John Yull | Tempest Brand

Austin OG rider John is on fire lately with a distinct brakeless style, and tons of originality. I really like where this is going! Here is his latest edit, riding for Tempest Brand:






photos | jm mckay

for keeps [live music]

my friend's band.
they're hot and very talented.
i was partying and didn't expect them to play, so i grabbed my camera and turned it on.
second song starts at 3:43

for keeps live set from flatSTUDIO on Vimeo.

an impromptu recording during a party. this was for keeps' first show together and they were great.

John Yull: stem-ade

Here's an original decade variation by John Yull, created for the latest FlatWebTv episode. sick!
*scroll down to see the complete episode and an interview with John.

JoMoPractice w/ EZ Chris and Aaron Frost

Video by John Yull:

JOHN YULL: THREE YEARS

THIS EDIT DOCUMENTS JOHN'S 3 YEAR MARK BACK TO RIDING AFTER A 15 YEAR BREAK AND IT IS INCREDIBLE! YES, I AM SHOUTING OVER THIS ONE, LITERALLY!!

yesterday at the OG.

Yesterday's session was very chill, very fun. I shot some video of Mark, rode some bikes, and then took some pictures. Looking forward to next Saturday, already.

I filmed Mark doing this month's trick of the month- a way for people learning to bond together and share tips and experiences.

BMX Freestyler's TOTM - March 2012- Steamroller with Mark Dandridge from flatSTUDIO on Vimeo.

This was a surprise picture of me taking a picture of Mark.



Here are some photos I took of the guys, shooting from far far away. I didn't edit them, but you get the idea.

Aaron Frost Combo

So stoked on this from Aaron! Riding at the OG, filmed by John Yull.

Batland Flatland - intro: by Sickwick

What a nice surprise, a new one from Sickwick. I love these edits. ATX flatland!

Batland Flatland-intro from sickwick on Vimeo.

well i had to take a small break from working on this project as i celebrated the birth of my baby girl Bunny! She is six months old now and life is pretty much back to normal which means riding flatland. This project was gonna be a dvd, but who does that anymore? Vimeo is here to save us from all those silver frisbees, so look for a series of Web edits instead. Here is some of Atx flatland crews finest doing what we do. Enjoy!

inside greg jam 2012

inside greg jam 2012 from flatSTUDIO on Vimeo.

 Austin is unique in the US; in that we have a long established riding scene here with a central "spot" to ride. Lot's of riders over the years have made a stop here at the OG to ride with us, and today I'm pleased to show you this little slice of life bit from our jam with Greg "the steez" Tylosky. I just made that nickname up right now. He's rad at bikes.

Greg came to visit us from Seatle, and to spend a week here just enjoying Austin. It was a real treat to see his sick controlled street + flatland style, and ride with him.

The day of the jam, and the day before was sadly just miserably wet and chilly. Not everyone believed that it would be "worth" riding, but for those of us that attended; it totally was!

This is a vibe video- not a greatest hits video. I'm taking you with me inside our rainy little jam at the OG.

I'm very inexperienced at this type of filming, so I apologize for the focus issues...

tech:

canon t3i/super takumar 50mm f/1.4
kamerar dslr slider
manfrotto 701 head, and sticks
sony vegas pro

music:

tensei / acid reign
diplo feat. usher / climax

filmed 2.18.2012 at the OG in austin, tx
jm mckay / flatSTUDIO2012
flatstylebmx.com

if you watch this on vimeo, you can see some photos from the jam

edit: thank you ART BMX Magazine for continued support, you guys rule!

It's Dängüs time!

I've known this dude for awhile now and had the pleasure of his company too few times,
in retrospect- but let me just say that if you've met him, you'll remember him too.

Tonight I'm thrilled to show you a whole new batch of clips from him. I'm stoked to see these because he is one of the most enjoyable dudes to have a session with that I can think of, and the funniest. He's a man well versed in all forms of bmx raditude and creativity, a hero to some, and has been riding 4-ever. Maybe I should just dive right in and say I have a man crush and be done.
sheesh.
I believe this is a custom made frame he's riding, built by a Clydro, who is some kind of mad genius with bicycles and motors:

kamerar dslr slider x austin flatland

I recently got this slider from Houston based company Kamerar, and have been itching to try it out. Big thanks to David and Tod for putting up with me :)
I would say this is a decent "first slider", and I look forward to using it more in the future. Oh, there's some great bike riding in this video also:

