This guy's name is Kurt Yaegar. He was in a motorcycle accident in '06, lost his left leg and had some other injuries that put people out permanently. Worth it to watch until the end.
These tires are mad. I just rode a set for 5 years. Legitimately, 5 years. I ride in New England so I don't ride 365 days/year, but I do ride hard in the summer, and mostly only street, very little park. These things are beasts. Heavy, but they're that way for a reason.
Swapped them out for Odyssey Paths at my local shop. What do you want to see as the next X-Ray project we do here at Vector?
Check out the facebook page and let us know facebook.com/thetabmx Qualifiers were insane yesterday!
Check it live today on their website. http://www.session.ee/live/ Well, finally getting some time to put into the site. Hoping to get some articles up in the tech section, maybe make some more x-rays. Really hoping to get some big things running around here, keep an eye out.
BUT that's not all. Finally coming into the 21st century and we now have a twitter. Yeah, really. Check it @ThetaBMX On the bright side, though, I am finishing up a physics class that has been eating my time up on Monday. So pumped. After that I hope to have some time, and will be working a bit on the site. Expect some new tech articles and random articles, and maybe even the April POTM might be released before June!
I have plenty of ideas for articles to write, though, so keep an eye out for that. I recently got first place in a SkillsUSA Technical Drafting competition (SCORE!)*. In winning, I received a 1-year license/software for Solidworks. So, I have a new toy for a year :) [even though Inventor has suited me quite well] *For anyone who MAY know what SkillsUSA is, no, I am not going to Kansas City. My local Relay fr Life is that weekend, and that's just overwhelming - RFL is more important to me than Skills, just a judgement call. Let's face it, NONE OF US ride for the image. And if you do, think again about how the world views BMX. Here's a quick story:
I listen to music when I ride, so, I have my headphones in. Most of the time I can't hear people. Sometimes, that's good. It gets annoying when every 19 year old frat boy yells "GET A REAL BIKE!" at you. (See above, NONE OF US RIDE FOR THE IMAGE). But one thing really ticked me off...last summer I had my headphones in, but off. Was at a stop sign, Also at the stop was a crosswalk. If anyone has been to Old Orchard, you know the town center....It's a mess of people. You want to be able to hear when you're on a bike. So I see a kid, maybe 10 years old, and his father walking across the crosswalk. The kid points "I want to ride that kid of bike dad!" I smiled, thought "hey kid, stick with it! I don't get paid to ride, but I have fun when I do." His father? "No! I don't want you getting mixed up with those kind of people!" Now, I'm usually timid when it comes to people insulting me. I can take it. But this man didn't insult just me. He insulted me, and every other rider. So, I let loose a little bit. "First of all, sir, I can hear you. Second of all, sir, it's THAT kind of people. Third, what do you mean "those kind of people". What is your assumption about me? I drink, do drugs, dropped out of school, am a failure at life? Well, let me inform you of something. Not everything is the way YOU want it to be. I'm straight edge, I don't drink or smoke. I'm still in school, and got high honors last year, and got a 5 on my AP calc exam, the maximum possible score. And as far as I'm concerned, your bigoted opinions should not stop your son from getting some exercise, sir". The man was SPEECHLESS. Maybe I could have handled it better, more mature, and I know I could have DEFINITELY made it worse. ;) So, here's why I'm writing this. The image we get as riders is not why we ride. If the only reason you ride is for the image, you need to rethink what image you want on yourself. BMX will forever be frowned upon by high society. To them, we're a bunch of miscreants, scoundrels, wasting away our lives! We could be doing something PRODUCTIVE! We are, we're riding for fun. I guarantee the 45 year old lawyer who told me to "leave the skatepark with that bike or I will have you arrested" has so much fun with her life. *In my defense, the park allows bikes. I pointed out the sign, and she continued, claiming "the sign is wrong". Her 5 year old son was not wearing a helmet, which is required by the park. So, keep riding. People will constantly give you a hard time. Let it go. Old or young, people will target you to look better to their friends, especially of the other gender. They’ll give you a hard time to make themselves feel better about themselves…Let them go. Whenever I get a hard time about riding or my tiny sprocket (30t, by the way), I shrug it off. My boss gives me a hard time about riding. Do I let it affect how I work? No. My teachers give me a hard time. Do I let it affect how I write stories, or do math problems? No, and no. And neither should you. I don’t ride for my boss, or my teachers, I ride for me. Whenever I nail something that I’ve been working on, I don’t say “This is for you, Mrs. M!”