M AG A Z INE
NO. 21
www.stokedonfixedbikes.com
It’s up to you! FREE or DONATE
/
2015
Photo: Stefan Haehnel
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STOKED ON FIXED BIKES ISSUE 21
W E L C O M E Rider: Karl Photo: Carlos Fernandez Laser 7
Greg, Ted and Anto - Bespoked Bristol Photo by Burcak Erbil
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SOFB TEAM FOUNDER & CHIEF EDITOR PHOTOGRAPHER
JUNE 2015 One of my highlights of issue 21 of SOFB is the Full Bike Day and exhibition in Brindisi, Italy.
Greg Falski EDITORIAL TEAM
Marina Fenz Saskia Haex Anto But WEB SITE
It is great to see already my second classic fixed gear photo appear in international exhibitions. I shot most of these photos between 2008 and 2012 in London as well as other parts of the world. The idea was to ride with friends and document our adventures and the fixed gear scene. We just would meet up and ride or hang out and this all happended naturally and fast! It makes me smile to know some of these pictures are now travelling with exhibitons and going to places I have not been to myself, like Chicago. Enjoy this issue 21 and...
Ride on! Greg Falski
facebook.com/GregFalski Instagram @gregfalski
Alvaro R. Fernandez CONTRIBUTORS
Carlos Fernandez Laser Constantin Gerlach Carlos Serra Jason Sellers Stefan Haehnel Burcak Erbil Renee Rooijmans Jarno Schurgers Domantas Mizeikis Vincent Schomacker Filip Shleir Bjoern Lexius Thomas Nyhus Lucas Mikkelsen Y.C Tang and Allen Chu Chris Yang Walter and Adriano Mirko and Orga RAD RACE FULL BIKE DAY KONFOUR GoodTimesRoll REDBULL CONTENT POOL BOMBTRACK 8BarBikes Online - ISSUU.com For contributions, advertising and other enquiries, please contact gregfalski@gmail.com
SOCIAL MEDIA
www.stokedonfixedbikes.com
THANK YOU Family and friends, all crews and riders, organisers and advertisers.. would not be possible without all of you!
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CONTENTS SOFB ONLINE MAG 21
8 IN STRAPS 10 CONTENTS 12 INTERVIEW Karl Hardbrakers 20 Rad Race LMS 26 265 30 FULL BIKE DAY 36 Crossing Cuba 42 OTHER SIDE OF THE LENS 52 „Treacherous Stage“ from 1910 56 Vision 60 Dutch Crit Cup 66 Berliner Fahrradschau 74 Products 8BAR 80 Red Bull Minidrome 86 RHC NYC 98 King of Balance 102 Fixed42 108 PANKT SAULOPOLY 112 Bespoked Bristol
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RAD RACE BATTLE in Berlin photo by Jason Sellers
COVER
Karl -Fire spit Photo: Carlos Fernandez Laser
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Photo: Carlos Fernandez Laser
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Karl Hardbrakers 13
INTERVIEW
with Karl aka SPACESLUT
SOFB- WHAT IS YOUR NAME AND WHERE ARE YOU FROM? Yo, I‘m Karl and i‘m from Hamburg. SOFB- WHAT ARE YOU DOING BESIDE RIDING YOUR BIKE? I ride a lot of BMX and used to ride Freeride and DH MTB back when I was living in Vancouver. Unfortunatly there are hardly any hills here in Hamburg, so it doesn’t make sense to get a decent MTB up here. In the Winter I love to snowboard! I just spent my winter in Munich due to a Internship at Vans and went shredding every weekend. Last but not least I love getting loose at clubs with my friends and just enjoy life basically. SOFB- YOU SEEM TO NOT DO PERFORMANCE CRITERIUM RACES LIKE RED HOOK, RAD RACE & CO, BUT WE KNOW SOME COOL ACTIONS LIKE THE RECENT “LISBON – MARRAKESCH” TRIP. I don’t know, im just used to ride BMX and MTB and never owned a road bike or anything like that. I just wanna have fun on my bikes and play around all the time. I think I get bored pretty quick, so I never thought that I would enjoy long bike trips or training for races or some shit, but im slowly getting into it. I started to train with the St. Pauli Track Team on the track here in Hamburg, because I never went jogging or to the gym or shit like that. So cycling is the first real sport I do. And I even evolve some ambition to get fast and to take part in races and alleycats. But my main priority is still to have as much fun as possible
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SOFB- DO YOU CONVERT ANYTHING ON YOUR BIKE TO RESIST THOSE KIND OF RUTHLESS SHREDDING YOU DO? SEEING YOU JUMPING AROUND ON 28C TIRES OR RIDING ON GRAVELROADS THROUGH THE MARROCEAN DESERT DOES NOT REALLY PROVIDE CONFIDENCE. No its all stock besides the seat and tires, Bombtrack sent us a blue Script when we did the first Tour from Budapest to Istanbul und because I had the most shitty bike of us at the time I was chosen to keep it. And it fitted perfectly! I never had any pain during both Tours, so I instantly fell in love. Continental is always sending us loads of 23cc and 25cc 4 Seasons Tires, so I just use them and they work perfectly. Never change a running system ;) SOFB- DID YOU EVER BREAK ANYTHING, FOR EXAMPLE THE FRAME YOU ARE RIDING. I snapped my old subrosa frame, which got me into fixed gear. And spokes from time to time, but other than that the Script is taking it like a champ. Thats what I like most about the bike. Its light, but tough as hell. No carbon fork or shit like that, perfect balance of weight to sturdiness ratio. You don’t even wanna know what torture it has to go through when Im blasting home from a club like riding down big stairsets, jumping around,hitting shit with my skidding back wheel… Just stuff Im used to when I ride my BMX.
