Portland, OR

It's been awhile since I've updated this blog, and a lot has happened. I haven't been riding the past 3 months due to the fact that my bike got stolen...it's a really long story, but on the bright side my new bike should be coming soon! I just recently finally made the move to Portland, Oregon. It is absolutely amazing out here, its beautiful and there is always something to do. Everyone rides a bike out here which is awesome too, since it wasn't like that at all in Milwaukee.

Portland has this really cool master plan for skateboarders out here, they are building 19 different skate parks:

 
Skate Portland

I've only made it to one park so far, but I have to say it was pretty sick. I'm really excited to see how the rest are and turn out. There is so much to do out here its crazy, they have mountains which I'm sure is normal to most people but I grew up in Wisconsin so its awesome to see mountains everyday when you wake up!

So hopefully once my bike gets here I'll be able to go ride some of these parks, and learn my way around and find some other good spots!

Milwaukee Messenger Invitational 9

The Milwaukee Messenger Invitational is this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it! Bummed that I won't be able to ride due to the fact that I almost got hit by a car last weekend and messed up my hand, and then I was a bit clumsy the other day and rolled my ankle pretty bad. But, I will be helping Kevin out with whatever he needs help with. So, if you can make it I highly recommend it, should be a really fun event!

Nice Weather Part Two.

So today was absolutely beautiful outside, I think it was a high of 56 or something aka really warm for around here, considering were supposed to get snow this weekend, which im not too happy about! Anyways I went out riding after work with Antonyo Kris and Rick and had a lot of fun hit up two spots, and took some more pictures.

I really need to work on my facial expression while doing things on my bike...

 Wonderful Milwaukee.

Art Museum

Kris Sundet

Antonyo Wothe 

Super excited for the rest of the week, weather is going to be in the upper 50's low 60's aka wonderful! Lets hope it doesn't end up snowing this weekend.

  

Nice Weather.

Finally it warmed up around here so I went out riding with a couple of friends and hit some stair sets this weekend, luckily I had Antonyo with me pushing me to do the 4, here's a quick picture! Planning to take more with better lighting this week and hopefully have them posted by the end of the week!

Photo by: Rick Anderson

The weather is supposed to be even nicer this week so hopefully i'll get a bunch of more pictures posted soon!

 

NAHBS DP2 & RVA Jam

What a weekend, I don't even know where to start! My flight came in late Friday night, and of course Tom La Marche was kind enough to pick me up, then we got back to the hotel to find out we were having 9-10 people stay in the room! (I was the only girl, and wow what a mess the room was, the boys were soo dirty. Wish I would've taken some pictures of it!)

Saturday morning everyone decided we had to go get barbecue, so we went to Buz and Ned's which I thought was just ok, but if you ask anyone else they would tell you it was amazing! After lunch a few went to ride street and then Tom, Sam, Eric, Congo and I went to the NAHBS downtown at the convention center to meet up with Prolly and Ted. Super glad that I got to meet Ted, he is one of a kind and can't wait for him to come back again! I was really suprised with how big it was, I was expecting it to be a lot smaller,but I really enjoyed it, and glad I went. The show was only a couple blocks away from the RVA Jam, so we headed over to that right after. Here is a picture of Antonyo doing a 180 bar off the kicker. (Antonyo took 3rd in the jam)

Photo by: Mark Sanchez

We also went to a pretty well known spot called White Walls to ride for a bit. Here's a really nice picture of Tom.

Photo By: Gary Wilpezeski

After riding for the day we headed over to the Cog exhibition which was a lot of fun. I got to see some pictures from MWM that no one had seen prior to the exhibition along with a bunch of other pictures. Since the Cog exhibition and the FBM open house were going on at the same time, we had to split up the time. Then around 10:00 was the Death Pedal 2 World Premiere which was crazzy, so many people came that they had to do two showings because the bar was over capacity. The Death Pedal 2 film by Kareem was insane, everyone featured in the film had some really good parts! I don't want to say too much and ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it, but please go pre-order the dvd so you can see it for yourself!

