Words of Wisdom
by
Steve
*note: our very own, Godfather of Fixed Gear Hooligans, has been featured in "The RIde" Zine. This is an unedited Spewing from the mouth of the Master...Words to ride by...Enjoy!*
Name and address.
Steve Karp, CT
How long have you been commuting?
I started on a whim when I lived in New Britain, CT and was working in a tattoo shop 5 miles away in Plainville, CT. I was riding 20” BMX bikes to work, I was also going to the New Britain sk8 park on my 20”ers, I liked the kidney bowl a lot. Then I picked up a used Gary Fisher Montare. I was also riding the BMX bikes to school (Tunxis College) where I was taking a course in AutoCAD at night; my teacher was stoked on the 20”ers, especially this really old Mike Dominguez DB with Skyway mags a buddy got from the dump, and with some help was brought back to life. (I started drawing retro bmx components as my class assignments.) In November of 2001, I switched jobs, so I started working farther away, in West Hartford, in a consulting engineering firm. It took me a little while to get up the nerve to brave the distance and traffic (it was now about 10+ miles, one way), plus nobody else rode where I was working. I was taking the Fisher, but I would ride the BMX bikes, especially a 1983 24” Redline cruiser a friend gave me. My friend Ken, who really encouraged me to ride as often/as much as possible built a fixed gear bike for me and that changed everything. He’d been helping me out with the building/repair of my BMXes and the Fisher, and he just built up this old Raleigh Pursuit up as a fixed gear, as a surprise. I was hooked; that bike rules. It’s gone through several iterations, one after being cut off in a parking lot by a drunk; that was the worst. It’s my crummy-day commuter warbike now in it’s present set-up. I moved to Unionville, Ct; and the commute seemed a lot more hairy (hilly and traffic-wise), so I was taking the bus to work. I’d see people on bikes struggling up Rte 4 in Farmington, and I’d think: ‘there’s no way I could pull that off’. By now I had bought an entry-level road bike, a DB Interval, and I was riding that a lot with friends and on long solo rides, but I still was spooked to ride into the office from my new town. I also didn’t like the idea of hauling clothes into work…Fast forward to early spring, this year: I read an article in a magazine on bike commuting that had some awesome tips, and then a new guy started working here who rode a lot. A REAL lot. I asked him where he rode from, and it turned out we had the same distance commute, though from different towns. I started riding in the very next day, after I scoped out the route on a Saturday. That guy’s name is Todd Holland, and I came to find out that he’s an East Coast legend in bicycling. I got the confidence to take on some hills that had intimidated me, and eventually I outgrew the Interval and moved up to a LeMond Buenos Aires, I was really getting into road biking a lot. I was feeling kinda sporty and I thought I’d even try racing, so Todd had told me about a crit in a nearby town and I went down there, but it wasn’t for me really. I was kinda crushed, I wanted to race but it didn’t seem to be in the cards. I was hoping folks there would be as open and accepting of rank amateurs as Todd and my friend Ken were of my bumbling ineptitude; I was a complete outsider though. That bummed me some for a while, but then I figured I wasn’t destined to be a road bike star; so what? I took to my Raleigh f/g with a passion, riding in old camo shorts and t-shirts, BMX-style; I guess I was felling kind of ‘anti-regular-bike’…I figured that if I couldn’t ride a lot, my rides would at least be intense, so I rode the f/g exclusively. I checked out a killer website ‘OldSkoolTrack.com’ and I was hooked: I had to get a track bike, that was where this was all leading too, it seemed. I finally scored a Bianchi Pista on ebay, and the rest is history. Now f/g is my religion, just because it takes me back to the roots of cycling (the Wright Brothers built f/g’s and sweet track bikes before getting involved in that airplane thing of theirs)- and it’s kind of counter-culture and easy for a dummy like me to maintain. I am unhindered by any mechanical aptitude, ability, or knowledge. Tools fear and hate me.
Average commute? Where to/from?
The bulk of my riding is my work commute(s)-(I have 2 jobs here in West Hartford Center)-about 21 or so miles round trip. Any excuse to get on my pista I’ll take though: errands, visits; I rode 40 miles while my car was being worked on at the dealership I bought it from rather than hang out in the waiting room. Riding exclusively f/g, especially on a track bike, means I have that much more to prove.
What is your age?
My license says 34, but my actions say sometimes 15, sometimes a cranky old 78.
