MC3 FreekBike Gang

BiKarnival (Performance Ride)

2007-05-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

~P'land by the Hair of our Chinny Chin Chin~

2006-07-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

plop in the middle of bikemonth, 3 foolhardy adventurbikers decide to abandon the vancouver fray & head to portpromisedland for the multnomah county bike fair. by nix, ifny & midnight simon

~dedicated to the red furball~
now surely skinned & quartered in the filthy hands of various tweakerish villains

FRIDAY june 23rd 2000 & 6

naturally we got a little late start, since it would be downright uncanny not to. after the usual fits & starts we got on the highway, slipped through the border without incident & sped along until we hit...
seattlegridlock inallit's monstrousglory o"o o"o o"o oVo o:":o O"O o"o oVo o:":o O"O o"o

saw plenty of rvs towing suv's, a new & exciting trend from the deth factory. hit the convenience store, bought a 24 ounce beer cannon with cars onnit, sparks, tilt, liquor so cheap it's basicalistically free, 99 cents per. we were hot thirsty trapped in a car with nothing to do but toast our fellow car slaves in seattle car kebab.

we rolled up in time to snag free grub at the hostel international, where they were having a bike-in movie night. couldn't seem to get away from the crew back home, up there in celluloid glory (pedal play documentary! yay!). we were rowdy & excitateraterd. hooked up with momentum amy dreamcycle darren & the ever effluvescent colin mackenzie.

ppl were gearing up for the pirate ride. we ran into agent lapis, decked out as a pirate princess, layers of orange fuschia and purple seafoam. standard deviation greeted us on the turf.

hostel mc adventure shawn passed the mic to ifny, who did a shout out to team canada & sent out gobs of ambassadorial bikelove to portland. as a result earl from new brunswick found us. he's a fine chappie & worthy ally, living in london but toodling our continent at the moment.

amy the mothra queen joined our forces; we crammed into the car for another hour of cartillery; got to the nightmare collective near the witching hour. it's a working space in forest grove with some proto sprokettes, dogs, painted buses, clowns of all shapes & sizes, musicians in every corner, a trapeze & red scarves, & best of all a dog in a red tutu who howled along with the accordionist. the back was a land of clown buses, replete with fire in a barrel. a fretless banjo player & a singer were hanging by the busses, waiting for a sign to go on stage. well wouldn't you know it but at that moment a big flashlight came out of the bushes bearing a cop, then another and another, like the old shtick where clowns just keep piling out of a tiny car...they were summarily chastised by nightmare damsels. while this was going on, ifny jammed with the gypsy klezmer old tyme jump jazz band until the coast was clear. piano fiddle accordion singing banjo guitar. the alberta clowns performed a clown wedding replete with joust. (turbo won the lady) (& as it turns out, ifny didn't break pinga's nose wayback during mini-bike winter after all! o happy day!). we danced like electric eels, slept in an ewok village 4 to a bed (rolling out one by one). simon says "don't hang your favourite sweatshirt on the freerack" o dear.

SATURDAY

next morning 5 of us headed back to p'land with pit stops for raspberries & fireworks.

went to kiran's, got ifny a foldy loaner bike, found a giant b'fast diner with cheap great alien art & a curvy comfy booth for sitting, met a coptic christian wanderer & an unfamiliar vancouverite. the waitress read our minds & deposited our very own carafe of coffee on the table for nursing.

then it was off to the multnoma county bike fair!! we signed in as judges, got beer for our water bottles, met up with ayleen minifixie mark gabe dave elicia lapis everybody!! we ran right into the dead babies: jackie soren stephanie tallbiketerry, master bear ken & woody onnis swingbike. read

we missed the slow bike race, but ifny represented in the eating contest on a mini banana bike she scammed from the clowns. you had to ride in circles, eating your way through different courses that were handed to you. a doughnut, a banana, a bag of cheezies, a cup of spaghetti, a cheez whiz cracker snak pac. stupidly she grabbed a cake doughnut & spent an eternity choking it down. she only made it to the spaghetti course by cheating & was beat fair & square by everybody else.

simon grabbed a free helmet from the handout stand, soaked up the p'land bike love. did bike themed shopping patches buttons & scored a fab knitted cozy (top-tube tubetops) made by amelia b from handmade guerilla crafts (likeitfixed AT yahoo.com). turns out she was in one of simon's classes at ubc back in the day. small world as we all know too well.

bands all the way through, then it was time for the unicycle joust!!

trackstand with fixies & a tandem with an extra kid on the back.

nix walked up to some hot biker chicks wearing black & white stripes, said "nice style, we dress the same." they hit it off, turns out they were the freakin dirty bitch brigade, affiliates of the recyclistas from victoria, on the island of sin...frances & crew were dressed to slay & we were punched as please to exchange props & pleasantries.

footdown derby, ifny made 2nd place two times (always a bridesmaid, never the bride).

more bands played while she wrestled the rev; turns out he's a hella dirty fighter (no surprise). it was a draw as he had her in an ear lock while she freely picked his nose.

then it was time for the sprockettes, in hot pink glory! new numbers, blowing us away with crazy hotness. 15 strong, pink & black flashes of blazing saddles. nix's voice was destroyed screaming for mercy...the whole thing was captured on viddy thanks to dav-ed & jim's gracious loan of camera. viewing party tba.

nix shmoozed the 'ketts, hollered her head away & just looked generally absolutely fabulous.

tallbike jousting ensued. ifny looked mean but sucked hard. dead baby ken looked mean & didn't suck at all! in fact he was the champignon!

after the fair was over, the dead babies went off & did a special foreigners bomb.

simon was expiring from low blood sugar so we walked into the first place we found, cafe outlaw sompin sompin, replete with a bullriding machine & hard rockin tunes.

moved our shite to the lovely & funky & generous & radiggist elicia's apt. made our way labouriously through the city, sans guide, to christophe's unofficial mcbf afterparty in a four floor apt building. in our recollection the party seemed to occupy the entire building. we blame sparks for mistakes & o-missions. the band was guys with megaphones & tape deck & some keyboard (that they transport in bike trailers) playing in the laundry room. drenched dancing madness. we retired to the roof where the dirty bitch brigade led a stomping snapping rhythm jam. then it was time for more impromptu wrestling in an empty apartment inna dark. ifny took down zoobomber felix in a tough match of moves vs. will (she later discovered a clump of beard hair in her watch strap that can only be attributed to his face). then she was picked up & thrown to the rug by this suped-up ultimate wrestling honey, who then demolished felix & a couple other chappies. turns out she's rocco's jenn, who had offered us a crash pad sight unseen before we'd even left vancouver. (she works at rocco's pizza, where the zoobombers meet). she's promised to come up & whip the rest of vancouver if anyone dares...better start training now...

captain fun, phil & minifixie mark escorted us home, & mark was superoutrageously generous to lend ifny his minifixie (in freewheel mode) to ride home on. supafast!!! he even offered it up for the zoobomb!

we crashed at elicia's, & turns out she's a newlywed, just married the bike of her dreams. pro photos will be posted when avail.

