FOD Feature: Kelly Baker
Now Playing: 2 Live Crew Face Down, Ass Up
Here's the next installment of FOD spotlight, straight from the keyboard and mind of Newark Valley, New York's Kelly Baker:

My bike is a FBM pw moto with mostly FBM and profile parts. a couple
different things about it are a sealed suzue front hub on a old araya rim
that is painted bright orange. Marvin guts that I have had for like 7 years
(he asked for like 3 dollars for them to cover materials). A mirra seat
which is something different nowadays (soon to be a FBM seat). Always a
comp 3 on the front. Thats about it for the whip, nothing too special.
As for riding stories, It seems like I have a endless supply. Meeting
new people going new places, going to your favorite places with your
favorite people and so on. I want to tell about yesterday 9-27-06. We have
had a ton of rain this summer so trail sessions haven't been enough.
Yesterday was a beautiful day outside. I was at work and my wife (laura)
called and said "honey it is a nice day out I bet the trails are dry . You
should ride." So instantly I started emailing and calling my buds that I
knew were around and that would probably be down for riding. Some said they
had stuff to do so I laid the old "hey it is close to the end of the
season. It may be our last session". My brother, Kim and tomcat came with
me and about 5 others met us up at the acres. We raked all the leaves and
rocks off the trails. This time of year is great because it isn't too hot,
the leaves act like little tarps and keep the perfect moisture in the
trails. The trails were perfect smooth and after a bit they got blue
grooves. Everyone there gives everyone props when riding. We lit the piles
of leaves on fire (I love the smell of the burning leaves).We had the tunes
cranking. All the lines were going and we rode untill we could see anymore
(because it was dark). The special thing about this story is the simple
beauty of the session. Just riding awsome trails with awsome friends and
having a awsome time doing it. That is one of my favorite things about
riding, nothing has to be too fancy to have the best time riding. Sessions
like last night will keep me riding my bike forever.
Some things I like are my family (love), my friends, our home, BMX,
MX, Benny Baker is my favorite rider (my 5 year old son who rips), going
camping, playing with my children, waking up thinking I'm late for work and
realizing its saturday and I don't have work,old BMX bikes, and I guess
just plain old realizing how good my life really is.
Some of the things I dislike are getting flat tires, breaking
chains, rained out sessions, being arrested, paying fines, going to jail,
riding with dudes that talk about themselves and the tricks they are doing
constantly, making my wife upset, seeing any of my family sad, pork brains
and milk gravy, stepping in dog shit at the trails, crashing hard,
skateparks closing forever, and throttle grip. I'm sure there are more but
that is some that comes to mind now.
Things that scare me are anything bad happening to my family, nose
casing big landings,hurting my back, drowning in flooded rivers, almost
being kidnapped when I was a kid, snakes,heights, and zipping my dick up in
my zipper. Not being able to ride BMX scares me because I seriously don't
know what I would do with myself to take its place.I have been riding for
2/3's of my life, I'm 40. It is without a doubt part of who and what I am.
Kelly

it could be worse
Now Playing: Built To Spill The Plan
If you're ever feeling oppressed for being a lowly bike rider, just know that it could always be worse. Built to Spill is playing tonight in Detroit and Hatfield and his crew went to see them. I really dig this band and would have loved to have seen them play, but I just couldn't. I wanted to see my family tonight and I have work stuff early in the AM. I did ride Modern for an hour and it was fun. I also rode the new public park in Holt, Michigan this morning for a bit. This may be the most dangerous park I've ever been to. Don't get me wrong, it is a good park and it was fun with lots of obstacles, big boxes, subs, weird rails and nice quarters. Some of the layout was kind of funky. For example, it was hard to get speed for the boxes. The sketchy parts were all the sharp metal edges and super narrow ramps and a full staircase off the deck of the mini and man, a bunch of stuff. I can't imagine how many little beginner kids have been hurt at the place by rolling off the side of ramps or falling off the decks or cutting themselves on the edges of the boxes. They are the same pre-fab ramps as the Wyandotte park, but at least there the design of the park makes more sense. I had a good time riding it and if it were closer I would ride it all the time, it's real good, just super sketchy. I know there were some photos of it on Veteran BMX but I couldn't find them just now. I need some pix. Anyone reading this, feel free to send photos over....

The Man Bags are finally in production...

