Video: 36 Racers Friday Night Racing Firepower

Photography: RACINGMIX Friday Night Racing Firepower

]]> http://www.racingmix.com/2010/09/friday-night-track-fever/feed/ 0 http://www.racingmix.com/2010/08/car-guys-boy-racers/ http://www.racingmix.com/2010/08/car-guys-boy-racers/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:19:28 +0000 wilsontai http://www.racingmix.com/?p=82 Good friend, Miles, just published a piece at Fine Line Imports blog. It speaks of and showcases one of many FLI’s flagship tuned vehicles, a 2007 Subaru WRX STI limited edition, owned by film producer and director, Brad Wells. One of eight hundred only, the car is even more unique because of its duality between winter and summer tuned setups in which parts are swapped over to enhance the seasons driving environment. The winter setup is notable as the vehicle is equipped with a light bar and spiked snow tires, tuned for the 3,000 feet above sea level elevation of Lake Tahoe.

I had the pleasure of both photographing and driving the beast in “Jekyll” mode, zipping around the lake at the end of winter season in between snowboarding at Sugar Bowl. Windows down to crisp sunny blue skies, blowing out my ear drums to ‘Lil Weezy, hunting photography backdrops, with four hundred horsepower on tap spooling up through the turbo. See the RACINGMIX photography and image production at FLI’s blog post, “Jekyll & Hyde 07 STI LTD #417“.

There are a couple methods of foot retention popularly used: one involves velcro straps (e.g. Hold Fast) and BMX platform pedals (e.g. Odyssey Trail Mix); the other utilizes toe clips (steel, alloy, plastic), straps (laminated suede leather with stainless buckles), and quill pedals (MKS Custom Nuevo, RX-1, Campagnolo). Whereas one system is designed for fixed gear street freestyle, the other is designed for the track velodrome. Both systems allow for regular shoes.

As my bicycle is a track bicycle ridden on the street, I want a complementary aesthetic. Clunky BMX pedals, nevermind loose ball plastic varieties, and velcro straps would be too grunge, low brow for my build. However, I could never understand why toe clips have never been designed for double straps and especially a pair of single straps doubled up, as in my case. It’s been a problem! To my delight, All-City, a newer bicycle, clothing, and components, company from Minneapolis, has fulfilled the toe clip solution!

For reasons unknown, MKS Japan, the major maker of toe clips, never released a two gate toe clip, go figure!? If  you look at the MKS product line, it’s apparent they are too conservative to react to the hyperactive US fixed gear market, choosing to stick with decades-old, proven designs. In comparison, All-City, in two years, has a near complete components line to build a complete bicycle, three frameset choices, and two complete bike offerings.

Dubbed the All-City “Swan Road Doubles” toe clips, they feature two gates on a single swan bar design. In a 60mm platform size, they fit a wide range of feet as a “medium-large”. They are pleasing to the eye, graceful curves, cut-out for weight reduction (weight: 36g), and are almost identical to traditional MKS chrome steel toe clips minus the NJS stamp. Below are photographs showing the comparison and the final setup, of which, I am very happy with, size US 12 EU 46 feet, and all!

MKS XL chrome steel toe clips (left) and All-City Swan double chrome steel toe clips (right).

The toe clips with included hardware mounted right up to the MKS Custom Nuevo pedal cages

The MKS Fit Alpha Sports straps are routed through the pedals as MKS Japan recommends

With the Swan’s double gates, the straps work as doubles, no more shifting straps when riding!

Sugino 75 cranks, MKS pedals, MKS straps, All-City Swan Road Doubles: foot retention dialed!

CNC Plastic Factory: Two finger 1×6 bone white lego landing strip ring, two finger avocado green smooth concrete curve ring, 1×2 hot pink and jet black ring, 2×2 gunmetal grey and jet black ring.

Tongue-in-cheek like the sterling silver Mathea Edition Brickwall Lego rings, Dee & Ricky lego 8-bit’esque styled jewelry. Pop culturist millionaires rockin’ the 8-bit steez: the Japanese Warhol, Takashi Murakami, music producer artist, Kanye West, and fashionist, Marc Jacobs.

No worries about beating up the rings with rough wearing as your investment is minimal, product has proven durable. I gave the black and gunmetal grey lego ring 2×2 a go the past couple weeks and the ring shows no wear. This includes sports activity like off road singletrack bicycling, sports sweat, chemical soap, running into trees and throwing ultimate disc. Retail on the ring is under $20 USD and an effective eye candy addition to you and your wardrobe.

P.S. I have yet to raid my old bedroom closet for the lego stash to garnish the ring with.

