen the new COG Magazine, here's the inside cover ad, featuring Antonyo for Milwaukee Bicycle Co. He is way over the front end here!
Thanks to Drew from Milwaukee for sending me the print file.
