The Beacon Bmx

Living in Austin the last three years, I’ve been on a mission to unlock the city’s secret spots.  With so many skaters and bikers here, there is never a shortage of new places to ride.  The problem is finding them.  Understandably, these unseen gems aren’t advertised.  Anyone who’s built a spot has dealt with the frustration of having their hard work toppled by some hooligan kid so it’s no coincidence these places are kept hidden.  I don’t mean to be cocky, but I’ll admit that I’ve become quite the iron chef of finding spots.  Sometimes finding the place is half the battle but thankfully video context clues, web forums, and Google maps have been a godsend.

With all that said, there has been one concrete wonder that’s eluded me for the last 2 years; The Alien Pod.  After watching S&M’s recent Blind in Texas video I made it a priority to find this place especially since I heard rumors of its days being numbered.  Two months later, after spending hours mindlessly searching skate forums I found 3 hints that helped triangulate its location.  I’ll spare you the trigonometry formulas I used, but there it was, hidden in the blurry pixels of Google Maps.

Intending to session the hell out of it, I got up early the next day and packed my bag with plenty of tools and water.  When I got there, this is what I found:

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I know, I know, it’s been ages since I’ve updated the Beacon but I’m looking to change that soon. Keep an eye out for more. Anyhow, I was browsing throught Demolition’s website a few days ago and came across a set of riding pics shot in EP. I thought they were just passing through, but it seems they’ve been there for at least three days and are sessioning hard. It’s cool to see El Chuco getting some pro traffic. Someone should point them over to the hook!

That’s a shot of Doyle at my favorite wallride ever.

I always thought it would be cool to be chased by a cop on a mountain bike. Since some of those clowns can barely ride those things, I would envision gapping over something or grinding down a rail to execute the perfect E.T. style getaway (I don’t mean riding my bike in the sky with an alien in my basket, I mean this).
Anyhow, when I came across this article, I pictured cops being put through a BMX bootcamp in an effort to pursue and catch hoodlums. The truth is that UK police are trying to “connect” with the youth by riding similar bikes.  I give them an A for effort, but I hope I never look that awkward on my bike.

ODYSSEYBMX.COM » DAILY WORD

I came acrosss this on Odyssey’s website and thought it was too cool not to post.  Way back in the mid 80’s my cousin Steve was really into bmx.  I don’t remember much about those days other than what his bikes looked like.  They all resembled this one  so looking at it takes me back to my earlies bmx memories.   It seems The Bicycle Source is auctioning this bike for a good reason.  Check out the details here.

Head over to the Terrible One online store to pick up one of these for a good cause. Hurry if your interested because it looks like they’re going fast!!

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Check out Metal Bikes for some vauge details. If you mix the Bone Deth guys with the T1 ramp and a bike video, you’re bound to have a hell of a time. If you’re in Austin this Friday be sure to make it down.

I was recently digging through a box of old videos and came across a VHS copy of Dave Parrick’s masterpiece Nowhere Fast. I completely forgot I owned a copy and was thrilled to see that it was still in great shape. The problem is I doubt my VCR still works. Even if it did, I doubt my TV would be cool with me plugging such a piece of shit into it.

I’m kidding about the TV, but a quick trip to RadioShack will surely be worth the hassle to watch it again.  For the meantime, thank god for BMXMDB.  Check them out to watch the video in its entirety.  It was released back in 1999 but still holds up to today’s standards.

My favorite part is Dave Young’s section.  It’s too bad he disappeared shortly after the release of Nowhere Fast because his part helped launch him into legend status.  His segment starts at about 3:27 into the video.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I borrowed the picture from Jared Souney’s site.  Check it out for some good content.

I spied this on S&M’s site. It reminds me of an updated Blackbike.

Here is what S&M has to say about it.

This is the base model most of our pro signature frames have started from for awhile now. It’s also the basic custom frame most of the employees here ride. It’s a little stronger and heavier than some of the frames on the market but it’s what people that really ride want. Stylish, classic, and burly all rolled up into one.

• Butted/Air-Hardening True Temper SuperTherm tubing
• 8.5” stand-over height
• 4.6 lbs

In the last few months I’ve heard good things about this hip little shop in east Austin called Fast Folks but I didn’t know much about it.  Today I spotted this on the Terrible One website.  According to T1, Sandy Carson has been spending much of his time with these guys playing bike polo. It looks fun. I’ll have to give it a shot one of these days.

It seems spring time has come early here in Austin. Today the trees were budding, the skies are blue and it was about 74 degrees. It was beautiful. I thought it would be a great day to head out to the Walnut Creek pump track to ride and snap a few pics. I hadn’t shot film in a while so I figured it would be a good day to dust off the Minolta and give it a go.
It’s been a few months since i’ve been to Walnut but the place is better than ever. All the jumps have been built up yet the place remains effortless. All you need are few cranks down the roll-in and youre good to go. The place is so fun it’s easy to lose track of time.
While there, I ran into the ShytiBikes bunch and they were nice enough to bust some stunts for me. Unfortunately, the only film I had was really slow which resulted in a sluggish shutter and blurry pics. Most of my roll ended up being a waste (sorry Shyti bunch dudes).

Anyhow, here are a few pics from the day.

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