I likes!

Weekend Happenings

Keirin Cycles will host their monthly open sprints this Saturday night. They will be screening TRON. Starts at 8pm

Join Bike Miami Rides and stay for the FREE Bellini at Calamari in the Grove! This Sunday, after our 8:30 am community ride, join us for brunch at the wonderful ‘Calamari’ in the Grove. Meet at City Hall in Miami, at 8:30am.




SUNDAY! Mastodon,DeathKlok,Converge,and High on Fire. Pompano Beach Amphitheatre!

Ride Safe!!!! Have Fun!!!!

Loose Cannons Tonight!!

Tonight. More info.

Volume Bikes BMX

Cool Teaser

Q and A with Ben the Baptist

1. Name, Age, Occupation?
Ben Baptiste, I'm 26 years old, I'm a service writer assistant at a car dealer ship in Ft Lauderdale.

2. Were do you live?
I live in Pompano Beach, Florida

3. What are you riding these days?
Eighth Inch Scrambler frame with a steer tube extension for bar spins with a 700 front rim (i like the frame for the price and build its pretty dope) San Marco Rolle saddle, bent gold Nitto risers (Justin ;D) just picked up some some 160 cranks from The Bike Spot not sure if I like'em yet, o yeah and 46x15.

4. I see you playing polo, tricking, doing races and just straight up riding. What tickles your fancy the most?
I like them all man. I think riding is more then just being hooked on one aspect of the community. That's bigger then just tricks or polo ya know.

5. Tell us your opinion of the South Florida fixed gear scene? What do you hate seeing? And what do you love seeing?
AWWW, the South Florida scene. Its kinda funny down hear. HATE is such an UGLY word. What I dislike is people being closed minded about or community. I also dislike the fact that I myself have slowed down my appearance on the scene do to the lack of unity. What I do like is seeing is big turn outs at bike rides, polo, trick night and kids I've never seen before riding fixies. It lets me know the community is growing.

6. I have been up to Orlando with you. And I was amazed at your celebrity status. Please tell us. How do you do it?
LOL I'm not a celebrity man. I believe in treating people the way you want to be treated and I just like to have a good time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7. Beer of choice?
I'm a cheep date baby Old E, PBR it doesn't matter.

8. In a perfect world. What is the one thing you would like to see happen to the cycling community here in South Florida?
Just a little bit of unity no drama.

9. When can we expect to see Ben the Baptist, rolling deep with all the Orlando cats in Fort Lauderdale?
LOL! I don't know I think every ones coming down for the all Florida event.

10. Your a contributor of 954 fixed gear. Being a fellow writer, blogger, whatever. Do you find it hard to stay up on the site and keep adding information daily? Blogging is a bitch. Its hard to stay up on the times when work takes up half your day, by the time I get home I just wanna eat, drink a beer and pass out. I'm slowly motivating myself to get back on the blog hog.

11. What is on Ben's plate for the future?
A new Bern helmet.

12. Would you like to add anything else? Like when your going to master the foot plants barefoot?
Not sure I wanna master that trick barefoot.

Awareness Test

Fraidy Cat 2 Recap

Me and Zeegerman were the lone Fort Lauderdale riders to head up to the West Palm Beach Fraidy Cat 2 Alley Cat on Halloween. There were 27 registered riders, with 20 completing the race. 15 checkpoints. Were you had to find a sticker and draw the picture. I tied for first place with Chris Bell. And Zeegerman got second!! The after party was a blast at some bar with a angry bartender, who didn't want to serve us water? All and all, we had a great time riding in WPB. There was something called a Moonfest, going on and a bunch of angry drivers who don't like bicycles. Also, we were told by the cops to get the hell out of the neighborhood we were in before we got shot or robbed. Checkout the Freak Bike Nation for the final standings list and a bunch of thank yous to Naomi and Lorelai for taking over while TIII is in the hospital nursing an infected leg.

FTL Monthly Ride 11/29/09

FTL Monthly Ride. November 29, 2009. 5pm meet up at Victoria Park Brew. 6pm ride out. Finish location will be Maguires for some great food and drink!

Cat + Comp + Party

Sunday November 8, 2009. More info.

Weekend Happenings

Friday October 30! Miami's Critical Mass Halloween Ride! Meet up at 6:30pm Government Center in Downtown Miami. Costumes are encouraged. Also lights and helmets. This is sure to be a really amazing evening. The last two months there has been a giant increase in riders and they are expecting the same this time around. Check the route here.

