The fifth film in the ‘Made by Hand’ series (be sure to check out the rest of their films—they’re great as well), ‘The Bike Maker’ tells the genuinely compelling story of Ezra Caldwell of Fastboy Cycles.
It’s a story sadly lacking in happy endings, but solemnly inspiring nonetheless. Watch and learn why you should never, ever take riding your bike for granted.
Words || Gary J Boulanger
In professional cycling, riders grab all the attention whether they make the podium or not; slogging it out in the heat, driving rain, snow and over nasty French cobbles is part of the job. Their effort is made possible by the tireless, behind-the-scenes circus act of a support crew which includes mechanics, managers, team directors, equipment managers, press agents, trainers and soigneurs.
One of the more popular soigneurs (French for ‘heavy-metal band roadie’) of the 1980s was Shelley Verses, an East Coast native with massage therapist training gained in Santa Barbara. Following a supporting role for the U.S. national team in the early 1980s, Verses worked her magic for the 7-Eleven team during the wildly successful 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. This led to an opportunity to join the big leagues of professional cycling in Europe, when the Slurpees were invited to race the 1985 Giro d’Italia. Problem was, women weren’t allowed in the Euro dog good old boys club, so team directors Mike Neel and Jim Ochowicz had to get clever; it certainly helped that Verses was a likeable personality with a penchant for independence and a knack for being the ultimate Den Mother. Continue reading
A featured film in last year’s Bicycle Film Festival, this flick follows several professional skateboarders on a cycling tour of New Zealand’s skating hotspots. It turns out cycling all day and then trying to ride a skatepark a harder than you think. While we’ve already shown the intro in a previous installment of Theater Thursday, the entire film is now on the World Wide Web, so we thought we’d snag a few of the ones and zeroes off of the information superhighway and send them your way.
At 45-minutes its definitely a long one for workday watching, but it’s definitely worth a view if only for the unique views of New Zealand alone.
Two of the most iconic cyclists of all time singing a duet on Italian television? Yep. Could this be a hint at what we’re working on for our next issue of Paved? Perhaps.
If you’re impatient and/or can’t understand a word of Italian, skip forward to about the 2-minute mark.
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Sure, remembering to tip your bartender will get you far in life (trust us on this one…they also really appreciate Christmas gifts). Randomly telling your significant other “I love you” (and meaning it, of course) can point some serious goodwill in your direction come time for that next weekend Target run when you gather up the courage last-minute to ask if you can excuse yourself for a ride instead.
And, a simple thank-you can also make a stranger’s day. So as you’re watching the final stages of the Amgen Tour of California, remember that it simply wouldn’t happen without the help of volunteers. Even better, should you find yourself lucky enough to watch the race in person, take the time to offer a simple thank-you to a volunteer—then go home and consider signing up to volunteer next year. It’s good for you, and it’s good for cycling and it’s hard to find fault with any of that, now is it?
Making Stage 6 happen. I didn’t ask their names, but they did ask if I would take their picture. Thanks, guys.
About 18 months ago, photographer Daniel Pasley and I were discussing plans for a feature story we were planning to do for Paved magazine’s sister publication, Bike. At some point during the discussion, the “Manual for Speed” project that he and business partner Emiliano Granado had been working on was brought to my attention—and I was immediately sold.
Granado and Pasley documented the hard-fought daily life of journeyman bicycle racers in North America with “Manual for Speed.” They captured bike racing beyond the podium—exactly the kind of story we wanted to tell with Paved, so we published some of it in our Spring 2012 issue in a story entitled Job Description. Continue reading
As if Interbike needed another setting to encourage opportunities for bikes and booze to collide in the bliss of not-so-holy matrimony, the spectator-friendly finals for the USA Crits series have been moved to Las Vegas for 2013.
Specifically set to coincide with the trade show, the course will be on the grounds of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center itself—the new home of Interbike for 2013 after a long run in the Sands Convention Center. Continue reading
May 9th, 2011 marked a day a dark shadow engulfed the cycling world—a reminder that life is much more vulnerable than we’re ready to admit, and our sport far from being free of risk.
This one’s for you Wouter.
