Comic Con Hangover Mountain Bike Ride

If you wake up from your Comic Con hangover in time, join us tomorrow on the Punk Rock MTB Ride field trip to Sweetwater Reservoir!

We'll be visiting one of the oldest train bridges in the region and will be joined by a special guest who is bike touring across the world.

See you tomorrow at Rebecca's (30th & Juniper) at 1pm for the carpool there.

In the meantime, I'm about to head to San Diego Comic Con which is going down this weekend. See you all at the Storm Trooper dance party tonite.

RIP ATIP: Three Year Anniversary of Our Friend's Death

It's been three years since our friend Atip Ouypron was struck and killed by a motorist in the middle of the deadly University Avenue and Park Blvd intersection between the Hillcrest and North Park neighborhood. We still miss you. RIP.



More info for those who weren't fortunate enough to know Atip.

Matt Spencer, Congo, Matt Lingo Get Down at Home Ave

I was thinking the same thing as Prolly--It's been awhile since I've seen work by SD's Matt Lingo. He most certainly hasn't stopped. Quite the opposite. He's one of the busiest dudes I know. But when I run into him around town he's always in the same good mood, regardless. Him , Congo, and Matt Spencer got busy at one of SD's sickest underworld spots--Home Ave:


The hill is alive. Spencer in control.


Just picked up that same Kenda tire for my mtb whip.


New Leaders are lookin' fresh.


Stay punk.

Wolfpack Hustle to Race a Jet from Burbank to Long Beach

This is amazing. Big ups to Wolfpack. Great idea. P.S. Every day in Southern California is Carmageddon...:

Carmageddon: Bicyclists challenge JetBlue to crosstown race [Updated]

July 15, 2011 | 10:51 am

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Can bicyclists beat JetBlue from Burbank to Long Beach on "Carmageddon" weekend?

A couple of bloggers have laid down that challenge to a bicycle group after learning JetBlue was offering $4 one-way plane tickets Saturday for the crosstown trip.

The cycle group known as Wolfpack Hustle will do the honors for the wheels against a JetBlue passenger plane. The cyclists are slated to take off at 10:50 a.m. Saturday from a home in Burbank.

Bicycle blogger Joe Anthony will take the 12:20 p.m. JetBlue flight from Burbank to Long Beach. The flight is scheduled to arrive in Long Beach at 1:05 pm.

Anthony is expected to make the finish line about 15 to 20 minutes later at the Long Beach Aquarium.

[Updated at 11 a.m.: “You have to remember, the passenger has to come from his house to the airport and then get from the plane to the Long Beach Aquarium," said a rider known as Roadblock from the Wolfpack Hustle. “Right now on Twitter, people think we can win. We beat a car down there a couple of weeks ago. That was from Silver Lake to Long Beach.”]

What began as a bunch of jokes on Twitter about bikers being able to beat JetBlue between bloggers Tom Vanderbilt @tomvanderbilt and Gary Kavanagh @GaryRidesBikes has evolved into a real-world race.

Roadblock says five riders will take up the Bike vs. Flight challenge.

Organizers say all participants must obey traffic laws, including the person driving Anthony to the airport.

The start of the race is timed so Anthony can arrive at the airport about one hour before takeoff.

That may be just enough time to give Wolfpack Hustle a sporting chance.

RELATED:

Full Carmageddon coverage

LAPD says no to parties, bike rides on 405

Carmageddon: Taiwanese animators poke fun at L.A.

-- Richard Winton

LA Times, July 15: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/07/carmageddon-bicyclists-challenge-jetblue-to-crosstown-race.html#more

Tonite! Three Awesome Full Moon Rides

So amped on tonite! Back-to-back-to-back rides starting with...


A little crew will be heading out earlier from the Sheldon Brown BBQ to catch the Punk Rock Mountain Bike Ride meeting at 7:30pm. The PRMTB ride tonite will be a going away ride for Mike Valenzuela whose heading on a bike tour this Monday:


Come say peace out to our boi!

Then we'll all be converging at 10pm for the Awarewolfs ride:


It's a super nice day out in SD, and it's gonna be an even better nite! Can't wait!

