My Book is Loaded

I have an old illustrated children's bible that I had intended to sell, until I realised I would be directly helping to spread and promote religion. This is something I couldn't abide by, especially when directed to children, so I didn't sell it. I couldn't just throw it out though, it needs to be used in some way so I started hatching ideas.
My favourite one was to cut the shape of a gun out of the pages to create a gun shaped void, then use the cut out material to form a model gun, ie exactly what James Hopkins has done here. Dammit!
Original ideas are few and far between so I'm just glad I found this before doing it myself. On to plan B.

via 72dpi

Yep, I'm OK

It always seems to be the cautious ones who cause me trouble.
Following along behind, trying to figure out why they're driving so slowly, there are no hazards right now, other than them and I. Are they about to pull in? Are they waiting for me to pass? All the while my patience is growing thinner.
This is the city, domain of hurried taxis, white van men, and oblivious shoppers. This is no place for a country drive. One must be assertive, anticipate the next move, make your own space. This is a land where caution and courtesy cause confusion.
They've had their space, it's time to make a move. They'll go around the waiting van and I'll go around them. Plenty of time, more than enough space, no traffic coming the other way.
Their overdeveloped sense of caution kicks in again, and bites me in the ass.
The country driver stops for the van who has already stopped for them.
I don't stop or turn fast enough.
It's one of those slow motion moments that we dread but relish when they occur. Savouring every surprisingly clear and lucid thought as it passes. Am I sure there was no traffic coming, better get up and out of the way. I'm already unclipped, that's surprising but convenient. That was a familiar movement, oh yeah, polo crashes, roll with it. My fault. All before fully hitting the ground.
Jump up and straighten out myself and the bike.
Yep, I'm OK.

No Bobbers

No Bobbers, originally uploaded by Two Halves.

This has to be the most stylised "No motorcycle" sign I've come across

Pop Art

A little bit of bike-nerd humour and appreciation.

The thought and investment put into a relatively low volume part such as this pipe is incredible. The contrast of the high technology and cost of the hydro-formed tubing, and the presumably hand welded tip are the kind of details that have earned Yoshimura the respect of road riders and racers alike for over 50 years.
Photo and title found on Performance Bikes Magazine forum

Ashcan

My mate Fresh has finally posted some images of his first release for his new label Ashcan.
Get in quick for this first run as a good number of the batch are already being proudly donned by some local cats.

For a few more shots of JLN looking all pensive and moody click here.

Big Wheel

I've seen some wild and wacky pursuit bikes of late, but this one takes the cake! [for the moment]
via Bikes, bikes & bikes!

Random Image #44: Shuttle Silhouette

Monoscope

Flosculation

I've been called an image hoarder and I think it's quite fitting, I keep finding interesting images or subject matter and like to share them, as I had been doing on Flailings. The issues with this practice are two-fold: first I never intended for Flailings to be a purely visual journal, I prefer to have something to say about the topics I post on here and that is not always necessary. The second part is that posting images on here takes time as I like to credit the content wherever possible.
It's likely that there will be less Random Images up here in the future, not because I'll stop finding them in the depths of the internet and wanting to share them with you all, but because I have a new dumping ground for them.
This has been the reasoning behind my creation of Flosculation*. I hope this will allow me to keep me browser cleaner as it uses the tumblr system which is much quicker to post credited images, and I have no desire for it to be anything other than an image depository, therefore it should be a quicker process all-round.
There is bound to be crossover and double ups, but if you dig the images I've been posting on here as randoms then Flosculation could be another worth bookmarking.

*I am aware that flosculation refers to ornamentation of language, not image, but I liked the word so I found a place to use it!

Flouro Repeats

I was leafing through my copy of Richard's Ultimate Bicycle Book before listing it on ebay (I couldn't bring myself to do it, yet), when I came across an image featuring a 1990 Klien Attitude. Immediately it seemed familiar, other than just from the book, that's when I remembered the 2009 Giant Bowery Mashup.

Incidentally I saw one of these for sale in an auto parts/bike shop in a small coastal town recently, seems like a good indication of the continued spread of single speed popularity.

I Love You But...

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☝ Best band name I've come across since ☟


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Muslauf Chopper

Muslauf is always a source of interesting builds and this new chopper is no exception.
While I'm not exactly a chopper/cruiser bicycle kind of guy, the clean lines of this are impossible to deny. In some ways it looks like a chopper built by a track bike builder: just the basics, nothing extraneous, great proportions and simple lines.
Just the thing for.....? That's where I come unstuck and why they puzzle me slightly, where and when would it get used? I suppose it is the pedal powered equivalent of it's inspiration: the bar hopper.
Whatever, I still want one!

Random Image #43: IdeologySoup

IdeologySoup, originally uploaded by dutchdingo.

Found in Cuba my my mate the Dutchdingo.

Concepts at Prototyp

Best concept name ever: 'all our dreams are made of chrome' 100 cc vehicle record, angerer 2008

The stunning cycle above is part of and upcoming exhibition called 'Proben' (which translates 'sample' or 'concept'). There are 19 full scale, mostly functioning prototypes built between 1981 and 2009 by students at hochschule für bildende künste hamburg.