Do you count miles? If so, what’s your annual average?
On a good week (weather-wise), I figure maybe 130 miles or so. My best is 200+ in one week. I know that’s some cyclists ‘easy’ day….I don’t count miles really.
What is your commuter bike? Do you use your bike in other ways besides commuting( eg., racing, touring)?
2002 Bianchi Pista (used) with Itm stem, Suzue Pro-Max hubs, Mavic CXP-21 rims, Bullhorns, Cyclocross brake lever and Tektro front brake (not all the time, I ride brakeless on fun rides; I LOVE the clean bike look)-geared 44x16 right now to build up my girly-legs, though it was 44x14 for a bit, and then 44x16. The Raleigh Pursuit conversion is the ‘sloppy bike’- got a plastic clip-on fenders on it, and the frame’s all wrapped in old inner tube and electrical tape: 42x17 on old 27” wheels.
I ride fixed gears; the Pista mostly. I saw the potential to spend a lot of money on road gear/clothing, then I thought I’d go fully DIY- the only ‘cycling’ thing I swear by for the most part is some good padded 6- or 8 panel shorts for underneath my cammies or Dickies. Plus, my hand-me down tights and jerseys from Ken-I’m hooked on buying stuff at bike swap meets like the T-Town swap and the swap at the Palmer cyclocross race.
Fun rides and errand running- riding enables me to eat terribly and stay scrawny. Any excuse to go on an ‘adventure’ on the pista..I try and do group rides (either informal or large organized events like the TourDeBronx) on the pista to spread the word about f/g’s..in a world of high-tech, high-cost bikes, clothing, and attitudes; I try and spread the word that cycling can also be very grassroots and streetlevel….accessible and fun, as well as practical transportation. As basic transportation, really. On Thanksgiving, I’ll be riding it to volunteer at the Farmington Community Center.
Any cool vacations/out of state or country adventures by bike?
I did the Tour De Bronx; the 50 mile route, and that was amazing; a vindication of f/g riding! Keeping up at the head of the pack with all the expensive road and mountain bikes on the black pista was what it’s about. Meeting up with some other folks on f/g’s and track bikes; it really appealed to the ‘us-versus-them’ punkrock mindset (hence the ’15-year-old’) in me- seeing how the f/g’s were in the vast minority, it was my duty to get up front and give the geared/spandex folks a run for their money. The fact that the weather was pretty crummy just fueled that passion to put track bikes on that day’s map. (Courtesy of Greg and the good folks at “OldSkoolTrack.com” for that competitive spirit) I tried to rally the f/g riders to attack, especially on ascents, and I cajoled and chided ‘weaklings’ (any hapless soul on a freewheeling bike) who coasted on their descents, and shifted gears to ascend hills. Taking my old f/g up to Montreal this summer was really eye opening as well; I couldn’t believe how bike-friendly/bike-conscious that city is. It’s like the exact opposite of commuting here. It was a great way to see a city, clunking along on the Raleigh f/g. I couldn’t believe how relaxed people were about riding there: cars made room for you, granted you right-of-way; ample places to lock up a bike- basically the exact opposite of the cycling/motorist climate here. Truthfully, every ride is an adventure; especially when I get to ride with other people. I’ve been blessed by knowing people who make every ride with them an enjoyable learning experience.
Are you a full-time helmet wearer, freebean rider, or somewhere in between?
Somewhere in between- I wear a helmet a lot less than I should. I made the mistake of just riding in a cycling cap one day and I got hooked on that feeling of freedom. Helmets for me tend to feel cumbersome and constricting, though I fully acknowledge the reams of statistics extolling the safety virtues of helmets. I’ve taken to wearing my old sk8/bmx helmet as a sort of compromise; maybe I’ve just had bad luck finding a decent-fitting helmet. Nothing beats the feeling of unrestricted riding though, and if it’s cold I’d rather just wear an old watch cap and some shop glasses. In warm weather, it just feels great to ride with just a cycling cap. The way the weather’s been here lately, a helmet kills what little enjoyment there is in cycling some days.
What is your first memory of bikes? Have bicycles always played a large role in your life?