Possessed to Skate
Now Playing: Suicidal Tendencies
In 1984, when MTV was only a couple years old, someone told me that they had seen a video for Suicidal Tendencies' "Possessed to Skate". I remember watching MTV for like two days straight at a friends house (we couldn't get cable where I lived--not, "we didn't have it", we couldn't get it) hoping to see this video. Instead, Tina Turner, INXS, Big Country, Madonna and Men At Work were in heavy rotation. I never got to see that stupid video, until now. God bless the internet.

Where to next?

So, this picture has more to it than my stupid ass look on my face, it says a lot about my life and where its going. For what you might not see, there is a hand on the wheel, and a window, with an empty road ahead. My hand on the wheel, ill even steal this quote from a movie, the movie being "Hustle and Flow"(which is actually good.) The quote comes from a scene where the hustler/pimp tells his hoe to put her hand on the wheel, and say, "we're in control." Now why i say this is, because, i am finally starting to feel like i am in complete control with my life. I choose when i wake, sleep, drink, eat, ride, etc. I am at the wheel of my life. For the window, it gives me a clear view on the world, and whats out there and what is worthy and so on and so forth. Sometimes, the window isn't so clear, and making decisions become difficult and unruling. Every choice leads to a action and reaction, just make sure you're window is clear for taking on what is happening. And for the open road, what more is there to say? Theres an open road in front of all of us, we all choose which lanes and which exits to make, which makes our lives, unique. It's our choice, on whats roads we take, and which ones we've taken. My roads have led to many places, and have all taught me different things about every walk of life. I may only be 18, and i may have a lot of road left, but i feel like i have seen things, and taken part in things and so on and so forth. So to bring me to my point, Scott and i spend a lot of hours behind the wheel, and its a very good source of knowledge and education. As well as fustration and annoynce. I've become so acustom to driving a lot, that 300 miles feels longer than my 5 mile drive to Primos Pizza(if you've never had it, its on 7 mile and farmington, its dialed.) Driving and traveling has become a part of my life, i feel like im neglecting myself if i dont travel somewhere far for a few weeks, and feel like im wasting time. I usually make up things to do, places to be, and people to see. My car, my bike, and my ipod have been quickly becoming another arm, leg and brain.

Well shit, im sorry for rambling on about my life, but, ill let you in on whats been going on in my life lately. I've been working with my brothers(Wild Brothers Lawncare Service) which hasnt been too bad, but tough on my shoulder. I painted my bike brown(Small Brown Bike, haha, get it? my favorite band, my small bike, mixed, hell yeah) and i MCed the RiverBends safety day with bikes, skateboards and rollerblades. And Sunday, the Albe's bus made a trip to Oregon, Ohio for a ramp jam in Nathan Powell's back yard, which was rad. Look for photos on bmx.cc and Albe's. So yeah, this is my latest on life. Ohh, and, if you've seen Mat Spark's bike, im sure he'd like to have it back, thanks!

-Dane Wild.

too legit to quit
Now Playing: minutemen the cheerleader
We're coming up on four years of the Deliverance Clothing Co., which is pretty remarkable considering everything that has gone down since the inception of this project. I've come real close to shutting things down a couple times. It just seemed like it wasn't worth the hassle. This "company" started as kind of an art project for me. I never intended for it to grow to be anything very big, I just wanted it to support itself. It has, kind of, but really it has served its purpose for me, personally. I like designing stuff, whether it's borrowing (stealing?) the logo from an obscure malt liquor or coming up with something late at night after drinking malt liquor, I get a kick out of this gig. Unfortunately, I also have a very full time job and a family and I like to actually ride my bike and skateboard when I can schedule it in. Believe me when I say that any time on my bike is scheduled into that day. I know, to read this blog it seems like I just cruise around and go to skateparks, but the reality is that I am on the road, working and if I'm lucky, I get to ride at the end of the day or maybe in the morning for a bit. The last trip took me all the way down to the bottom of Ohio and you can read all about that in the post below if you wish. I got to ride Athens the next morning after that last post and it was awesome. I got there and only one dude was skating. I was skating the park and let Brodie, pictured below, run around while I did so. She's a really well behaved dog and my only concern was that she would hurt herself trying to run up and down the walls of the park. Brodie had knee surgery for a blown MCL a couple years ago so we have to keep her under control. So I'm skating around, loosening up before switching to my bike and Brodie's having a great old time. Then, I see her from the corner of my eye, kind of frozen in the middle of the park. "Oh crap, she's hurt" was my first thought. No, she was actually taking a giant-sized poop right square in the middle of the park. I couldn't believe it. I cleaned up like nothing happened and tied her up, where she chilled while I rode my bike. Athens always makes me feel like kind of a wimp, but I had a great time regardless and I pulled a couple things I hadn't done before.
Getting back to Deliverance. I think I have this mental thing that keeps me from going all out with it. Like I so badly don't want it to fail that I only put half effort into it or something. They say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. I don't know who "they" are though and I've never been a very good listener. Part of what seems like a half-assed effort is that my printer also has a real job besides printing shirts so he takes kind of a long time as well.
That being said, tomorrow (Monday) marks a new beginning for Deliverance Clothing. Both Dan's Comp and Last Call Distribution (finally!) will have new product on hand and hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have news regarding even more distribution. There is a new catalog in the works as well. Here's a peek at the new button packs...

