All but one...

We've got all but one Fall Guy spoken for, and that's pretty sweet. Frames should be back from paint today, maybe tomorrow, and we'll get them little bike into your hands the fastest way we can. The last frame is a new color for us. Who knows if people will like it?

Hey, I like this. Gaetan blasting some concrete in France.


Tim's got a pretty nice set-up. Bikes and otherwise.

TJ Hooker Hair.

Pete sent in some photos of a place I've been kicked out of. It's condemed as a toxic hazard which, real estate value wise, is perfect for an informal indoor skate park. It also functions as a Hobo Castle, so be careful if you know where this is.

I was thrown out this place by police concerned for my safety..exposure to toxins. I thought the ramps made from palettes, broken glass, needles and nails posed a more immediate threat, but hey..when a cop tells me to do something..I do it.
Looks like someone decided to do it right. That's concrete, and I don't believe it's going anywhere.


Speaking of cops..P Funk sent some more pump track photos over. I really hated this one because of..my hair. I hate to say it, but the length/style I've got right now is just terrible. It's TJ Hooker hair.


Younger readers, or those otherwise not exposed to 80's American television may not be familiar with TJ Hooker. Let me sum the show up. TJ Hooker was a good cop, but terrible driver. He crashed his car so many times, his boss took it away.

This wasn't a big deal because TJ was a very, very fast runner. Look at him go in this intro. A car just slowed him down anyway.

His partner, Vince Romano, had a car and would drive TJ if he was tired or had to go long distances. I believe Vince was also one of the first openly gay characters on television. Between a cop with no car and Vince, the producers really took a risk with TJ Hooker. I think it paid off. On the other hand, how wrong can you go with Heather Locklear and explosions?



-L

Man, I'm just so disconnected

Billy Lewis put together this sweet little edit of some early summer riding. Word to that.


Here's a shot from P Funk of me getting kicked out of Laguna Seca. The pump track. The maze of lines at this place was too much for my puny riding brain to process. This mid-air line connects the middle of a berm to a roller. Good times! July 4th at this place.


Erik comes through with a PSA. Tonic recommends restricting your smoking to berms and brake pads kids.


-L

Royale with Cheese

Howdy Monday.

I've been paying attention to the DH World Cup recently. It's short, exciting, and the results are always a surprise. Any world cup result inside the top 25 means that person is riding at Millenium-Falcon level speeds over terrain you probably couldn't walk down. Last week-end was Worlds. The Worlds is a one day race to determine the World Champ. The World Cup is a race series.

You can find results somewhere, but the bottom line is that English riders cleaned house. Gee Atherton and his sister Rachel went smooth and fast enough to be crowned world champs. Steve Peat in second. Incredible results.

What else? DH racer, and Tonic / Robot rider Chaz hurt his wrist (not)bunny hopping a park bench. Bummer. He'll heal. Meanwhile, I've writen the city on Chaz's behalf to get the height of park benches lowered, or at least held to some uniform standard.

Personally...not too much exciting. Have been XC-ing enough to prepare myself to battle both Looch and Billy at some high-seat riding.

Spoke to Alfred Bobe last week-end..he's getting a new bike, and has a lot of interesting irons in fire. Alfred's one of the most unique folks I've run across.

In other East Coast news:

A Notorious East Coast Photographer/Rider is joining the Tonic Roost.

Brian decides, "Yes I like this fork. No I don't want to talk about it."

We don't do much with dealers, but Racer's Edge in Brooklyn are good people and getting a few Fall Guys.

To quote Paul's Boutique: The number is 718.531.3100 and ask for Gerald.

What else...Gaeatan on his new Fall Guy at what he describes as the "..best trails in France..." Amazing photo!


I hear sirens..I'm out.

-L

Fry-Day

Eat some fried food, go for a ride.

Got some nice bike parts in the mail yesterday. Rode a kick-butt pump track too. My photos are pretty lousy though. Fall Guys and Proto-Supernauts are at paint, and the sun's out.

Speaking of Supernauts..we'll be taking orders for these in July. We should have good photos of the bike / specs nailed down / new website to explain all these simple things we treat like secrets. The truth is, the bike looks bad-ass, but we've had a few spec/pricing details to sort out. It's going to take one con-fee-dent mofo to ride around town on one of these.

Our handlebar vendor put delivery of some bars another month out..sorry wanters of Tonic bars. I'm very frustrated too.


What's not frustrating? Inman cruising through some jumps.


Some great Erik Johnson art for Team Robot.


Team Robot T-shirt idea


This guy, Kevin Cyr, has some cool paintings.

Give Me Danger

Here's Gaetan from France getting very used to his new Fall Guy. Euro'd and clicked. Nice riding. That's Nice, as in good, not Nice as in the french town.


Here's The Baaron treating the Arvey wallride like some kind of giant downhill berm.


Speaking of the Arvey..it's a bit of a legend. Shows up in so many BMX videos...and with good reason. It's burly. Mach speed only.

I saw this photo of Arvey as a part of a photo show in PDX this week-end. I wonder if some fixed gear freestyler will every claim Arvey? That would be nuts.

This guy's playing it smart with a wheelie. I saw this at Trackosaurus Rex. Fun bike blog.


-L

Euro

We don't have a lot of street riding here, but how about this? Nathan with a euro out of the biggest wall ride in PDX? Photo by Cory Tepper..



Also..still have couple Fall Guys without for from this batch, so...

-L

Summer Stuff.

Howdy. Summer is here, and some of the more confusing aspects of bikes are starting to make sense again. Really need to do a better job bringing my camera around, because I actually got into some fun stuff. I played tour guide for some visiting pros and showed them some super sweet booters, and went to a rowdy party filled with random and entertaining characters.

Did a bit of this last week-end. Nestor Peak. Amazing ride.


Finding a good crew to ride with is tough. These guys are awesome.


Summertime means T-shirt consumption goes through the roof. I got this one on Friday from Profile. That's Burt Reynolds.


Tim outta NY sent these shirts over. Tim rides with one of NYC most notorious bike gangs and advised me only to wear this on safe turf. I wore this shirt inside out at the party to avoid drama.


Charlie replaced his 3 year old Fall Guy with a new one. All integrated and everything.


Charlie is still riding the All Time High Protos. 30" wide. Apparently we should be getting some final samples of these at the end of the month. We'll see...


Kinda reminds me of this.. Jason sent this computer generated Fall Guy in, and it looks like something out of one of these fancy video games. Looks great!


-L

Out of Bowl Experience

Just a couple photos from a couple weeks ago. Went on a good MTB ride yesterday and got worked. My XC bike is approaching a state of completely dialed.

Nathan, sideways. The Baaron, Tony and Paul have very fidgety hands. Seeing them deal with themselves soo well at the bowl was inspiring.


Billy Clicked.


Another French Fall Guy.


-L

Arts and Crafts

Saw the Black Angels the other night. Amazing performance.


Cory Tepper Pushing Buttons.


So this little piece of bike history was parked out front. Can anyone name this headset?


It's a Merlin, and cost a fortune. Fortunately good suspension and riser bars means no one will ever have to ride a bike like this again off road.


It's been said America's last good looking car rolled off the assembly line in about 1970. For some reason, we've managed to produce some good looking bike parts since then. Cooks Bros. Cranks. And Press fit BB.


I dunno what all that jibberish is, but that's a Cooks Bros. stem. Probably the prettiest what to connect your bars to your fork ever made.


Park riding.

Le Fall Guy / Billy and Looch Off Road

What's going on in France? A ballsy prime-minister, and a couple Fall Guys. Here's a sweet one with our coated finish from Gaetan.

He wrote " the rear tire is really near of the yoke, the tubes between the slim yoke and the drop out are really awsome, a great job, seriously the nicest frame i have ever seen, the coating and the manufacturing are reallly awsome.."

Lowered air 36, Profile hubs, Thomson stem, and a rare Kenda NPJ front tire. Le Bomb.


Gaetan can really ride.
"in the air the bike is really nice, easy to do invert or motocross, i hope ride in trail soon, and test turndown."


Is it still called a "euro" in Europe? Thanks Gaetan. Enjoy your new rig.


Here's Billy and Looch having fun off road. Billy just got a road bike and has been riding to work too. Which, at 15 miles each way is a big deal. Congrats Billy, that's the way to to roll. I'm going to have to step it up if I'm going to have any chance keeping up on the XC bikes.


Billy again. Yowza!


-L

Stolen / Gotten

Hey..Erik's Fall Guy was stolen out of his yard. If you have any info..contact me.


On to gotten. If bike and bike part photos make you ill, pass on.

Nathan's new Fall Guy. Low and fast.


Profile is a Manufacturer. This reminds me of something.

Hey Bike Industry:

If you don't/can't actually make anything, you are not a manufacturer. You are an importer. I don't see why these terms are confused so often in the bike industry.

Anyway, Profile's focus is on manufacturing, and sometimes information about their products is a little hard to find.

This box arrived yesterday. Finally!


Madera front hub. For those not running a 20mm fork, this is a good choice. Light too.


Hollow steel spindles. Pay a little more, get a little less (weight.)


Madera R.Hub is available with the race axle. This is a light, durable and cool looking set-up.


-L

Fall Guys

Remember when gas was $4/ gallon? This world is changing. Rapidly.

PFunk's Fall Guy is looking very nice. KHE folding tires are now available. If you've got the scratch, these are worth trying. Check out his Kenda Small Block 8 up front. Hard to find, but worth it. He's also running a lowered fork, plastic pedals, rubber grips and rides his seat high enough to actually sit on from time to time.



We have a couple of these still not spoken for. So speak-up.

What else...seen some good flicks over the past couple weeks. Terror's Advocate, Buy The Ticket Take The Ride, Basquiat and Buffalo '66.

I recently spoke to a friend who's been dealt some hard cards life-wise. It's been said adversity introduces you to yourself, and I think this latest experience will work out for the best.

-L

Streets

Howdy.

Check Los Tonics street action here.

-L

Jammed Up

Just a few photos from last week-end. The jam was a bust. Rained-out. We'll do this again, and it will be awesome.

No Jam. The Baaron is bummed.


It wasn't raining at my place, so I had everyone come over.


Looch showing off some wild moves.


The folding chair is Looch's weapon of choice for chicken hunting.


Looch. Not many guys can pull this look off.


Billy did some serious bad-man stuff at the skate park.


Billy kept getting in way of Cory's nature photos. Cory was not happy.


At the BBQ things got tense between Cory and Billy which made Paul very nervous. Everyone has a different way of dealing with stress. Paul closes his eyes, and rubs the top of his head.


Erik came out. Really good to see him. What is it about Dads, green Fall Guys, black T-shirts and Vans?


There's a lot going on in this photo...

The Baaron was able to find a patch of dirt to ride around in so he didn't go completely crazy.

Paul's not supposed to ride untill his spleen heals. Instead of riding, Pauls been doing a lot of speed walking and is getting super fast. His speed walking paid off when it took him about one second to grab these beers and hide them from the police.







-L