Looking back, I guess I had a regular American-kid upbringing with bikes. Started off on the little bike with training wheels, then worked my way up to a green ‘drag-stripper’ chopper bike. I just rode a lot, and everywhere. I wasn’t fast, or skilled; just rode a lot. In the early 80’s; I got bit by the BMX bug, and was stoked when I saved up enough paper-route money for a team Murray 20”. For a few years, that’s where all my time and money went: trying to trick out that 4130 beauty. I had a used Italian 10-speed racing bike an uncle had given me (how I wish I still had that!)- that was just amazing. The stuff that poor bike was subjected too- I rode it like a bmx until I got the Murray: blue anodized z-bars, odi mushroom grips, blue kenda tires and checkered pads- typical bmx bandit set-up. I had friends who were REALLY into bikes, and they were riding hutches and kuwaharas and stuff; but they were fast or skilled riders; where I was neither. I just liked to ride. It seemed I was always changing cranks on that Murray…I got into skateboarding and playing in punkrock bands, so bikes kinda fell by the wayside for a while until 1998 or so when a kid traded me a GT Vertigo (20” BMX freestyle bike) for a tattoo and I started riding again. It sucks that I had developed that typical American mindset of ‘oh, I’ve outgrown bikes’; or ‘I’m not in any kind of shape to be riding..’ My buddy Ken stayed true to cycling though, and I was always pretty envious of his riding/racing road/mountain/cyclocross. Plus he can still pull off a mean MiamiHopper or a cherrypicker. When I started riding again it was just fun and I stopped caring what people thought about ‘bikes and adulthood’- it was just plain fun. I rode a mountain bike for the first time in ’99, and I had to get one- so I scored the old Fisher. I was stoked that people were really supportive of an ‘adult’ riding, especially when I was riding 20” bikes at 30! Maybe I was trying to recapture my teenage years, but it was just plain fun to hit the sk8 park, or build jumps at the tattoo shop… Once I was riding the Fisher a lot, especially when I was riding into the office in West Hartford it began to dawn on me that I was a ‘bike commuter’, whatever that was. I was one of ‘those people’, whoever ‘they’ were. A person who rode a bike rather than drove. I read about a kid who rode his 20”bmx 40 miles to a contest and I said I could do that too, so I started riding the bmx’s to work. The added bonus of cruising around the office on a dusty Haro was there as well. Slowly, it seemed that skinny tires would make more sense for commuting and riding in general. I was stoked to ride because it was a ‘free workout’- I was/am burning up lotsa of the crummy food I was/am eating. Things really changed when I got the first f/g though- that took things to a whole new level. I became consumed with riding and cycling in general. It was like when I was 14 and I’d be stoked on an issue of BMXPlus, ogling the latest PK rippers and SE racing frames…Luckily I had Ken and his wife to help me out- they were really instrumental in their encouragement and patience with my infatuation with cycling and riding. It was like a whole new world to me, and it had been in front of me all along. They really deserve a HUGE thank you. I was meeting people who were stoked to meet someone into bikes, even if I didn’t know a headset from a bottom bracket. It was like in the early days of punkrock and skateboarding: you’d meet some kid with checkered Vans and a Misfits shirt; and you had camo Chuck Taylor’s and a Bad Brains t-shirt; you hit it off instantly because you knew you were both part of something underground and cool. You’d show him the cool spots to skate, and he’d tape some rare vinyl from Europe for you. He’d take you to his friend’s half pipe and you’d show him some trails with a jump or two. Real give-or-take, and fun. That’s kind of how it feels to ride a track bike around now; it just doesn’t compute with most folks or they might ask: ”One gear? No coasting? No brakes?” When you do meet up with someone who rides a track or f/g, or knows about them; they’re stoked and you’re stoked. There’s an unspoken understanding there, they know and you know.
Everyone has had that one day (hopefully more than one) where they are just ON. The riding is incredible and you are euphoric. The perfect ride...what's yours?
That would be the Tour De Bronx- it was another pivotal point in my relatively short cycling ‘career’. I’d never ridden with that many people before, and I went down to the ride with a guy who I work with that I have a fun rivalry with, so we were just stoked from the adventure-of-it-all standpoint. He was riding a Bianchi too, though a road bike; so immediately we were competing against each other, then it was the ‘CT-versus-the- Bronx’ vibe.. The weather was miserable, but there was so much energy from all the cyclists. Meeting up with other folks riding track bikes was great, it pushed up the notch to ride hard, and have fun. In a sea of ‘freewheelers’, we had something to prove. The minute an organizer said “This isn’t a race..” everybody kind of said, ‘yeah, right..’ and it was just all energy. Learning to maneuver with that many people, on wet pavement, or mud; blasting up hills yelling encouragement to f/g riders.. it took cycling to a different level for a rank amateur like me. To most people, the pace would have seemed slow, and maybe they’re used to mixing it up with many more riders, but it was my first experience riding with that many people…There was tremendous camaraderie among riders, a fun atmosphere…people were riding hard, but having fun too. I learned a lot that day. Once the race was over, we were heading back to the starting point, and we saw an older fellow struggling with a flat. We stopped and fixed it for him and got him on his way to the end-of-ride party…there was no question that we were going to help him. People that had been riding a long time like Ken and Todd had ingrained in me that unwritten ‘cycling code’ that you wave to other cyclists, and you stop and offer to help if you see somebody down. Thank goodness it was an inner tube change; that’s about the only thing I can fix.