If anyone is around Hamburg, Germany around the end of February, start of March, be sure to get to Prototyp Museum to see 'Proben'. While you're there the other exhibitions at Prototyp would be worth a gander too, in fact the whole space looks quite interesting going by their site: Prototyp-Hamburg


'hydro' mountain bike with hydraulic power transmission by angerer, holtkamp, wallusch, 2004

'hydrofoil' motorized hydrofoil by angerer, 2005

via Designboom

The Power of Design (in sales terms at least)

"...when Alex Steinweiss designed an early album sleeve for Beethoven's Eroica symphony, the package caused sales to increase 800 percent. So design is nothing to sneeze at"
-David Byrne, Bicycle Diaries.

All The Single Ladies

5 Dangerous Things For Kids

Here's a bit of a left field one. This is a video I saw long ago and recall watching it and mentally ticking the box corresponding to each 'dangerous' activity he suggested.

I'm so glad I grew up in a time when we could go down to the park without much worry about going missing, play in the dirt and not need to be sanitised, or experiment with fire without the concern about being a pyromaniac. The thing is that nothing has really changed other then media sensationalism, and hence attitudes, laws and insurance liabilities.

Kids should be kids. Child rearing is not a challenge I intend to face any time in the foreseeable future, but when I do I can pretty much guarantee they will climb trees, get dirty and hurt themselves. That's how I learnt and I wouldn't think of depriving them of that privilege.

'76 French GP

So much to take in and love in this shot: her hair, the Michelin Man logo, his helmet etc
Ze Last Chance Garage

Random Image #42: GNRS Colours

Jae Bueno

Melburn Roobaix

Keen as mustard for this, so I eagerly await further announcements and hope the dates will fit among the salt, Bowerbird Bazaar, etc.

Fyomatosis

Random Image #41: Seeing Double

via Tattoos and Cupcakes

From The Archives

From my pre-source-recording days

Head Tube?

Can anyone suggest what may be the reason behind the head tube design on this otherwise stunning looking treadly?
Bikes Move Us

Californian Vans

I've long been a fan of vans, especially those from the '70s heyday. Joe Stevens evidently is too and he is on a mission to document as many of these as he can:
"Over the course of the project the vans themselves have become more and more of a rarity. The reasons are as simple as rust and changing tastes; and as complex as government “cash for clunkers” initiatives encouraging more fuel-efficient transportation. Notably, at the same time these vans have been disappearing from our roads – film photography as a visual medium has also begun it’s slow death. Consequently the goal of the project is to one day shoot the last remaining van on the final frame of photographic film in existence. Then the project will be finished."


I've been dreaming of another American road trip for sometime now and I think I'll have to track down one like this when I do get over there. Room in the back for a mattress along with a bike, and a good lining of shag (for warmth you know).

Via Telstar Logistics

A Rare Glimpse of Me

My mate Christiana Griffith wanted to take some black and whites recently, and for reasons unknown I agreed to be the subject of her lens. It's rare that I'll put my likeness on here, but I think she did a great job of capturing my reluctant cooperation.

Be sure to check out her other photography of more interesting subject matter.

Beer Names

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I was just reading an interview over on Bike Jerks and the Q/A that stood out most was this:
"BR: Do you also have an opinion for best post winter-biking beer?
MS: Anything made by Milwaukee’s own Jacob Sutrick down at Stonefly Brewery on Center St. in Riverwest. Preferably SIMON BAGLEY Stout. Again, Edmund Fitzgerald is hard to beat. Arrogant Bastard, Dragon’s Milk, Old Engine Oil, and New Glarus Black Wheat are ridiculously good too."

Such great beer names!


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Artificial Owl

Artificial Owl is a great site documenting abandoned man-made artefacts around the world, the articles are full of eerie spaces that have done their time and served their time, and are now left to crumble and return to the Earth. It's easy to imagine the grandeur that many of the documented sites commanded in their prime, yet also worryingly ease to imagine the chain of events that saw them relegated to their demise. Changing tastes, new technologies or simply mechanical failure saw these objects and locations placed in the 'too hard basket' and left to rot, thankfully sites like this are around to document the fascinating turn of events.

Random Image #40: Shovel Shame

This shot from The Shame Of It All seems to follow on well from the previous colour focused post

Colours Berlin

I've seen a few images from this set by Matthias Heiderich floating around on various blogs, but the full set is well worth spending a few minutes gazing over. This is the type of photography I find most interesting, focussing on the shapes and colours found in the build terrain around us each day.



Thanks for the tip JLN

New Monkees

Obviously since these are creations of the Wrench Monkees they will imminently flood the bike blog world, but I won't let that preclude me from including them here. As usual they are swimming in neat details, but it's the numerals that grabbed my attention most, such simple and crisp graphics.

Ink

Just a few images I've saved as inspiration for some work I'm developing, more in terms of colour than style.









This is mainly for the photo: