Rockets / Rocker

Howdy. Yeah, our Jam WENT OFF. Perfect trails, weather and crowd. A big thanks goes out to Aaron and Charlie for opening their criminally dialed trails for this. I'll get some Jam photos up tomorrow or the day after.

In the meantime, July 4th. I went to a party at Canadian Patty's house. A ripping pump track, 2 bands, 3 kegs, and a good crowd. Good times. Here's a bunch of photos.

Great turn-out.


You know a pump track is good if it can be skated.


Adrian. He's got this Brian Foster thing going for him. He BLAZED the track.


Gals and plenty of first timers gave the the track a shot as well. Good times for everyone.


P-Funk taking a short break from his Cougar Safari with some track action.


Paul showed up and brought his Spanglish BB Howie.


Rocker Dave. He lit his arm-pit hair on fire, manned the BBQ, and the Air-Guitar.


Rock Dave salutes women on bikes.


Rocker about to completely destroy P-Funk. Safari Over.


Bottle launch pad.



The very talented Nick Brandreth is joining the Tonic Posse. He wanted to paint his Fall Guy himself, so we sent him and unpainted bike. He's got big plans for this one.


-L

Caught On Film / Jam-On.

No theme here. Just a few photos, a thin narrative and make of it what you will.

I was riding to the store to pick-up bubble wrap to pack some frames-up and ran into this. The Multnomah County Bike Fair. It was pretty much nuts. I also found, and sessioned with the owners a sweet step-up double to quarter that had been carved into the side of a drive-way very close to here. Riding around town is fun.
Fall Guy all locked down.


All sorts of bike folks came out, including these wildly dressed fixed gear freestylers? Mr. Cargo shorts is stoked!


As temperatures rise, so do tempers. These two are settling "Beer Vs. Weed" once and for all.


Dutch Pedersen bike?


The party went late. Here's a pedal powered circus ride. It works.


Wild Neon Bike.


Big turn out. The rest of my photos are junk.


Tony caught riding to work. He wants a nautical cup holder for his bike now.


It wound-up raining, and we went to check out the Toxic Place. It's built by skaters and the tranny's are very tight. Amazing work on the walls of the place.


July 4th at the pump track. I predict things will get heated. Hopefully I can bark out a few one foot tables. That's one foot off the ground.


Our shop is next door to a Famous Bike Painter. Here he is, caught in the act.


Tony caught on the lathe. Fortunately not caught in the lathe. That would not be good. We are rebuilding our shop and getting ready to build some larger bikes.


Yes. Our Jam is a go this Sunday. This is going to be good. We'll miss Looch and Abbitt, but Billy's coming down, and things will get heated.

Steady Bloggin'

You'd think Bloggin' depends on a steady stream of happenings and doings. I've found that going places and doing things actually gets in the way of "creating" a stream of information about Los Tonics.

Some legit news: Thrash Bike is going to be at the Brooklyn Banks in 3 weeks. What?

What's around the corner at Tonic Fab? Probably a speeding car while I attempt to make some sort of "artsy" photo.



A Yellow Howie coming straight outta Japan. We'll have more (Howies) in about about 3 weeks. I've seen some real hammers go down on Howies. But you know what? Keeping it at 50% so you can live another day is cool too.





-L

All but one...

We've got all but one Fall Guy spoken for, and that's pretty sweet. Frames should be back from paint today, maybe tomorrow, and we'll get them little bike into your hands the fastest way we can. The last frame is a new color for us. Who knows if people will like it?

Hey, I like this. Gaetan blasting some concrete in France.


Tim's got a pretty nice set-up. Bikes and otherwise.

TJ Hooker Hair.

Pete sent in some photos of a place I've been kicked out of. It's condemed as a toxic hazard which, real estate value wise, is perfect for an informal indoor skate park. It also functions as a Hobo Castle, so be careful if you know where this is.

I was thrown out this place by police concerned for my safety..exposure to toxins. I thought the ramps made from palettes, broken glass, needles and nails posed a more immediate threat, but hey..when a cop tells me to do something..I do it.
Looks like someone decided to do it right. That's concrete, and I don't believe it's going anywhere.


Speaking of cops..P Funk sent some more pump track photos over. I really hated this one because of..my hair. I hate to say it, but the length/style I've got right now is just terrible. It's TJ Hooker hair.


Younger readers, or those otherwise not exposed to 80's American television may not be familiar with TJ Hooker. Let me sum the show up. TJ Hooker was a good cop, but terrible driver. He crashed his car so many times, his boss took it away.

This wasn't a big deal because TJ was a very, very fast runner. Look at him go in this intro. A car just slowed him down anyway.

His partner, Vince Romano, had a car and would drive TJ if he was tired or had to go long distances. I believe Vince was also one of the first openly gay characters on television. Between a cop with no car and Vince, the producers really took a risk with TJ Hooker. I think it paid off. On the other hand, how wrong can you go with Heather Locklear and explosions?



-L

Man, I'm just so disconnected

Billy Lewis put together this sweet little edit of some early summer riding. Word to that.


Here's a shot from P Funk of me getting kicked out of Laguna Seca. The pump track. The maze of lines at this place was too much for my puny riding brain to process. This mid-air line connects the middle of a berm to a roller. Good times! July 4th at this place.


Erik comes through with a PSA. Tonic recommends restricting your smoking to berms and brake pads kids.


-L

Royale with Cheese

Howdy Monday.

I've been paying attention to the DH World Cup recently. It's short, exciting, and the results are always a surprise. Any world cup result inside the top 25 means that person is riding at Millenium-Falcon level speeds over terrain you probably couldn't walk down. Last week-end was Worlds. The Worlds is a one day race to determine the World Champ. The World Cup is a race series.

You can find results somewhere, but the bottom line is that English riders cleaned house. Gee Atherton and his sister Rachel went smooth and fast enough to be crowned world champs. Steve Peat in second. Incredible results.

What else? DH racer, and Tonic / Robot rider Chaz hurt his wrist (not)bunny hopping a park bench. Bummer. He'll heal. Meanwhile, I've writen the city on Chaz's behalf to get the height of park benches lowered, or at least held to some uniform standard.

Personally...not too much exciting. Have been XC-ing enough to prepare myself to battle both Looch and Billy at some high-seat riding.

Spoke to Alfred Bobe last week-end..he's getting a new bike, and has a lot of interesting irons in fire. Alfred's one of the most unique folks I've run across.

In other East Coast news:

A Notorious East Coast Photographer/Rider is joining the Tonic Roost.

Brian decides, "Yes I like this fork. No I don't want to talk about it."

We don't do much with dealers, but Racer's Edge in Brooklyn are good people and getting a few Fall Guys.

To quote Paul's Boutique: The number is 718.531.3100 and ask for Gerald.

What else...Gaeatan on his new Fall Guy at what he describes as the "..best trails in France..." Amazing photo!


I hear sirens..I'm out.

-L