Youve Been On My Mind by Wilson (63 minute live dj mix by Wilson)

I live vicariously through you, Mr. Armstrong. If you aren’t following our national champion, Lance Armstrong, in his climactic glory in the Tour de France happening right now, you’re living under a rock in more ways than one. Lance is 38 coming on 39 – “30s is the new 20s” – and rockin’ in the saddle (saddle sores and all) with the twentysomethings. Father of five kids, still puttin’ it all on the line for the cause. Ask yourself, what was the farthest you’ve biked? These competitors bicycle 140 miles in one day, then do it again with another 100 miles the next day, and again with Le Tour de France a total of 20 stages, you do the math on total mileage of human powered racing. Make us proud, Lance.

Tour de France updates: Steephill TdF 2010 updates

Why does oil have to put such a cramp in lifestyle? Back in November, I sold off the car (not anti-car, just pro-bike) and it was the best 3,000 lbs I ever lost. Lifestyle has been at an all-time high on the wheels of steel – even when it shamefully appears I’m the only one on the road that isn’t blowing smoke i.e. driving a vehicle (in reality, I’m not alone, there are an increasing number of cyclists).

But to care? It ain’t my money. What better time to bring up the topic when there is a massive herpes sore of a disaster in the Gulf? How trendy and convenient to point the finger, pass the buck, accuse the President, blame the government, penalize the country, criminate the oil company, and sacrifice the eleven platform workers that exploded with the rig. Rather, try this…

Who has five fingers per hand? You. Point to yourself; start in your own driveway and home garage. If it weren’t for our cumulative habitual need to drive less than a mile to the grocery store, across the street to pick up four tall coffee’s, or two miles to work, we wouldn’t massively rally to seek and destroy for oil (Gulf War I Bush, Gulf War II W Bush, anyone?).

Oil is not bad or a problem in itself. Before our lifetime, we used whales for oil. Dependency on crude oil as a limited fossil fuel to support our way of life is a problem. “Be realistic!”, you cry in defense. Look, we will be dependent on oil until the wheels fall off and the wells dry up, whichever happens first. Ever hear of an airport, a race track, or a delivery truck? Infrastructure systems of countries economies dependent on oil. But the race to the bottom doesn’t have to be so painful or lacking of imagination and creativity.

To wit, I am a California, Bay Area, native and a UC Santa Cruz graduate, so the tree hugger mentality is innate and environmental awareness is second nature. Credit the optimism and appreciation that some prefer to inhale crisp air and see the contrasting whites of clouds in blue skies. We get that here in Cali, it takes a bit of whistleblowing, activism and practice. Case in point:

Remember the 2007 oil leak in San Francisco Bay? I do, and I was bummed because lifestyle was cramped upon. My dog, Stella, and I were unable to exercise and enjoy Isabel Point in Richmond or Ocean Beach in SF; a boat had tore off a piece of the Bay Bridge, a major fuel oil spill followed and thus beaches, their access and their dog runs were closed.

The SF oil spill leak was originally reported as “140 gallons”. Later, it was determined to be an actual 58,000 gallons. Here are pictorial results:

Alcatraz Island, the nation’s #1 tourist attraction

Fort Baker, SF, during the oil spill of winter 2007

San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, major oil spill of 2007 effects

The SF oil spill of 58,000 gallons was a nuisance, like a pimple at the tip of the nose compared to full blown facial gonorrhea, exceeded by 11,000,000 gallons produced from the Exxon Valdez oil spill of Prince William Sound, Alaska. To put it mildly, what was once a poster perfect example of “pristine” was forced into an “adversely affected devastation” on every level from livelihood, tourism, economy and existence. The major committed suicide. Life goes on…

Exxon Valdez, Alaska Oil Spill cleanup circa spring 1989

’89 was a year to remember because the Loma Prieta earthquake shook the Bay Area during the San Francisco Giants vs Oakland Athletics World Series game. The battle of two forces is a recurring theme as we get back on topic…

Twenty years later, it’s 2010, British Petroleum (BP) and Exxon head the battle of oil destroying the Earth. Deemed the “Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill”, BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem is coerced into sucking up over a million gallons of oil – every day. 1,000,000 gallons, every day, exclamation. We are experiencing an Exxon Valdez on repeat, not once, but once every day. This is not a pimple, or facial gonorrhea – imagine getting out of bed and your dick or tit falling off.

“Thick Oil Blackens Shore” reads the headline

But it’s important not to label each oil spill as “BP” or “Exxon” or “your favorite gas station” – that’s not the big picture. Over a month into the Gulf Oil Spill when it first started with the rig explosion, April 20th (the date is symbolic), with no end or solution in sight, behold history in the making: the largest offshore drilling oil spill of all time. Regrettably, this is not a milestone record that you want hanging on the plaque wall or in the trophy case to inspire future generations with.

