The Radavist

Photo by Jef Dempler

I remember when I first saw photos of Matt Reyes on Trick Track a few years back. Now he’s the face of Specialized’s P-Fix line. Who knew? I’m into this ad iMinus D posted yesterday. Great shot Jeff!

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.

Finn sent over a collection of photos he took while Tom Briggs and Tom LaMarche were in Montreal filming for Tom’s Specialized edit. Check the rest out at Great White North.

Wheel Talk is starting 2012 with a bang. Matt just posted up this 2011 Extras video featuring some of the heaviest hitters in FGFS and then, he’s working with Specialized to give away a P-Fix! Head over to Wheel Talk for the info.

Last year, my top 10 fixed freestyle video list caused quite the stir. Somehow, something that’s supposed to be a fun observation turned into a pissing contest. People emailed, Tweeted and even brought it up in real life that their video should have been ranked higher. Now, with the Facebook “Like” and Tweet buttons being used so frequently, I’ve resolved those issues. Some will say that Prolly is Not Probably is already biased, so I should put my opinion out there and what I will say to that is this list has all my favorite videos of the year, in more or less the same ranking I would have put them in anyway.

Now, enough with the neck-saving intro, here’s the Prolly is Not Probably Top 10 Fixed Freestyle Videos of 2011!

This year, more so than years past, I got to document Beautiful Bicycles around the world. From Melbourne, to SF and NYC, track bikes, road bikes and even fixed freestyle bikes found their way to the other side of my lens. When I decided to make my top 10 list this year, I knew I had to find an unbiased way of judging from my posts. After looking at them all, I decided Facebook “likes”, Tweets and comments were the best way to judge. Each of these bikes were broken down on a spreadsheet and I can say with confidence, they’re by far some of my favorite bikes of the year.

Without further ado, here’s my Top 10 Beautiful Bicycles of 2011!

I love the Specialized Purist water bottles. They clean easily, never stink and have a great spout. Now you can rep iMinusD when you hydrate. Pick one up here!

Finally! I was just joking on Twitter yesterday how there hasn’t been a whole lot of fixed freestyle edits as of late. Maybe people are gun shy after seeing Tom’s video? At any rate, the Flat Fix crew just dropped this one on us. Solid!

I was wondering what Specialized was going to do about the CPSC brake requirements on their fixed freestyle bike, the P-Fix. Mark from iMinus D just posted up a little update:

“I’ll give you the straight-up honest answer on this one. The delays we’re running into are solely a result of the brake testing. Which sounds ridiculous, I know. CPSC requires all complete bikes ship with brakes (unless it’s a dedicated track bike). So we had to scramble to get brakes sourced and onto the bikes. But it also has to pass brake testing, where they test it at certain speeds, in wet and dry, and it needs to stop within a set distance at each of the various speeds in both wet and dry. Some brake arms worked better than others, and some brad pads/compounds worked better than others. To add to the hassle, the best combination was a set of pads from one manufacturer and a set of brake arms from another (which wasn’t a viable option). We’ve since found a workable solution, but it took quite a while to land on it.

Pretty ironic a brake is what’s holding up a fixed gear bike. It’s even more frustrating knowing most people are just going to throw the brake in the trash, so the brake isn’t even necessary other than to satisfy a CPSC requirement.”

Yikes!

One of the things I’m striving to do is to cover multiple types of bike shops in the cities that I travel to. While I may cater to the more “boutique” style shops here on the blog, many other shops have some legitimate eye candy as well. When Andy hooked me up with DC, the owner of The Fitzroy Revolution in Melbourne, he leant me the Specialized Elite Crux cross bike. In return, I decided that I wanted to do a Shop Visit because behind the facade, this Specialized shop has some incredible vintage eye candy!

Check out more below!