Last but not least the DP2 after party. Saturday was the craziest night I've had in a longgg time. With everything that happened its hard to start to explain it so I will just call it a bunch of Mayhem. Of course I forgot to bring my camera along so here are some of John Prolly's pictures.

Photo by: John Prolly

 

Photo by: John Prolly

If you want to see more just check out John Proll'ys post on his blog. So this night pretty much explains the feel of how the whole weekend was, if you didn't make it out there I'm sorry you really missed out! Such an awesome weekend, can't wait to see everyone again!
 

Scissor Frame

So I came home yesterday to a sign on my front door saying "sorry we've missed you! we will try again tomorrow" but I didn't have the patience to wait, so I went down by the airport (only 25 minutes away) picked up my bike and took it back to Antonyo's to open everything. It was like Christmas all over again, thank you so much to Nick for hooking me up with everything and also thank you to SRAM, CrankBrothers and Bontrager.

 I put my bike together today!! :) Sorry I don't have any pictures to put up yet, but I will post some as soon as I can find my camera.

Ray's MTB Park

I am super excited on the fact that Ray's MTB Park will be opening up a Home Depot sized warehouse in Milwaukee! It's supposed to be even bigger than the one in Cleveland, below is a picture of the Cleveland park. I can't wait, I'm curious to see where and when this is going to happen!

Photo by Cody York

Texas

Just got back from Texas late last night, it was such a fun trip! I brought my bike out there hoping it wouldn't cost too much. When I got to the airport the guy told me it would be $175, so I sweet talked my way down to only $25, oh how I love being a girl!

So, I was only there for 5 days to visit my boyfriend, but I managed to hit up the local skate park twice which was really nice. (sorry I forgot to take pictures, I'm really bad at remembering.) It was free and just in some little park, kind of bummed we don't have anything like that in Milwaukee! We also went down to Houston to meet up with Elliot Santillan to ride around. Stopped at Houston Fixed Gear, got to talk with Peter who owns the shop along with Rosie. He is super nice and let me ride his Scissor since I don't have mine yet, and it was amazing I can't wait to get my bike, I'm so stoked! After riding around, we went Geocaching which was so much fun, I recommend everyone to try it!

Now I'm back home, waiting for my bike to come. I talked to Nick and he said they sent it out so I'll be waiting for it checking my front door everyday when I get home from work! Also, only about 10 more days until I go to Richmond for the Trick Track and RVA Fixed River City Trick Jam, I can't wait!!

 

Hello

Hi :)

First off big thank you to Nick and Charge for giving me this opportunity, I'm super stoked on getting the Charge Scissor Frame, and hoping to accomplish a lot with it! Also big thanks to Tom La Marche for helping me out. During the Mid-West Mayhem warm up, he came over and introduced himself and was super stoked I was out there riding! If it wasn't for Tom I wouldn't have been given this opportunity! : )

Super stoked for the RVAJam coming up at end of February:

Hoping to have my bike by then, since the Scissor is out of stock in the US it's taking a little longer!! I think it's going to be a pretty big turnout, the Death Pedal 2 Premiere is also going on so it should be a lot of fun!

Also, just found out that my friend Antonyo got picked up by Milwaukee Bicycle Co. Im super stoked for him, he deserves it! I think Mid-West Mayhem really opened up a lot of doors for people! I'm excited to see what all happens from here!

Photo by Kevin Sparrow

Welcome to the team: Gabrielle Gulczynski

Charge bikes is proud to announce it's latest addition to the team: 18 year old Gabrielle Gulczynski hails from Milwaukee in the USA. She'll be ripping up the streets aboard a Charge Scissor equipped with the finest parts and accessories from Charge, Bontrager, Crank Brothers, Knog, Truvativ and Sugino.

