Archives: Bicycle

Last weekend had two days of sweet bicycle racing in North Alabama. The Southeast Regional Series pops in every year for a Crit and Road race that’s pretty rad to spectate. Unfortunately this weekend I had a stomach virus and was unable to attend the Crit, but was able to check out Zach as he smashed through the very steep climbing in Grant, AL. Specifically the 1.4 miles of death climbing to the finish line!

“Seriously, it’s tough. I climb a lot around here (Atlanta, GA) and that climb is just so long and brutal the whole way up. In a race scenario it’s even harder!” – Zach

Pumped to see Zach get focused on dominating the field. He finished second in the Crit and Fifth in the Road Race bringing him enough point to take the Cat 4 GC lead!!

Make sure to head over to Cogzilla Attacks and check out all his radness! I promise you won’t be disappointed!

“The Flèche is the kind of ride that doesn’t make sense to most people the first time you try to explain it. It’s 24 hours long, self-supported, self-designed, and tough, mentally and physically.” – Carolyn Johnson

I love this! Great story of pushing limits and camaRADerie! Go check out the full write up over at Firefly’s Adventure Team site!

Artist Series: NOA- Yalta from Chrome Industries on Vimeo. “The newest edition to our Artist Series features the original artwork of Japanese artist NOA-. NOA- is as humble as he is talented. Typically using oil and acrylic paint on canvas or wood, he’s known for painting live with a style that emulates Japanese line-making. Each piece of art is influenced by the music he chooses to play as he paints, with most of his inspiration is deeply rooted in hip-hop and graffiti. NOA- created this artwork based on the Japanese phrase “Kuromu” (sounds like Chrome!) and means Black Fog. These one-of-a-kind Yalta bags come from a 4′ x 12′ canvas and acrylic painting NOA- made. Each of the 8 bags represents a specific segment of the painting where the Black Fog takes on a unique energy of its own. Our Artist Series is produced as a limited run. Once they are gone, they’re gone.” – Chrome

Head over to Chrome Industries and check out the images and videos from the Japan launch. Looked like it was a blast.

I rode and skated with this little guy for a solid week! Super impressed on its performance to pump jams and clip onto my bag, belt loop, or whatever else you find to clip to.

I got this in, opened the box, and it connected to my phone seamlessly with several hours of charge in it already. I immediately jumped on my bike and rode through medium level traffic to the store. This sucker jammed!! I kept the tunes pumping through the store, needed to make a phone call, held the “call” button, said the name of who I wanted to call (iPhone), it connected and called away. The clarity of the phone call was solid, although I don’t plan on using it for an extension of my phone for phone calls… it did its job well.

Go to JBL Audio and check out other sweet details on the JBL Clip. For $50 you can’t beat it!

The more I shoot film the more I fall in love. Shooting with the Vivitar PS:30 is by far the most fun at this point in my film photo taking exploration education. It’s light and easy to use once you understand its limitations. I guess that’s where “knowing” your camera does the trick.

Go to our FOLLY x FILM site to check out all that made the cut on this roll. I hope you dig!

Photo by someone rad… not me

“Argonaut collaborated with Garrett Kautz of Strawfoot Handmade to make a simple, durable, elegant tool pouch. Made of domestically produced wax cotton, leather strap, and nickel plated buckle, these tool rolls are designed to carry all you need to fix your bike on the road. This tool roll can be carried in your jersey pocket or strapped to the rails of your saddle, it will keep a spare tube, multitool, C02, and some cash or cards dry and secure.” – Argonaut Cycles

This combo is pretty great! Go to Argonaut’s web shop and pick’em up while they last. I believe there are only 50’ish made. Jah blessed!

Ruckus Composites is a Portland Oregon based Carbon Fiber repair business, repairing thousands of bikes a year for customers, bike shops and frame manufacturers. Every so often a bike never gets picked up, and ends up in the dead pile. For several years we have been wondering what to do with these lost souls, this year we cracked the code. Working with local and national non profit organizations as well as grass roots cycling teams, Ruckus will

Continue reading

It’s amazing how much you can learn in a couple rolls of film on a new camera. Really about photography in general whether it be film or digital (not iPhone). And as always… Chris Rost is down to ride, shoot, and be patient with me as I learn new skills.

On my first roll with the Canon ELAN 7E I used a super slow shutter speed. I didn’t grasp how light worked with a slow shutter speed yet. So… this roll I used a super fast shutter speed (1/3000) even though my meter said they would be -2 stops. My thought was… “I’ll just edit them to enhance exposure”… WRONG. Little did I know that that’s not how it works.

Although I’m super amped on a few of these (way more than last roll) I learned so many great lessons for the next round. Slow the shutter, maybe change from a 400 ISO to something more specific to the environment I want to shoot, how photos will turn out with -2 stops, and I’m sure a lot more that I can’t think of right now.

With all that said… I originally started a Tumblr page to reflect on my (Matt/Personal) learning of film photography but it turns out that everything I’m shooting is jam packed with the Ride x Create vibe! So, instead of filling our site with every shot… I decided to start FOLLY x FILM, fill that with all shots I dig, and share only a select few with you here.

I hope you’ll check out FOLLY x FILM as I continue to grow in my photography skills. I can promise that I will get better with time. My hope is that the images will encourage you to learn something new, accept your suckness at first, push through your doubts, and dominate!

Stay consistent x progressive

RIDE x CREATE

Shot with iPhone 5 using VSCO to edit (M6, Sharpen, Saturations, Exposure)

Shot with Canon ELAN 7E no edit (1/3000 , 4.0, ISO 400)

Round two getting film shots with the Canon ELAN. Although these two shots (top Chris Rost, bottom me by Chris Rost) are not film photos, it shows you the idea of what I wanted to capture yesterday. Can’t wait to see how the shots turn out (insert giddy school girl noise here).

RIDE x CREATE

5th Training Camp. Mallorca. from Angus sung on Vimeo.

“The 5th Floor London made thier annual escape to Mallorca in search of steep climbs, long decents and warmer weather.”

I view a lot of content. Some is better than others, but this… this nails it. This video took me away from my office for 6 minutes and made me smile. Very motivating to get away and explore new places to ride.