Well, to be honest I didn’t accomplish a whole lot on the Empire mural today… or at least it doesn’t really look any different. So here instead is a picture of Monty getting ready to head home from last night.

We rode the bike path home along Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin and saw this pretty sweet moon lit skyline.

Today at Empire I pretty much just sketched in the details of the dudes.

Tomorrow I’ll get to start putting in some shading and lead up to the final outlining.

Today I showed up to empire and just started drawing on the wall. Didn’t really have too much of a plan but knew I needed to fit 19 people on there (Empire team and Empire family).

Don’t think I’ll be able to make it up there again until tuesday so I’ll have a few days to think about how to handle the next phase.

Spent a little bit of time up at Empire and got to this point on day 2.

I guess if we take my sketch a little further its heading for something like this…

Going to basically paint the Empire family hanging out. I’ll keep the updates coming…-Taj

Over the next few days (or maybe weeks) I’m going to be spending some spare time up at Empire BMX working on a mural over the upstairs mini ramp. Should be lots of fun. Today was my first day and the results are pretty boring.

I arrived to the above blank wall armed only with this small pencil sketch. It was raining on the way up there so my sketch got soaked and is almost illegible. It still makes sense to me though so we’ll see where this ends up.

At the end of today’s short day this is all I have for you… a poorly primed wall. How exciting right? From grey to grey-ish white. This was not worth your time to read, sucker! Such is the internet I guess… tons of wasted time, we should all be out pedaling bikes somewhere… or eating pizza. However, from here things can only get more interesting right? More on this project soon hopefully.

Thanks to the internet being on vacation yesterday I spent some time doodling and trying to get my creative juices flowing. Fairdale needs some new t-shirt designs and I’m trying to get something going.

I figure cat butts are always pretty cool.

As well as nonsense.

Also got this picture of a sweet Fairdale Express frame and fork kit build. My buddy Chris is a mechanic over at Ozone Bikes in Austin and built his ride up with rad ole’ Dura-Ace center pull brakes.

Long time friend and all around great guy Sandy Carson is now a part of Fairdale’s team. It’s true that we don’t really have a team but starting right now we are going to begin putting together a small group of awesome folks who like to ride bikes.

Here is Sandy receiving his Fairdale kit. You guys didn’t even know we made those because I never told anyone.

Sandy signed his contract with me as witness. Unlike other companies who don’t want you to know the details of their rider’s contracts we at Fairdale believe in full disclosure. Take a look at what our legal team came up with above.

Next I started building up Sandy’s old parts into a Fairdale frame. I didn’t have one of those stupid “star-fangled-nut” things for the forks so I couldn’t really finish it.

Also, Sandy couldn’t figure out what bars he wanted on it so instead we went and rode mountain bikes.

Not many dudes can ride a Giant STP single speed dirt jumper on a long ass cross country ride, then shred the pump track at the end of the ride.

Check out Sandy all over the web:

Sandy Carson on: Facebook, Sandy Carson on: Twitter, Sandy Carson: Photo website , Sandy Carson onTumblr, and Sandy_Carson on Instagram (I can’t figure out how to link to Instagram).

Keep the watts pumping folks and have a good day!

We better hurry up and put this bike out right? Geared Fairdale we are calling the “Weekender” is coming in early 2012!

ESPN’s write up here.

Nuno spotted this on Instagram and sent it over to me. How he caught the Fairdale logo on here is beyond me.

Dean Hearne self shot photo out on a cruise.

Nina B sent over a picture of a Skaterack she set up for Stoney. Would have been entertaining to watch her try to buy this since her jaw is still wired shut after he crash. Soup days!

Fairdale has now taken over Brazil. Reminds me of my Irish friends band who I helped release their CD in the USA a few years ago called “I Am Brazil“.

They are currently touring Japan.

The Redneck Manifresto Japan dates:

I wrote a little article over at Complex. I’m sure it will stir up some opinions and it was very difficult to try and come up with a list like that. There is some amazing riding videos in there for sure! The riding level in BMX has come sooo far! The 25 Best BMX Riders Right Now

Designing and spec-ing all the parts on a bike can be a lot of fun. It’s also a constant trade off where you battle with cost vs. quality. You want to use the best quality parts available, but you don’t want to design a bike that is too expensive.

Luckily we remembered to spec the same size wheels on our bikes.

