Author: Mischa

Mush

Ok so we’re a bit slow off the mark with this one, but we are in Tasmania after all. Ben picked up a copy of that beast of all hype-beasts, MASH. Yeah yeah, the fixed gear movie not that shitty comedy show. Starts well, with some nice footage of some dudes who are doing pretty impressive stuff, mostly. I’m not going to pretend I can do any of the stuff those guys can handle, but it’s a little BMX-esque when you ignore the fact that they’re riding track bikes. I guess that’s the appeal though. Anyway, there’s some trick riding and lots of general city riding. Then a lot more general city riding with a few more tricks. We get some bar spins, some wheelies, and then a bit more city riding. Fixed gear bikes look smooth as hell when they’re ridden well, but there’s only so much you want to watch. The whole thing should have been cut down to 20 minutes of solid footage, rather than the pad-out it seems to have received.

Anyway, much respect to the guys involved for nailing some crazy fixed gear tricks and putting together the film. The packaging is brilliant, with the DVD being stuck inside the cover of a little book, filled with photos and ridiculous  bike riding prose. I dig it. The subtle printing of skid tracks on the front cover is really nice too.

If you’re keen to see the film I’d recommend buying it rather than ripping it off. The book’s worth seeing, and you may as well support the guys who’ve put a heap of effort into creating something for you to enjoy.

If you’d rather not pay for it, just go watch some of Lucas Brunelle’s stuff, it’s more fun.

Sometimes it’s the little things

I woke up this morning still drunk from a night of bike riding and binge-drinking through the streets of Melbourne. Twenty minutes before we’re due to hit the airport I decide it’s probably about time to pull the bike apart and pack it for the flight over. Good plan, until I round out the pissweak seat post binder bolt, which I happen to need to loosen to remove my seat and get my bike back home. The next half hour was spent swearing at inanimate objects and searching through BnC Mike’s tool box for things to get the damn thing off. In the end brute strength won the day and we ripped the post right out. Lucky I’m such a ripped dude and not a scrawny 60kg wimp. Once we returned to home soil a quick trip up the road sourced materials and things got serious. One hacksaw, a hammer, a screwdriver and an allen key later, all was fixed with minimal tears and no damage.

Little fucker…

binder-bolt.jpg

Maximum output, activate the pit!

“[Scott] Vogel is widely known in the scene not just for his tireless efforts to keep hardcore punk and metalcore “pure” and “fun,” but for his love of stagedives, and for his tendency for bizarre and often hilarious on-stage banter, known colloquially as “Vogelisms“. Examples include: “We need to elevate the maximum stagedive potential”, “Take this shit to the next level”, “Who cares if you’re Christian?”, and “Maximum output! Activate the pit!””

– Wikipedia

Vogelisms.com
(Hit refresh for a new quote)

Terrorhc.com

Road signs always look better looking over your shoulder

Ben and I went for a ride out to Richmond yesterday. It was fairly windy, but we were keen for a pie. We got buzzed by big trucks quite a few times, which is never fun. Highways aren’t exactly the best place for bike riding but we came out alive.

We got a good pie and a shit coffee from the place where I had my first ever job, The Richmond Bakery. Many a summer day was spent alternating between staring at a pile of dishes and gazing longingly at the warm weather outside. Free lunch is always a pleasure though.

We took some photos…

Continue reading “Road signs always look better looking over your shoulder”

GODDAMN CANNUCKS!

You might have read on Fyxomatosis/House Of Pistard a few days ago about some crazy Canadian working as a courier in London. A fuckwit in a Mercedes tried to kill him, and as can happen in situations where morons bring you close to death, he snapped. It ended with a bike through a windscreen, or as some like to call it ‘justice’.

Anyway, it turns out the crazy bastard was none other than the brother of local Hobart-based Canadian courier Dave “American Possum” McCaig. It’s a small world after all!

Ryan McCaig
The Older McCaig

You can read some details about the whole thing here. The kids at House Of Pistard are doing a heap of stuff to cover Ryan’s (or as we like to call him, American Dave Snr’s) damage costs, including some ripper t-shirts. Punk rock fans will notice the blatant rip-off of The Clash’s London Calling CD cover, and we whole-heartedly approve.

