Fixed Gear Los Angeles. More specifically Broadway in the middle of DTLA. Guillermo Galindo & I did some laps up and down one of the more iconic streets in LA. We shot this right before I moved and I’m sure glad we did because it brings back some fond memories. Thanks for being here and joining us on this adventure through life.
Marco Marquez just raised the bar on what it means to ride Fixed Gear Freestyle. The sheer power and responsiveness to his riding style is completely outta hand. Marco has clearly been riding for a while but has been under the radar for far too long. I was originally going to make a group edit, but this deserves to live on its own.
Before I moved away from Los Angeles, I met up with Guillermo & Marcos in DTLA for a day on the town. It’s been amazing to see these two progress. You can tell that they both motivate and feed off of each other. You’ll always get to those checkpoints quicker when you have someone there to push you along the way.
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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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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Everyone look out for one another. We could all be a little more kind. A little more patient. A little more understanding. The world is watching and it’s up to us to decide how we heal from here. LA is still under lockdown and the National Guard is set to arrive in the next two minutes (Midnight May 31st). What happened in Minneapolis to George Floyd is unforgivable and it’s a tragedy that we need to address. There’s good in all of us and I hope we can all see that in each other. Let’s protect one another, our communities, our families and look out for those who can’t. We’re stronger together.
WHEELIE WEDNESDAY. Who’s going to the next Fixie Goons ride out on Sunday? It’s going to be the first one of the year and it’s going to be a good one. Speaking of firsts, here’s a recap of the first goon ride I ever went to with @slamdunkernie Shout out to @BlocBoiTV for putting this event on month after month and year after year. It’s because of him that we’re able to have this fun.