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Photo: Carlos Fernandez Laser
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SOFB- WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE PLANS AND AIMS WHEN IT COMES TO RIDING . I don’t know, I was never really into the whole FSFG thing, I mean there are a lot of riders who really push the limits, tooth hanging mad handrails, trucking down stairsets and so on. But my main focus is to get somewhere fast and have fun on the way when I ride my track bike. Its made to go fast! Although once I did a pedal grind drunk, but it fucked up my chain stay pretty bad… SOFB- DID YOU EVER THINK OF POSSIBLY RIDING A DIFFERENT BIKE, ONE THAT POSSIBLY WOULD FIT BETTER TO A CERTAIN SURROUNDING AND YOUR RIDING INTENTIONS? I love all kinds of bikes! And Im always open to try new stuff, but on the other hand I use my Script for anything and it works. For example I rode the Isar Trails in Munich with a friend who has a SSCX. That was so fun to roast old guys on expensive fullys without brakes and on Slicks on their home turf. And I like having gears, but here in Hamburg you don’t really need them. SOFB- IT SEEMS YOU REALLY ENJOY RIDING WITHOUT ANY COMPETITION - WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH? As I said I started training on the track from time to time to work on my stamina and I like to take part in races. Its not my main priority, but I enjoy it. I really like technical courses like the Indoor Rad Race on this really tight cart racing track.
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Photo: Carlos Fernandez Laser
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SOFB- YOU ARE PART OF THE HAMBURG BASED RIDING CREW THE “HARDBRAKERS”. WHAT IS THE INTENTION OF YOUR CREW, HOW MANY RIDERS ARE IN THERE, WHY AND HOW DID THEY COME TOGETHER - AND DO THEY ALL RIDE THAT KIND OF RIDING WE KNOW FROM YOU? Just big time mobbin, having fun and exploring foreign countries and cultures on our bikes. We also organize races and parties here in Hamburg. Its just a crazy combination of really diverse characters. They are all insane and the best friends you can imagine. SOFB- ARE YOU ALL RIDING THE FIXED HUB, SO IS IT A HOMOGENEOUS CREW – OR IS IT BUNCH OF HETEROGENEOUS PERSONS THAT JUST GET ALONG VERY WELL?
SOFB- WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE HARDBRAKERS IN THE NEAR AND THE FAR FUTURE? We gonna release the documentary of our first Tour online asap. And we are working on the second one right now. At the 8th of May there will be the Waterkant crit here in hamburg and we help to organize it and as always we are responsible for the party. And we gonna do another Grand Tour this summer, this time up north. If you’re interested visit hardbrakers.com or our Vimeo channel, we hope we can motivate other people to travel by bike. I mean we are such a chaotic and crazy group of people with almost no experience, but we have two really amazing tours behind us and if we can pull that off everybody can ;)
Yeah we all ride fixed, but for example Mario also has a Roadbike and is taking part in Triathlon and Iron Man Competitions, Rapha and Michal also ride road bikes since they live or lived in Munich and ride the alps a lot, Nis and I ride BMX and Benny has 1 million bikes. Also everybody has really diverse interests, hobbies and skills. Robert has a Art Gallery called the Affenfaust in St. Pauli, Kilian is a Punk, studies animation and is drawing dope cartoons, Rapha is a car designer at BMW, Jeremy is a DJ, Michal is studying Art in Amsterdam right now, Jubie is a St. Pauli legend, hooligan, graffiti artist and DJ, Benny is a engineer, Mario is daddy, teacher and endboss. A lot of diverse expertise!
