drop bars, not bombs.

Lotta people talking, but few of them know.

It was through Joe Murray I stumbled across this piece about the shenanigans going on at this year's Leadville 100;

The only thing I have to say about that is this;

You can elaborate if you want to, but the above photo snapped by Tom Rogers is the first and the last word on the matter.

It's been a number of years since Tom and I have been in touch about this shot, but as long as we're discussing it, I might as well roll out a few words he once sent to me about it;

"What's funny is the Coors Light in his hand, he had found that the winter prior while he was Elk hunting. It was in the creek. We didn't drink it...

Right after this photo we dropped into a rough trail, Johnny, Herbold, me, then Texas. HB started yelling at JT from behind me, "Rockshox, Rockshox, Rockshox" as JT rode in the drops, basically riding his front wheel through rough stuff until we got to a wider spot and HB passed both of us. That was within a month of Worlds in 1990. If you check the Worlds photoage, JT has a Manitou suspension fork on his bike. He needed a bit extra after that day on Red Creek. He got 4th in the DH and 6th with a flat in the XC. I got 8th in both!"

Never let it be said that All Hail The Black Market doesn't have the hottest take on things once every eight or nine years.

And speaking of hot takes, would you like to see a few things I saw at the Made custom bicycle show?  Of course you wouldn't, but I'm gonna show you away.

Starting at the top, and moving through in no particular order.

Firstly, I was told by someone who inquired if this would work, the builder's answer was "yes, because I'm an engineer."

Anyway, moving on.

I saw a Cheever and a Hurl;

Hern from MMFG and his badass fully custom carbon front triangle and swingarm;Damn, son.

I had the absolute honor of meeting and chatting with Mark Lewman;

(It was his studio where the previously mentioned Pinch Flat party was held).

At one point mid-conversation, her said "wait right here. I have something for you." He zipped off, and came back presenting me with a signed copy of this;

For those who don't know, Mark was integral in the production of Freestylin' and later, along with Andy Jenkins, and Spike Jonze, Homeboy magazines.

Upon our initial meeting, I apologized for the absolute torrent of verbal diarrhea that was about to occur, and in the midst of it all, at one point told him ours was in every sense of the notion, a first meeting with a person I'd known since I was 14 years old. To say I was chuffed would be a monumental understatement. I was so glad to have made his acquaintance, and I can't thank him enough for having such a profound influence on me as both a writer, and zine maker.

So, back to the photo dump;

Kyber boy;

Black Cat Bikes, and what I dubbed the 'Holy Macaroni';

AKB almost formerly of Industry Nine;

Standard inspired PDX graffiti;

Donkelope Greg's 'Sherpa', which if I'm honest is just about one of the coolest things I've ever seen;

Mike D's whip;

Another highlight of the show was realizing after two days of showering in the communal bathroom that I had a hidden bathtub and toilet in my own room;

Like the old saying goes, even a dog's ass sees sun twice a day.

But what you're probably saying right now is "yeah, but what were the best things you saw over the entire custom bicycle show and adjacent waking hours though, Stevil?"

Well, I'm glad you asked. While there were plenty of awe inspiring things I would have liked to take home with me, what really blew my hair back were as follows;

and almost more importantly;

Oh, I also loudly heckled two people for knocking bikes over. In a room full of hundreds of people, I was the only one to bust some random clumsy Clarence's balls.

Pathetic.

I guess e'erybody got they own Best of Show though.

If you want full douchebag coverage with a complete rundown of every iota of banal minutia, there are a million places for that. What you get here is the truth.

So, besides sweating my absolute ass off for three days, I got to slap hands with some old friends, drink a couple of cans of beer, one really good smoothie, ride my bike around by myself at night, and obviously, see some painstakingly built bits and pieces.

Maybe next year it'll be the same.

On that note, how about a new episode of Revolting?

In this episode, from wisdom to bars, today we dropped approximately neither.