Also, make sure you check this out, as well as this.

Road Dogs
Now Playing: Lucero 1979

About once I year I decide that while I'm out on the road for work, I'm going to camp out instead of staying in a hotel. The weather has cooled off, so I brought our dog Brodie with me. She has to hang out in the van while I'm in some of my shops so the weather has to be cool. She's great in the car and a real chill companion. As always happens when I have this great idea to camp, I didn't make it to the campground until it was pitch-black darkness. For your camping reference, Deer Creek State Park in Southern Ohio looks easy on the map, but it's really hard to find. Setting up the tent with a flashlight dangling from a pole is an aggravating event. After I fumbled around with the tent it was time to build a fire. Brodie hates fire for some neurotic reason so I have to set up the tent first so she can get away from the demonic flames. I had kindling, dry firewood, some paper and nice wooden matches. Should have been easy, right? I started working on the fire before nine and ate my swoth* after eleven PM. It was ridiculous, but I wasn't bored. Cutting up tempeh and vegetables on a box with a cheap hunting knife I use to open boxes in the dark is a clumsy, dangerous experience. I managed to not cut any fingers off, which was awesome. I got this aluminum mesh thing to put the swoth on and it melted in the fire, causing the foil to break open and half my food to dump out on the ground. The potatoes and carrots weren't cooked all the way (how F-ing long do they have to cook for?), but it was some good eats.

(*swoth is Derek Girard speak for a bunch of food cut up and cooked in a tin-foil envelope). I only had a real thin sleeping bag and a sweatshirt, along with a small blanket that I put under the bag to pad the rocks the tent was on. I went right to sleep but woke up in the middle of the night freezing my ass off. There was no warming up, so flopping over from side to side kept me entertained. I fell back asleep but woke up to some mysterious sounds. I put all of my food in the van or in the tent, but Brodie's food was outside the tent in a plastic tub with a tight-fitting lid. There was a racoon (I assume) trying to rangle her food. I didn't want to send Brodie out for fear of her getting roughed up by a rabid coon and I sure as hell wasn't going out there, so I just let it go on. What seemed like days later I woke up to the sun shining and emerged from the tent to find Brodie's food tub about 50 feet away with the lid right next to it. So the coon must have carried it away, using its thumbs, then managed to get the lid off. The weird thing was that most of the food was still there. Brodie was stoked and I was just shaking my head at my cartoon-like life. I guess I set myself up for this shit.
We stopped to check out the Deer Creek damn and took the above pic. It was a big damned dam.
Back on the road, I'm cruising down these crazy country roads with literally no shoulder whatsoever. I'm an allergy sufferer and I sneezed. The next thing I know, we are off the road, straddling the shoulder 50/50 with the ditch trying to drag us in at 60 mph. If you've ever driven in deep snow and had the shoulder try to suck you in, where you can't steer back onto the road--it just won't go back, it was like that. This went on for what seemed like an eternity. Long enough for me to think "We are going to roll this fucker". I finally got the bus back on the road and I was pouring sweat with my heart pounding. I drive all the time and lots of sketchy stuff happens, but this was really scary. I always think something like that will happen when I'm fiddling with my Ipod or looking for my phone or the map, but a frigging sneeze almost did Brodie and I in.
I'm went way south in Ohio, right at the "tri-state" point where Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia all meet. It's the hillbilly south. Broken down trailers, houses that look like they haven't been inhabited for twenty years, cars on blocks, dogs on chains, stray dogs (it just kills me to see neglected dogs), rebel flags and the most racist, un-PC of all lawn decor, the Lawn Jockey. I couldn't believe someone actually had one of those fucking things in their yard.
The road north from the sad south was even sketchier than the one that almost took us out earlier, but it was so winding, hilly and narrow that I drove at "10 & 2" the entire way. I also spotted this