McCaig T-shirt

Go buy one so Dave has someone to hang out with when he gets to London!

Bikes and Bridges

Defiance Ohio are a totally neat band from Florida. They make awesome heartfelt folk punk music about good stuff (including bikes). They’re touring here in January. You show go and see them.

Even Columbus looks better on the back seat of a bike and all my fears get washed away in a stream of blinking lights and the concrete strip below seems less like a noose and more like a tie that binds or at least a tourniquet. it’s been such a hard season and the bridges we burned might be all we had to keep us from drowning. but at least we had this time; and i’d like to think we’re better off for it. i’ll remember this. sometimes broken things make the best building supplies. and we’ll keep on building. hearts aren’t made of glass, they’re made of muscle and blood and something else. and they don’t so much as break as bend and tear. we have what it takes to keep it together; and move on.

-Defiance Ohio, Bikes and Bridges (from their record Share What Ya Got)

Def,OH said…
Any relationship that matters – a friendship, a family, a romance, a band – anything – is a perilous and fragile thing because along with all the amazing experiences and creations that can come from something so intimate and exhausting comes the possibility for things to crumble and shatter or whither and die. when that happens, it’s easy to forget what was precious amidst all the disaster. we should always carry our history with us but never let it bury us.

Silver Sprocket…yo

Ok, I don’t really understand this website. They say they’re a bike club (somewhere) but it’s pretty much just full of punk rock stuff. I’m totally ok with that, and I think it might just be a way of avoiding being called a ‘record label’ (which can kind of get annoying at times). Either way, you should go have a look ’cause I dig their weird blog and they do stuff for good bands (and Mitch Clem, who rules). Actually, the only band on there that I’ve heard is River City Rebels.

I think they’re mostly just a distro.

The Disciples ride strong!

IronHorse2.jpg

Massive shout out and thanks to all the crew who came out on Saturday for the amazing inaugural BnC event, Disciples Of The Iron Horse!

The sun was out with a genuine brutality that made for a stunning day, and damn harsh weather for riding the blacktop. BnC crew showed early to get things rolling and the Storer Brigade held no punches. The BBQ was fired up, the eskies were chilled and the stereo was turned up to 11. Slowly the wheels started to roll in and registration filled out.

We were graced with the presence of (solo) Team Pevis (McEllendale) who regaled us with tales from the early days of Tasmanian cycling, when men were men and bikes were solid cast iron. Safe to say those chronicles will be making their way to the BnC website in the near future so that they may be recorded for future generations to read, research, study and worship. Viewer discretion may be advised due to mature content, but that’s not the kind of thing to stop us.

Once we got under way the true heat of the day seemed to kick in. A Le Mans start saw our brave competitors sprint the Bocce field in true marathon style and leap upon their iron steeds. Pedals and wheels flew in all directions, but Continue reading “The Disciples ride strong!”

The trials and tribulations of Pevis McEllendale (1882)

An example of the long, rich cycling history that exists throughout Tasmania was sent to the BnC inbox last week. We can only hope that such tales of grandeur and glory are told of us hundreds of years in the future.

Ben said I could be a honourary member of the gang even though I don’t ride one of those fixed chain skinny tyred beasts around in circles.

I think my Great, great, great, great, great grand father Pevis McEllendale (who changed his name to James Clark after a long story) was one of the original Iron Horses of rock who competed in 1882.

Legend has it that Pevis rode a respectable race but failed to finish in the top 3 placings. It is understood that Pevis’s bike was way ahead of it’s time having a hollow steel frame instead of solid cast iron. His bike is rumoured to have weighed only 87kg which was around half of the normal for the time, amazing!

The disadvantage that Pevis faced in 1882 with is that his bike had no seat and Pevis was forced to take it up the ass for the whole 13 hours he raced for. It’s no wonder he missed the podium after that shafting. Apparently the creek crossings were an ordeal!!

So in the memory of old Pevis I have no choice but to enter myself into the Bottles and Chains ‘Disciples of the Iron Horse’ Ride event, with no seat! No scratch that, with seat. My race title will be ‘Pevis McEllendale Jnr’.

Disco.

See you there!