Conversely, we have all had the ride from hell where we feel we'll never make it back. The rainy, wind in the face, trucks squeezing you to the side, two flats and not enough patches, throw your bike on the ground and curse when you get home type ride. What's yours?
I had a whole week of ‘days like that’. When I was living in New Britain and commuting to West Hartford Center on the Fisher, my old man blew the engine in this POS Saab I had at the time. It was summer, so I was stoked to ride; not having the car and no bus service from NB to West Hartford was the incentive I needed to full-on commute. Up to that point, I’d only ridden once or so a week into work; so now I was ready to take it up a notch and go for a whole week- this was summer of 2000. Too bad that week had an apocalyptic thunderstorm every afternoon- I’d see the skies start to darken and I figured there was a chance I could beat the storm… I got caught in a soaker of biblical proportions every afternoon. Rapids in the gutters on the edge of the road, lightning; hail one day. Greasy, brown water up to the BB…I had no cycling rain gear to speak of (still don’t- too expensive), but I did have some THE fenders on the bike. Getting back to my apartment, pouring the water out of my shoes, it took about an hour to get the bike dried/cleaned up, and then prepped for the next afternoon’s drenching. I was running the tires with a ton of slime in them to avoid the flats which were lurking out there, waiting to ruin an already agonizingly miserable ride. You probably could have shot those tires with 12 gauge double-0 buckshot and they would have just kept rolling along. By the end of the week, after the last rainstorm, I was ready to just put a gun to the Fisher and put it out of its misery. There was mold on my riding shoes (some ancient hand-me-down AXO mtn shoes), and the saddle squished swamp water when I sat on it. I was riding in the middle of the road due to the gutters being flooded, and the sidewalks were transformed into raging sludgy garbage rapids. That bike still smells marshy to this day. The other worst time was when I showed up for a crit and was just soundly shut out by almost everybody- without even riding an inch. It was a real wake-up call for me, being so naive. Up until then I hadn’t really dealt with cyclists outside of my group of friends and the folks at shops. I figured not knowing anyone there wouldn’t be a problem because ‘we were all cyclists..’ In all fairness to the folks there, I later realized the importance of paperwork, licensing, registration, and so on- but it was a shock; the formality of it all. People were so darn serious, no smiling, no clowning around. It was “Do you have form such-and-such? You’re late, the race started, and you couldn’t even race even if you had shown up on time because you don’t have your forms filled out”. I guess I was expecting a get-together where people rode, talked about bikes- but this was all business, and I knew almost no one there. People had top-of-the-line bikes and clothing; I had a hand-me-down jersey and a steel LeMond that I had thought was the hottest thing going- it had cost to me what seemed like a good chunk of change. I came to realize that most people spent that on a racing wheel set. It got me down, because I took it personally at first but then I figured “if you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em”! That moment made me focus on riding to impress myself and to enjoy myself, to expand my cycling and that meant doing something most people weren’t doing: f/g’s and eventually, track bikes. I began to really look into bike couriers seriously; what they rode, how they rode. Their way of doing things made sense to me as someone who rode to work a lot, and who wanted to just enjoy riding outside of the mainstream. My hat is off to couriers; they have a lot of heart and guts. They and the folks at ‘OldSkoolTrack.com’ were really approachable and had good advice on doing things cheaply and effectively, very DIY.
Are you involved in cycling advocacy (ie Bike New Jersey or other such group)?