. I actually turned around, found a spot to park, got my bike out and rode up to check it out. It was big enough to ride, but it had a bunch of crap in the bottom and it just didn't seem like a good idea to climb the barbed wire fence to try to ride it. Images from the movie that shares the name of this clothing company came to mind.
I got to the awesome Athens park with some time to ride before the sun went down. I let Brodie run around while I skated for a bit and she was barking at dudes and running around the park. It was funny, but I didn't want her to get hurt or cause an accident. I tied her to a tree and she was real good while I rode. There were a few skaters, a couple roller bladers (people still roller blade down south, I guess), an older kid on a Razor scooter and a couple dudes on bikes. It was real chill and a good time. This one skater looked real familiar. I've been to Athens a couple times a year since it opened so recognizing someone isn't really odd, but with this dude it was bugging me, like I knew I recognized him for a reason. We had spoken for a minute about Dinosaur Jr. because of the shirt he was wearing, so for me to ask the following wasn't too awkward: "Uh, a couple years ago, did a dude on a bike run into you in that bowl over there, making you fall really hard and hit your head in that bowl there?", I said, pointing to the location of the incident. "Yeah, that sucked". I recognized him because I almost killed him in '04 when Sean Rakos, Hatfield and I were at the park. It was horrible. He hit his head really hard and was obviously hurting. It was really both are faults and the collsion happened in a total blindspot, but I felt like a real dick for being "that guy" on a bike that takes out the skater. He was cool about it when it happened and he was still cool about it when I brought it up, but I still feel real bad about it....

FOD Feature
I want to start doing periodic features on FODs (Friends Of Deliverance). First up is Jason Burton, who is an engineer and father of two. He's a quiet, un-assuming guy with smooth style and lots of bike control. Here's a shot of his custom-made bike and the specs, straight from Jason:

Frame: I designed the frame and built it at Brew Bikes in North Carolina. I picked the tube sizes/thickness, set up the jig how I wanted it, cut the tubes and fitted them, and cut the dropouts. They did all the welding on it. It's got a 74.5? head tube , 21" top tube, 13.75" rear end, and weighs 4.6 lbs. There are more specs on it in one of the older blogs on this site.

Fork: Hoffman Bikes Flash Race Fork (Used off and on since about 1998. Even though it's a race fork, this fork is probably beefier than some of the lightweight forks built these days such as Pitchfork XLT's or Odyssey race forks.)
Stem: Cardboard Lords (small rider owned company from OKC that made number plates primarily. They also made frames, forks, and stems for a little while. This is one of them from around 1994)
Bars: S&M Dive Bars (circa 1998, cut down to about 25 inches)
Grips: Eastern O.G. (I got them because they're dark blue and remind me of DK Vice Grips, which I like)
Bar Ends: Plastic
Brakes: None
Headset: Kink Integrated
Cranks: Profile Race 177mm (I'm wanted to drop down from riding 180mm's and couldn't commit to going to 175mm)
Sprocket: FBM 6013 33 tooth
Bottom Bracket: Eastern euro
Spindle: Profile Titanium
Pedals: XS (Shimano DX copies made by Schwinn's parts company XS around 1998. The spindles have been replaced when they've gotten bent. The reason I keep using these pedals is they've got a small raised ridge in between the pins that allows my feet to move around easily with light pressure but they still grip well with heavy pressure)
Chain: KMC 410 (red box)
Front Tire: Tioga Comp III 2.125
Front Rim: Araya 7B (circa 1978, 7B's remind me of motorcycle rims)
Front Hub: Shimano DX (loose ball bearing, circa 1978)
Rear Tire: Primo Dirt Monster 1.95
Rear Rim: Araya 7B (circa 1978)
Rear Hub: Shimano DX cassette w/ 12 t Odyssey cog (hub is loose ball bearing circa 1978)
Spokes: DT Swiss (I'm guessing they're 14 gauge. Again circa 1978)
Seat: Selle Italia Flite (I got it because I like racing saddles and it's blue, but I think I need to get in line with modern bmx seats that are shorter don't get in the way as much)
Post: Generic micro-adjust from Nashbar (Like a poor man's Thomson but only cost $20 back in 2003)
Clamp: Integrated with frame (I'd always wanted this feature on a frame but heard that it doesn't work well. It didn't at first but I took care of that. See mods below)

Mods: Seat post is cut. Bars are cut. A little bit cut off the outer flange on the grips near the bar ends. The front axle is 5/16" so I made spacers to locate it in the fork dropout. Primo Andy's Nuts hold the rear wheel in place in the 14 mm dropout slot. The integrated seat post clamp just wanted to pinch as I tightened it and didn't hold real well when I first built up the frame. I added some real small shims just behind the allen bolt where it pinches and now it holds much better; on par with the single clamps around today. Almost everything is painted dark blue except for the wheels.