first of all, thanks Dave and Tod for letting me be a pest with the camera while ya'll rode :)

this was my first real use of the slider by kamerar

www.kamerar.com

Freestyle Connection Team in Austin

This has been a great weekend so far. Jon "The Duke" Dowker and Dane Beardsley, as well as the rest of the Freestyle Connection Team, were/are in town for a few days stay, and stopped by the OG to ride with us.
It was a really nice surprise; I was out there with Randall, and we were just beginning to ride when this huge van pulled in carrying a trailer full of ramps, a handful of dudes, a cute little dog, and Jon's lady. I knew straight away that things were about to get awesome.
The crew were all super nice people; and everyone was a blast to ride with. Really good folks there.

I usually film this type of thing, but this time I decided not to. I did snap just a few photos before I left to help remember it by:



some of the guys



The Duke, mid-switch



David Weathersby making it look easy



David again, just massaging all the strange balance points until they look completely natural. style!


The Dane. Buddha Palm.

70% Precipitation, 100% Intoxication, Austin TX Roadtrip

Nick Brady, Luke Swab and I recently took a roadtrip from Michigan down to visit Scotty G and Ryan Doll down in Austin, TX.

It rained the majority of the time, which blows because there is no indoor bmx joint. We were only able to ride a small fraction of what Austin has to offer. So that just means we would start drinking earlier, way earlier, hence the title of the video.

Regardless Austin is always a blast, here are some of the clips we managed to snag during those few time periods of dry weather and sobriety. Enjoy.

da cypher by Sickwick

This is a must see! I got to see Sickwick the other day and he mentioned that I should check this one out; it's a few years old now, and because of that, really worth a second look! The riding in this is FANTASIC. You get to see some nice long runs from Mattias before his riding had a lot of street influence. Super riding from York Uno, Justin Miller- I could go on an on, but I'll stop right there. See for yourself:

If you are trying to decide whether or not to attend the Voodoo Jam this year, let this short edit be your inspiration.
You must go. Clear your mind of question. New Orleans? Yessir! The ATX flatland crew is also included is this edit and I can imagine will be in full force in the dirty southern bayou come August 1st. Ya'll come check it out ya heard!

jm: practice tapes

Adam DiClaudio: Epic London BikeCheck.

Adam's bike shows as much attention to detail as his riding does, so it's a real treat to help out with his latest bike check. The frame and handlebars were designed by Adam, and made by Will at London Bikes; right here in Texas. I got to briefly ride it, and was instantly impressed with how dialed it felt.

Text by Adam DiClaudio, photos by jm mckay:

you can see Adam's previous bike check here: http://www.flatstylebmx.com/2011/03/adam-ds-custom-london-bike.html

Adam says:

I rock details. Enjoy…

FRAME:               
London Bikes Custom made by Will Redd, my design, (Will did some genius tweaks) 75 degree Head Tube, 73 Degree Seat Tube, 18.5” Top Tube, 12.5” Chain Stay (Middle of bottom bracket to back axle center), 13.75” Bottom Bracket Height. The frame has a Euro Bottom Bracket and Internal headset cups. The frame weighs in at 4 lbs. Some special things about the frame are that the seat tube has an overlapping tube that allows the top tube and top wishbone to hit evenly on the seat tube of a similar size. This adds support and looks tricked out.

And I designed the seat stays and the chain stays to hit the wishbone on the outer edges so my foot would hit flush when foot stalling on the frame and tire. The top right seat stay is a little more squeezed together than the other three stays to help on spacing since my chain runs so close to the stay. (You can literally put just a piece of paper between the chain and the seat stay it’s so close)  The color is bare steel that is buffed and polished, then baked to give it a gold/bronze tint color, then clear coated. The welds on the frame are gorgeous. Will is a true artist and frame building master.

 The reason I did the frame the way I did is I want total space, less to get caught on, more maneuverability and to add more control to some of my tricks. My bars are designed the same way. Reasons for the high bottom bracket: I've been practicing pedaling mega-spins under the bike. I feel very crunched trying to pedal, so by raising the bottom bracket it becomes lower when the bike is upside down, which allows you to extend your legs more, which should give me more comfort and more control while cranking the spins. Raising the bottom bracket also allows for more space in Stick B position. Instead of having to step on the tire in front of the frame in a stick B, the tire would be right under your foot allowing more surface area on the tire to allow better controlled scuffing, pivoting on the tire, and tire stall tricks. Raising the bottom bracket should put the cranks directly under you in a time machine/blender, so it will feel more like a unicycle, again giving more control.