Also:
Friday October 30, there will be a Critical Mass in West Palm Beach. They meet up at 7pm. Clematis and Narcissus at the fountains in front of the Ghost of the old library. 7:20pm ride out. And there will be 3 clues giving away for the Alley Cat on Saturday.

AND! The monthly Orlando Critical Mass will be going on as well. Info here.



Saturday October 31, HALLOWEEN! The Fraidy Cat 2 Alley Cat! 11:59 West Palm Beach. Meet at Flamingo Park in WPB anytime before the start of the race. A few of us are heading up earlier that night to ride around and get down on the town. $5 with a helmet, $10 without. No big elaborate prizes this time. Winner gets half of the registration fee and the other half is going toward the National Multiple Sclerosis Society! Good idea! Come hangout, get loose. Its Halloween! Better than another year wasted doing the same thing. Costumes are are not required, but what the hell. Why not?



Sunday November 1? Maybe? Long ride? Beach? Anyone?

RIDE SAFE!!! HAVE FUN!!! AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Don Walker Cycles

Don Walker Cycles has been super busy lately. Here are some of the bikes that are in line for production. Head over to Don Walker Cycles and order one for yourself and ME! You can also stay up to date on what Don has on the bench by checking out his blog DeeDub's Place of Rants.

Karthauser

McKinney

Ernesto

Hudson

DW

I have no idea what their saying

But I like Iron Maiden!

Q and A with Nick from Charge Bikes

1. Name, Age, Occupation?
Nick Larsen, 33, Charge Bikes, Tea Boy

2. Were does Charge Bikes live?
Deepest darkest Somerset countryside, UK

3. What are you riding these days?
Charge Duster Titanium Mountain Bike, Charge Mixer, Charge Blender and some prototypes.

I use SRAM, Rockshox, Truvativ, and Avid bits with Charge Saddles and posts and grips, Bontrager or Charge Wheels, Crank Brothers pedals and Sugino stuff. And Knog lights of course.

4. How and when did Charge Bikes start?
It was about 4 years ago, just saw some gaps in the market and off we went.

5. Tell us about the local cycling scene were you are from.
It is all about off road riding where I am from, and I, myself, the designer of the Plug bike have not ridden a fixed gear bike more than a mile, ever. There is an interesting fact for you. Fixed is just not a practical form of transport where I live. I am a mountain bike rider and racer through and through.

6. Have you seen a jump in business in the last few years with the fixed gear craze?
Yes for sure. I think the fixed gear craze is great. Anything that gets new and more people on bikes is great in my eyes, both from an environmental and sales point of view.

7. Charge Bikes has a pretty awesome roster of riders. Are there any new riders that you have been looking at that we should know about?
My good friend Chris Akrigg. He is the best bike rider in the world (in my opinion).
On the fixed side there's a whole bunch of young kids based in London who are getting pretty good on their bikes, but if I told you who, then I'd have to, um, do something nasty to you.

8. Please tell us about the new Charge Scissor? When will it be available for USA distribution?
The Scissor F+F is a combination of what our riders Tom Lamarche, SuperTed and I wanted to produce as a tough street bike. It has been through quite a few prototypes and incarnations until we were all happy with the final frame and fork. It should be available in the USA just before Xmas through our distributor there BTI.

9. Charge makes a wide variety of different style bicycles. What do you see more interest in? Are the kids in the UK into different styles compared to the kids in the states?
700c sales (not just fixed and single speed) are currently a pretty good proportion of our sales, but much of that can be attributed to the increase in sales of commuting bikes in addition to the fixed bikes. We started in Mountain Bikes, where my passion for riding lies, and we continue to sell strongly in that area too.

I'd say the kids in the States are pretty much the same as those in the UK in terms of their styles... apart from you guys like wearing flat peaked caps (New Era or something like that) and white socks more than we Brits do. We shake hands and you high-5.

10. What is on the Charge plate for the future? Anything new and exciting that we expect to see?
The 2011 range that I am working on now, sees a focus on all terrain bikes - cyclocross and MTB. We're going to be doing some interesting colabs. too. Watch this space.

11. Is there anything else that you would like to add? Like when we are going to see a Charge Team Demo roll through the States?
Umm. not really, I'd love to see a Charge team demo roll through the States... I will put it at the top of my to do list, right after this interview.