I've had this little wooden plaque on my wall since I was a boy. I wish it had a motorcycle not a car but hey, you can't aways get what you want, right?
Thanks for visiting my site, which is likely to contain stuff and nonsense relating to any number things: More motorcycles than cars. More nonsense than stuff. More pies than cakes. Go for your life...
Guess what I'm (meant to be) doing?
This little mixtape is designed to ease the pain of the GST return. Mostly chilled kiwi tunes with a few ironic titles and a couple of "get me the f**k outer here" thumpers.
Featuring Flight Of The Conchords, Finn Brothers, Supergroove, Breaks Co-Op, The Phoenix Foundation
SOUL VID’ / FLAT & STREET REVOLUTION from Soul Bmx Magazine on Vimeo.
FLAT & STREET
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
It was inevitable, using the same environment, flat and street would connect one day and create a new evolution (a revolution ?) of bmx riding. After legends like Dave Voelker, Paul Osicka, Chad De Groot, Akira Okamura or even Steve Hamilton for his nosemanual, the world best flatlander Matthias Dandois wanted to explore new horizons and transfer his incredible skills to the streets, creating a new style of riding. Close witness of this, we (soulbmxmag) wanted to associate the other french bmx genius Florent Soulas, and Guillaume Le Goff (aka libellule) a super tech back wheel street rider from paris to make an article in soul #72 where the guys explain this new thing and also in this beautiful (i think) video from our unique Hadrien Picard who is showing the hard working and talented french connection in some incredible and never seen moves.
On Sunday I rode my bike further than I have ever rode it before, and it hurt. 113.55km in 4 hours 5 minutes and 27 seconds. I’m quite proud I managed the distance in what was my first bike race since the dreadful attempt to ride BMX back in ’82. I’m not so proud of the rest of those numbers, but more about that in a moment.
The event was the inaugural TelstraClear Challenge, the first bike race to include Auckland’s Harbour Bridge and northern busway and riding on both was a bit of a treat, despite the gale.
Oh how easy it felt at that point
Sadly though the smooth, fast, and relatively flat busway morphed quickly into a series of rolling hills that never seemed to end. 1407m worth of the little buggers actually, but whose counting? The organisers certainly weren’t, their publicity claimed only 800m. The same publicity department that tried to claim a 3.4km section of rutted gravel country road was a “Paris-Roubaix style” section. Hmmmmm.
I’m not sure it’s the norm for this type of event but the course was lined with the most awesome volunteers and supporters all shouting and waving encouragingly. With one exception: At the bottom of a hill near the 104km point was an evil lady, in hindsight most probably a witch, who smiled sweetly and said:
“Go hard and don’t forget to smile ‘cos this is the last hill.”
But of course it wasn’t. There was a steeper climb literally around the corner. Why evil lady? Why?!
Fortunately ‘evil lady’ was the exception so a big thank you to all those volunteers, especially the kids who made me feel like I was riding ‘le tour’ and specially-especially to the little dude on the wooden bike that elicited a smile out of me at about 90kms, by which time I was seriously hurting so that was no mean feat young man. Thanks also to my riding buddy and cycling aficionado Mr Jon Bridges who, despite being able to ride like a machine, opted to keep me company and indulge my whinging the whole way.
The ride was, in part, a fundraising event for Bike MS and we’ve set up the BBT Racing Team to help raise some money for them. So far the event has generated more than $80,000 for MS. That’s more than some bigger events in other countries can manage, which is impressive. The BBT Racing team has so far raised about $250, which is not so impressive, but no doubt after reading this you are going to change that, aren’t you?
Now here’s the reason I decided to write this post: I have a bulging disk in my lower back, which sounds like an unsightly, frisbee-shaped growth, but is actually a fairly common problem that can be quite painful and very hard to fix. I’ve been rehabbing it now for more than a year and it’s driving me round the bend (little cycling pun there) because I haven’t been able to exercise as much as I like, which is a lot, and I’m a grumpy, boring moose when I don’t or can’t. As it turns out 4 hours on the bike was less than ideal therapy for my spine. Who would have thought?
I felt great for the first 45km but then my back started to ache. Over the next 65kms my back got progressively worse, I got slower, grumpier and my face pulling increasingly pathetic, until I finally coasted over the line, seriously close to tears. The near-tear scenario was a bit of pain but mostly frustration that my lame back was not up to the challenge. My legs, heart and head had more to give but my back just couldn’t hack it. So at this point the astute reader might be picking up a thematic link between my somewhat pathetic experience and the daily reality for an MS sufferer and indeed, therein lies my somewhat ironic point:
Whilst on the MS fundraising ride I quite unintentionally gave myself a little taste of what it’s like to live with the disease. I didn’t like it. I nearly cried. I felt sorry for myself. Today, however, while still capable of feeling sorry for myself, my back feels more or less ok and I’m mighty thankful I don’t have to live with MS. But I have a good friend that does and that makes me want to do something about it. So I smacked my back up for a few hours and donated some money. I can highly recommend not smacking your back up but if you’re in a position to make a donation please follow the link below. If not then please at least share this with as many people as you can and hopefully we can collectively help some of the 4000 New Zealanders, and their families, that live with the disease.
The BBT Racing fundraising page will be live until the end of January.
Thanks
Fb.
It's no secret that I like to leave certain things to the last minute. I don't see why fundraising should be any different.
Here's the deal:
On Sunday I will ride, along with my buddy Jon Bridges and several thousand other people, from Shelley Beach road in Auckland, over the harbour bridge, along the northern busway and continue for 110Kms to the finish in Kumeu. Click here to do a 3D flyover of the course.
It's the TelstraClear Cycle Challenge and it's raising money for MS, thanks to Bike MS.
We've created the BBT Racing team to help raise money for MS. This is, you guessed it, the part where we come in:
Make a donation. Please. That's all, I'm not going to bang on, we all get asked for donations all the time. So, if you want to help get ride of MS and you're in a position to make a donation then...
CLICK THIS LINK AND GO FOR 'YA LIFE
We'll be head to toe in sweat and lycra either way.
Thanks
FB
153 teams with more than 600 participants under the age of 24 have taken part in this years' Outlook for Someday Sustainability Film Challenge, making 2011 the biggest yet. Tonight is the official, red carpet, prize-giving shindig at the Aotea Centre.
I'm one of 13 ambassadors for the project, which challenges young people to "Make a sustainability-related film, filmed with any camera and length up to 5 minutes." Cool eh?
Here's a little promo I made while I was supposed to be filming the 'official' promo, with the amazing Liesha Ward Knox. Click here to watch the "actual" promo.
Click here to watch the 20 winning films. And don't forget to vote!
Click here for more info including a list of the winning films.
And below are stills from each of the 20 winning films.
As a quick follow up to last weeks "thieving bastards" rant:
THANK YOU...
To Chris from Coolit ICE for returning the nappy-bag he found in the bushes at Pt Chev, complete with all the cards (unfortunately already replaced), nappies, receipts and general carry-on one finds in a nappy bag. Who the fuck steals a nappy-bag anyway?!
So I do hope it was all worth it for the mother-less sons of Satan who ended up with no cash, a locked iPhone and a lovely, yellow, girlie wallet, for their trouble. And I should say one more
THANK YOU...
to Apple, for their "find my iPhone" feature which enabled me to remotely lock, wipe and then display the follow message:
ROT IN HELL YOU THEIVING MOTHER FUCKERS
I know, I'm slightly pathetic, but boy it felt great to know that's all the little shits got when they turned the phone on at 3:08pm on Newton Road.
Cheers Chris...