Raising the bottom bracket will allow your crank arms to be more in line with the frame when sitting horizontal and farther away when vertical while you’re doing jugglers, allowing more space to go under the frame without hitting cranks or pedals. Raising the bottom bracket allows the down tube to rise giving more space to get your leg through to the other peg or tire above the front wheel/tire. Raising the bottom bracket will bring your body higher up while standing on the pedals, so when pushing forward into a nose wheelie position, your body would have to travel a shorter distance allowing you to get to the position faster and it would be easier to stabilize (less of a distance to travel means less force, which means it will be easier to stop the foreword momentum on the way to the balance point).

HANDLEBARS:
London Bikes Custom made by Will, my design again with Will’s input and tweaks to make them better. The Height is roughly 9” tall (from bottom of clamp to top of grip tubes), 24” wide, 4 degree upsweep and back sweep, 26 mm reach and 2 degree forward tilt. Powder coated gloss black.

I made these again with space in mind. I always loved the KHE Swissmiss bars, so I started with that design and pushed everything together. These are currently my second handlebar design, and now I’m working on a third. The new ones will have a little more reach and a small separation in the rise tubes to have a brake cable go through, along with a lower crossbar and a special new clamp piece.

FORKS:  
Odyssey Flatware Forks, zero offset, with removable brake mounts, powder coated gloss black.

BAR ENDS:

 Sequence Titanamighty Bar Ends (Titanium) I always make sure the set screws face directly down to the ground because that is the only spot where it won’t get ground down from scratching the ground, and they won’t interfere with my palms when I’m hand pivoting.

GRIPS:  

Odyssey Chase Hawk with the flanges cut off. I like the feel of grips that don’t allow your hand to squeeze into them too much. I feel ring grips like ODI and Thumbtack styles cause your hand to “rock” back and forth from where you intend to squeeze and it throws my hand angle/pressure off. I know, it’s a little ridiculous, but I feel a difference.

GRIP STOPPER: 

 This is custom made grip stopper that is held on with a set screw like a bar end, but is very low profile, and it came out of a mountain bike geared hub. I think one of those internal shifting ones. I’m not positive the local shop Clown Dog Bikes handed it to me and said they make great grip stoppers. They were right. I filed down the outside edges and around the set screws to remove all the sharp edges.

BRAKE LEVER:  

Odyssey Monolever medium size in black. I run it only on the right hand side as a front brake only. I filed down all the sharp edges and any point that has a bad angle into my hand.

BRAKE CABLE:  

Odyssey Slic Cable, black. I run the Slic cable because linear cables have too much soft plastic on the inside which makes the brakes feel squishy when the pads hit the rim. I like my brakes to feel solid.

HEADSET CAP:  

Tree Front Brake Headset Cap H24 in purple.

HEADSET SPACERS:  

Mutiny Carbon Fiber. I run four all together, two on top of the clamp and two below. I have the top two filed down to fit between the fork steer tube and the two rise tubes of my handlebars.

HEADSET:  

Odyssey Integrated Headset in black.

FRONT BRAKE:  

Fly Front Brake in black. I went over the entire brake and took every sharp edge that could get caught on my legs and feet off. I filed down the edges of the spring plates to be rounded. When I adjust my tension, I make the brakes so they have hardly any tension at all so they are super easy to pull.

BRAKE PADS:  

Odyssey Slim by 4 in black. I replaced the long allen key nuts with small regular nuts and cut the long excess threaded brake studs off so they are flush with the outside of the nut. It’s much more comfortable when I lean on the front wheel now that the brakes don’t stab me in my calves.

PEGS:  

Sequence Titanamighty Pegs on the front and back. They have a titanium insert cap on the ends of the pegs along with a hard anodized black duranotic finish on the knurling so they wear down very slowly.

SEAT:
KHE Watanabe in black.

SEATPOST:
KHE Prismatic in black. I filed down the sharp clamping pieces in the seat post guts.




SEATPOST CLAMP:


Odyssey Mr. Clampy2 in black. PEDALS: Welgo Nano pedals in black. 9/16”



CRANK ARMS:

Profile Flatland 150mm in black.

SPINDLE:
 Profile Titanium

SPINDLE BOLTS:
Bluesix Titanium SAE Bolts in blue. 