I showed up for a CriticalMass once, but I left when they started arguing about which route to take and who was going to fly the flags that said, “Share the Road”. That’s not to knock them, I give them tons of credit for doing something positive against all odds. The folks who put on the Bike Commuter Activities in CT, especially the last-Friday-of-the-month commuter breakfasts are really great people. Going to those really opened my eyes a lot, and I met some great people. I also met some folks caught up in the politics of their organization, and ‘their’ way of doing things- and that was a turn-off. Sad to say, I’m not much of a joiner due to the politics and interpersonal dynamics inherent in formalized organizations. I do my best to encourage people to ride, especially to work; I guess I try and spread the word on my own. It might be friendly cajoling, or pleading; it might be ridiculing them in front of co-workers. If someone asks me about commuting, I try my best to get him or her to give it a shot, even if I have to meet up with them and ride with them. I remember how intimidating it seemed to do alone at first, so I figure an outstretched hand can bridge the gap. What inspired me the most to ride as much as possible were those people who did just that- they rode; they were approachable, upbeat and friendly. My father-in-law used to ride to the office a lot and that was a big boost, as was meeting Todd. The funny thing is, a few people at work actually tried it once Todd got me to do it regularly. I’m an army-of-one in terms of cycling advocacy; I work better in a grassroots/guerilla warfare campaign where I can operate independently spreading the word that ‘the revolution will not be motorized’- though the hardcore cadre takes it one step further: “the revolution will not have derailleurs”.
What issues concern you most with your commute?
The weather is a big factor, motorists’ awareness of a cyclist, the road conditions, how early or late it gets dark. A long time ago I would chuckle at a clunky ol’‘commuter bike’ set up with full fenders, lights, panniers; now I envy those folks! I’ve grown up enough to realize the practicality of machines like that, even if I’m infatuated with the ‘clean’ track bike look for me. I think I take hills into account, not the ascents but the descents more so. The steepness of the descent is something I try and factor into the f/g-brakeless equation. Developing a really defensive attitude toward riding with traffic- being 100% switched-on at all times; using signals, trying to ride so people know you’re there. My visibility to drivers is a big issue- though an $8 day-glo hunter’s sweatshirt from Wal-Mart, and some bargain-bin blinkie lights seem to have that licked- for the moment. Not having a lot of money, I have to do stuff on the cheap, or find alternative methods to solve problems some folks solve by dropping a bunch of money on winter gear or on rain clothing. Sometimes fighting for that 6 inches of space on the side of the road can be an epic struggle, and I keep my eye peeled for sizable chunks of blacktop: not just for the damage they could do to my wheels, but for their ‘persuasive’ use if things got really down-and-dirty. Having drivers take a cyclist seriously, yet calmly is a huge issue. There are plenty of motorists out there who are great to share the road with: they grant you right-of-way; they leave you plenty of room, some block traffic for you so you can make a particularly hairy turn..they don’t freak out if you’re near them. Then there’s the folks who panic around a cyclist and drive erratically, or do dumb stuff. There’s the few who are, for whatever reason, downright hostile to cyclists; in their driving and mannerisms.
What issues do you think need to be resolved before bicycle commuting becomes more widely accepted?
You would need a complete and fundamental reprogramming of the average American to see bike commuting be accepted. Hell, bikes themselves aren’t even ‘widely accepted’- and then those folks that do ride seem to sub-divide themselves and fragment cycling as an overall phenomenon. Bicycles to the average person just aren’t taken seriously by/for adults. In Europe and even in Montreal bicycling is just natural, part of the landscape; an adult on a bike doesn’t turn a head. But here, an adult on a bike is an oddity. That’s a shame; even I fell prey to that mindset until I stopped giving a damn what I thought people might say or think. There’s also the issue now of doing what’s right. Saving energy or cutting back on useless emissions just doesn’t mean a thing to most people. I look at commuting as one small ‘F.U’ to the oil companies who have us by the balls. Every time I ride that’s one less person the gas companies are screwing. Bike commuting just goes against the programming of the average person; they can’t be bothered. There’s people who will drive their f*ing SUV 2 blocks to work, then cruise around the parking lot/garage trying to find the closest parking spot to the door. That’s the mentality that has to be overcome right there. It’s about them and their comfort, their