Random As Rhyme

I have been riding for awhile now and have acquired some pictures a long the way. I figured it would be interesting to post up a few of my favorite (but not necessarily my best) and discuss why I like them so much.

This first one has got to be around three or so years old judging by the clothes and the bike set up (and lack of helmet).

From what I remember the entire session was pretty good and the weather was just right for riding and shooting photos.

We shot this photo about 5 times so that I could extend it as far as possible. This trick is a classic which I should do more often.

This next isn’t a great photo at all. Lyndsey took it with a point and shoot from the stands which were pretty far away from the course. The result meant that I am pretty much the only thing out of focus in the entire shot, but that’s cool because I think its a good representation of how fast I was going.

This box jump was sixteen feet long and with 6ft transition on both ends, it was made for men. It was pretty fun to jump but I pretty much died trying to trick the bastard.

I remember crashing once in practice and people thought I was koed because I was not moving, really I was just making sure I didn’t make in my pants.

This is a shot of me blasting over a height pole at my friend Harley’s (now Harley@tenpack) BMX Bonanza at the simcoe fair.

Mike, Teddy, Jeff, Lyndsey and myself made the trek out to Simcoe and were rewarded by great weather, great riding and a great crowd.

From what I recall Jeff, Mike and Teddy all rode pretty well.

Since I don’t remember my standings it probably means I didn’t do well however I had a ton of fun in the high jump contest and became a carnival spectacle at the same time. Awesome!

This is a picture of the group of riders from Southern Ontario wild boys who invaded Camp Woodward, only 2 of the people in the photo below are not from Southern Ontario.

We all basically rode non stop learning as much as possible.

I also hit my head and  forgot a lot of the weekend, but I take the good with the bad.

The shots above are both from the same day and it’s hard to put into words how great of a day it was.

The vibe of this session was amazing and it had nothing  to do  with the pros that where in attendance or the  tricks that  where being  thrown down.

Every single person  on this day came out to ride and have a good time, there was no competition, no rivalry,  and no drama it was just a great day of BMX.

Riders from all over Ontario  came out to  remember the short life of an amazing little shredder named Ian Carmichael.

Ian and this day were a gift and may he always rest in piece.

Normally my ideas take about 6 months to a year before I move on them but I am pumped for this one so  I am going hard.

It’s been about a week after my idea and I couldn’t be happier with how smoothly and quickly things are moving along.

I have been in contact with A-wire from the Krash Test Dummy Stunt Team on facebook almost daily and recently sent him a photo and some information on the parts I am sending off.

Macniel Lighter Bars
Odyssey Milk Bars
Odyssey 14mm Front wheel
Hoffman Stem
Mosh Stem
KHE Ti pegs
Industrial Steel Pegs
Profile Whippit sprocket.

He hit me back with these encouraging words:

I hope to get them boxed up within this week and send them out before I head off to Jamaica. I am probably going to package in some shirts and stickers with the parts as well.

I am going to ask for some shots of the parts being used in return to throw up here and just help me get more pumped to send more.

In the mean time here are some cool shots A has been sharing with me.

Chillin with Travis Pastrana

Bunny hop contest, on grass legit.

And finally they have some team members in this music video

Stay tuned for more updates… I am off to get some much needed sleep.

My friend Chijioke (brought the most hits via google to my blog in December) who I wrote about before is officially on Volume/Demolition through Ten Pack distribution so props to him. He shreds.

Now If I can only get him to sign my frame (it’s one of his old ones).

Harmonica Beat Box

FUTU Props Commercial

Fresh Prince of Bel Air Gangster version

Hip Hop Timeline

Are you serious?

No Pooping!

NES Varsity Jacket Is a Limited Edition for a Reason – Gizmodo

Slammed Delorean

I hooked up the hose, ran water through the engine, started it up and was waiting for the water to come out clean (The engine never went above idle so I was told this would be ok).

Cocaine, Meth, and Crack all the sudden become legal. Do you do it?
fuck! I’d probably stop doing it. What fun would a meth binge be if that shit was legal?

The car should not be driven. Aside from the things necessary to move the vehicle under its own power, very little is functional. The engine block was originally machined in January of 1967, making it clearly not the original. No other engine diagnostics were done in light of the obvious determination that this car will not be restored.

While writing last weeks blog about BMX all around the world I was pretty stoked to see videos of people around the world shredding. More so than your normal videos of Americans and Canadian guys tearing it up. However it was when I watched the video of people in Jamaica riding that the wheels in my head started turning.

I started asking myself questions:
How do they get parts?
Are they new or old?
Do they need parts are they expensive?

Before I go on the reason I am focusing on Jamaica (first) is that, for those of you that don’t know, my family is from Jamaica. I am actually the only one in my family that was born in Canada, and while Jamaica is a beautiful country they don’t share the same luxury’s as you or I (assuming you live in Canada or America).

It is hard to get a handle on whether Jamaica is a third world or second world country (as that term seems to be falling out since I took world issues) or a developing nation but the fact of the matter is Jamaica (and Jamaicans) as a whole as bigger things to worry about than building a BMX scene.

Regardless of what the country’s current national situation is there are riders and there is a scene.

Whether the number or riders is 10 or 1000, I realized that I am privileged enough to be in a situation that I can help them, so help them I will.

So I got in touch with krashtestdummybmx via you tube and asked a few questions, mainly about the scene and how hard it was to get parts, his responses are in bold.