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RAD RACE LAST 20
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MAN STANDING Photos: Greg Falski, Text: Rad Race
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> This was it. The RAD RACE LAST MAN STANDING & LAST WOMAN STANDING, presented by Berlin Bicycle Week. Supported by Berliner Fahrrad Schau & 8bar bikes. We have seen 150 amazing riders from all over Europe. Thank you so much to all riders, all the crews, all spectators & our amazing partners for making this happen. Last but not least all our friends who help us setting this up. Without you, this wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be possible <
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> Last Man Standing is Augusto Reati // Supernova Bikes. He showed us some serious next level bike handling skills and he won not only over Red Hook Champion Thibaud Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Henry but also rode the fastest lap in 1:24:556min. In 2014 the fastest lap was 1:30min, this shows how much the quality of all riders increased! <
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Last Woman Standing is now Marion Dzwinik
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Photos: Domantas Mizeikis, Text: Saskia Haex
How 265 metres of bumpy concrete can put a smile on your face. Harga Velodrome Âsince 1971 Way back (when trackbikes were actually used on velodromes) quite some cities and small towns across Europe had a facility for track cycling. In the haydays there were 5 tracks in Rotterdam alone! And nationwide approx 90 tracks were in use in the small country of the Netherlands. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1 velodrome per 95.000 dutchies!!!
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However, track cycling got less popular and road cycling gained more popularity, and after some time many tracks were torn apart or abandoned. As was the Harga track in a small town, closeby Rotterdam. It had been unused and forgotten since the 1990s. But was rediscovered some years ago by Rotterdam Fixed Gear riders in 2008. The old concrete velodrome looked like something from a dream: amidst a small forest of trees it just layed there and nobody knew about this secret place. It didn’t look rideable at all at that time: the concrete had overgrown with moss, and some holes had appeared in the surface and a dog training club had taken over the clubhouse. But... Last year the velodrome was again rediscovered by a handfull of Rotterdam locals and the dog trainers appeared to have relocated their club. Right there they saw an opportunity, and the possibility to make it their own. They just started doing the things they could, and every day it looked more rideable. As the word spread more and more people came to help: to sweat, scratch, sweep, dig, saw and eventually: to ride! Right now we know the velodrome will be demolished end of summer. But for as long as we possibly can the velodrome is ours to ride. And ride we will!!! The last event on the Harga Velodrome will be the Fixed Days Ghetto Velodrome Sessions on July 3rd. For more info: www.fixeddays.com The velodrome is open for everyone that wants to ride it. No rules, just ride. Find it at www.facebook.com/wielerbaanharga
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Oscar Khan in London 30
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FULL BIKE DAY
Photos and Text: Greg Falski & Marina Fenz
After my Tree Ride shot of Ted James got chosen for an exhibition last year, I was happy to have my photo of Oscar Khan on display in another international exhibition, starting in Brindisi, Italy and travelling all over (Europe and USA) - so be sure to visit if you have the chance to. We went to the south of Italy and were welcomed by Vincenzo, the organiser of the whole event and a great guy to work and hang out with! What a lovely few days we had, drinking Primitivo di Manduria with new friends and seeing more of beautiful Puglia.
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The highlight was the Bike Ride in San Vito dei Normanni. It was great to see so many people coming out with their bikes and ride together - such a good vibe and very relaxed. That is the way cycling should be promoted and Vincenzo and his fellow organisers did a really good job to make everyone feel comfortable.
Photos: Greg Falski & Marina Fenz
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Photos: Greg Falski
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Great event - we are looking forward to come back next year!
Photo: Marina Fenz
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CROSSING CUBA Photos and Text: Walter and Adriano
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> Can you travel Fixed...We don’t know, but if you don’t try…you’ll never know! And so….our adventure begins: from a mere exchange of ideas to the search for an alternative to the traditional journey on a bike and for a new way of riding Fixed. The best answer to a society that moves every day so monotonously and schematically is to revolutionize the concept of journey, getting inspiration from the minimalist idea of how a Fixed is designed: to travel with the bare essentials. Cuba symbolizes the utopia of revolution, and we thought it could be the best destination to start our venture.