convenience, their status…People who drive look down on people who use public transportation, their attitude toward bike commuters is even less encouraging. Employers don’t make it easy on a bike commuter either, not that that’s a real excuse. I leave my bike in an empty cubicle near mine and leave a stash of clothes at work, along with some deodorant: ‘shower in a can’- there’s no shower here. Bikes on the road are an anomaly, an afterthought at best. Roads aren’t set up to accommodate bikes because no one thinks to consider bikes on the road. And even if there are bikes on the road, the people setting up the roads don’t ride; they have no idea what the various and sundry problems a cyclist deals with are. The thing is: cycling makes you a better driver and driving makes you a better cyclist. If you ride a lot, when you do drive you really keep your eyes out to make life easier for other cyclists, and when you ride you keep in mind all the asinine stunts you’ve seen drivers pull. Here in Central CT, we’ve got a really good program of Rails-To-Trails and I incorporate some of the Farmington Trail into my commute home. I see lotsa folks on bikes- but they’re seeing bikes purely as recreational. The trick is to get them to see a bike as a viable/valid form of transportation. They’ll strap their comfort bike on their Escalade and drive it a half mile to the trail, putter around for a bit, strap it back on their dreadnought and cruise home. So, to them a bike is not essential to their lives; it’s a recreational luxury item. Or I see and/or work with fitness-minded people all into the gym, but they’ll drive a mile to work. Or they ride road and/or mountain bikes- but never to work. Again, the bike is recreational, not a ‘valid’ form of transportation. The bike is a status symbol for some, a way to flaunt that they’ve got the steam to score the latest and greatest…they wouldn’t see a bike as practical transportation either, unfortunately. There’s a new generation of kids coming up who are a lot more DIY and ‘European commuter’ in their approach to cycling- they’re keeping it very streetlevel. They’re taking a lot of cues from and/or are couriers…maybe it’s more of an urban phenomenon that’s just starting to take root out here in ‘Volvo-land’…Old steel lugged bikes, especially classic track bikes, are being recycled and ridden- I mean really ridden. Their bikes are a part of their everyday lives, and you better believe they’re f/g….Expensive, name-brand cycling clothes? Nope- jeans, Dickies, camo shorts, sweatshirts, running/skate sneakers (okay, maybe they do drop a few bucks on a decent, high-end messenger bag-but that, we can all agree, is money well spent)..Maybe it’s a punkrock reaction to high-tech/high-price cycling and the unfortunate exclusivity that can produce, as well as teenage rejection of their parent’s wasteful/destructive habits- maybe it’s just a temporary fashion trend…but it’s very encouraging however you slice it. Younger people are building custom bikes to cater to the attitude of ‘their’ generation- and that’s getting people involved in bicycle building and broader cycling issues like advocacy, commuting, and the rich history of cycling itself. Not to mention interest in related issues like the environment, wealth distribution, politics, vegeterian/veganism…it’s getting people to think outside of themselves. If the way to reach people is through the ‘coolness’ and ‘hipness’ of f/g-trackbike ‘culture’, then you’re opening a lot of doors and minds on a multitude of levels. I think there’s a generation of people who will never ‘get’ bicycle commuting, but there is a generation that’s catching on. Like me, they can screw what the ‘status quo’ thinks/does and have some fun/do some good…. There’s a bunch of ways to ‘sell’ bike commuting to people; you can appeal to them on many levels:
1. One less person the gas/oil companies are hosing
2. Fitness- it’s a good workout. Unlike the ‘Diet-of-the-Week’ everyone’s chatting about around the water cooler, the “Bike-To-Work-Diet” works and gets you to work.
3. Saves wear-and-tear on your car
4. Less pollution- bikes don’t need to go through emissions testing in CT (yet….)
5. Your parents hate bike commuting
6. You spent all that money on a bike so it can; what, sit there and rust?
7. Good way to meet people
8. Your boss/manager hates bike commuting
9. You can ride your bike around the office
10. Why let work get in the way of your cycling training?
11. It’s punkrock (especially on a f/g)
In closing, I fully realize that I don’t live in a vacuum; there’s a LOT of people I have to thank: RIDE Mag for being the ‘Maximum Rock-n-Roll’ of East Coast Cycling, my wife Kari, Ken and Dana Jambard, Todd Holland, Greg Goode and ‘OldSkoolTrack.com’, Jason and Hans @ Central Wheel, Steve @ Renaissance Bikes, the folks @ Pedal Power, Ray Glidden, Oz and Biker’s Edge, the Wednesday Night Riders, Paul Popinchalk, Greg Sailor, Bolt Thrower, Motorhead, and punkrock. Support ‘Hooligans F/G’ and ‘LockRing Rebels F/G’!
*Note: Certain names and addresses have not been changed. We don't care about protecting the innocent.*
