laugh..

1:30 am...

clocks ticking....

gnar...

I just turned 31 last month and have been skating for almost 2/3 of that time. About 11 years ago I dusted my knee pretty bad frontside flipping some stairs, banana splits - my leg went one way and the rest of me went the other... Most of my friends rode bmx so I decided to build a bike to cruise around on with them and to help work on my knee. After a while the casual pedaling turned into something more and once I felt comfortable and started skating again I realized I couldn't shake the bike thing. It actually made skating more fun because I started looking at things a little differently than I had been before.

Now, the only problem with bmx is that when you fall...you fall hard. When you bail on a skate you can usually kick or throw your board away from you, not the case with bmx. You either get tangled up in it or if you throw it away it will usually bounce right back at your face. Some of the worst slams I've ever taken have been on a bike which eventually led me to slow down because it was affecting my ability to skate as much as I wanted to.

Although skateboarding was and still is number one, bmx will always hold a close second...you guys are gnarly.

genius..

This is how it should be...fun.
Thats what this is all really about, right?

Max
Michael
Davey

thanks boys.

the panny hamster

At the Van Creeps show a while ago.

Chopper Dave photo.

poor man's hub...

If you've ever cracked open a star hub, I'm sure you'd agree that theres alot going on inside. So when I decided to hack these up, I also thought about changing out the center section too and simplifying the design of it. No more loose bearings, misplaced seals or shims. Instead, now it just uses modern day sealed bearings that you can get anywhere for $12 and a crush sleeve in between like you'd use on any spool hub...and you can still cover up the bearing ends on both sides with a stock star cover so nobody will ever know.

Thanks to my pal Kenny over at Zodiac for finishing up the the machine work after my lathe gave up on me half way through.

broken fins...

waste of precious time.

Pickles...

This is Craig aka: Leland Pickles...one of my best friends.

We started hanging out in high school. He was a bmx kid, I was a skater, he drove a bitchin 57 Chevy to school, I had nothing...it just made sense. He grew up in a hot rod family and knows something about everything on wheels. From German luxury cars to 100 year old tractors he just knows how things work, definitely the brains in the group.

Machinist by trade, lazy-ass by nature he always needs a little "prompting" to work on his own stuff, basically you gotta hold him at gunpoint. So in the middle of my chaos yesterday I made him some bars real quick for his Shovel, nothing groundbreaking but a little improvement over the old ones I'd say.

almost made it....

Rode up to the Born Free party at Garage Company yesterday. If you've never been there, don't go...Yoshi's collection is a mind blower and will most likely make you want to kill yourself. Cool people, cool bikes and free food; what more could you ask for.

and now the good stuff...

The ride up was a breeze, the freeway was flowing and only one person tried to run me over. The ride home on the other hand, a little different story. The bike started making a slight knocking sound a few miles from home and I could feel air puffing on the side of my left leg...stoked. I was too close to give up so I just muscled it home but the knocking and tinking got a little gnar so I ended up shutting down and walking it the last block.

The verdict -
broken motor mount
blown head gasket
stripped head bolt

oh yes...

I'm pretty confident in my unicorn collection and also convinced that Mr. T is the end all to everything but you got me second guessing myself with this magical piece, well played.

Max...get yer dancing shoes on, I'll be coming up soon.




Thanks for the photo, Michael.

all up in them guts...

I pitty the fool...

who don't recognize the king of all velvet masterpieces!

i love trannys

...not.