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All this has also been possible thanks to our sponsor EXTRA+, who trusted our project and let us make it happen by riding the EXTRA+GHOSTS 2014. The bikes we used to face the hard roads of Cuba were configured as follows: triple butted CR-MO tubular steal frame, wheels 700/28 50 mm alu profile, alu hubs Novatec CNC on bearings, EXTRA+ 700x25 tyres, rear hubs with fixed sprocket bolted ISO 18, aluminium crankset 46T, EXTRA+ strap pedals, bull handlebars. On the back we put a reinforced handmade rack in order to withstand the strong vibrations due to the rigidity of the bicycle. And so, after gathering some information about the place, we traced an imaginary line joining Santiago to Havana and on October 22 we flew to the beautiful Caribbean island.
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We split up the journey into 12 stages, about 100 km each, and we visited both the inland parts and the wonderful beaches of “cayos”, moving as far as the most remote and uncrowded areas. We crossed famous towns like Santa Clara, Camaguey, Holguin, but also small and remote villages like Mangos de Baraguà, Puerto Padre or Colon. This route, different from the usual ones, allowed us to live the best essence of this place, being able to measure the commercial areas against the out-of-theway places, that tourism and wealth haven’t affected yet. It was really interesting and exciting to observe how that country has responded to so many years of isolation, dictated by the embargo and by an extremely hard and idealistic policy which is now slowly changing. It happened thanks to people animated by a great sense of adaptability and creativity, and always ready to smile in front of daily adversities. At last, we could say that the Cuba essence lies in the eternal oxymoron which encloses its beauty: financially so poor but culturally so rich, aesthetically decadent but also on the cutting edge of townplanning, so irritating and so edifying at once. 41
OTHER SIDE OF THE LENS Issue 21 with
Bjรถrn Lexius Online photography portfolio at http://www.bjoernlexius.de/
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Photo: Bjoern Lexius
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INTERVIEW
OTHER SIDE
with Bjoern Lexius SOFB - YOU LIVE IN HAMBURG, GERMANY, HOW DOES THIS INFLUENCE YOU AND YOUR WORK? I have been living in Hamburg, in the North of Germany for about ten years now. This city was appealing to me since the first time I’ve been there. It’s Germany’s 2nd biggest city and it has a very huge harbour. I love the feeling of freedom it gives me. Hamburg also has a very active punk and political activist scene, something I always liked. Cycling is very popular in Hamburg right now, more for commuting than from a sports aspect. For the last two or three years Hamburg has the biggest Critical Mass in Germany with about 5000 attendants in the biggest one. We also have lots of people riding fixed gear, organizing alleycats. All in all I really love this city and enjoy riding and shooting in here but I also always love to pack my gear and explore new cities as well. SOFB - FIXED GEAR IS GROWING ALL OVER THE WORLD, WHEN WAS YOUR FIRST CONTACT WITH THIS SPORT? My first contact with fixed gear riding myself was in London, can’t exactly tell the year. It was about 8 years ago maybe. Together with a good friend of mine I visited the city and we stayed with a friend we knew from the hardcore punk scene. By the time he was living with 4 or 5 bike messengers who made us ride their fixed gear bikes around the block for hours straight. That got me stoked and as soon as I got home I started saving money for the first bike to be built. From then on my road bike got ridden less and less. Actually last week I rode it the first time in three years and it kinda felt wrong...
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E OF THE LENS
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SOFB LATEST SHOOT? PLEASE TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT The latest fixed gear related shoot was documenting Red Hook Crit in Brooklyn in the end of April. It was my first time ever in New York for the event and I was pretty excited about it. Two friends of mine (Johanna Jahnke of „Mark It Zero“-Team and Maximilian Höflich of Team „Fixedpott“ were riding and I was commissioned by German „Spoke“ magazine to document their travel and race. The magazine just got released last week and I was happy to see a 14 page article in it and also one of my images got used for the cover. SOFB - WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE RIDER TO SHOOT WITH? DO YOU HAVE ONE- OR WHO MADE YOU "STOKED ON FIXED BIKES" I can’t really name a favorite rider. I enjoy shooting cycling (especially fixed gear) in general and I like to shoot people who are passionate about it. Who put their energy in their riding. I want to show how they enjoy it, how they suffer. SOFB - YOU RIDE BIKES YOURSELF? IF YES, HOW MUCH DOSE THIS AFFECT THE WAY YOU LOOK AT THE SPORT THROUGH YOUR LENS? Like I told you before I mostly ride fixed gear bikes myself, very few times I change to my road bike. I think to document this type of sport / lifestyle / culture / scene or however you wanna call it, you have to know about it and feel at least a similar passion about it. People seem to see that in my work. I also think I focus on other things than the usual sports photographer. I hope people recognize that as well when looking at my work.