That’s right there is enough for me to want to help the scene out, but it goes on.

So not only is there a scene in Jamaica, but there also seems to be at least one person who’s heart is in the right place to help build it.

In my basement currently sits a parts box, the parts are in great working order, some near new condition. Most replaced because I am lucky enough to be fairly well connected and I get parts for great prices.

Usually I sell these parts for next to nothing or give them away to riders who I think can put them to good use.

Normally it works out, but sometimes I give them to people only to find out that they sold it and purchased something else, or that it was the wrong color and sits in their basement now. Not only is this not cool, it also doesn’t help out anyone.

With this in mind I am now working on getting a mailing address and sending the contents of my parts box out to Jamaica free of charge.

Once I see that the parts are being put to good use I am going to turn to my friends and ask them for their “worthless” parts and send those as well.

I will start small and see what happens, I have ideas on how to grow this idea but I am going to start with one rider at a time and see where I end up.

And thus this is my project I have dubbed Selfless BMX.. giving parts to riders who NEED them, for the love of the sport.

I will keep writing updates as I go to keep those of you who are interested informed. If you would like to help send me an email thetrailpimp@hotmail.com

If you would like to keep updated on the project check out my blog Random As Rhyme for updates.

When I first started riding I thought BMX was pretty much a North American specific sport. Naive I know but I was pretty young (14) and didn’t really have anyone to tell me any different, I assumed other countries had better things to worry about than riding kids bikes.

Over the years thanks to more media coverage I realized that BMX is pretty much world wide. Thanks to vimeo and youtube it’s much easier to find footage of ridiers all around the world.

So I compiled a list of videos in places that you would not immediately thing ‘BMX’ and posted them here. Enjoy.

New Czech Republic

Thailand

Russia

Germany

Shoe-G has been holding it down in Japan for some time

Hong Kong Rider “Milk Boy”

Jamaica

After posting all these videos, mainly the Jamaica one, I got to thinking how hard it must be to get good current parts in some countries.

I think I am going to look in the old parts bin and send some of my better condition stuff over. I can’t imagine what it would be like to get a straight set of bars for free from someone in another country with the same interests as you.

Ride BMX did this feature asking a bunch of BMX pros questions about their cars. Since I love cars and BMX I really enjoyed it (bmxboard did not). I am vain enough to assume that if I answered the same questions the pros were asked someone, somewhere would like to read it.

Since I am sort of a big deal.

First off, what sort of car(s) do you have?

Currently a 2004 Mazda 3 GT. Previous to that I had two: a 1985 BMW 325e and a 1992 Chevy S10 Blazer.

What made that car appealing to you?
Price, modifications, and storage space. After my blazer/mini truck project got wrecked I didn’t want to make my BMW a daily again so I was looking for a hatch or wagon.

I was originally looking at Protege5’s and Subaru’s but p5’s have rust issues and the Subaru’s I wanted were out of my price range. After being denied from test driving a few Protege 5s I found this mazda3 at p5 price and scooped it up.

I had a no white car,  no previously modded car rule but once I saw how clean this car was I decided it would work. So far so great. (Other than their own rust problems sigh)

The typical situation is: kid rides bikes, kid gets car, kid quits riding bikes…Why didn’t this happen to you?
I love BMX way to much for something like a car to take me away from it.

Everything fun to do in a car is illegal or expensive anyway.

What sort of stuff are you into with the car? Drag racing, road racing, wrapping it around a pole, etc.?
I’ve always just loved modifying cars and then cruising around and meeting other people who are into them, I think I got the interest in cars from my dad, but he hates cars now since his mechanics son stole his turbo  Volvo and wrote it  off. Thieves are really good at taking passion away.

I want to get into auto crossing this year though hopefully it will happen, but I have issues scheduling in all my interests as it is.

What all have you done to the car?
I don’t want to get into specifics because I don’t trust people anymore but it’s got suspension, intake, and exhaust mods all done the right way just how I like it.

No stereo though, which is a first for me and a little depressing, oh well.

Who has the best car in BMX?
Dave Mirra has a really nice collection. A nice e46 m3 and a dope scoobie. So I will say him.

Who has the fastest?
Rumor has it Scotty Cranmer has some Mitsu evos so probably him. Locally Steve  Moxley’s brother Kirk has a surprisingly quick turbo focus hatch.

Any future plans or goals?
Keep it running, keep it  from rusting and keep it clean. I want to keep thieves out of it also. My next car will hopefully have a snail.

Any shout-outs/thanks/call outs for people?
I will just drop some board url’s cause I am not big time:
maxbimmer.com
torontomazda3.ca
mazda3forums.com
jdmrides.ca

I have had this book for a very, very,  long time. If I recall I purchased it at a book fair at my elementary school in grade 1. Which would put the year about 1989, which was 8 years before I raced my first race.

I figured since this book was publish in 1987 making it over twenty years old it would be pretty interesting to scan it and post it online for everyone to see.

Enjoy.

The next book I need to scan is also pretty interesting. I won’t scan all of this one though cause its pretty big.

I have been gone for a little, Christmas and being off work makes me move at a lethargic pace. But I will be back on my grind Monday.

However I saw this today and it’s pretty rad. I wish I had a body of work this impressive in any medium.

Enjoy

Macniel was running a cool contest where you design some shirts and if you win you get a box of your design plus one of their new frames. I am on a Macniel Whitton II now so a Whitton III would be ace. So I did up a few.

I sent these:

I didn’t send these: