Arrived pop account wed 26th nov,

Hi all,

Still some great events happening this week as the Big Bike Love festival draws to a close,

Regard Gallery| 372 Wilson St, Darlington (opp Carriageworks)
Till 30 November
Road:From Deadhorse Down – Rob Barton
There are a few things you don't expect to do in life. Buying anti-bear spray is one of them.
In July 2008, Rob Barton, Andrew Walker and Michael Carroll left Sydney to ride their bicycles south from Deadhorse, an Arctic oil field base, to Alaska's southern border. Over two months and 3000 kilometres their bikes traversed the surreal Alaskan landscape, encountering bears, moose, camouflaged locals and forty breeds of mosquito.
From Deadhorse down is a small, photographic snapshot from the top of the world; a deafiningly silent frontier at the mercy of everything beneath it.
http://www.regardgallery.net.au/

The Trophy Room | 545 South Dowling St, Surry Hills
Friday 28 November
Road: Ride-thru - Spokesman & Spinster
One night only - 6pm
http://bffsydney.org/road/

Saturday 29 November
RoadMap - Gallery Crawl

I don't know a few of these brands but here is a list of 50 best bikes

http://independent.net-genie.co.uk/Outdoor_Activity/22213/the_50_best_bi...

I really enjoyed this.
nice groovy sounds with cool vid.. don't get much better.

well finally some BFF 07 stuff

http://www.deus.com.au/gallery/bike/film-fest-party/

check it out SYDBMA as captured by WORDLE. I loaded our home page today and this is what it produced.
I like it. if you have the time have a closer look by clicking the image... (java required)
I am Naming this " SYDBMA the site"

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24548787-5006784,00.html

Brendan Shanahan | October 25, 2008

Fix yourself up with a new life cycle

LOOK mum, no hands. Nor brakes. In the strange world of cycling snobbery, the latest trend is called a "fixie" -- and it might just be the BMX for grown-ups.

Unlike the standard bicycle, a fixie, short for fixed gear or fixed wheel, has no gears and the sprocket is locked to the hub, so the rider has to pedal constantly.

And some fixie purists ride their bikes without brakes, controlling the speed with leg power only.

Normally a training or velodrome bike, the fixie is popular with bicycle couriers and has soared in popularity in the US and Europe. Now they look like taking off here.

Piero Pignatti Morano is the bicycle development manager at Sydney motorcycle and bicycle shop Deus Ex Machina. "In the US and UK, the fixie thing has blown up ridiculously," he said.

"I'm definitely getting a lot more interest. Cycling is booming, and fixies have an appeal to people who haven't cycled in a long time and are now getting back into it. Fixies have the same appeal as a BMX."

Today I had a great day in the sun and fun that was Big Bike Day I went via the Glebe fore shores. A slow pleasurably pace to negotiate thin and winding and walker full paths.

I stopped at the park section near the bottom of Glebe Point Rd. watched stuff happen. As you do when you spend 30 minutes sitting around.

Noticed these guys, just over on my right.
Had a chat and they where a friendly bunch. Whilst I saw jugglers and rope walkers and both at once too.. i could not help but notice the girl doing this no hands bar around her body maneuver thingy, it just looked so cool.. obviously its supposed to be on fire.

here is a snippit from their site

It's sideshow, it's burlesque, it's circus. It is not for the faint of heart. Some acts are beautiful whilst some acts are just horribly horribly wrong. Stick around for the after party to cut a rug with the human pincushion or shake your thing with the beautiful fan dancers.
# Friday, November 14 2008, 8:00pm until late
# The Factory Theatre, 105 Victoria Road
# Enmore, Australia

to book: 17 bucks tickets or 25 on the night
I saw them having a picnic and having a goood time while I was sitting around.

We are a loose knit group of circus folks incorporating various elements of Vaudeville, Burlesque, Cabaret and Sideshow macabre with the more traditional circus acts of juggling and aerials

Apparently not everyone agrees that the day is correct .. but bugger that I say.

MESSENGER APPRECIATION DAY

Pass the good word.

Its on again, Different venue this time so make note. There will be a bike lock up area and it will be accessible from the service road on the inside.

The Earthdance Global Music Festival for peace is back in Sydney for some more action packed festivities slotted for Saturday 13 September at the new venue of Prince Alfred Park in Surry Hills. Spring and Earthdance is in the air! Furthermore be sure to keep checking this website, facebook and myspace pages regularly as details of artists, performances and activities on offer are beginning to emerge.

Over the past decade Earthdance, the global festival for peace, has become renowned around the world as a celebration of cultural diversity, music and the arts. Since launching in Sydney in 2004 the popularity of Earthdance has increased rapidly, with a huge turnout making last year the biggest Sydney Earthdance yet. This year Earthdance falls on Saturday 13 September, where the entire city is invited to enjoy the broad array of festivities - spanning music and drama to interactive workshops and markets and much more - at the new location of Prince Alfred Park.

more info here

see you all there and come and say a hello.

my favorite entry to the BFF last year.