Photo: Bjoern Lexius
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SOFB - FILM OR DIGITAL? I love the look of film but as a vegan I say „digital“ and make it look like film. At least a bit. Although the way of shooting on film differs so much from working digital. However, to shoot a sport like fixed gear riding, especially crit races, I think digital will always be the best choice. SOFB - WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE TIME OF DAYLIGHT TO SHOOT IN? When the sun is setting, as I love to work with good light and shadows. But, I will shoot at any time of day as shooting is as relaxing and mind freeing to me as cycling is. SOFB - WHATS IN YOUR BAG, ALL THE GEAR YOU USE FOR PHOTOSHOOTS, HOW HEAVY IS IT? My go to camera is a Canon 5D Mark III, I always pack a 35mm and a 85mm lens. Sometimes I go wide with a 16-35mm or a 24mm. I mostly never go beyond 85mm. For New York I also brought the Samsung NX1 which Samsung gave to me. It was equipped with a 16 – 50mm and a 50 – 150mm lens and I really liked to try this during the qualification runs. For events I bring a Canon Speedlite flash as I want to travel light, for photoshoots, when I’m not shooting available light only (what I mostly do) I pack a Profoto B1 or B2. All of this packed into my FstopGear Tilopa BC backpack. SOFB - MINIMAL SETUP? The 5D Mark III and the 35mm lens. Even more minimal (at least in my eyes) was the setup I shot last year’s Red Hook Crit Barcelona with: I only brought my Olympus OM-D E-M5 with a 17mm and a 55mm lens. Packed together it fits into my hip bag and I can carry it on my bike without even bringing my backpack.
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Photo: Bjoern Lexius
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Photos: Bjoern Lexius
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Photo: Bjoern Lexius
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SOFB - DREAM LOCATION TO SHOOT THIS YEAR? I think New York was already way up on my list and I definitely will need to go back there to shoot way more in this city. Something I can also take off myl ist soon, even if not cycling related, is a trip I will make to Iceland in late June. Commissioned by an anti-whaling NGO I will document their whaler watching campaign to investigate Icelandic whaling and expose it’s methods to the world. SOFB - IF YOU COULD GIVE A YOUNGER YOU AN ADVICE ON HIS WAY TO THE FIRST FREELANCE ASSIGNMENT WHAT WOULD YOU TELL HIM? Live your heart and never follow. Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something. Sounds clichee but that’s the best thing I can advice someone. Do what you want, do what you love. SOFB - ANY FINAL THOUGHTS YOU WOULD LIKE TO ADD? I want to thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak a bit about my work and hopefully to make more people getting interested in what I do and throught that getting more people into cycling.
Photo: Bjoern Lexius
http://www.bjoernlexius.de/
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#Seabase1910 www.redbull.com/seabase1910 VA Images / Red Bull Content Pool
Patrick Seabase masters the „Treacherous Dtage“ from 1910
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Bayonne, June 4th, 2015 - «I really don’t know how I made it here», Patrick Seabase from Berne says as he gets off his bicycle in Bayonne. What he knows exactly, even 15 hours and 52 minutes after the start, are the figures: 309 kilometers and more than 7611 meters in altitude (according to Yellowbrick). These statistics have literally been brandmarked into his mind during the past weeks. "For the first time in my life I had doubts as to whether I was good enough, whether I would be able to achieve what I had planned.»
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He had planned not only a seemingly endless ride across five Pyrenees mountain passes, but also a unique way of doing so: on his fixed gear bike. Due to its fixed gear mechanism the pedals continue to move with each turning of the rear wheel, so there is no resting as long as the bike is in motion. Bicycle purist Seabase also limited himself to a bike with only one gear ratio and no brakes. This reduced-to-the-max bicycle is the reason why he started tackling longer and longer distances and finally mountain passes.
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Patrick Seabase skids on the descent of the Col du Tourmalet, France
«What did those pioneers that cycled this stage in 1910 do to themselves?» Seabase had kept wondering. He looks at his ride as a tribute to those men who on July 21st, 1910, tackled the first mountain stage of the Tour de France and went down in history. On June 3rd, 2015, Patrick Seabase is beaming at the Bayonne finish line: «I am the kind of guy who likes reaching his goals. This has been the first time that I have announced an accomplishment beforehand – this has put me under additional pressure, and I am extremely glad that I have made it». The former German cycling pro Danilo Hondo was with Seabase as athletic director. «From the beginning, I had to remind him to eat and drink enough, not to start out too fast, and finally I had to help him on during those dark moments by telling him that the next flat stretch was coming up and he would be able to recover.» One thing didn’t bring Seabase any relief, though: the descents. The racing downhill was thus just another feat of strength.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: facebook.com/ patrickseabase, @patrickseabase, #seabase1910
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Visions. Photos: Thomas Nyhus
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Dutch Crit Cup
Photos: Renee Rooijmans Text: Saskia Haex
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Fixed gear is back at it’s roots. It is a strange thing, to see a sport develop. Going back to the first days of skateboarding, surfing or snowboarding you will see the same development in fixed gear: first it is just for fun, but as time moves on the stakes (along with the prizes) get higher and “street” kids turn into serious athletes... The competition will get more fierce, and the races more intense as everyone keeps pushing their and each others limits. Fixed gear criterium races are now exactly there: at that point on the timeline. But the funny thing is: fixed gear crit racing is old! Not old as in old news, but old as in: it was already a hype a long time ago. Before gears were invented all bike races were fixed, just because there was no alternative. Funny how history really does repeat itself.