One of the things we really wanted for our Parser model was to use the legendary Selle Italia Turbo saddle. Aside from being comfortable it’s got so much awesome history. 5 time Tour De France winner Bernard Hinault rode one forever and 5 time consecutive Tour De France winner Miguel Indurain famously carried his Turbo saddle with him in a  briefcase…

“Pros often have stronger feelings regarding saddles. Miguel Indurain was religious about his Selle Italia Turbo saddle. He carried it on his person wherever he travelled. When Selle Italia asked him to try their newest model, he opened a briefcase he’d taken to the meeting. Inside was his well-worn Turbo saddle. He firmly denied their request. Of course, as a multiple Tour de France champion, he could.” -Nick Legan

Getting ahold of Selle Italia and having them hand make us custom Turbo seats in Italy for our Fairdale’s was a big deal. We are super proud to offer this quality and comfortable classic seat on the Fairdale Parser model.

The Project Loop is a pretty amazing group that among other things is teaching kids from the local high school how to build a pump track. If only dirt jump building had been an option on my high school curriculum!

They also helped us out at the Texas Toast Jam with a lot of helpful volunteer work AND are putting together a box jump and mini ramp for the Fun Fun Fun Fest coming up this weekend. Everyone here in the office is pretty excited to do some box jumping right next to the Slayer stage.

Anyway, all this good stuff and there’s even more. Coming up in a couple weeks they are going to throw a benefit for the disastrous Bastrop fires just outside of Austin. So come out to the event for some good music, BBQ and see if high school kids really can build dirt jumps.

Perry Mervar – AFA Austin, TX 1989 from 990Adjustments on Vimeo.

I don’t feel like I get to see enough Perry Dooms these days (jumping from back pegs to grip ride). It would be even more impressive with 10 inch tall bars. Its a great run from back in the day, but check 02:19 especially.

Sibot BMX in the UK just stocked up on some Fairdales. Pretty stoked to see this stuff getting out worldwide.

I highly recommend checking out this cool shop: Sibot BMX . Thanks for supporting us too!

I got sent some really cool Fairdale art from my buddy and legendary BMX innovator Afro Pat. Pretty stoked!

Bonus: I did a Google image search for Pat Schreader to find a picture of him and it auto corrected my search to Fat Shredder. Hmmmmm….

Fairdale got a little write up over at Bicycle Retailer and we appreciate it very much! Thanks guys.  I want to know why I have to get up so early for work if I’m retired.

Check out the story here.

Jim Cielencki long time BMX pro and head of Sunday Bikes (and a Fairdale rider by the way) has an interview over on ESPN about making bike frames overseas. He’s my office mate here at OTX Design (which house’s the engineering studio for Sunday Bikes, Odyssey, and of course Fairdale). I found it really informative even though I share an office with him! On my recent trip to Taiwan I was blown away by how incredibly high tech the manufacturing facilities were. It was sort of bike building heaven where it seemed like whole cities were devoted to creating bikes. …. ah… but… I am from near Detroit and with a family in the auto industry I fully understand the desire to keep manufacturing in the states. Anyway, JC’s interview has some really interesting points on building bikes and its cool to hear about all the technology that goes into a really high end BMX. Its tech we can eventually apply to Fairdale too so its good to know.

Check the story here.

NOTE: I fixed the above link so it actually goes to ESPN now… instead of back to this same post… oops.

KC Badger and the Daggers are putting on Death Race 5 in Tempe, AZ. Fairdale is adding to the loot pile for the winners.  Should be a good one!

I was looking around today for cool ideas and found a few that really deserved to be brought together. We could just be happy riding around on a plain old normal bike or we could invent something totally sweet!

F-1 bikes are so ready for a comeback. Can Fairdale make them please please! Imagine Crabon Fiber® fairing paired with wheel discs! It could be amazing.

I actually witnessed one of the few F-1 races at a NBL national BMX race at Waterford Oaks, MI back in the 1900′s. I wanna’ say Tinker Jaurez won just prior to taking over mountain biking. It was so weird. People racing around haybales in a parking lot with oval sprockets.

This guys got Penny Farthing shoes! An obvious natural progression from penny loafers I guess.

Testing samples in Sydney & China 2009 from Chariot Skates on Vimeo.

Off Road roller skates skis? I actually used to work at a cross country ski rental place when I was like 13. I remember using something sort of like this that was some early version of a summer time cross country ski. Kind of fun and the advertising media show clear babe getting potential.

Did I ever tell you about the time I was at a dirt jumping comp in Australia and there were off road roller bladers hired to jump the jumps? It was carnage!!!

Snakeboards! Shimy, shimy and shimy for speed!

Get razor-scootin!

I know, I know.. razor scooter killers!

I guess this is kind of like riding a rolling stool around?

I’m kind of into surfing on a remote control car. Seems like a pretty cool thing to do.

Fairdale print zine 2 is now up on the interweb. Enjoy a flip through above…
Still a tiny few print versions left if you prefer killing trees to LCD radiation.

Also, if you missed zine 1 feel free to check it out here…. Fairdale Zine 1.

The North American Cycle Courier Championships were held in Austin this past weekend. I spent the weekend out at the races trying to understand what was going on and enjoying the fun.