After my road ride with Fyxo, I thought for sure it would be my most memorable experience down under. Monday was a national holiday here in Melbourne. Something to do with the queen, I dunno. When Andy and Dan’s original plan for a 3 day cross ride to the wilderness was thwarted by snow, we decided to do a one day cross ride. With Dan leading, we put our lives and our inner tubes in his hands as we set out from the CBD of Melbourne.

Check out nine more photos below!

Yet another one of Mac Spike’s Chris Chance bikes is getting some love here on the site. We saw his track and road before and now here’s his 1985 Fat Chance Kicker. Dude, I am seriously beside myself right now. That bike is incredible! Here are some details:

“Restored a Fat Chance Kicker mountainbike with mainly NOS parts. The frame was red, but I gave it the original Team colours. Rims: Specialized X26, Tires: Tioga Farmer John’s Cousin, Hubs: Deore XT Sealed, Rear derailleur: Deore XT, Front derailleur: Deore XT, BB: Cook Bros press-in. Cranks: Deore XT Biopace, Seatpost: American Classic, Seat: Avocet Racing I, Bars: Bullmoose, Brake levers: Suntour, Shifters: Deore XT. Rear brake: Suntour Cunningham rollercam, front brake: Mafac. Grips: Grab on. Seat post clamp: Suntour with Campagnolo skewer, Headset: Shimano 600ex.
I have a Hite-ride as well, but the seatpost skewer needs to be replaced with a longer one. Hope you like it!”

Check out more here at Mac Spikes’ Flickr!

Previously:
Beautiful Bicycle: Mac Spikes’ Pink Chris Chance
Beautiful Bicycle: Mac Spikes’ Chris Chance Pista

A reader forwarded this old Dirt Bros BMX video, which I can’t embed so check it out here. I couldn’t help but post yet another photo of Tom’s Specialized P-Fix to draw the correlation to Vic’s BMX for those who didn’t catch the reference. Since I can’t embed the older video, consider the one above as a place-holder.

Check out more below.

I have exhausted all my efforts to recover the missing photos from the Tom and Tony Texas Cookout Day 02. After hours upon hours of trying various recovery apps, all I could save from the card’s fragmented inner workings are these five photos. While they’re not all that informative, there’s a very funny back-story to them, which I’ll begin below.

Check out more from the Tom and Tony Texas Cookout Day 02 Lost Photos and Swamp Crotch below!

For decades, the design of the bicycle has stayed relatively the same: two wheels, a mechanism to propel said wheels and a steering column to navigate its path. While this description is very vague, the design and refinement of the bicycle has become very specialized over time. Road bikes, cross bikes and touring bikes all have specific design qualities: nuances that make them different. So where do you start when you’re working on a project with Toyota Prius Projects and Parlee Cycles? Both are known for their use of proprietary technology and innovation but how does that that translate into a frame design? Much less, an entire bicycle? Two weeks ago, I visited Parlee Cycles to document the design process of the concept bike build inspired by Prius innovations.

Check out more below!

Colby’s company, SKYLMT has a new bike check up featuring Ed Wonka from Grime. Watch as Ed goes over each detail on his Yo Mang! frame including ratio and tire choices. I love those Specialized tires.

NYC can support an almost unlimited amount of bike shops. Even to the point where specialized boutiques can thrive. That’s where GRIME Bikes‘ storefront comes in. They won’t fix your flat or adjust your derailleur, but they’ve got everything you need to get your fixed freestyle bike rolling and more. I wasn’t around for the grand opening of the store, but I caught up with Mike and Joey on Saturday to take some photos of their space in Chinatown.

Check out more photos from my Farewell NYC Shop Visit to GRIME Bikes below.

You know me, I love backpacks but there seems to be a dime a dozen in the industry nowadays and it’s impossible sometimes to find specialized ones. Hell, I’ve been looking for a waterproof / tripod carrying / photo backpack for weeks! When I see specialized backpacks like the Chrome Sherman, I get excited. It’s geared to you race heads who need to carry your tubular track wheels to the track, along with your kit, tools and shoes.

How smart is that? Check out more at Chrome.