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More info: facebook.com/vastverzet bokaal Photos: Renee Rooijmans
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Now more and more racers pick up on the crit buzz, more races are boing organized. Races for different levels, not just for the top riders. Also for the young guns that want to be part of the top, and be up there riding the next RHC. For these riders a new league has been formed in the Netherlands: The Dutch Crit Cup (or Vast Verzet Bokaal in Dutch). With 12! crits throughout the Netherlands this spring & summer, it offers many racers the chance to try and get better at racing, to just show off their skills, or to train for bigger races. Every race riders get points which eventually leads up to the last race, with an overall male & female winner of the Dutch Crit Cup.
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BERLINER FAHRRADSCHAU THE SIXTH ANNIVERSARY YEAR, THE BERLINER FAHRRADSCHAU
Photos and Text Greg Falski
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BLB Notorious Zero full carbon Disc Clincher Wheel.
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Telai Artigianali STELBEL Established by Stelio Belletti, pioneer of TIG welded racing bicycle frames, in 1973.
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CRUMPLER develops uncompromising, functional, design focused bags for every facet of urban life: from the classic, bike courier tested messenger bags,
http://www.berlinerfahrradschau.de/ 73
8BAR KRZBERG V
PLUS PRODUCT REVIEWS Photo and Text: Greg Falski and Marina Fenz
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V4
S
We are testing this awesome and sexy bike by 8BAR at the moment. The frame is perfectly balanced and just fun to ride. With its aggressive and unique geometry, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perfect for the busy roads. The frame is build of the double butted 6061 aluminium. The smooth 8bar custom dropouts curved chain stays to allow you to use every kind of crankset. This frame set includes a 8bar aero carbon track fork, a 8bar SUPER A-Head set and a seat collar.
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Photos: Greg Falski
Kappstein FlipFree 76
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Continental Grandprix GT We are using the Continental Grandprix GT 25mm and very happy with their performance as they are light and provide perfect grip. We place it between the GP4000S and the well known Gatorskins. Fast rolling, high gripping race rubber and puncture protection. Good allrounder! https://www.conti-online.com/www/bicycle_de_en/
MEGA CNC STEM The 8BAR stem is super light and great looking. The lightweight 6061-T6 aluminium - full CNC machined. http://8barbikes.com/
Substance 3.0 TSG Helmet The Substance 3.0 - height-adjustable. Tri-Fit close system can be easily adjusted with one hand. Front vent mesh, washable pads and the adjustable visor make this helmet a perfect protection. https://www.ridetsg.com
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Bombtrack Oxbridge FlipFree
& Kappstein
What we love about this model is the simplicity and the creamy colour called metallic mocha. The bike is perfect for girls a it is light and quite small. It has been tested by guys and girls though and we all love it as you can go fast and feel stable and safe. We built it up with the Kappstein Flip Free hub which allows you to change between single speed and fixed gear by simply pushing a small lever. So the way we set up the Bombtrack Oxbridge together with the Kappstein FlipFree is great for people who want to try fixed gear and have the possibility to swap and have breaks all at the same time. Awesome! http://kappstein.de http://bombtrack.com
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Red Bull Mini Drome 2015 Neth Jarno Schurgers/Red Bull Content Pool
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herlands - Utrecht
To celebrate the departure of the Tour de France in Utrecht, The Netherlands, Red Bull set up a mini drome (25 meters of cycling madness) for both fixed and single gears.
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The winner Toms Alsbergs, congratulations!