Hern was in town to race and stayed at my place. He was super cool to hang out and seemed to really enjoy the races and riding BMX around town too. This is him in the video below…

[Can't get this thing to embed, check video HERE]

For some reason this video reminds me of a quote I heard from a musician whose name I can’t remember. “Its easy to play hardcore with a bunch of amps and pedals and electricity amplifying you… its a way bigger accomplishment to make hardcore with acoustic instruments where its just you and the guitar.” I don’t know… maybe that doesn’t really apply here… but I think idea of pedaling the miles to the skatepark rather then showing up in car is pretty hardcore.

Sweet flyer!

So, the race. I found it all a bit confusing. All these dudes in messenger backpacks pedaling to little tents to get fake packages.

At some stops they made you lock your bike up (or someone would drag it away and hide it) and others you had to run through tires.

The confusing part as an uneducated spectator was that everyone was on different patterns so you really couldn’t tell who was in the lead or have any clue when the race might finish.

The good part was that everyone seemed to be laughing and having fun. For a “Championship” race it was happily not very serious.

The start for the finals was pretty funny to watch. They lined everyone’s bikes up on the track and then made them all run in those silly little clippy shoes, grab bikes and then launch into the anarchy of a mass start.

Tyrone (9th street OG), Ryan Corrigan and Sara were hanging out watching with me for a while.

I think in this photo Monty is summing up the weekend for most of the attendees… it wasn’t so much about competitive racing… it was more about having fun with messenger bags and beer.

Tomorrow I am touring Austin trying to nail down next year’s venue for Texas Toast Jam. We’re thinking the event will be in spring sometime but no date is yet confirmed. It is happening though!

The big question is what will we do this year? Like, for real, what the hell are we going to build this year? I have no clue. You guys got any ideas? The good thing is that with Ryan Corrigan heading up building stuff we know anything is possible.

Check out some of the amazing coverage from last year’s event all gathered together:
http://www.odysseybmx.com/dailyword/tag/texas-toast-jam/

And what people were saying about Toast jam:

“Having a blast… don’t want the weekend to end.”
Scotty Cranmer
X-games gold medalist/ Champion of FOX TX TOAST Gauntlet of Death

“Best contest ever”
Gary Young
World Champion Street Rider/ 1st place pro dirt TX TOAST

“I have seen the layout for the Texas Toast Jam, and it is a GAME-CHANGER. GOODBYE INNOCENCE, GOODBYE HOPE. THE TEXAS TOAST JAM COURSE WILL FILL YOUR HEAD WITH DEMONS.”
Empire BMX

“I know the comp scene might be a little stale as of late, but that’s sure to change in the coming months, thanks in part to the Odyssey Texas Toast Jam.”
ESPN

“Texas Toast has come and gone, and I really can’t think of a single thing that could have made the weekend better. Any expectations about the Odyssey BMX sponsored and Taj Mihelich organized event were certainly blown out of the water and there is no doubt in my mind that this was one of the best BMX events I’ve ever been to in my life.”
DIG BMX MAGAZINE

PHOTO ABOVE: Chase Hawk in one of my favorite photos from last years jam by Devon Hutchins.

Fairdale zine 2 is a very limited print run. There’s a handful of them in Austin if you’d like to pick one up. After they sell out we’ll put it up as a online version, but its always cooler to have a print version of a zine. 68 pages this time!

If you’re in the USA send $3 or $3 worth of stamps and I’ll mail one to you. If you’re outside of the USA just drop an email with your address and I’ll let you know how much it would cost (info@fairdalebikes.com). We’ll throw in some stickers with the orders too.

Fairdale Bikes

4204 Machaca Rd

Austin, TX 78704

Heres the digital reprint of issue 1 just for the heck of it:

Drove up to Michigan for some family stuff. Took a few photos on the way. I love the map above is put out by the state. My family is a bit south of the “Thumb Area”.

Saw Empire making some deliveries dangerously close to Albe’s territory. Turf war?

Truck stop t-shirts are some of my favorite things. I love the new logo rip-off for god stuff. I might have to do the top 50 logos stolen for jesus.

At the I-69 Michigan Welcome center there is Vernors in the vending machines and sweet transitioned launches to play on.

Some of the cups backstage after the show, including the one I got to give away to Garrett Reynolds

It happened again. I thought I had escaped having to go to Interbike but a the last minute Ride BMX Magazine asked me to present an award at Nora Cup. It is a big honor and so even though it wrapped a lot of my biggest anxieties into one (flying, Interbike, Vegas, and public speaking) I couldn’t say no. I was real nervous about having to give a speech but it was also a kind of fun nervousness… it would be the kind of embarrassment I would be laughing about.