SPROCKET: 
Profile Imperial Nano 18 tooth 3/32” in silver. 


SPROCKET BOLT: 
Harley Davidson chrome plated Nano size allen bolt. It happened to be the only bolt that would fit at my local hardware store.

CHAIN: 
 KHE Half link Hollow Pin 3/32” in chrome. I run my chain tight so when I set my cranks, they stay
.
BOTTOM BRACKET: 
 Odyssey Euro Bottom bracket with the drive side cup replaced with an Ares plastic bottom bracket cup. My chain was rubbing the frame with a regular cup so I filed down the Ares plastic cup as small as it could go and made it flush with the diameter of the bottom bracket diameter.




CHAIN TENSIONER:
 London Bikes. They are as light weight and simple as you could go. A thin washer welded to a small threaded post. I cut the posts to be flush on the back of the tightening nuts and rounded off all the sharp edges.




TIRES:
KHE Mac foldable 20”x1.75” black for the front and back. I make sure the arrows point forward when I put them on my rim, and I make the writing on the sides of the tires line up with the tube valve stems. I run them at 120 psi when I’m riding and I remove the air down to 90 psi when I’m done so they don’t blow up in my car while I’m driving or when I’m sleeping in the middle of the night.




TUBES: 
No Specific brand, just the regular 20” tubes from Clown Dog Bikes. I leave the valve caps off so I don’t get my fingers caught on them and since I’m constantly changing pressure, there is no reason to leave them on. I also cut old tubes to make a small valve stem base cover so the valve doesn’t get pinched on the sharp edge of the rim valve stem hole.



STEM PAD:
Chadwick (AKA Sickwick) gave this to me as a hand me down. It was originally a mountain bike stem pad that was flipped upside down, then I believe his mom sewed on the crown and diamond design for him. I cherish it and it works and fits perfectly.




WHEELSETS:


FRONT HUB:
 KHE Geisha 36 Hole in Purple. I removed all the bearings, removed their dust covers, and greased them with a mix of regular grease and Triflow stirred up into a thin cream. Without the dust covers the wheels roll forever although I have to constantly keep them clean and free of dirt. It’s worth it for how much increase I got in performance.


BACK HUB:
 KHE Geisha Light 9 tooth, 36 Hole in silver/purple hardware. I did the same thing with these bearings and the wheel rolls amazingly. On the non drive side I run a titanium axle stud, the other titanium stud got worn out, so I’m running just a regular stud on the drive side.
  RIMS:
Odyssey Birdcage Rims 36 Hole Chrome plated. These rims are curved so they are very comfortable to hold. The valve stem sticks out at angle so you can easily access it with a pump. I made sure to have both wheels laced with the valve stems pointed the same direction and angled away from my dominant hand so it doesn’t stab into me.
NIPPLES:
 DT Swiss ProLock brass nipples in black. These nipples keep their tension so there is less truing that has to be done.

SPOKES:  

DT Swiss Stainless Steel Strait Gage in silver/polished.

SHOES: 

Adidas Supermod ST size 10. These shoes are light, very padded, shell toes for protection and have stiff bottoms. I use heel risers and therapeutic insoles that have raised arches.

Things that I have with me when I ride (in my car):

• ·         A small IPod Player stereo that gets surprisingly loud for how small it is. I run it off of 4 rechargeable batteries. It blasts at the OG at most sessions.
• ·         A Lawn chair for when I need to rest and take a seat for meals.
• ·         A Stihl Leaf blower. Works great for cleaning the riding area spotless before every session.
• ·         A foam roller. My back gets cramped up and aches unless I roll it out throughout the sessions.
• ·         A floor air pad for stretching.
• ·         A high pressure air pump.
• ·         A tool box with all my tools.
• ·         My flatland journal that has tons of link ideas and tricks to learn.
• ·         Lunch Box with freezer ice blocks and some meals/snacks/water/Gatorade.
• ·         Backpack with all my bike specific tools, cell phone, wristbands, headbands, towels, and bandanas, (it gets hot and sweaty In Texas), my IPod, nail clippers, Air Pressure reader, deodorant, video camera with tripod, WESC headphones, chap stick, ibuprofen, and protein powder with shaker.

Oh and not that it matters, but I was curious to know how much my bike would cost if you bought it brand new. I estimated roughly $2,420.00 for those of you who are curious also. (I know, a little ridiculous) Ah…I think that’s it…Thanks for reading! - Adam

photoset on flickr: here

London Bikes website