I think that the bike weighs around 23 pounds. I like the way it rides and it holds up well to my wimpy riding.

I realize this bike check is insanely long and detailed, but I can't ride right now due to injury so typing this is my BMX fix for now.
Look for more of this kind of thing in the near-future. There are a couple more posts below...

full circle
Now Playing: Lucero Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers LP
Chris Hatfield got hit by a car last night.

Now, here's the good part. It was about 3am and he, Ted Van Orman and Dan Closser were riding some banks at an undisclosed location after spending some time at a local drinking establishment. According to Chris, he was doing a rollback on his bike (which features a freecoaster and no brakes), when a cop-car came flying through the parking lot and directly into Chris' drunken, backward path. He hit the car and flipped over, smacking his head on the ground, as well as breaking off a mirror and denting the door of the cop car. He said Dan and Ted, as well as the cop, were freaking out, thinking he was really hurt. Chris said he was okay, but kept calling the cop "dude". They made him take a breath-alyzer, but let him off, probably due to the liability factor of the cop almost running him over. Getting a DUI on your bike would suck, wouldn't it? I'm glad Chris is okay. At the same time, I would pay money to see a video clip of the entire incident.
We had a little session at TRP tonight that was supposed to be with Sean Rakos, but he got held up at the tattoo shop inking a Tazmanian devil smoking a doobie for a kid's 18th birthday present. Davey Coop and Evan Malburg were in action when I showed up, followed by Chris K. and Stewie. Lots of good stuff went down.

Chris K goes so high and does such weird, unique tricks. Nothing weird about this one except his lack of clothing.

Here's where the photo "theme" starts. What Brian Stewart is doing here is a super cool nose-pick on this quarter, but it is essentially a "curb endo", albeit an extremely difficult version of one. The curb endo dates back to the late 70s and is one of the oldest freestyle tricks there are.

Next, we have Davey Cooperwasser with a Lawn-mower tire tap on the big ledge in the "street" room. Again, an insanely tough trick to pull on this obstacle, but the basis of the Lawnmower (it's a "Powermower", technically) can be traced to early-80s intermediate-level flatland.

Lastly, Evan Malburg is more-or-less performing what was known as a "Miami Hopper" in the mid-80s. Evan was referring to it as a "toboggan" foot-jam, but the Miami Hopper came first. A lot of broken Tuff Wheels and bent forks came from Miami Hoppers attempts in '84, but Evan's technique is artfully agile.
I enjoyed taking photos but at the end of the session I realized I had spent more time behind the lens than behind my handlebars. I needed some action shots! Action, action, action! The "Draft Dodger" hats are getting lots of attention already. Siked.

the keyboard is mightier than the sword
Now Playing: joan jett you don't know what you've got til it's gone
The internet is a powerful thing. The open and instant lines of communication are amazing. A person can put forth information in a minute that is available for all to see, anywhere in the world. I learned a lesson today. Something I posted on this site came back to haunt me and more importantly, made me realize how unimportant something like this silly blog is in the grand scheme of life. Words are powerful and can effect people's lives in ways you never intend for them to. The incident and post were a long time ago and are water under the bridge at this point, but the post had repurcussions that could have easily been avoided had I not let my fingers do the talking. I am only writing about it now because I know of some other folks who have taken some heat for posts and blogs recently and I just want to remind you all that more people read this stuff than you might think....
Onto better things. The new Deliverance hats are done and I am siked on how they came out:

These are "army" hats, but instead we're going to call them "Draft Dodger" hats. Don't ask your parents about this term, kids, it might not go over very well (I'm already contridicting myself from the first part of this post!). The brown one is rip-stop cotton and the other one is tiger-stripe camo. These are sized hats and come in Small through Xtra fat head sizes like I wear. There are a couple more things that should be done soon, but in the meantime the navy Unholy tees are back, as well as the Big Bear shirt and we now have the "Dude" shirt in a short-sleeve version

Did I mention that the new Lucero is great?