Nora Cup was held inside the Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort. The Pearl is really nice… I found it hard to believe a BMX event was going to happen inside there. Incredible sound system and really cool design inside. Backstage they prepped us for how the show would run and how the awards would be presented. I was then told I should give a 1 to 3 minute speech about street riding. I was pretty afraid of what I might say so I hid away in my hotel room to try and write something. I actually did manage to write what I thought was a decent speech but I never really got to say it.

When the awards show started I was really amazed at how positive the energy was in the building. I mean, I guess thats why you go to an awards show… to be positive, but I guess I’m just used to a little more jadedness from the world. It was awesome though! Everyone was cheering for everyone and it felt good. The first award up was ramp rider some of the very O.G. guys of freestyle Dizz Hicks and Ceppie May presented that one. I was a real treat to meet those guys. I didn’t really hear what they said from backstage but the crowd seemed stoked! Dennis Enerson who was nominated for everything this year won that one.

After that came Woody Itson Presenting Flat. Woody lives in Dallas TX now and it was really amazing talking with him about the origins of freestyle and his Porsche ad I was messing with in photoshop just the other day. Hollywood Mike Miranda presented racer of the year. Hmmm… I think I’m forgetting the order, but Todd “The Wildman” Lyons announced the Dirt jumper of the year. When I was 13 or 14 and still racing BMX Todd was always one of the my favorites. He would have photos in the mags doing tricks in races. It was rad in the truest definition of the word. Chris Doyle won dirt again and that was really cool. Chris is the dirt jumper’s dirt jumper and rides the way we all wish we could. Then I was up to present…

Aggroman partially dressed

They started up by playing a video of some of my old video clips. I was real stoked see they put in a one handed tail whip from the end of my Fox Expendable Youth section from Palavas. That was a real memorable moment for me since I ended up winning that contest and really throwing caution into the wind on that particular trick (and survived). When I got on stage there was a lot of loud cheering, and then some more, and then some more. I couldn’t hear myself think and I totally couldn’t talk. Seemed like the more self conscious and embarrassed I got the louder it got inside my head. The truth is it was probably just the drunk dudes in the front row yelling the loudest, but even so it was overwhelming and really flattering. Kind of felt like I had won an award. My speech was supposed to say something about how street riding is unique in that its progression is not linked to the terrain. If you think about it dirt jumps and ramps keep getting bigger and better and that leads to new types of riding, but the streets we ride haven’t changed. Some of the guys who got nominated had filmed video clips on spots I had rode almost 20 years earlier and had come up with new ways to see riding those spots that I could have never dreamed of. Thats really the amazing part of street riding. Its all about how the rider sees the world and how they can apply their skills to ride it.

The envelope before I had opened it.

Anyway, I got out about one or two sentences of that before bursting out laughing because it was just SO loud and at least partially because Mark Losey kept yelling monkey boy. The less of you who get that joke the better!

I got to open the envelope and incase you were wondering the presenters really truly don’t know who wins. They gave me the envelope right before I walked on stage and I was as curious as anyone. This years group of street nominees were all very possible winners. Dennis Enerson, Sean Burns, Dakota, and Nathan Williams are all amazing riders. Garrett Reynolds ended up winning and I am in total agreement. Everything that kid does is amazing and he’s so full of original riding it blows me away.

Bit of a blur for me after my job was done. Mat Hoffman dressed up in the original Aggroman suit and ran around and gave away best video part. It was complete with Eddie Roman backstage doing the voice over for Aggroman just like the video. If you’ve never seen Aggroman and don’t know what I’m talking about I highly reccommend you give yourself a history lesson and get the HB Triolgy DVD here or here. There’s some riding in there that will blow you away when you think about how long ago it was, and, you owe to your BMX roots to watch Aggroman and with that confused look that we all had the first time we saw it. Its an amazing video and if anyone is a super hero its Mat Hoffman!

It was dark and blurry backstage but I thought this photo has some cool metaphorical significance. Eddie Roman showed us we could make our own video anyway we wanted, and here he is making the hand off to video maker Will Stroud.

The awards wrapped up with Will Stroud presenting best video part. Will was real nervous but he made it through and really got to cap off the night by awarding Anthem 2 the best video of the year. I was so happy for my friend Stew Johnson and all the Anthem guys. I do wish I had been healthy enough to have filmed some for that video, but I can take some comfort with a having a spot in Anthem 1. Stew’s words about Aitken (who was injured during filming for Anthem 2) was inspiring and backstage it was really cool to see how stoked those dudes all were on the very hard work they had all put into filming that video. They hung out for a while back there and I had to think it felt really good to work that hard on something and then have it be recognized in such a big way.

Nice job Ride mag! I was really stoked and honored to get to be a part of it. Sorry again I didn’t deliver my speech!