Here is a "YOUTUBE" of it for you.

Enjoy

Christian Wolmar, one of Britain's leading transport commentators, serves on the board of Cycling England, which promotes cycling. Last month he spoke at three On Your Bike conferences organised by the NSW Government.
ripped from The Sydney Morning Herald
By Christian Wolmar
August 12, 2008

When I came to Australia to talk about cycling, I borrowed a bike and headed off to the suburbs, with the help of an experienced local rider. It was an eye-opening experience. I had no idea how far behind Sydney was compared with most European cities in terms of accommodating, let alone encouraging, cyclists.

There seems to be an almost overt hostility to cyclists not only from many motorists, but more importantly from the planners and highway engineers who create the street environment.

It may be only a small thing, but even the drains in gutters can easily catch a cyclist's wheels because the grooves run parallel to the road rather than at right angles, as is the case in most other cities. When I was cycling on Parramatta Road, I desperately needed the safety of those gutters to have a reasonable chance of surviving the rush-hour traffic but found that I had to swerve out into the car lane to avoid being felled by the storm drain.

Sydney has the occasional bit of good infrastructure, such as the dedicated paths over bridges, the lanes laid out by more supportive local councils such as Leichhardt and the cycle parking hoops that have started appearing in the central business district, but clearly there is no overall policy supportive of cycling. (.cont)

On July 23, 1998, Toronto messenger Wayne Scott made tax law history. For the first time a court decision made it possible for bike and foot messengers to deduct their extra food expenses as a business expense equivalent to "fuel". The Federal court agreed with Wayne's argument that the extra food required by messengers to perform their jobs was similar to the gas required by car couriers to perform their jobs.

The original court decision allowed couriers to deduct $11 per day as a fuel expense for food. As of 2008 the current deduction permitted is $17 per day.

This amounts to a deduction of about $4,250 every year for all bike and foot messenger in Canada since 1998. It's one of the few times someone has put money in messengers' pockets.

Thanks Wayne!

Well im getting warnings in my INBOX about the fact hat we are peaking our bandwidth for the month. Whats going on I think ... but sure enough this site is just taking off... we have almost grown at a rather startling rate we are as busy to the same size of the previous month by the 22nd of that month. CRAZY.. for a bunch of guys who cant even be bothered to log in and just comment as "shadow" or even use their nick and not log on proppa like. Anyway.. Be told folks. I will no longer go though and authorize you posts if you have a log in but are to lazy to use em.

The pope has gone home and last month we had 11637 unique IPs hit sydbma.org.
Our biggest referrer was google images with people looking at messengers and couriers and mtb and fixed as search terms. the toatl amount of pages served was 275862 in the month of June.

now thats huge.
key phrases put in search engines top 10 for June 08 :
sydbma 619 25.6 %
ass 84 3.4 %
bomber forks 42 1.7 %
marzocchi bomber 38 1.5 %
fixie 21 0.8 %
cmwc 08 19 0.7 %
single speed 13 0.5 %
www.sydbma.org 11 0.4 %
toronto messenger 11 0.4 %
messenger bike photos 10 0.4 %

Some footage that is not negative towards couriers is HARD TO FIND

sometimes It is scary when you get a mail from the ether and it reminds you of times past more clearly than I could actually remember them myself.

Hey Yogi,
I may be the only person on this site who remembers the things that you do;
-the first and possibly last time you shaved your legs in Richy's roof top garden.
-your white road bike with Mavic cowhorn bars
-your photo shoot with "Campaign" Magiazine
-you driving the tripple M suzuki cars with the Mambo paint jobs
-long nights spent at the Hero of Waterloo pub, and have written on the wall above the urinals
-what it feels like to work for Dennis @ Top Gun and not get paid
-have the pleasure of being friends with Patrick Kennedy from Ireland, 35 @ Top Gun-know what its like to work for Allied
-knew Mark Dutton 534 @ The Bicycle Brigade
-will remember names like Marianne Ferrari, Jim morley, Vlad, Tom Brook, Barney, Girly Kirk, Capain Kirk, Andy, Marti Hutchinson, Ian Gibbins, Brett Maile and the list goes on.....

Check out this new site

http://skingrowsback.com/

footage and race briefing (most recent) are not part of the same run but nice to watch if you want the vibe.
I am pretty sure I took the pic of Paddy in Crisis outfit with Campbell and Phil Hannam, and that nice guy with the accent who died of cancer.. who is on the far Left... im not sure.
this was in the day when Maquarie Place was a place where Brief Couriers and A1 Based themselves out of the alcove that the vans used to come to to fill us up with deliveries... at 3 buck minimum per job. Once upon a time when 2 way radio and paper ruled and a very few people had motorola Bricks as phones.. and most of them where builders. VIP Files from law firms covered in pink ribbon flowed like water, The fax machine was new and the bike courier was GOLD.

