The Radavist

From my SF Randomness set

Photo by Matt Lingo for Zen Grips

I met Kit this weekend in SF for the #RideNStyle fixed gear madness that engulfed the city. He’s from SoCal and came up to promote his new company, Zen Grips and race at the event. Made by ODI, these grips are fabricated in the USA and feature a unique compound and grip pattern. Kit was riding them on his track bike and his FGFS team has been repping them hard for the past few months.

Head over to Zen Grips to check out more and don’t miss that Matt Lingo-shot set with Congo and Joe.

Matt Reyes from Wheel Talk and Matt Lingo took these two photos of me at the 2012 RideNStyle. I never really get my photo taken, so it was nice to see these two pop up yesterday. When I sat down for the first time on Saturday to look at my photos, Matt was one of the people who thought it’d be funny to grab a shot of me, grinning ear to ear. I’m pretty sure Brenton Salo got one as well. See more film scans at RecFail.

Photo by Matt Spencer

Tyler Johnson had some of the cleanest lines at the 2012 #RideNStyle and it’s because he practices and rides as much as he can. Back when he was in LBC, hanging at the #FF, Tyler hit this tire slide on an old fridge. To see video of this, watch his edit again.

I got these printed up for #RideNStyle weekend by Luv Sik Graphix but I wanna give you guys a chance at picking some up.

SOLD OUT

Yes, I received everyone’s Paypal and accounted for the stock. You’ll get yours!

Photo by Matt Reyes

The only other person I’ve seen do tire slides like this is Nasty but never at this scale. Oscar’s in San Jose for RideNStyle and he’s ready to rip!

Santos, Congo, McKeag and Boothby all shredding Woodward West. Looking very good guys. Something tells me RideNStyle will be going off this year!

Grime just posted a preview to their highly-anticipated Shredwell Two.

“Teaser of our upcoming GRIME team video SHREDWELLTWO. Featuring Ed Wonka, Mike T Schmitt, Devon Lawson, Anthony Combs, Ricardo Lino, Gabe Alcantara, & Christian Hamrick.

Filmed by Matt Slumworm Reyes, Colby Elrick, Mike T Schmitt & Christian Hamrick.
Edited by Mike T Schmitt

There will be an advanced screening of the video at the pre-party for Red Bull Ride&Style at the CHROME store in San Francisco.”

This is looking damn good.

Photo by Matt Lingo

This weekend was the Ride N Style Crit qualifier in Phoenix, Arizona. Matt Lingo went down to shoot photos of the event for State Bicycle Co and there’s a post up on Recfail with a lot of great shots.

Don’t worry, this isn’t the official Red Bull RideNStyle qualifier, that’ll take place in SF at the MiniDrome.

Santos and crew frequent the Hurley indoor park. Joe McKeag is on fire here! Can’t wait for RideNStyle!

Crank arm to 180 bar to half cab bar? Pretty slick Tyler! #RideNStyle is gonna go off this year. Just don’t hurt yourself fucking around dude!

CSK

Last year’s event was a blast and 2012 will be even better. I got this email while I was on my “walkabout”. Here’s the latest from Red Bull:

Event to Once Again Combine Fixed Gear Biking and Urban Contemporary Art

San Francisco, CA (February 8, 2012) — On April 28, San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza will once again serve as the setting for the collision of fixed gear biking and urban contemporary art known as Red Bull Ride + Style. After a highly successful inaugural kickoff in 2011, the event returns even bigger and better for 2012.

Red Bull Ride + Style features fixed gear riders facing off in both track and freestyle competitions, with the obstacles designed and decorated by local San Francisco artists. In 2011 the event brought together more than 50 riders from both coasts, including riders from fixed gear meccas San Francisco, Portland, New York, and even Japan.

The 2011 top ten finalists in both categories will be automatically invited back to this year’s event. While the remaining spots in freestyle will be invite-only, the race portion of the event will consist of a qualifying round the night before the main event. This will serve as an open invitation to all hopefuls to lay down their best time in order to qualify for the big show in Justin Herman Plaza on April 28.

This year’s racetrack is being designed with input from selected participants from the 2011 Red Bull Ride + Style event. Details will be released on the new track and freestyle course prior to the event, so riders can prepare themselves properly for the demands of event day. Another update with the full list of invited freestyle athletes and more information about the event will be released shortly.

Race Top Ten – Automatic Invitation
1. Jason Clary
2. Kell Mckenzie
3. Austin Horse
4. Walton Brush
5. Massan Fluker
6. Chas Christiansen
7. Jerome Stretch
8. Steve Tortorelli
9. Blake Von Knopka
10. Hernan Montenegro

Freestyle Top Ten -Automatic Invitation
1. Matt Reyes
2. Josh Boothby
3. Tyler Johnson
4. Jacob Santos
5. Nasty
6. Michael Chacon
7. Matt Montoya
8. Congo
9. Miles Mathia
10. Joe McKeag

For more information, please visit www.redbullusa.com/rideNstyle, find us on Facebook http://win.gs/rideNstyle and on Twitter @redbullSFO / #rideNstyle

Well, I hope you all had a great New Year. I’m assuming most of you are back to work now and probably have some time to kill today during your lunch break so I invite you to check out a year in review. 2011 brought about a lot of traveling for me and like the increase in frequent flier miles, the site’s content continues to rack up. International, cross-continental and bi-coastal travels brought me to shops, events and in front of Beautiful Bicycles.

Check out Prolly is Not Probably’s Year in Review below!

Photo by Æ

While I was out hitting up shops in SF during the RideNStyle weekend, Andy Ellis was romping around town with the fixed freestyle crew. He showed me some of his photos he shot with his Ricoh a few hours afterwards and lemme just say, I’m stoked to see the new Fixed Mag! For now, check out some teasers on the Fixed Gear London blog. Hopefully TTv will check it out too!

Ed filmed a bunch of clips over the past few months for Grime. Ranging from his time in San Jose, the Wheeltalk compound and the Red Bull RideNStyle comp. There’s some good shit in there.

Photos by JSN M

I don’t remember much of this night. It was mere hours after the RideNStyle event and I was beat from shooting photos all day. I met up with some friends, who then moved a car onto the sidewalk and later, Colby, Newman and my boy Zach went to Delirium. When the bar got douchey we went back onto the sidewalk where I drank a fifth of Makers.

Around that time is when JSN and Dylan said they were going to the park, so I followed. I was pretty wasted and supposedly, I pissed all over Crihs’ bike. Hey, it’s a Sweathogs thing. But I didn’t just do it once, I did it 3 times.

So I guess this is where Crihs gets really pissed and begins to plan his revenge. And yes, when he avenges his bike, I’ll post about that too.

I’m not sure why It’s taken me so long to post about Destroy Bicycles. They’re everything I love about American frame builders and fixed freestyle but as life goes, I get piled up with posts in queue and shit slips through the cracks. Redwood City, CA is home to Sean and Marcus. Together they build fixed freestyle and BMX frames out of their shop. I saw some of the frames at the RideNStyle event and I gotta say, they looked pretty good.

So go check out Destroy Bicycles and some of the team over on SHMOB! Thanks to BHSK for the reminder on this one.

i actually met Forest Parker tonight at the Red Bull RideNStyle opening party at the Oakley store here in SF tonight. He’s a super nice dude and his riding reflects that! Here’s his introductory edit for the iMinusD team.