Interview by JC:

Hi Gabrielle, welcome to the team. Vital stats first, age, where are you from, first bike, what d'you do for a living, tell us in the UK a little about yourself....
 
19, I'm from Milwaukee, WI. I work at Northwestern Mutual, an Insurance Company in downtown Milwaukee. (I have a mom job!) My first bike was when I was a little girl so I don’t remember exactly...but my first fixed gear was a old Raleigh frame then after that and my current bike an eighth inch
I love to listen to music! :) Suburban Kids with Biblical Names, Jens Lekman, I'm From Barcelona, Modest Mouse, City & Colour, Beirut are always playing on my zune. I love hanging out with friends and goofing off. Moving to Portland, OR this summer, and I can't wait!
 
You're our second US rider to make the squad. Do you think US fixed gear riders are the one's pushing the freestyle movement?
 
I definitely think that fixed gear in the US is moving at a fast pace, but I wouldn't quite say that it's just the US riders that are pushing the movement. Obviously being from the US I hear more and see more from the US side of things, but I know that it's just as big everywhere else. I am really excited because not only is the scene growing in the US, but also everywhere else which can only mean good things!!
 
How did you start riding fixed gear bikes?
 
I'm going to be honest here, I hadn't rode a bike in a really longgg time before I got my first fixed gear! (Not going to say how long, because it's pretty sad!) I started hanging out with a bunch of guys that had fixed gears and they were very intriguing to me, so I thought hey, why not!? So since my Dad used to race when he was younger and worked at a local bike shop where I grew up I got a really good deal on my first fixed gear!
 
What d'you get up to when you're not out on your bike?
 
Well, considering that I work Monday-Friday from 8-4 it doesn’t leave me much time but to ride. But if I'm not riding I'm just hanging out with friends, the winter sucks over here and kind of causes everyone to stay inside a lot so nothing really happens during winter. Once the weather starts getting nicer, we usually try to stay outside as much as possible. There is always some type of festival going on in Milwaukee and or just go to the beach. (yes, I know it's not an ocean but at least it's something!) But most of the time in the summer I'm on my bike! :)
 
How do you think riding a fixed gear bike for freestyle compares to riding say a BMX and why have you chosen the big wheeled option?
 
This question makes me laugh, I feel there is a lot of controversy between BMX and fgfs. But in my opinion, I think that they are very similar sports but with a lot of differences at the same time. I personally like/chose to ride fixed gear because it's also a commuter bike whereas with a BMX bike it's hard to use it as a commuter bike. Another reason is, that this is so new to everyone and such a young sport that there are more opportunities riding fgfs compared to BMX.
 
Do you see freestyle as something that will grow in the US, if so where do you think it will go, will the bikes change, what tricks can you see happening?
 
I definitely think it will grow, and not only in the US, but I think everywhere. With Mid-West Mayhem (Trick Competition hosted in Milwaukee) most recently happening, I think that it was a start to a variety of events that will be happening this year. I really think that in 2010 we are going to see the fixed gear freestyle scene as a whole grow fairly fast and fairly large! I think that we're going to see a lot of new tricks that people haven’t pulled yet and as far as bikes go, I think they will keep changing as much as they do know. (The scene is still so young that we still have a lot more to learn about.)
 
What are you most looking forward to whilst riding for Charge Bikes and for 2010 in general?
 
I am really looking forward to riding for Charge Bikes and being a part of something that is growing so fast! It's funny because when I first started riding I looked up to Juliet Elliott as someone who I wanted to be like, and now I am riding on the same team as her! I'm also looking forward to riding the scissor frame and fork, because I think it's going to help me progress in fixed gear freestyle a lot. In 2010 I would just like to see a lot more girl riders out there, and as for me, to really step up my game and not be afraid to try big tricks!!
 
 
Oh boy, did I have a lot to say! :) hope it's not too much!
 
 
Thanks!
Gabby