Twin City - All City

In the Cities? The Twin Cities? The Midwest? Then there is everything right with you hitting up this little gathering today through Sunday. The All City Championship put on by Bike Jerks.

We've posted on this before but it never hurts to repeat. Jeff [from Bike Jerks] has gathered some pretty great looking prizes from all the sponsors. You'll have your chance at getting your hands on some Deep V, Chukker and B43 wheelsets.

For a schedule on how this little bike party is going to go down, check out this link.

And for all of you who like videos... here are all the All City Championship videos I could find [without putting forth much effort]:

Bike Jerks Weekend from BikeJerks on Vimeo.

All City Trick Comp 2009 from BikeJerks on Vimeo.

3 video day.

Today just felt like a 3 video day. Nothing new, just some favorites.

The first comes from our friend over at Bike Jerks, Jeff. Maybe it's just me but every time I hear 'Oh Yeah' fond memories of Ferris Bueller's Day Off come to mind and I can't stop listing or watching until it's over...

Bike Jerks Weekend from BikeJerks on Vimeo.

and we all know '... wasn't using a crosswalk... cancels out... keep walking.'

I think I could watch/listen to the first 15 seconds of this video on repeat for an uncomfortable amount of time...

Circulus from machine project on Vimeo.

5th All City

We won't hide it. Here at Velocity we're fans of All-City Bikes. I don't mind tooting our own horn and say that our wheels do look spectacular on their rigs. One of their co-founders, Jeff Frane, another friend in the industry who also heads up Bike Jerks, for the last 5 years has put on a little gathering over in the Twin Cities or the Cities or MPLS or Minneapolis, Minnesota [pick your fancy depending on your region] and we're glad to be a part of it again for the coming edition in August.

Here's the rundown of events:

Thursday Night - Fixed Gear Freestyle Heavyweight Championship of the World
I'm renting out a skatepark for 3 hours. One hour of jam, and two hours of contest. We will ride from One on One to the park, get rad, and then go swimming. A & B classes, and a women's division if there are any women interested in competing.

After the amazing experience that was Midwest Mayhem, I am super excited to hopefully host all of the heavyweights of the FGFS scene. Fly in Thursday during the day, ride the comp, and on Friday we'll spend the day riding street (there are some crazy spots here, and lines that we've been waiting to see get done). The rest of the weekend will be a nonstop party. Talk to your sponsors, beg your parents, whatever you gotta do, just get here. It's gonna be a big deal.

Friday Night - Match Sprints, Trackstand, Afterparty
Head to Head single elimination tournament, mens and women's divisions. The Robeast is the three year running champ, can any of you hosses out there dethrone the King of Sprint? As for trackstand, it will be a trackstand comp with people yelling "take your shirt off" the whole time. The Bedlam theatre (best balcony in town) will be hosting us after the sprints, drink specials!

Saturday - All City Championship Alleycat Race, Afterparty
It's going to be a racer's race with the most badass woman and man taking home the title of "All City Champ." If you think you're fast, show up and prove it. Men's and Women's categories with prizes for 1st through 3rd place. There will also be a masters division for men and women 35 and up, a prize for first fixed gear, and a DFL winner.

Expect picks and drops, a time trial component, and about 25 miles or so of racing. I will be posting several of the manned stops ahead of time to help level the playing field for the out of town contingent.

The awards and afterparty will be in the alley behind One on One, there will be several kegs, and hopefully Kopish and D.O. (sp?) will be spinning jams. Likely some hot derby action will ensue. There are few things better than a good party in a downtown alley, and this is going to be a good one.

There may also be a little street fair in the alley before the race for any sponsors who want to come out and setup a table and show/sell their goods.

Sunday - Freeride
Zito's annual booze cruise wraps up the weekend on Sunday. A slow leisurely ride through town with beer, DJ's, and fireworks. The perfect capper to the weekend's festivities.

This is a weekend of bike bliss. Mark your calendars. Be there. It's not only the right thing to do but it's worth it.

Don't forget about this weekend either. The Midwest is really the place to be.

You Jerk!

Yesterday over on the Bike Jerks blog, Jeff threw out a little love our way on one of the prototype A23 Wheelsets that we sent his way to rage on. We definitely feel his words are golden, especially when he speaks on the equipment he rides. His thoughts are being echoed by everyone who has gotten ride time on these gems.

Enjoy Jeff's thoughts:

To be upfront about this, the wheels were freebies given to me to test by Dave over at Handspun, and as you may know I have a tight relationship with the dudes over at Velocity. Let's not beat around the bush, I'm a huge Velocity advocate. They support the hell out of the alleycat racing scene, make great products, and have amazing customer service. To say I'm a fan of the company is an understatement. They are a shining example of awesomeness in the sometimes dark world of the bike industry. As a fan of the company, I'm always eager to beat the hell out their new stuff, so here's how my experience has been with this A23 wheelset.

These are by far the lightest wheels I own, or have ever owned. They are low spoke count, bladed with alloy nips, the rear hub has an alloy cassette body and aggressive cutouts, and the rim is pretty light.

I have been riding this set since the end of February on my cross bike. I have ridden trails, pulled the trailer, commuted, ran them into potholes and generally kicked the crap out of them for three months. I have trued the front exactly zero times and have only trued the rear once. The rear had some pretty good side to side action, but you have to remember that I would never ever build myself a set of wheels two cross/radial rear, unless they were strictly for racing. So given that, I feel like the rear has stood up to the beatings pretty well given that these wheels were definitely not intended for what I'm doing with them. I was riding a fat tire (38c) which I'm sure helped protect the rim, but still, for a lightweight road racing wheelset they've taken the abuse very well.

They're rock solid, super fast, and I think pretty darn sexy. So sexy in fact that I plan on buying (with my own money) another pair (likely 24 hole front two cross, 28 rear three cross drive, two non drive) for my forthcoming Peacock Groove. Or I may just swap these over to that bike.

These things are amazing, and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a lightweight road rim, that can be used as an all-arounder as well as for racing. As for the hubs I've had no issues with them either.

_

And I know you're wondering... yes, the wheelsets will be available soon! Be sure to check out all of the other posts on the Bike Jerks site. Stellar photos and a solid read.

More mayhem!

Not much for you today, more and more videos and pictures are coming out of the the Midwest Mayhem this past weekend. Bike Jerks has got a bunch of videos up on some of highlights, check them out there. Hats off to you, Murder B, who walked away with the Chukker wheelset from us AND the Bruiser frame set in the B class. Well done.

I'll leave you with one video from the event, showing a pretty massive wall ride:

A simple equation.

As mentioned yesterday, the ball has begun to roll on items for the Handmade Show in February. The first teaser for what you'll get to see is represented by the equation above. We're working with another company here in Grand Rapids called [Michigan Awesome], if all goes to plan it's going to be a pretty sweet one-of-a-kind tribute to the Glove!

Nice catch by Jeff over at Bike Jerks on our stellar new hold music. We switched it over not more than 24 hours ago and sure enough he noticed. Matt has been raving about the Trailer Park Boys for some time and it has gotten the thumbs up from the rest of us. Check it out!

Merry Christmas! We're outta here.

Stumbled onto some of our friends over at Bike Jerks, and it looks like yesterday was 'New Bike Day'. Looks like a pretty sexy build to say the least but the comic at the top was definitely what set it off. So cheers to you 'Sexual Intercourse: The Bike'... you've got a pretty nice trap.

Unless you live under a rock [and if that is the case, I really doubt you encounter the intro-web all to frequently or have an email machine for that matter], 'tis the season the time has come and we're getting a few extra days off here at Velocity to celebrate the coming Christmas holiday. A time to for us to relax and spend a few days around our families and friends. We're closing down shop on both the 24th and 25th; it's also important to note that we'll also be getting our celebration on of the New Year and will be closed the 31st and 1st. Until next week...