Oakland California – January 3rd 2020. I took the subway from San Francisco to Oakland with Jake 100, Isa, CBreezy, JN & Grady to ride bikes in the East Bay. Jakob Santos, Andy Sparks and a bunch of the usual suspects met up with us for a day wheelies around Downtown. We pulled over at some of our favorite spots around Lake Merritt before ending up at Jack London Square for the Sunset. I won’t waste too much time with words on this one, so stop listening to me immediately and press play already. Oh yeah, I quickly whipped up the soundtrack for this one too.
15 Shots. Recently Mike T Schmitt made me aware of a thing called “sprocket photography. Basically shooting full bleed on rolls of 35mm. I already had a medium format camera, my Hasselblad 503CX, but had to order a 35mm adapter to shoot on that 120mm camera. The results were what you see both above and below. This made me remember why I love shooting film in the first place.
Out of a roll of 36 exposures I was able to get 15 shots. These are them. Every last one of them. Again why I love shooting film. Instead of capturing a thousand photos, then coming home and having to sort through everything, you shoot one shot. The shot. Then move on to the next one. It’s incredibly liberating not knowing if you got what you wanted. If it was captured correctly, exposed correctly, in focus, out of focus. It quickly becomes more about the act of doing, than the end result. But when the end result looks like this, who can argue that only shooting 15 shots is such a terrible idea. Haha. I’m sure there are tons of apps out there that try to imitate this effect, but you can’t beat the real feel of film. Riders: Johnathan Ball, Deacon Wong, Marco Marquez, Oscar Lopez
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https://wheeltalk.org/2020/06/29/fgfs-los-angeles-keeping-distanceOnce a week. It’s been good to get back on the FGFS bike again and even better to have a social distance session with the boys. The photo of JBALL hitting a table top is one of my favorite shots from the day. He brought a film video camera with him and we got a quick clip with that at our first spot of the day. The banks. After that it was off to the local high school to ride some surprisingly beautiful and uncapped set of ledges. If only more schools were built like that.
I’m looking forward to dropping off the roll of 35mm I shot on my 120mm Hasselblad 503cx. I just got a spool adapter recently and have never shot full bleed 35mm. It’ll be fun to see how the sprocket style film photos turn out. I took some top down photos / video through the view finder to help give you an idea of what we got. Stay tuned for video clips from this day as well as a solo part of Marco Marquez we recently finished piecing together.
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Building up your bike is almost as fun as riding it. The rad part about fixed gear is how different everyone’s bike is. Each build is a passion project assembled piece by piece. The best part about fixed gear is that it doesn’t take much to put one together. Master Bike Co & RUFF Bike Co are both rider owned / operated brands that still produce FGFS parts. So if you’re looking to build up a bike or need something new, that’s your best place to start.
My bars are clearly shifted back, Marco’s wheels are more square than circle, JBall’s bike is solid as a rock, Oscars bike has throwback vibes and Deacon’s freshly painted MASTER frame had a sparkle attribute that won over the hearts of the judges. The judge being me, personal opinion of course, but Deacon had the illest whip.
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Guillermo Galindo has been a man on a mission lately. His riding has progressed so much in the last year and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. It’s truly amazing to see how far he’s come and I highly suggest you check out his youtube channel. He’s constantly turning out new videos and progressing at everything he puts his mind to. I’ve only known him for a short while, but I can already tell that he’s going places just by his positive mindset and he way he inspires others. Keep charging my dude.
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Narrated by Jake (Brotha) Lanich in front of MASH SF. Jake runs through 3 different yet similar MASH AC1 builds in just over 2 minutes. He breaks them down all at once without putting them down or even breaking a sweat. I’m not sure if that’s a testimony to Jake’s strength or the lightweight nature of these frame sets. MASH has a new batch of frames coming this fall. I’m looking forward to seeing the AC2. Stay tuned.
Cities within cities. LA is like that I guess. Century City is in between Hollywood & Santa Monica, but it’s basically a ghost town on the weekends. I met up with Marco Marquez there to stack some clips for a video we’ve been working on. The so called “city” is really only a 3-4 block radius. So after we got kicked out of the first spot it was hard to avoid being back in front of the same building dealing with the same security guard… Again, it’s a ghost town. Just us and security. A game as old as time.
A few clips, sand a couple heavy slams later we were back on the road. The only piece of concrete I guess we’re allowed to ride on. Haha. Marco did a couple surfs on our way to this cobble stone quarter pipe that I had spotted before. It’s mad bumpy and is a lot harder to ride than it looks. That being said, Marco still managed to boost up it a couple times for the photo. Keep your eyes peeled for the video part we just wrapped up and we’ll see you soon. This is Matt Reyes, signing off.
I hang out around MASH a lot when Im in San Francisco. One of the last times I was in town I had the honor of photographing this one of a kind love boat in front of the shop. The closer I looked the more impressed I became at the sheer level of detail. Every nook and cranny had a hand engraved element. Most of which felt very fluid and natural. With themes of foliage and water peppered throughout the line work, this bike is truly unforgettable.
THIS BIKE IS CURRENTLY FOR SALE. CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS.
“Kosuke Masuda – or simply Ko – is Shingon monk who lives in Yokohama Japan with his family. Ko has been exploring engraving on bike and bike parts as an artistic medium. His work is astounding anPd is on full display with this complete bike. It is the only bike of its kind and a magnificent piece of art.” – Insert courtesy of MASH SF
PARTS BREAKDOWN:
– MASH Steel Frame 55TT
– Campagnolo Record Track Cranks
– H Plus Son Archetypes Wheels
– Caustic Custom Anodized Phil Wood Hubs
– Phil Wood Bottom Bracket
– Nitto Seatpost
– Nitto 100 Stem
– Phil 14t Track Cog
– MKS Pedals, Strap & Toe Clips
– Izumi Chain
– Chris King Headset
– Continetal Gran Prix 4 Season Tires
– MASH Black Alloy Bars
– Newbaum’s Black Cloth Tape
– MASH Oil Slick Bar Ends