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THE 2015 RED
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D HOOK CRIT NYC Photos by Jason Sellers
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Photo: Jason Sellers
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Photos by Y.C Tang and Allen Chu Text: Chris Yang
"King Of Balance", I started planning this around April and started asking my bro Allen, the designer and photographer from the biggest night ride group Fixed Style, for designing the poster and discussing the details about the event with him and the founder ADA in order to team up my own group Track Or Trick with Fixed Style! 98
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After that, I started looking for local and foreign brands and shops to help this out by sharing and sponsoring some items as the prizes! I knew people from The Heavy Pedal, Most Hated Cyclists, Trafik LA, SF Sprints etc and I also looked for sponsors such as Factory 5, Aarn, Chrome Industries, Brick Lane Bikes etc. The sponsorship turned out surprisingly amazing! We got total 27 sponsors including local shops, teams and brands such as Massriderz Bike Shop, Fixed Style, Black Fixie Team, Broz Cycles, Breakbrake 17, Impact Garage, 4 Riz Fixie Crew, Drift, 2XU, Demarco Lab, Ananta Taiwan, Integral 03, FTC Taiwan, and Fixed Holiday. Also, this time what surprised me was lots of awesome foreign brands and teams from different places joining the sponsorships such as Factory 5, Trafik LA, Chrome Industries, Trackr Workshop, Most Hated Cyclists, SF Sprints, Aarn, Cycle Project Store, City Grounds, God And Famous, Brick Lane Bikes, The Heavy Pedal, and Ass Savers! Together we made this become the biggest sponsored event and the biggest trackstand competition in Asia ever!! We had more than 200 to 300 people showing up that night which was crazy!
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The reason to hold this kind of event is that I'm always wanna get the old school trick track style back on the stage again and for lots of people, trackstand competition may be not as serious as a crit race, alleycat race, or a sprint race something like those. And since trackstand is always my favorite skills, I wanna make it become a serious, challenging competition as well that everyone will actually spend some time cultivating the skill for the event! And it did! More people started training that skill! Also, when I started reaching track bike in Sacramento, I always wished to bridge two fixed communities from two different countries together since it can make this culture stronger! For lots of local riders in my country, they may have no ideas about what's going on outside Taiwan and those awesome brands from different places. To me, this is a great opportunity to help them know more things and hep those brand promote as well! I believe it will be more since track bike scene in Taiwan is growing now!
The rules about competition were simple but still challenging. It's started with basic trackstand positions for 30 minutes, then they're gonna follow the orders by leaving their one hand off for 5 minutes, two hands off for 5 minutes, two hands off and one leg off for 5 minutes, and finally letting hands and both legs off til the winner came out! The final was fierce since there were only 4 riders left and two of them got collided and another one Jay Chen also fell down simultaneously. The total 45 minutes they had been through and glad that my bro ROYSB got the "King Of Balance" title. 101
Photo: Constantin Gerlach
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Rad Race Fixed42 World Championship Photos by Constantin Gerlach Text by Carlos Serra/GoodTimesRoll 103
31st May, a really special cycling race took place in Berlin - The Rad-Race Fixed42 World Championship, for the first time, everyone was able to legally ride a fixed gear bike without brakes on it through the heart of Germany´s capital city. So far we have written no more than four lines of review and we have told really a lot about what -all in all- it was. First of all it was a about cycling, an event placed inside the program of Berlin´s most iconic event gravitating around two wheels. Fixed gear is not anymore considered just a weird way of riding a bike through the city, those who once criticized the non-sense of riding without gears and brakes, now they want- or even are- part of the discipline. Second of all “everyone could ride” means exactly that, everyone was invited to join the event, no matter you were wearing a tight fancy lycra suit with a bunch of printed sponsors or just some jeans and cotton T-shirt, you had 42Km ahead to ride on your fixed bike. More than 270 people participating proofs that. The Rad-Race team has changed the rules of the game and all those who love fixed gear, we owe them that credit!
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It was a race, no doubt! While standard fixed gear criteriums are rapidly getting no longer an option for those who are not really dedicating a serious amount of time – and effort- to training, the Rad-Race events are finding a formula to put everyone together in the race. Still the Fixed42 Word Championship was a real race, with an average over 47km/h at the front no one can discuss that. Our youngest team member – Sam Baron- was at the very front keeping that pace until the finish line earning a 14th place and losing only 3 seconds to the winner. Now, stop reading and count until 3 to know how long 3 seconds really are. But besides the front pack, there were many other races going on. There was also a middle group riding slightly slower at an average of 44.8km/h, in that group we had Nils Schaefer from Good Times Roll team riding along with Stefan Schott (8Bar). This second group was always in chase of the first, but once contact is lost it is almost impossible to get there again. As said before, no one can say it was not a real race!
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New rule, have fun! Our team captain, Carlos Serra, crashed 500 m after the start line trying to get to the front position and he lost almost 2 minutes until getting back onto the bike. New race format, new mistakes to be made and new lessons to be learnt. But thanks to that incident we had a nice opportunity to explain you more about the race. After getting back on the bike, Carlos had to ride a personal time trial from the last position and had a first-hand impression of the other face of the race. Lots of people riding for fun those 42Km along the city of Berlin. During his personal race, for about one hour, he was able to jump from group to group to the finish line. There were a lot of people having a good time on a bike and a lot friends taking care of arriving to the finish line together and this is just beautiful! This is just what Fixed Gear was all about at the very beginning and seems like the Rad-Race guys had found the perfect way to combine all ways of understanding what the simplest form of bicycle could mean for each of us.
http://www.rad-race.com/
Thanks to our Team for being who you are, to our families for being patient all the time we are traveling, to our Sponsors/Supporters foe helping us through the season, to all our friends and frenemies traveling and racing with us and for sure a massive thanks to the whole Rad-Race Team for organizing different races which are always a hell of a good time! Those races are never really about racing and training like a wannabe pro just to be on the podium, these races are made for everyone who loves to ride a fixed bike and wants to have a good time with others sharing this passion! See you soon at a race somewhere on this planet. Photos: Constantin Gerlach
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Photos: Constantin Gerlach
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The SANKT PAULOPOLY // PANKT SAULOPOLY?!
Photos by Mirko Text: Mirko and Orga
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3 years ago, i went first time to the pankt saulopoly. I wondered why it isnt called anymore sankt paulopoly, this year i found out that the old organisation gave the scepter to the new generation in hamburgs fixed scene and they changed the name. So I just can speak for the last three years and everytime it was great. St. Pauli is a really good place for a Monopoly-Alleycat based Alleycat and going to jail can be the truth ;) But it never happened, just same breakless bikes got overnighters in the Davidwache. This year it was starting with the Critical Mass of Hamburg on Friday, after the CM we went on a spot called Notruf:Hafenkralle with Ghetto Crit, Goldsprint and Karaoke. On Saturday we met together at Suicycle for BBQ and registration. Then the AC starts at 9 at the old Markthalle, trying to be sober till the start doesnt worked. So the 2 hours of power, where loads of fun mixed with paranoia, haha. Looking forward to the afterparty let the time fly, so if anybody can tell you about the party, he wasn''t there. On Sunday, if you woke up, you had the possibilty to check out the best pics of the photo-checkpoint. Great work of the Photographer Carlos Fernandez Laser! At the end, it was one of my greatest AC ever and i'm looking forward to next year! Cya there! Mirko 110
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The most important rule of the pankt saulopoly is that NOBODY gets hurt. well done, you all did a great job. there were no big crashes and no bad contacts with civilian folks. for sure some of you Lost some money to the police... but hey, this a part of the game. so, we had an awesome weekend with over 190 riders from england, swiss, austria, belgium, wales, france, danemark and all over germany. thanx you all for PANKT IT UP so hard. for sure, we want to thank Non Stopschwitzen and radpropaganda for the NOTRUF: HAFENKRALLE. this was massive preacation - love to you!!! also much love to our family of the checkpoint crews, the cooking team, the bbq guys, Critical Mass Hamburg, Hamburg Bikepolo (next year with sunshine), KANDIE SHOP, and Kraken St.Pauli for the aftershow Party. last but not least: we thank our sponsors Continental, Chrome Industries, Underpressure, True Rebel Store & special thanks to suicycle-store.com for all the support. hope we see you all in 2016 for the 15th anniversary of the SANKT PAULOPOLY // PANKT SAULOPOLY?! peace out. Orga
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Bespoked Hand
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dmade Bicycle Show By Greg Falski
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>Bespoked remains a UK showcase for the best framebuilders in the world, but the best keep getting better and the world of handmade bicycles keeps on growing.<
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I went to Bristol with Anto and Marina for the Bespoked Bristol in April. As always it was inspiring to see all those dedicated framebuilders in one place. Everyone is pushing their boundaries and they all are getting better and better. Good to see our good friend Ted James, of course he is our all time favourite framebuilder. He started to work with Titanium and made a collabration with Charge Bikes. I really liked the CycloCross frame he made for the Bespoked show. Our friends Cloud9Cycles, as always , created really nice bikes for the show too.
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Donhou Bicycles 118
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BRONZE BICYCLE CO www.geraldgilbert.co.uk 120
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Juliet and Anto For more please check http://www.bespoked.cc
Best Track bicycle - Moss Bicycles - supported by Columbus For more please check http://www.bespoked.cc
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