Punk Rock Mountain Bike Ride Photo Story Time

Storytime:

The Punk Rock MTB Rides have still been ruling my life.

So stoked on my mountain bike right now. Just got back from an urban MTB sesh around my neighborhood while listening to Nick Cave. Got all hyped after reading Wrahw following yesterday's killer trip in-through-and-out Chula Vista's hidden trail system that is literally w/in the gaps of its neighborhood.

Here's a mini collection of the last 6 rides:

Field trip to Esco on June 5 (this ride was originally supposed to be on May 29 but we pushed it back one week for super fun Cretins BBQ/Dodgeball Tourney/Ride the week prior):







All the signs of a perfect host. Thanks, Brian, for showing us around Esco.


Ryan was jammin' down the first trail and nailed this gap w/o any prior inspection. I was right behind him to witness. On our way back the starting point he inspected it and was shocked he cleared this thing right off the bat. He started getting second thoughts about doing it again. But he ended up doing it after watching Jack and Andy (probably the two most advanced regulars on the ride) clear it, so I was able to score this blurry photo of it.


Monster mash.


Jack gettin' droppy.

After the Esco ride we decided to change the scheduling of the ride so that we do two field trips to every local ride.


To maintain our original commitment of "Every other Sunday since Jan. 9th" we picked right back up on June 12. The mission was a field trip to Rancho Penasquitos. My favorite style of trail--Fast and cavernous:

Jason picked up this sick steel Bontrager w/ early 2000s XTR, etc. Beautiful whip. He got it to partake in these rides. And what could be a better introduction than his home town canyon?


All about trails w/ rivers runnin' through. Rivers w/ dogs runnin' through is extra credit.



Andy is probably the gnarliest regular. He was a part of the old school Virginia-based MTB crew "Team Hugh Jass" who I used to read about in mags in high school. Good dude who knows tons of great spots in SD and keeps the rides posi-core and funny.




Disseminatin' propaganda on the regs.


Full Moon Ride to The Sewers on June 15: This ride was exactly what the PRMTBRides are supposed to be about. Got so underground, we got physically lost. I love that feeling. It's so rare.

Local Ride, July 3: No Photos. Heard the crew started out w/ some local trails then felt like riding Mission Trails, so they just did both. Hah.

Chula, July 10:

This was the first time we've gone back to the same destination on a field trip. Shows you how many places to ride in SD there are. There are actually tons more that we haven't hit up. We were just in the mood for some South Bay singletrack. We did the same loop but added Four Palms (a trail I had the honor of helping to build w/ the Hoser crew in 2000-ish) and Pablo's Chute (below), which is a super fast tunnel drop that's a bit more gnarly than the pic represents:

'Zoni in the zone.

Finally, this what happens when you try to bail off a four foot high teeter totter half way through:


The end.

Next ride is the Full Moon Ride this Friday, July 15. Meets at 7:30pm at Rebecca's. We are converging w/ two other rides at some point that nite. Look out for the next blog post w/ details. Gonna be a good nite.

Paper Rad Collective in town this Wednesday

My buddies Extreme Animals from the Paper Rad Collective are in town playing The Che Wednesday nite! Nothing will be in control!

Their new video is getting me amped:


Flier:


Rage:


Extra credit to those OG SD heads who remember this Extreme Animals-affiliated rager from '0-fucking-6:

America Day

Happy America Day.

Super nice weather in SD today. Lots of bikes out. Even more U.S. flags. Wished half of the time weren't on Old Navy t-shirts.

America Day is a good time to think about the country and its history. I've been nerding out on the history of U.S. Presidents lately, irrespective of America Day today, and I recently came up on this brutal 1834 cartoon of Kentucky Senator Henry Clay sewing President Andrew Jackson's mouth:



Jackson was censured by the U.S. Senate for abuse of presidential power. He made certain enemies in his fight against the Bank Of The U.S., as depicted here:



As someone whose had a strong interest in Freedom of Speech and the limits thereof in this country and beyond, what I do know is this:

There are generally two ways for someone to get censored and censured like this: Ironically, either their mic control is really whack or their mic control is on-hit... To determine that depends entirely on who you ask...