six day(ers)

i wanna pull on your coat about something i recently read in the book im currently reading. the book is called "Major" and its about Marshall "Major" Taylor. he was the first black cyclist at the turn of the century and possibly one of the fastest humans on a bike. read about it here. im only on chapter 7 but so far its been able to keep my attention and interest.

what i want to bring your attention to are these races that occur throughout the span of six consecutive days and the winner is basically the rider that accumulates the most miles throughout the six days. the whole race takes place on a track, meaning velodrome, and when originally started was said to take 10 years of the life of anyone who participated. the reason being was that in its early days, the racers would basically ride until they collapsed. we're talking about 1877, which is when the first six day was held in england, so there were no rules or regulations that showed any concern for the athlete. bicycles were relatively a very new thing back in those days anyway and the crowd loved the fact that they could watch something that was so destructive to a human being much like watching two sides go to war with each other. these days the races still exist, mostly in europe, but their are time restraints set and teams of no more than 3 people are able to compete so that no one racer over exerts him or herself more that he or she has to.

in the book im reading the event is described to seem like a full on party. there were bands playing, vendors selling food and trinkets, jugglers...you name it. not to mention that no event of this scale was complete without its share of celebrities and being that it took place in madison square garden, all the rich socialites of the time were there in full regalia. whats funny is that since bikes were so new at this time some of the racers weren't really cyclist at all and most of them had never even raced in such a huge event with as many competitors so therefore the crashes and wipeouts were apparently epic and sometimes they fell into the spectators of rich folk that had the means of acquiring the best seats in the house, which were along the track. "damn it, muffy, that oath broke my pipe and monocle. what ever will i do?"

so i recommend reading about this little bit of interesting bicycle history here.

enjoy and as always...ride on!!

p.s. don't forget miami critical mass this friday august, 28th.

weekend recap

omar, patti and i went out on a ride sunday nite through downtown and miami beach. here are a few pics:

patti got some new wheels, handle bar and stem...pretty sweet

Pura Vida makes bomb smoothies. check'em out if your ever in their 'hood

riding thru south pointe park at dusk

we also had "bike movie nite" at omar's house on saturday. we saw the flying scotsman, which turned out to be a pretty kick ass movie and is based on the true story of cyclist Graeme Obree. not to be confused with this flying scotsman tho.

we also saw the documentary B.I.K.E. that tells the story of a guy trying to join the black label bicycle club in new york city and the tallbike subculture. this was an interesting film that was both funny and sad. i would say that even if you don't usually ride bike you would still enjoy this film. its more about people and the rebellious moral values that they hold than about just a bike club and they're bikes. i was into it and it made me want to ride. yesssss!!!!

i guess thats it for now. be safe on those streets, whether your driving a car or riding a bike.

ride on, friends!!!

kid tattoos...is there anything better?

well not a real tattoo, of course. c'mon peeps, he's 5 and we're not complete animals. just partial animalistic. so anyways, albert "tattooed" nick the other day. gave him a sweet skateboarding skeleton. check it:

taking it like a champ

the finished product

nice work, teeks!

alberteeko can be found tattooing, mostly over 18 clientle, at Black Sparrow Tattoo Company in hialeah. come get a skeleton shredding on a skateboard...or shredding on a bike like this one:

ride on, ride on!!!!

"let me ride"....

howdy ho, friends!

sorry for the delay in updates. i admit i have been slacking. but no more. so here we go...

in thinking today that i needed to update this blog i was sorta stuck on what to write about. then after much contemplation and deliberation i remembered that while driving back from NOLA with rod we were jamming to a particular record and i thought that it was soooo good that it deserved to be praised on this here virtual platform of opinions and rants by yours truly. what record am i speaking of, you ask? why non other than "The Chronic" by Dr. Dre of course! hello! is anyone with me? is this not one of the best rap albums of all time? i mean its got hit after hit after hit. a beautifully produced album that makes me wanna hop in my '64 chevy impala and cruise the 'hood at 30 - 35 mph "hitting the switches while i get my proper swerve on". not that i have a '64 chevy impala but if i did you best believe this record would be on heavy rotation in that bitch.

not to mention the album cover! can we talk about this (cwtat)?! so classy looking. so simple. look how hard it is:

boof!!! of course we gotta give credit where credit is due. it was actually taken from this:

ride on, dr. dre! i mean if your gonna call your record the chronic, why not make the cover after zig zag rolling papers and replace the french bearded guy with your face? i mean c'mon!

its also pretty incredible to think that this record is almost 20 years old and, although i'm not an avid rap/hip-hop listener by no means, you can still hear its influence in certain songs coming out to this day. the production is very innovative for its time in borrowing beats from late 70's funk and mixing it with original live instrumentation.

although i have no problem playing the record in its entirety, favorite songs of mine include:

let me ride, nuthin' but a "g" thang, lil' ghetto boy, high powered, and bitches ain't shit.

get into it people! if you got this record play it now. if you don't have it go get it and rock it later at full volume. don't be afraid to lean back in your seat and for pete's sake sloooowww'er down. one must chill while the dr. schools you on some gangsta ass shit!!!

ride on, players!!!