ZOOBOMBDAY
brunch at the hostel, we arrived ON TIME which was commented on by all. shawn's famous bodum coffee juice eggs oregon strawberries gabe's hair of the dog whiskey & hashed browns.

then it was time for THE BEACH. we got on the road, dead babies, elicia, phil, gabe, sara, earl, vanilla will from the hostel. champion ken was the kindest bestest soul to gift ifny with his incredible magical tallbike for the day aaughgh! her first time on a tall bike where someone wasn't trying to knock her off with a lance. she took the opportunity to graze from lowhanging branches & lean on her first suv.

stopped at a thrift shop to buy a bikini for amy & a team jersey for nix to blend in with the locals

we got kicked off the max, so we biked all the way. good riddance because we got to ride through some new neighbourhoods & had way more fun. as it turns out, not everyone in portland is white. who woulda thunk! we also saw a memorial to japanese americans interned during WWII, shinto shrine sacred arches hung with strings of detainees' dogtags that tinkled eerily in the breeze.

it was hot, did we mention that?! 42 degrees. eff!

dead baby stephanie kept her cool throughout, no shoes no bra no compromise

just before the beach we stopped at a convenience store. ifny, ever fickle, decided that bikes were too slow & tried to hitch. traffic dissed her until a huge 18 wheeler screeched on the brakes...she hopped on & told the kind hearted gent that she just wanted to say hi & drive safe. they chatted for a bit about his suped-up chromed-up rig & then with a toothless grin the trucker headed back on the road again.

~hothothothothothothothothothothothotohothothothothothothothothothothothothothothot~ EFFF

then blessed be, we hit the beach. it being amurika we had to wear clothes. (n.b. duct tape pasties look great but don't last long in cool water)

we played frisbee, throw the apple, & poopie pants with mud. gabe & ken & ifny tried to blow up gabe's pirate ship kite with firecrackers. they were successful! especially after they decided to spare the jolly roger for another day...

then it was off to play the notorious b.i.k.e. p.o.l.o. phil gave agent lapis' bike a flat tire, so we had a good old fashioned safety meeting on an off-ramp, replete with tilt, sparks & belly button warm guiness (which made it onto phil's face cuz he was provoking the crowd). the tire was worn right through, omg whatever should we do?! you guessed it: red duct tape onna inside. for ifny it was kind of like when your dog dies & you give the rest of his food to some other dog. it is as it should be, & so be it.

we got to polo real late so the action was in full swing. we found the alberta clown house on route to buy the giantest bestest fajitas burritos enchiladas ever, & pinga the clown joined us. all of us were burned & sanded & poopie pantsted. we met tad of chunk & we had a good chat about carcass & bozkashi & severed headballs. ifny played anarchist polo with some other bikers including a rad 12 year old kid. the score was 1-1-1-0-0. then she rode a really big fixie, her first time & boy was it like riding a spooked horse!

poor amy had a flat, then another flat, then after we set off, another flat! she didn't make it to zoobomb, which means she'll have to come down to p'land & rock the hill some other time!

then it was time to zoobomb. but damnit, there was no time to pick up mark's rad mini, so all us big bikes rode straight over to rocco's. on the way to the hill it was time to say goodbye to the dead babies. we'll see them again at the dead baby downhill, august 4, come hellahighwata!

the pile was puny so we headed up to the max station. but crikey! there was a brown-out so the max's all sucked. simon lay down on the platform to rest until a very concerned max driver got off to check his vitals. what kind of friends would we be, standing around making conversation while our pal lay there dead? geez, he was only partially dead...finally we managed to get up to ol GB, where everyone was chillin.

this was nix’s second zoobomb. Her first was during winter mini-olypics on Liz’s minitall. This time, on her regular bike, she took it faster! By this night, word that the canadians were there spread and many of the zoobombers who have not met MC3/Vancity ambassadors before wanted to chat about bike culture and life up north. Nix promised canada would refuge them when shite hits the fan.

since shannon radiant sprokette wasn't bombing OG, she passed her winky hot pink bike over to ifny. it was dark as all hell, & since she started last, she got to do it without any little red blinkies to follow, like riding a gorilla through the mist...

best of all, it was simon's first zoobomb! here's what he has to say for himself:

I've got to say, I was a little disappointed not to get to do the zoobomb on a mini bike. But only a little for two reasons- it was a rush to get to push my roadbike (my baby!) about as fast as she's ever gone before (in pitch freaking blackness, might I add), and missing the mini aspect of the bomb motivated me to acquire my own mini about two seconds after returning to vancouver so as to never have that problem again.

So the zoobomb. For those unfamiliar with this amazing portland ritual, I'll lay it out from the beginning. You get on the Max train, destined for Washington/Zoo station - a train station located in the centre of, essentially, a small mountain (think Burnaby mountain as a reasonable reference). The first thing you notice is that the train is packed (packed) to the rafters with bikers. well, not just bikers, but bikers with teeny, tiny little mini bikes. After some delay (I found out later that this might have been a new and intentional to try and discourage the zoobombers), the train takes you into the mountain where you go to Zoo station, where you disembark and load into one of four massive elevators (even more packed with bikers than the trains).

Exiting the elevators at the top of the mountain (the location of the zoo, from which the zoobombers draw their name) we are greeted with calles of "Zuh-Zuh-Zuh- ZOO-BOMB" from farther up a windy road. It is explained to me that this is where the bombers are massing, and they are calling out to stragglers to indicate which run down the hill they are going to take. We ride up to the mass where everyone is sitting, chilling, drinking, getting lights on, and otherwise preparing for the bomb. Finally, when the mass has reached peak size we line up - the bikes with the smallest wheels in the front, followed by the larger, larger, largest.

We start - the hill is steep, the road windy, the tree cover: TOTAL. it is pitch fucking black, and I am tilted downhill at an angle that feels like it must be at least 6-8 degrees. I separate from one of the many packs that are distributed along the road and find myself falling forward faster and darker. A rider appears in front of me about 30 meters ahead, and I match speed with him, gauging where the dips and turns in the road are by the ebb and flow of his single tail light. my heart pumps and adrenaline rushes. "GATE!" bombers ahead yell to warn us of a gate blocking the road. we slow, navigate around the obstacle, and resume speed, after being turned to an alternate route to avoid the 'pepper' who are out looking to make, perhaps, some arrests. Soon we're back at the Max station, gathering up and getting ready for another run.

Back to the top for some more socializing before the last bomb of the night. Reverend Phil gives me some beer, playing the good host. I see a kid who can't be more than 17 with a chipped tooth showing off with his hot white road bike. wheelies that last a good 10 meters. steep stalls on the front tire. I'm impressed. A friendly security guard stops us right before we leave to give someone the toolkit they lost somewhere - the police might not be so fond of the zoobomb, but the zoo staff seem to have no problems with it. We bomb. The road is less dark this time, but more fraught with obstacles - after navigating several gates we arive at the highway, and prepare to drop its steepest section. "Watch out," someone warns "there was some construction ahead, so we might be limited to one lane." Down we go, gaining speed and rounding a bend in the highway. Construction ahead - car stopped. one lane? no - no lanes - the one open lane of opposing traffic is blocked by a dump truck barreling towards us - Brakes! skid, out of the oncoming lane and past a furious trafic control guy- "STOP! FUCKING STOP!" we do - as we are now blocked by what turns out to be a completely dug up road, complete with hard working midnight road crew.

Most of the zoobomb mass is behind us with the irate trafic control guy - the woman who has stopped me and 3 or 4 others is much more pleasant. the road is closed all night we're told - and there's no other way out but up the hill. we negotiate. "could we not all just join up into one group - you guys stop the trucks for 1 minute, and we'll pass by and be out of your hair?" -- "let me talk to my foreman." We're cleared. down, down, down the highway and back into the downtown core.

I'm hooked.

right on simon! we asslute you!

after that, team canada, DBB tallbiketerry, raven, red-track-biker, blond road biker, plus tourguide phil went for side door donuts at the temple of Voodoo. we accidentally hooked up with a mad rollerblader multimediator & headed to colonel sumner's park for a little more r & r. then nix & simon headed home while terry phil & ifny went dumpster divin, to little avail awww

MONDAZE
inna am it was coffee at freegeek's favourite spot, then onto the road. earl tagged along till olympia, when we hugged him goodbye to the strains of 'don't you forget about me' breakfast club soundtrack. earl is like that, perfection all around, just like his moustache.

stopped for last delicious mexican food on the way back. the roads were easy peasy & we made it to our beds in no time.

p'land, you are truly the blessed isle. we so enjoyed, as so expected, the hot city, the hot bikers, the hot-spitality & the piled on bikesicle luvvin. Y!A!Y!

you can read bikeportland's account of mcbf & see pics too.
colin m.'s photos are up on flickr
our pics will be up soon...

Hey Folks

2006-03-24T00:27:00.000-08:00

If you ae checking in all vicarious like

watch for word on the MC3 M25 weekend

Epic fer sure

J

Mini Bike Winter Weekend, 2006

2006-03-19T11:51:00.000-08:00

“BEST WEEKEND EVER!”
Best Moment(s)… hard one to pinpoint; best just to start from the beginning.

Road trips are always a great way to start a crazy fun filled weekend, and two moments stand out in my mind on the trip down. Neither may sound cool to you, the reader, maybe you had to be there. One, Jim and I sitting in the back of Paul’s Van (go 100kmph down I5) sewing patches onto our shirts while drinking beer out of water bottles and eating beef jerky, now that good living. Two after Picking up JT and David, in Seattle, I switched to the Red Barren with the BC clettes after a few misleading turns we made it to the free way, not I5 but it got us going in the right direction, and I said it before “you had to be there”, Single Quarter Women, which lead to many good laughs yet to come.
PDX, at “The best house party ever” title not so much reality, though if all is well that ends well, then it was pretty dam good. While in the basement randomly chatting with P-town peeps a mini-bike jousting match breaks out between The RevPhil and friend, minus the mini-bikes and lances. So a Brazilian biker clown announces the match and they proceed to get a four foot walking start and collide somewhere near the middle and fall down. Not that this moment is not great enough on its own, but it is only the setup for the best moments of this night. So while this is all going down, not being a huge basement, The Bee (i.e. me) gets squashed up against the wall with Lady-bug, rapped in a full length faux-fur cocoon. We chat for a bit swap… stories, spit is yet to come, but the night is late and Team Canada is on the move, and I say it’s time for this Bee to find his bed at which point Lady-bug offers hers! Which is almost the best moment, almost…
After breakfast and a nice one hour self tour of NE Portland I meet back up with Team Canada and the zOO! bOMB!! Kids out side the Lloyd center mall for the first international mALL bOMB! Man what a rush the best part was with in minutes of entering the mall on our mini bikes, while dodging o-beast American shoppers telling us “hey you can’t ride bikes in here” for which we replied with a smile “yes we can we’re doing it”, a very large Security guard yells from the escalator “Drop your Bikes Right Now!!” Of course we did nothing of the sort and made a hard right riding even faster for the nearest exit. Thought by this time the ride had already broken up into at least three sub groups and a few rogue agents. After, we all regrouped and headed up the to the Zoo for a day time special edition Zoo Bomb for Team Canada and friends, fallowed by cheep-train-sushi and Portland’s oldest strip club. Then it was time to meet up with “Miss February” (Sarah) at Voodoo Daddy doughnuts, for her birthday ride before the Free Geeks party, Where we saw two twelve year old girls rock it out on top of the bath room and we got kicked out so two people could get married. After a bit of Birthday streamer-bike-tag-out and some awesome Geneses & Vanilla floats, we road on to the Free Geeks dance party.
High lights of the party; fashion does and don’ts, all were hot in there own way. The Feral Clown’s Danger Sideshow, starting with fireworks showering off the head of a Brazilian clown while other clown performed around him. Then there was a little game of “What’s UP YOUR ASS?!” Where we got to see three lovely ladies guess the object lightly wedged between their cheeks. Some how the last girl got it exactly right even down to the color, “orange sandal?” Then it was time for the midnight naked bike ride, remember it is February and freezing out. Needless to say, it was a shorter ride than usual, but not too short. Though as for best moment, that happen after the ride, we all ran back into the dance party, full of hot sweaty bikers, to warm up, each of us putting on as must or little clothing as we felt fit, then danced our asses off. For a good while I was dancing with the ladybug, she, wearing nothing more then her full length faux-fur blue coat, open, Oouch…
Mini Bike Winter 2006! Best Olympics ever! I took Sliver in Mini bike Whip-lash and I was one of the four Winners of the “Cupcake Challenge”, dam the Willamette is cold. Next up was the mini bike jousting where JT broke his nose on his opponent’s four-head to win round one. After a few more wicked, and a little dangerous, MBW events we were off to Free geeks for some Dumpster-dive-pizza and zoo BOMB! With a quick pit stop at the Portland bike library for some bike swapping, then Zoo BOMB! The whole think was so amazing that no one moment can stand out over another, but riding on to Highway 205 on a mini going 45mph (about 60kph) was pretty F-ing hot!

MXW.

MC3 love bombs the ZooBomb

2006-02-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

Mini Bike Winter 2006

Thirteen bikers in a three car convoy take I5 to Portland. After picking up our tourers in Seattle we arrive at the lovely Ayleens house and depart enmasse for the best house party ever and the start of an epic weekend of Bike love inthe heart of Bikeloveland.

What follows are some of the best moments as told by some of the MC3

JT

So many memories, is there a favorite? The mall-run (with a wrecked rear wheel) was pretty spectacular. Turns out that empty parking esplanades are superb for bike tag, also a suitable location for Guinness floats. Free Geek throws a mean dance party, and Brazilian girls are even more beautiful when they fire-dance. I’m thankful that I didn’t shrivel up so much on the naked bike ride that the sock fell off – damn that was cold! I’m pretty pleased with my showing in the mini-bike jousting event, and learned that a big nose is an excellent last-resort means of unseating your opponent. The zoo-bomb itself was an amazing blend of intense concentration and sheer joy, and it’s quite possible that I reached my land-speed record on the Hell-way run.

Stiff competition between all these episodes, but I have to say that none of them really stands out as THE best moment. What does stand out though is the incredibly warm welcome we were given by everyone we came in to contact with down there. At every turn there was someone who was genuinely stoked that we’d come down, really a humbling sensation when such amazing people are so happy that we came to join them in a celebration. Here’s what it boils down to – if the MC3 has become my immediate family, then the ZooBombers and Sprockettes and Dead Babies and Buzzards have become my extended family.

Best.

Community.

Ever.

Donald

So we arrived the evening of Portland's coldest Feb 24 ever. The next day
wasn't much warmer, which might explain why the mallbomb was so much fun and
relatively hassle free.

The parties and zoo-bombs were great fun! Ayleen and FreeGeek (and others I'm
sure) were awesome to us!

It was a good thing the steeple-chase was canceled, because it was so cold.
Thankfully it had warmed up somewhat for the cup-cake challenge. Which was
to ride down a steep ramp (low water in winter) to a floating dock and off
the end. (extra points for recovering the bike yourself) That was my
favorite part of the weekend.

I also like how we looked out for each other and no one got left behind.
Saturday night we even got home like we were being led by a local, good
communication, or so it seemed from the rear.

But the moment the summed it all up for me, happened today. The first time I
was on a 'normal' bike. I'm coming up on a red light at king ed and main,
and I backpedal my freewheel bike to try to slow, oops, that didn't work,
good thing my handbrakes work good! I'd only been riding the coaster-brake
bike for three days.

Chris B

chris has a brief "conversation" with a middle aged woman in the mall
that we rode through:
her: "is this critical mass?"
me: "no, but i'm sure some of the people here go in critical mass"
she walks away for a minute. then a minute later i start to leave and
she comes back over and stands right in front of where i'm walking to
take some pics and blocks me from moving. i stand for a minute
thinking she'll move. nothin.
me: "excuse me please"
her: "oh, am i in your way?"
me: "ya, why would you just come up and stand in front of me like that?"
her: "now you know how it feels like during critical mass"
me: "ya, but at least i asked and didn't just get mad at you and try
to knock you down"
her: "uh..."
me: "now i understand your motivations... have you ever asked anyone
at critical mass about their motivations?"
her: "uh..."
then i left.

chris has another conversation with an older woman (originally from
new york) in front of the sushi restaurant as we pulled up after the
daytime zoobomb:
"hey, is this those zoobombers?"
"ya"
"you guys are great! we see them ride past our house and we think
it's really great."
good to see some people appreciate other people having fun.

C.A.R.A

Portland Yeah!

So MC3 is blogging about our trip to Portland for Mini Bike Winter 2006!!! Where the hell to begin....

I guess the highlight for me was the Saturday afternoon impromtu 'zoobomb'. The afternoon started with the 'mall bomb' which others already talked about. But the 'afternoon bomb' was the bomb. We had heard all about zoo-bombing and this was it... virgins no longer. We cruised up some hill on the MAX and it was so beautiful and sunny. Our fearless hosts gave us the 411 on safety and where to turn and not turn and BOOM we were off. We bombed through a great park and caught some views of Mt. Hood between the trees. It was so nice to be in a park after all our urban touring around. I was riding a mini chopper (not mini bike) and it proved to be a rad ride for bombing. Yeaaahhhhaaw. We made it down into the City with only one spill (b-Rad took out pol.B ) and headed for dollar sushi and burritos .

The next hightlight was seeing some clown with fireworks shooting out of his head at the Free Geek party. Cool. Fun dancing and lounging and OH YEAH. No wait second highlight is not the clown but having a little cuddle huddle with mr.grove and one rev.phil. HAH I got to have a threeway with the two cutest fellas ever. Needless to say we all came a way with some smooches.

Yeah hightlight.....mmmmm....

Okay one more highlight......AYLEEN!!!!!!!!!!! The best host ever. She let us call her pad home base for the whole weekend, putting up 9 stinky Canadians AND she made us a yummy breakfast on Saturday our first morning in PDX>>> Ayleen Rules!!!!

see you all in March right??

xxx Fish

Ian

++++++
While visiting Portland, we stayed with a supportive, tolerant
community of people willing to help and trust each other. In addition
to a place to sleep, our hosts fed us, helped us find our way, looked
out for us and above all, made us feel like family.

During that weekend, Vancouverites and Portlanders made their own
fun. They never once had to buy it.
++++++

David

my favorite moment that occurred on the first annual mini bike winter
Mc3 ambassadorial trip to portland in oregon in the united states of
america was when i got to eat and drink heineken vanilla ice cream
floats under freeways and this crazy guy said that it would actually
make me feel warmer in the cold oregon winter air and it actually did.
and then we rode bikes and stuff and that was cool as well also. .::DG::.

Jim

My best moments were the Bombs

First we got treated to a mall bomb then even better, a special canadian cherry bomb the OG the original bomb. We were led by Handsome Dave, to the Max then up the elevator and finally down through the park. It was mostly without mishap cept for a good spill by tall Pol. It was cool to be a part of this getting the lowdown and history from all the ZooBomb riding with us.

Sunday nite after the MBW it was time for the real deal. After hanging out in the park on top of the hill, it was time for the New Bomb. Holy crap was it fun. Maitland our warrior of the weekend was called to the front lines and we were off. I had been waiting two years for this. Our last visit to Portland for the Chunkathalon was to include the ZooBomb but had been thwarted by medical support. The wait made it all the more awesome. Down thru the dark cutting corners tight, hugging close to the handle bars, ass clamped to my ductaped on seat and cranking on my big chainring cuz I needed more speed.

Then down to the Max, standing waiting at the top of a four block drop counting down the traffic light in the middle and then the Hellway. Sixty or seventy bikes taking the Freeway in a pack. Holy shizzle I don't know how fast we were going except that the cars seemed to be passing us really slow until we exited through the tunnel. Then the architecture and the lights whipping past at a sickening speed.

Aaagh so close to deth so alive

Can't wait to go back

an

Photo Links

Chris B

Donald

ZooBombs Tiago

Ions excellent photo page

Cranked Mag Launch!

2006-01-19T15:14:00.000-08:00

Four MC3 ambassadors left for Destination Seattle around noon last Saturday. The sun was shining, the first time in 27 days. The rays were absorbed as a sign of good times ahead.

The Red Barron roared south, radio-less, packed full of biker love. Representing “The Canadians” was Cara, Amy, Lee and Nicole.

We crossed over with no hassles or questions (?we think it the cowboy hat?) and entered into the land of the free. Our first destination was a small town about half way to pick up cheap beer and our favorite American battery/drink: Sparks! The cash attendant told us about a super hot drink: a shot of Jagger in a glass of Red Bull. You heard it right folks, this is gunna be huge!

We realized fairly quickly that none of us brought a map of Seattle. Nobody seemed too worried; we knew the force would be with us. A little later… !! ... we arrived to Dead Baby Soren’s pad. ... the party began!! Neko arrived, bikes were borrowed, and we set off to the Cranked Magazine Release/Post Race Party held at the Rendezvous. We soon found the cranked boyz themselves: Mike, Jason, Matt and Justin.

We arrived just as they were announcing the winners of the race (that we unfortunately missed due to our notorious pace). Huge shout outs to everyone where made... much trans-national biker respect! More Dead Babies were at the bar and kept the party rowdy: Stephanie, Woody, Peter, more names of special people I don’t remember… (I’m just learning!). $6 pitchers and sneaking beers in (and getting caught repeatedly) made the night extra fun. Wooo!

The following morn we all met for some good grub and Bloody Mary’s to get ride of the shakes. We then went to visit Bike Works (http://www.bikeworks.org/), where Soren is working right now. It’s a fabulous space for bike building and bike education with an emphasis on kids. Super-duper-Americana-moca-latte-soy-double-shot later, full of bike love and super cool magazines… we replaced Lee with Neko… and we were on the road again.

Oh, I almost forgot. At the boarder we were sooo tired of idling the engine (1 hour 15 min wait to get into Canada!??!!) we turned the car off, put it in neutral, and pushed the car by hanging one foot each out the door. Imagine! The dude behind us even copied us. Ya ya!

Special thanks to all of our American tour guides, party hosts, Sparks suppliers, house hosts and fellow evil-doers, WE LOVE YOU! Everyone, check out the 1st Cranked! (http://crankedmag.com/ and Cara has copies)

Reporting for the Canadians
…nix…

Tall Bike Christmas

2005-12-29T21:51:00.000-08:00

It was a tall bike Christmas.

Liz, Gavins wife, asked me to make him a tall bike. I like to do this, make bikes for people. The fun is in taking my time, letting the bike come together, not really stressing and just making them pretty. I painted this one dark blue and added a chrome steal rim in the frame, ovalized for max attract.

I scheduled delivery for xmas eve and the bike was a suprise. I invited Pol B to join me on the delivery. I rigged up this little trailer and hitched it to my tall bike. Pol was on his tall parade bike and after a beer or two we set out to cycle across the city. We went the long way so we could cruise the drive. It was fun to shock people out of their consumer frenzy and give them somethng real to smile and laugh about.

We delivered the bike and Gavin was super happy.

Jack, MC3 member at large, was spotted on his tall bike. Yeah this happens all the time, people are always saying stuff like this to me. "Hey I saw this guy on a tallbike at such and such a place". Yeah yeah I say what color was it? What part of town? Yadayada..etc Then I identify the rider and get to say, I helped build that bike....Any way....The reason I mention the Jack sighting is becasue the tall bike rider in question was on the SEA TO SKY HIGHWAY on his way to Whistler.

UPDATE

Jack drops in with this movie file but no story.

Bike Bling

2005-12-16T13:53:00.000-08:00

Hey

Check out our sister blog

Wearable Art

!!! Bike ! Bling !!!

Jim

Tallbikes and cars don't mix well in a blender

2005-12-11T19:59:00.000-08:00

This months ride was my ride...well everyones but it was my (Jim) birthday...

By chance Chris and Silas of the Buzzards came up from Bellingham...Silas brought his tall bike and we put Chris on the red fire chopper...A first for him I am told he was previously anti freekbike...I guess he needed a good smooth ride to bust his cherry...ahem

Other guests of honor Margaret the longboarder...

Riding from the shop to the meet point we had a bit of an altercation with a car driver...i guess we were taking up the whole road...It is a bike route dude..expect it....anyway it could have been foreshadowing...

We hung around the gazebo for a while played some games of RedRover to stay warm drank all of Chris' leftover Pacific then headed east...

We were passing an art opening...I guess it was poorly attended cause they yelled out to us to come in....imagine a plague of locust on your buffet...we drank all the red wine, ate all the choclate, decimated the cheese platter...looked at the art sorta and split...

We took Commercial Drive...yelling and howling...

We hung out in the park off fourteenth for awhile...fired up the BBq bike had some dogs...Ifny and her ADD organized us into a race around the park imagine the chaos of about fifteen tallbikes, choppers, mini-talls all racing singletrack thru the trees in the dark...James...tallbike winner....Chris in the chopper division and Ifny in the vanilla class...

We all split the park and went to the legion...many pitchers were consumed...

Then we went for pizza and hung around on the street...til everyone split up and went home...I guess some one got into an arguement with a car driver on the way..........cuz I got called over by a cop...hey what have you been up to tonite? oh just riding around...Get into any arguements?/ no I said...He flips his computer around to show me that some one had reported a car driver arguing with an eight foot tall bike...Wasn't me i said.. He points at my bike...Uh there were a bunch of those out tonite...You going home now he says....fer sure you see the ladies I am with???

Anyway I guess the cops settled for the twelve foot long bike ..... hey D........ make any new friends in there?????

L8r

MC3 1-year birthday party in east van/why we didn't go home for 3 days

2005-11-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

By Liz and Nicole

Chapter 1. The planning
It all began weeks in advance: we’d decided to throw a party, we’d invited some people and we had a rough idea of what was going to happen, but no one could be prepared for what happened that fateful weekend in east van….

Thursday night was the first night of preparation. JIM had come up with a fabulous birthday logo and DAVID, along with Jim and LIZ were going to crank out some commemorative patches. We tried a few print runs, but nothing seemed to work as well as we wanted. We worked late into the night but finally had to give up. Despite a bajillion other things, david was prepared to start over the next day so that we could all show our grandkids the first anniversary MC3 patches.
Taking advantage of the Rememberance Day holiday on Friday, we got an early start setting up. We showed up at the shop bright and early to rearrange the chaos caused by the installation of a new wall that had effectively reduced the shop space by 1/3. After a long morning of cleaning and organizing, the shop was ready to go and bike repairs took centre stage. IAN, like always, impressed us with his techno know-how and had the now infamous cupcake logo up and on the 3 tiered POV in no time. After some last minute repairs, we rushed home to start some domestic preparations…. we cut a swath through the safeway, grabbing every can of BEANS that they had when we heard a strange, yet familiar sound. Staring in disbelief at one another, we realized that we had the one and only: Jim’s cell phone- aka the centre of the MC3 communication HUB. All of a sudden Liz was on the phone with some guy from Seattle, trying to give him directions, while Nicole’s phone rang frantically as Jim tried to figure out what the eph was going on….
Several hundred phone calls later, Liz and Nicole had finished making the vat of post-ride chilli and celebratory cupcakes and were out the door, not to return, for a weekend to remember…

Chapter 2. The ride
Mike (the guy who had called us in safeway and got some pretty sketchy direction) and Jason had arrived on Friday from seattle- not knowing what the eph to expect. But within minutes we were all chatting and trying to explain the antics we had planned….
Everyone who had set up in the day met back at the shop and we all rode over to the gazebo and only had one casualty along the way- luckily JACK had sewn protective knee pads into his pants, and was wearing his helmet, so the fall off his supertallandnarrow tall bike wasn’t as bad. And we hadn’t even started drinking….
Once at the gazebo, the sound system that jim had pulled over from the shop was set up and the tunes quickly turned us into a bunch of rowdy, dancing, drinking bikers. As bikers showed up the party grew with more and more Mc3ers and and then we saw them: the Buzzards rolling up on the FUGITIVE- a 2 story, three-seater tall bike of fury. The buzzards had come up from Bellingham just for our birthday party! KATIE, YALE, SILAS, Big BEN and BEANS and of course, RAWKA- the coolest international biker dog ever! After, introductions and some bike show and tell, we were off on the anniversary ride. MAITLAND had put together the ride based on the things we wanted to see and show our out of town friends. Our first pitstop was Robson Square where we took the chance to set up the sound again, put back a few more drinks and hook up with some last remaining bikers in downtown Canada. By now we were 30 some odd strong. We hit up the downtown, the seawall, rode down into the echo chamber and even climbed a flight of ramps on tall bikes. The highlight of course was when Maitland decided to take a plunge in a poop-filled duck pond. He thought it would be best to swan dive in from the top of his tall bike and take all his dry clothes with him…When all was said in done, Maitland was wet and smelly but had taken us on a ride to remember.
Around 10:30 the DJ called and was already back at the shop so we all sped back in the darkness for the next part of the birthday party.

Chapter 3. The party.
Um… we know there was a party. We just don’t remember it really well. We do remember that JUSTIN and MATT joined their CRANKED colleagues from Seattle. So that was fun. Good beats. Good vibes. Good friends. Good times.
I do remember though, that no matter how tough the biker was, they always wanted more frosting on their cupcake. DONALD’s delicious homebrew and bbqd veggie dogs fuelled the late-night mini-bike jousting, that ended ambulance-free.

Chapter 4. Saturday
Hot grub was served up at DAVID’s in the am, cooked by the rad and only CARA and MARYANNE. After we were stuffed on coffee, pancakes and the best-ephing homemade jam ever made by DONALD, we settled down to figure out the plan for the day. After many weeks of hardwork and cluewriting, LEE finally presented his epic Vancouver Public Art scavenger hunt (stay tuned for future showings of the mammoth undertaking). We sat in disbelief as lee handed out 8 or so double sided sheets covered in pictures and clues-located somewhere the city- that we had to find! After some brief strategizing teams were off: teams were a mixture of east van/west van/out of towners/fixie riders/tall bike riders/boys/girls. 4 teams in all headed out into the rainy afternoon with a folder a pen and a hope that they wouldn’t get totally lost.
Part of the radness of the ride (apart from getting to see awesome parts of the city, graffiti, murals, sculptures and parks) was that we had some time to hang out with our visitors and actually talk for a bit….

It was down to the wire and some teams that ShAll RemAin nameless pushed the time limit a bit and were not actually at the Brickyard by 4:00… still we all made it back: wet, happy and ready to sit down for a bit. DAVID’s hyper stacked team of POL, KATIE, MATT, and IAN ended up killing every other team by like 30 points, but it was NICOLE’s last place team stacked with BEN, YALE, JAMES, IFNY, and JASON that wore their last place medals around all weekend.
A spontaneous Track stand competition took place in the bar and SARA was the lone girl and represented Canda down to the wire, but ultimately it was JASON who took out JUSTIN for the best prize ever- a handmade tire belt of DALE’s.

Chapter 5. Arts and Culture
A little rest and we headed over to see the East Van Porn Collective’s “Made in Secret”. BEANS took full advantage of our loose Canadian ratings and brought his little sister to see some local film-making at its finest. We had friends to see and friends to show around so right after we busted over to the MOMENTUM magazine’s fundraiser party. Walking in was an intense scene: Eager contestants were pitted against each other and more eerily, against martin’s encyclopaedic knowledge of bike culture, for the most intense round of bike jeopardy ever. Empowered by the Tour de France category, DALE easily burned through his round and walked away victorious-.After a couple rounds of thinking “ I could crush these guys in my sleep”, SILAS stepped up to the plate and did just that. He stumbled and staggered through a litany of “local activism and politics” questions, but soon his stride and easily took his local competitors (something I’m sure they’ll never live down).
The victory party turned out on to the street, and soon we were cruising through the city- in the rain of course, but feeling fine, and knowing we would end up somewhere good. Ifny took us up the ramp of death and then we were attacked by a savage herd of racoons, but all who survived were soon treated to some warm soup, drinks and snacks! A couple hours of warming up –inside and out- we headed home to prepare for the last day of our trip (in east van).

Chapter 6. The last day
We all woke up and rode down to freshen up with some coffee at JJ Bean. The buzzards got packed up for their ride home, we exchanged contact info and took some last pictures and they were off. The seattle boys however, stuck around for a day of touring with the last standing MC3 boys and eventually caught their train back home.

All in all it was a totally non-stop rad weekend of awesome international and local bike love. We had such an awesome time hanging out with everyone and can’t wait to go ride in new cities with new friends, old friends, and friends to be made.

Until then………BEST WEEKEND EVER!!!!

Ians Photos!!!!

VeloMutation 2005

2005-09-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

PedalPlay...sister to the MC3s annual fundraiser went off this year…like really went off…it just isn’t me and my biased opinion..the only conversation I seemed to have all nite was peeps telling me how great the party was…which could have got old but I was having a great time myself….

First of all I had a meltdown in Dressew when Sara called to tell me that the Sprockettes had confirmed they were going to play our part…like really fighting back tears of joy while my friend asks me “Jim are you going to be okay???” which was cool because it totally convinced her to come to the party and she had the best time ever….

To summarize…the weekend really started on Friday when the MC3 gathered at the shop to do prep for the party…a last bit of tidying….setting up Ians POVs…David arrived with the swag…new MC3 t-shirts and patches for sale at the party…the good ones went immediately as we modeled swapped and mock bitched….a bunch of beer was bought and we settled into not working and just hanging out…the excitement level spiked when DeadBabies Soren and Stephanie called on the cel to get directions…and then spiked again when they showed up with Sparks..and then spiked again when Rhino and the RevPhil of the ZooBomb pulled up…and we all melted into a puddle of ecstacy…when The Sprockettes…kinda walked in the door…we laughed, drank, got to know each other until it was time to go to bed…terrible directions were given and off we went…The Dead Babies and theZooBomb to my house and the Sprockettes to DeLizious’ house in deep Kits…

The next morning we gathered in a parkoff fourth and Dan and RevPhil cooked a mad breakfast on a portable camp grill..Lee did some werd and we split to finish setting up the party…it was super hard to part from our guests it is always so special to share stories and ideas and histories with like minded over the top bike freaks but we had to set the stage for the best biker party ever….

Which went like this

First of all as my friend says you know it is going to be a great party when you can't find bike parking for six blocks

Out in the street Skylar and the Urban Assualt put on a show leaping over their ramps, doing tricks and working the crowd into a rabid frenzy with the megaphone…the crowd wanted to see the limits pushed and Urban Assualt did not disappoint…afterwards the ramps opened and the Pedal Powered Tank was launched..well sort of…around ten a half dozen riders took off on a scavenger hunt competing for prizes like a toaster oven…beer tickets…some MC3 and Sprockette swag…when they got back the fixy contests started and then the cops arrived it was around two and they wanted to know if we had a permit to shut down the street…uh noo

Inside the compound...under the lights of the refinery and amidst the scrapped cars.... peeps were enjoying the POV tower.... which performed flawlessly less the flawless part…but popular nonetheless...the make out chopper which was a huge hit with the Sprokettes and they posed on it in various states and configurations….Donald was cooking burgers and Maitland was projecting slides and finally the first band Pink Noise arrived…Kim one of the mechanics from OCB is the drummer and she kicks ass…their set went off and people were crowded around…next up were Channels Three and Four who arrived without any gear like a true avant garde band…they broke a drum and stopped playing….which was okay because that put us on schedule and the Sprokettes were up…people crowded around and were blown away…DJ Guyo dropped the needle on the rock tracks after their set and kept the party going and kept it going……..until final shut down at 4am..Dj Seamus was on hand to spot him off with some hot electroclash and the whole dance floor was smiling

Inside the studio the bar was hopping serving beer and wine to thirsty partiers…James was working the bar and his blue party pants…I am surprised he kept his shirt on the whole nite…next to him Yosie was serving out blender drinks and zuchinni loaf…the Djs started up at ten with TNT spinning.... then Corrior.... then DJ Bad…then Micheal Red to melt it all down….everytime I went into the space it was a sweating goopy mess of smiling happy faces….as soon as the decks started spinning the people started dancing and did not stop..until the final shutdown…and Jessica had decorated the space all pretty like with yards of silk..and Maitland was projecting more slides

We all ate the leftover volunteer food that Jack had brought in the back of the pickup truck…and Liz and I went back to my place to sleep and the floor of my house and my room was covered with sleeping Sprockettes…and I went to sleep with visions of the best party ever flashing before my eyes…whoa thatnks every one who helped and was there and supported us...

The next day we woke up and had breakfast again in the sunshine by the water and drank bloody marys and talked about how we would hook up again and go to Portland and Seattle...and build more ties between our communities and what kind of shows we could put on..and events we could throw and all the good things that a great weekend can inspire in you....thanks so much DeadBabies, ZooBomb, and the Sprokettes for coming and partying with us...it meant tonnes and I can't wait to see you all again

Much

Jim

New From Mama

Ride Report and pics on the Dead Baby page

MC3 lovebombs Chunkathalon

2005-09-05T23:28:00.000-07:00

The MC3 went to the Chunkathalon 2005 and it was pretty ephin Fantastic

Representing were DeLizious, Grovetron, Slippery Jim, Donald the Chopper King, Jack, Sailor, Maitland, Yin and Mark…we rented a minivan and a moving van..DeLizious handled all the logistics of transport and piloted the van full of bikes…which was packed with two bikes each…exstatic luxury…the rest piled into the minivan and watched Dvds…conspicuous consumption fer sure….

There were the inevitable screwups and our startime was delayed but we rolled out of van southbound by 11pm..hungover but excited…there was a one hour delay at the border but we amused ourselves by hauling out the minibikes and screwing around in the border lineup providing amusement and skeptical glances from our fellow travelers…no hassles at the border and we started our trip to the PDX ..Cascadias capital of bike culture…We were going to be sleeping on the floor of FreeGeek a computer recycling non profit and host of the Chunkathalon…on arrival our host RevPhil was nowhere to be found but Matteo and Klaut were on hand to give us the tour and settle us in..We went for food and cheap pitchers of Ranier at Acme who had previously hosted Cyclecide a few weeks earlier…..after eating and getting our collective asses kicked at foosball by a couple of locals we got the call from Soren and the DeadBabies and went to meet them at a bar far far away..we stopped at a corner store and bought a bunch of beer..hydrate or die and Sparks..ooh Sparks…the ride to meet the DeadBabies was pretty eventfull…a drunken local took the time to trash talk and vow to kick our asses at the Chunkathalon the next day…..and it was a lovely ride…taking some lanes…upon reaching Woodstock we ran into Chunk 666 PDX and Chunk666 New York…we helped with some minor repairs…made friends and then dropped our bikes in a pile and went into the bar to hang with the babies…pabst $1.25..we hung around and got fucked up for a while Soren was there along with Ian and Peter..who had made an EastVan ambassadorial earlier in the summer…Chunk666 was in the house Tad and Megulon 5..it was super cool to hang with them and talk about the origins of Chunk666 and get a sense of what their history was…after a bit the call was made and all twenty or so of us made a late nite ride across the city to a bonfire in a Chunk backyard…the ride was super fun….. two clubs and one collective represented…much laughing and stunting..then chilling at the fire…DeLizious made the bold move there and organized an all girls team for the Chunkathalon…pretty super… fast ride back to FreeGeek and we c.r.a.s.h.e.d hard

The next morning began with the adventures of Jack…much random riding separated us from Jack and he caught sight of us several blocks away…a race to catch up with us led to some bent forks and a nice chat from a police officer…seems your not supposed to run reds and cross lanes of traffic in Portland..a traffic warning later….we all enjoyed breakfast at a 24 hour breakfast joint…then fuelled up to compete…we milled around for a while watching Chunk set up riding around on our bikes meeting our fellow competitors..the chixs from Victoria of note and others…we let bunch of kids mess around on our minibikes.... I got to meet Dingo from the clown house plus others which was super cool…..

We split into two teams…less Liz who had her own team…the rest of the MC3 split into Team BO (Blue n Orange) and Team Low Dexterity..Sailor,Maitland,Grover and Mark had BO and Low Dexterity was Jim, Jack, Donald(who hadn’t yet arrived) and an alternate Mark from Portland..in total there were 16 teams competing

We were all holding full beers when the events started…first was a team relay..around the block slamming a full tall boy…BO was hampered by Sailor a light weight drinker but fast rider…rules stated that you had to finish the tall boy before you could pass off….DeLizious cut off Soren of the Deadbabies in a stunningly technical competitive way…for some reason even tho all of LDs competitors were finished one full lap ahead of Team BO…and team BO came in fourth…LD not even placing…I think the judges were drunk…but maybe I just was

Between events I had a chance to talk to RadMaggie of VeloMutations..sewing machine bike fame…. I kind of abandoned my team during the Essay Writing event to chat…sorry dudes…..The best was in the competitiors pit…all the out there chopper riders hyped up and in ultra flam mode….I remember this one guy in yellow challenging people at random “you want some of this???...you want some of this???you want some Mantastic???? Then grabbing them and hugging them..kinda summed up the spirit of the competion..sorta

Next event was Save the Baby...each team of four rolled up to the starting line against another team of four…they were designated Good or Evil…Good was to Save the Baby…Evil was to prevent it…at the start each team was to race towards end of the block circle a pylon then head back to the baby

DeLizious’s team were Stellar!!!!!!!at this event ….the Babes were Good and ChunkNyc were Evil and as the Babes headed toward the pylon the empties rained down like roses in tribute…a storm yet unseen this day…Stephanie reached the baby pulled it out of its carrier and was slammed hard from the side by ChunkNyc…a brief face plant and then a sprint across the finish line…Babes ruled over Evil!!!!!!!

Team Low Dexterity chose Jack to represent in the time trials…this event had one rider from each team race to the store buy a six pack and then race back…Jack took a piss and prepared for his run…the route was explained then he was off….the crowd at the end of the block parted like water and he disappeared in the distance…I went to get a beer and came back to the check point to see his triumphant return….the time keeper said he was way over time…”wheres Jack” Delizious asks and at that moment an ambulance appeared and the crowd parted to allow it through … we watched as it continued down the block lights flashing….” I think that’s for your guy dude” the time keeper said…ooohh fuck and we ran…to find Jack being attended to by the paramedics….a huge gash in his stomach and his chopper lying folded on the ground….forks and frame way separated…..Jack are you allright….Can you take a picture he said….Liz rode with him in the ambulance and I went to find his medical insurance…The doctor on duty was pissed because he had to work and miss the Chunkathalon but a bit of it came to him….we hung around at the hospital until Jack was released 20 stiches and some morphine later and we headed back to the event….Special thanks to Kammy for calling the ambulance…Dave from Free Geek for guiding us to the hospital to pick him up and to the paramedics…average time for the time trials 2.5 minutes arrival of the paramedics at the event from Jacks departure 6.41…thats an amazing response time

Back at the event we watched the fucking freak show of fireworks and bikes oooh the chaos…roman candles, bottle rockets..fire crackers shooting off in random directions and Klaut riding through it all on my minibike……(which he saved from the impromptu bonfire and if I ever find out who thru it on there I will kick yer effin ass)

The winning teams of the Chunkathalon were announced and LowDexterity placed fifth!!!!!style points no doubt...Chunk666 Nyc..placing first

Food Sleep and back to Vancouver we drove…Jack in his hospital PJs…

L8rs

MC3 FreekBike Gang

2005-05-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

MC3 FreekBike Gang

BoneYard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoaa.whah.whaoo...... ya know those sounds that Andrew W K makes between songs........... That is how I feel......like when you just pulled off something awesome..and epic....and super energizing

Dudes everybody came out.......old and news.......some missed out and sorely missed.......

It was so awesome to see the entire compound full of activity.........sparks flying.djs spinniing.....bikesbeing ridden.....that first ride ona new chopper again and again and again.......beer goggles and safety goggles

I lost count of how many choppers were made

but

boneyard was a fuckin success

Rad dudes

See you next ride

3

J

Link to boneyard photos

http://www.thisisplanb.net/pedalplay/PedalPlay05/people_and_workshops/boneyard1/index.html

http://www.thisisplanb.net/pedalplay/PedalPlay05/people_and_workshops/boneyard2/index.html

March Ride...........Ohhh YYEaahh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-03-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

So David called the ride this month. He figgered that it would be cool to shoot everyone on their bikes, a photo shoot fer the website, in the location of their choice.

It was super warm out so we could meet at the gazebo at Science World. I (JIM) was super late. I was meeting Liz and Sophie to see how the choppper I am building them would fit. Liz and Sophie are a mom/ daughter team and when the chopper is done the membership of MC3 will be super generational with members from 5 to 55. Nice yeh!!!