. I smile, lose myself in my music, and think what I should try next. Riding isn’t about pleasing your teachers, professors, friends, girlfriend, family, employer, employee, it’s only about pleasing yourself. If you’re happy with what you’re doing, then do it. If you miss a day of riding because you’d rather sit at home and watch a movie, so? People are getting so obsessed with riding that they feel they HAVE to ride, which makes them not like it. Why? They aren’t happy with it. Were there sunny days that I was sitting inside thinking “I could ride today…but I would rather go out with my camera, or go for a run, or just sit around outside and do absolutely nothing”? Yes, and I did! Other days in my free time, I really wanted to ride…so, I did. Ride for yourself, not for anybody else, and you’ll love riding, Just as much as I do. As a side note, school is walloping me right now. Between school and work, I have barely any time to put into the website. The time I DO have, goes straight towards finding a POTM. I'm not writing nearly as many articles as I want to, not doing nearly as much CADD work, or doing anything with the site I want to! :( It's depressing. My AP class ends (literally. it's online, so after the AP test, it's a black hole of what used to be a class) in early May. I'll most likely want to get some stuff in order, though, since I've had almost NO free time, but after that I hope to be writing more. Take it easy, keep riding. -Rob Let me clear something up. I want to just throw this out there, because I apparently need to. Axle bolts, and axle nuts. They get mixed up a lot. I used to use the wrong terminology, so I'm not going to give too much of a hassle. Now, let me define what a bolt, and a nut, is.
Nuts: http://www.boltnuts.net/photo/51/products-Hex-Nut.jpg Bolts: http://www.fastwell.com.cn/product/pic/asushop200812557391.jpg (I take no credit for these images, by the way, these were found by searching Bing for "threaded nut" and "bolt") A bolt is a bolt, and a nut is a nut. A male-axle hub uses axle nuts, while a female-axle hub uses axle bolts. Please, for the sake of humanity, learn these terms and use them correctly. :) http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/01/nj_lawmaker_withdraws_proposed.html
Just as I was about to start making calls. The ONLY person to get back to me was an employee with the New Jersey DMV (or whatever the equivalent name is in NJ), saying that the NJ DMV was not sponsoring it, attached the bill, and the contact info for the woman who was sponsoring the bill! To that man, I say thank you. Governor? Mrs. Tucker? No response. No surprise. Well, that's that. No more Bicycle Registrat....Hold on, I just want to put up a few quotes from the article about the withdrawal of the bill: “My intention was never to impose a burden or additional costs," Tucker said in a statement. "My goal was to at least begin a discussion of how best to protect elderly pedestrians. No idea is perfect, but protecting elderly pedestrians deserves attention." .....I'm not going to even try to understand the connection. Tucker said senior citizens have called her office to report that they’ve been knocked down by inconsiderate riders, but had no way to register a complaint. Well, I guess there is a connection. SO! Here's MY challenge. "I would encourage everyone to give thought to how best we can protect elderly pedestrians and suggest solutions," the statement read. I want YOU to come up with a suggestion. Send it to Mrs.Tucker. Her e-mail, phone, and address information are here (well, her office info, not her personal info....) http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/bio.asp?leg=285 I am sending out my suggestion soon. I encourage you to look into it, think of a solution, and do the same. Complain all you want, but you can't get what you want if you only complain about the solutions. |
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