Point being, can you see the cycle? Every time I pumped gas into the car, I was pumping money into the tank, poof up in smoke. One realizes after the x-hundredth visit to the gas station that such a naive dependency is not sustainable. The drug addiction analogy has become real – weekly fluctuations in gas prices amounting to pennies causing mood swings or elation? Gas prices changing behavior? The fuel gauge and trip mileage were nagging like a mother to a teen. To horror, the comical became real – an existence by society that generally supported and encouraged the following:

Caused by gluttony and as foul as the above picture suggests, oil spills are caused by humans for humans and can likewise be solved in the same manner. Talking doesn’t help, practice does. Please do not confuse yourself by asking what pill you can pop, where you can donate money to, or what you can buy?

Conveniently, today’s culture welcomes green-centric behavior. Everyone and their mom likes to be popular and it’s trendy to wax poetic about “going green” or “being green”. Please do not compromise yourself by falling victim to marketing (talk) over practice (action).

Andy Singer – Magic of Marketing

Prius car drivers with their noses in the air, complaining about their inability to exploit free bridge toll loopholes, are an example of false marketing. What is false and what is real? Ah, the mysteries of life, but it’s not complicated like you wish it was – you fail to play dumb and get off easy. What can you do to help? With a little imagination and creativity, it costs you nothing:

• walk
• run
• skate
• bike
• mass transit
• rideshare

Historically speaking, if we use our tax dollars to build a parking lot or add freeway lanes, people will use and fill them. Ever hunt for a spot in a parking lot? Ever been late sitting on a ten lane super freeway stopped bumper-to-bumper in a hellish traffic jam? It’s a depressing experience. Road rage is ugly.

A welcome comfort: Mark a bike lane or incorporate bike lockers at transit centers / villages so people will use them. Such a lifestyle is pennies on the dollar, it’s sustainable and it’s quite easier than we market it out to be. The foundation is already there. Key cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston, are jumping on the bandwagon. Support the infrastructure and practice the future you want. Face to the wind, know what I mean?

Ergo, gotta ask the question when reaching for the keys, “is this trip really necessary?”

eBoy

Local Bay Area heads in the Mission district have witnessed, knowingly or not, Chief Boima massaging the weekend crowds at Lil Baobab – time and place again, the joint for Ghetto Bassquake, Techno rumba beats and global stomping Afro Beat. Boima’s developed a following and it’s quite a sight to behold shoulder-to-shoulder predominantly white tattooed and pierced, purple haired hipsters shake, grind, pant, gulp, laugh and gasp, on the dance floor to Brazillian holler back music. Apparently, Boima couldn’t stay off the radar as Nike Sportswear and Fader Magazine payrolled Chief Boima to represent one of six continents, North America, in making mixtape Vol. 5.

The playlist is trademark all star Boima; Play the podcast MP3 at: http://thefader.cachefly.net/North-America-Mixtape.mp3

Los Rakas, “Abrazame (Uproot Andy Remix)” (United States/Panama/Canada)
Mr. OK, “Poto Mitan” (Canada/Haiti)
M.anifest, “Swing Low” (United States/Ghana)
Tabi Bonney, “Tick… Tick” (United States/Togo)
Toy Selectah, “Half Colombian-Half Mexican Bandit” (Mexico)
Dubbel Dutch, “Throwback” (United States)
Kush Arora, “Humidifier Jammer Club Edit” (United States)
Rita Indiana, “Poderes” (United States/Dominican Republic)
Theophilus London, “Don’t Be Afraid” (United States/Trinidad and Tobago)

Below: Chief Boima, Deep House Soldiers, photo by RACINGMIX

Few continents are as fluid as North America. From the Panama Canal to the Bering Strait, its borders contain a representation of nearly every imaginable personal history, and its residents seem to share their cultures as freely as the jet stream. The music that comes out of this panoply blurs the lines even more, and few grasp this constant flow as well as California’s Chief Boima. As a DJ, producer and writer living in San Francisco, Boima champions the genre-defiant and sonically adventurous with a keen eye, limitless curiosity and sly wit. For this mixtape, even though a majority of the artists live or have lived in the US of A, he’s somehow able to represent as many countries as there are songs, each one bounding back and forth across countries as effortlessly as its creator. Source: http://www.thefader.com/tag/pitch-perfect

Juxtaposing the sultry summer nights audio, the Pitch Perfect mixtape artwork is by Icelandic digital artist, Siggi Eggertsson, famous for his eBoy 8-bit’esque neo-retro colored illustration graphic style, of which I’ve been admiring for years. Below is a snap of all six mixtape covers by Siggi.

All in all, the collaborative forces have created a superb bubble into the sonic and visual landscape of summer 2010. The Ivory Coast should be proud! – RACINGMIX