Dav-ed had a list of peoples locations they wanted to be shot at and a route planned out.
There was immediate disssent. Which sorta sucks cause I was under the impression that whoever calls the ride leads the ride. We need more discussion on protocol.

So we did a cruise around false creek and then downtown to shoot peeps at various locations. It was fun to be cruising around on the Granville malll on a Friday. We ate pizza and Amy picked up a mountain biker. I tried to pick up some bar girls at my location but they were not even remotely interested.

We ended up climbing a tree then the ride was pretty much done so I went home. I guess other peeps did too.

Thanks for shooting pict David and publishing them so fast. I am sending the link to Mom.

Peeps on ride

Jane and Rusl (Yay finally!!!!)
Douglas
Donald
Rob
Dav-ed
Amy
Jim
and
Dale(who is dreaming his chopper)

Sweet Rides

February Ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-02-12T01:26:00.000-08:00

Yo it was the strongest turnout for the monthly ride yet(which isn't saying much bein the second ride).

We met at the brickyard to discuss the ambassadorial to Wacktoria. Much shouting and finally consensus........We leave Saturday Am and arrive in Vic to chill for a couple of hours and then we take the capital. Peeps were mostly concerned about how we would get there,what happens when we get to Vic is unknown and infinitely fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After reaching consensus we rode..............around.......downtown......along the waterfront which was cold....We met Barry on his cruiser and he rode with us..........nice guy.....decided to spend Friday riding around on his bike and met US.......MC3 Freeek Bike Gang

Got the bike on .......Got the drink on....Got the weed on .....Got the smokes on.......

Ride report

Business as usual

Peeps on choppers
Donald
ROB
Douglas
RedSara
Jim
Peeps on others
Cara
Dale
David

Chopppin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-01-22T20:40:00.000-08:00

It is saturday now. We spent the day, Khan, RS and myself chopping up some sweet bikes. The sweetest completed today was for Walker. The workshop was a gift from his Moms, for his 13th bday. The chopper is a modified bmx frame, using both Khan and Jim frame expansion styles. The frame was one of those giant flat fat types perfect for big paint. Kid is an artist wants skulls and flames. The forks were a 20 inch extension using fat chrome pipe and the original fork. Single speed as a chopper should be. In the end a sweet cruisy ride, stable mostly just a little twitchy.

New sweet ride for Jessica to be completed tomorrow.

Drop by Freeks

Inaugral Ride

2005-01-15T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hi there cm3 folks. I caN'T BELIEVE I A,M HOME BEFORTE MIDNIGHT AND NOT EVEN
DRUNK! AFTER LEE'S BDAY PARTY AND INAUGURAL CHOPPPPPPPR RIDE - THOSE THAT RODE
SNEER. i HOPE THE ACTUAL INAUGURAL RIDE LEAVES YOU ALL INEVRIATED THE AND
FULL OF GREAT STORISE NEXT MORNING. CHEERS PLO

So the inaugral MC3 ride went kinda like this despite high hopes from Pol.

We met at the Brickyard, ordered beer, drank beer, had conversation. Bryce, Donald and Dale left to go and see Nina Hagen. Cara and I remained behind. The hot messenger babes joined us. We hung with them and the Yellow Diablo was ridden around the bar by Dancing Dan. Several times really fast until the btender told him to stop.

Then we rode home. That was the ride, Ok it was really cold and short notice but.....

The monthly ride is the second friday of any given month. we meet under the gazebo at science world and we will ride somewhere special....

Better luck next month.

Which will be before Valentines. Hmmmm................ I think it will be the debut of the makeout chopper.

J

Peeps who came out

Dale
Cara
Jim
Donald
Bryce

MC3 Visioning Minutes Unedited fer true

2005-01-14T22:47:00.000-08:00

Hi Friends!!

So here are the minutes from our visioning session. I am not sure if
everyone is on email (is Douglas and LIsa?). If not, can someone take on
passing this info along. Cheers.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chopper Visioing Session

Agenda: Name/Identity, Art Call-Out, Regular Ride, Ambassadorial trips,
Communication, $ fundraising, MIsc.

Name/Identity
So as most of you will know (or not), at the Novemeber post-parade of lost
souls social at Gavin's the name Margaret Charles surfaced as a name for our
choper crew. At the time there were cheers and laughs and moans and groans.
Some liked some didn't. The name got some sticking points when the
Zoobombers came to town; we are named on their website as the Margaret
Charles Chopper Klub.

So we had some discussion and a here is what prevailed: we are not a gang or
just choppers alone. We are a collective of artist and bike freaks. We are
not exclusive. So the name Margaret Charles Chopper COllective is us!! AND
we came up with a cool anacronym -- MC3!!!! Really we are the Margaret
Charles Choper Collective and Freak Bike Gang (to include all folk, cuz we
ain't just choppers but that is the starting point).

What do you think???? Feedback from all those not in attendance.

The name came out of a joke about the names of our brothers and sisters down
south - Chunk 666 and the Dead Baby Bikes. We thought that we are very
different from both these groups. If someone else has a better explanation
please share it.

Art Call-Out
So with the settlement and excitement on our name it only seems fitting that
we produce some art for our new collective. At some point we will want to
make stickers, posters, patches and whatever else. We have a wealth of
artist in the collective, so we are having an ART CALL-OUT/CONTEST. Because
MC3 is a mix bag of different artists, we want all members art represented
and shared, and we DON'T WANT to have ONLY ONE art design representing our
groups. So we are asking all artisits in the group to design something with
our name or MC3 in it and they willl be submitted to the group and we can
decide how they will be spread. Maybe some designs are better suited to
posters, and others to stickers.

There is a 1 month deadline for art submission. If you haver questions ask
someone from the Collective.

Ride
We have been talking about having a regular ride for ages. And it was
decided that the 2nd Friday of the month was a good night for a ride. The
Science World Gazeboo has been the unofficial meeting spot. BUT this
FRIDAY"S RIDE WILL MEET AT THE BRICKYARD due to cold weather conditions. The
Brickyard is at Caroll, near Pigeon Park. 6:30pm

Trips/Ambassadorial Visits
Places we thought to go: Victoria, Seattle, Portland

Victoria: There is a chopper crew in Victoria and we would like to go over
and meet them and ride with them as well as check out the Recyclistas.
People are going to make contact with them and we have set a tentative date
of Feb 19th & 20th for going over. We figure this could be a great dry run
for our collective. As we travel we can let groups know about the East Van
Chopper Fest as well.

Seattle: The Dead Baby Bike Club hosts a DBB Down Hill in June or July. This
is a big event we will have to attend and has the potential to be the
Chopper Convergence we have been dreaming of.
There was also talk of trying to go down for a monthly DBB ride.

Portland: We didn't really talk about trips to Portland

Note: Bikesummer is being held in LA this year.

We also talked about doing a chopper camping trip in the summer

Communication:
Lee offered up the Dino listserve for MC3 to use. He is setting that up.
Please contact Lee with your email information.

Website: David offered to set up a website. People kicked in donations to
get this going. See www.mcthree.ca

Fundraising
If we are going to plan trips we are going to need to do some fundraising.

Misc
We talked about getting temporary tattoos made!!!

Next Meeting
TBA

Hoo wuz there

Dale
Bryce
Donald
Lee
Cara
Jim
Sara
Pol
David

Welcome to MC3

2005-01-14T22:14:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the MC3

This is a space for the Vancouver Freek bike scene to vent, share and air views and experiences. This is also a place for prurient interest, your voyeuristic tendencies realized.

Come and ride with us.

Enjoy

and Welcome

MC3