ARROWS to control:up is pedal, Right / forward is lean forward, and Left / back is lean back... Down is the break and backwards
careful not to flip. pity it wont let me do a loop.

just read more to play. I put it on a "Not on home page" cause it a download that takes a while on smaller connections

Has face boob left you in the dark and resenting your friends invites. Has my space kinda given you the IM BORED thing.
I have found the next gen in social networking. It will allow pelpe locally (to your location) to check you out , depending on your settings and TAGS. Anyway I'm testing it out

(as promised) I get home late, about 2 am and I crawl into bed. Success - I do not wake the wife and I sigh as I get comfortable. However cause I was last to bed my wife has left me only what can be described as THE NOVELTY PILLOW. From what I can gather it might have ...been full of a large grain or the wheat but this pillow is full of kind oblong loops of plastic. Although I am the only one who claims it to be comfortable it makes a lot of noise and as I get comfortable. It wakes my wife. I get a snuggle not abuse. But I remind you this is about the funky pillow. I really have no idea what is in it but apparently they are in many of the rooms in the hotel. The white guys at breakfast comment about it on the other table

We get up and go to the top floor for breakfast.

What a place, made for riding bikes. The city, the rides, the whole kit and kaboodle it's all about bikes.
Check out the images at Pandazams flicker account (click the group photo)

From breakfast in Joslyn to the shutdown on Mondays time trial and track stands and everything in between, it was a great time to be had by all. There was no problems from any angle.
the only problem for me was me marking Simon's (Perth) extra- ordinary skid of at least 310 meters and perhaps longer (but definately 310m (thats 1017 feet). there was no side hopping or weird kinda half pedal it was a real slide that just went on and on and On.

The overall scores must have been tight as there was a variety of winners in a variety of races and games. but then the guy we all love to hate did something remarkable.

Sometimes it is good to share good news.

PEOPLE living in rural areas without electricity will no longer have to travel miles to re-charge their mobile phones. A new telephone bicycle charger has been introduced.
The locally designed charging system is aimed at mostly helping people in villages, where there is no electricity, to have easy access to charging services.
This is another innovation that has seen the bicycle take on more roles than just being ridden.

read more here allafrica.com

read more here http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Bicycle_phone_charger_launched.shtml

Flying from Hokkaido to Tokyo on a plane the same size as the one we flew to Japan on was shrouded in cloud cover and made for a very boring trip until we actually went through it. Ice formed on the wings very quickly. It was a very bumpy ride. Landed at Haneda airport and it started to snow. There is a pattern emerging here. Every time we arrived somewhere it snows.

Well first I was told that Hokkaido was the place to ski in Japan, then everyone I spoke to said Niseko was to place I should be. After about a month of surfing and information gathering I figured I wanted to go to a country town rather than a resort that is considered Australia's most northern suburb. Furano is located east of Niseko and is close to Asihikawa Airport. In summer Furano thrives on tourisim due to its flowers that would put Canberra's Floriade to shame. But in winter it is a small sleepy town. I figured since I was going with my wife and 2 year old child that sleepy town was better than partyville.

Packed the bags on the previous night and checked out of OSAKA. Made our way by subway during peak hour to Shin-Osaka and bought the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Very depressing... it took only 13 minutes. The Shinkansen really went faster this trip and little hills left your tummy in the air. What really was impressive is the guy who comes to check your tickets. He enters the carriage; he bows and takes off his hat and then says someting in Japanese along the lines of.. Excuse my interruption. I am here to check your tickets, please make them available". He then puts on his hat and stands up straight and walks along and checks your tickets. I am in a wrong seat, as Axel travelled free but is never allocated a seat, but we take up 3 anyway. The ticket checking man cares not. We bought our rail passes in Australia as it is the only way to get them. They cost almost as much as the plane ticket to get to Japan. It is worth it.

Getting in our seat an hour late cause of people flying from Brisbane to go to Japan just boggles me. Why would you not fly from sydney to brisbane to Japan. It is more of a straight line anyday.

Japan is kinda 2 hours behind Sydney So we landed at 8 pm here and checked in to our hotel at 11 pm. Osaka is divided into sections and I can say if I was a bike courier here... hmmm well you would be fit for sure. I dont know the area of service around here but it's HUGE here.

I tell you what!

How 'bout I just go away and pack up my store and shut my doors?

Absolutely annoyed. I am the home page to many bike messengers who just seem to think that being in an association is just too hard for them. Not only that but when they want to have a meeting they just tell a select few people to come. Probably only the ones who have previous knowledge of the meeting so no one is in disagreement.

I can not believe that of all the registered users it's pretty much just me who adds content to the site. Your site. The reason is: "I don't know how to do that" which of course is utter bullcrap. To me it shows a lack of interest and apathy.