Candy Cranks

Memphis Bike Polo has really been stepping up their game lately and Little Rock Bike Polo invited them to come up and play in a little tournament on New Years Day. Even though I knew I wouldn’t be playing, I decided to go with them just to watch them play and to check out the super awesome courts they have set up. We left early Saturday morning and got started playing around noon.

You can see from this picture how great their courts are. They asked the city if they could revamp these abandoned street hockey courts and they put a lot of work into making them perfect for polo.

After a few pick up games, they started the “official” match, which consisted of three individually timed games and whichever team had the most overall points won the match. I figured that because Little Rock had such a legit setup and Memphis plays in a parking lot surrounded by planks of wood, they that would kick our butts, but none of us really knew what to expect. Memphis ended up smoking them 21 to 12!! Even though I didn’t play, I was super excited when they won. Thanks for letting us come hang out Little Rock!!

Check out some more photos of the day on my flickr.

I’ve been breaking in my new All-City Dropout this past week and today I rode this bank I found near my new house. I met up with my sister Ali and she was able to get a couple of shots of me riding before it got too dark. You can check them out on my flickr, but I really like this one!

Photo by Ali Notestine

For those of you that don’t already know, this is Meagan Marly.

Meagan is a fellow fixed freestyler rider and a totally awesome person, so you should check out her blog BikeKunts. She’s got some pretty exciting stuff in the works over there, so be on the lookout!

photos by Jason Florentino

I finally got my All-City Dropout built up!!

Devan was really nice and posted a bike check on Sorta Like a Dream, so you can check out the list of parts here!

I’ve had this video online for a while now, but I just now got around to getting it posted up here. It’s nothing that impressive, haha, but it shows me doing some tricks around Memphis. Check it!

I think Brett did a great job editing it!

So unfortunately there’s not a skatepark within the city of Memphis, so I have to drive pretty far to get to the nearest one.  It’s kind of a pain in the ass, but it’s so much nicer to practice in a skatepark.  Here’s some pictures we took riding in one about 20 miles from Memphis.

There’s a couple more pictures you can check out at my flickr.

A couple of days ago I made this little ramp to practice bar spins and such. After removing nails, Ali and I decorated it and set it up in the parking lot by my house where I usually practice.

I’m obsessed with riding on this thing but my fakie still needs a lot of work.  I only did it successfully without falling like once or twice.  I keep going sideways and falling off the board.  Still way fun.

In addition to riding my bike, I’ve been working a lot on my photo portfolio this summer. I’ve been cataloging hundreds of images that I’ve taken over the past couple of years in my personal blog here. I finished these bike-related ones this morning.

My friend Charles had an extra set of Burro straps that he got for free somehow, so I decided to give them a try. I love my Hold Fasts but thought it’d be fun to try something new, plus they look pretty badass.

I tried them out yesterday at this spot downtown that I’ve been wanting to go to for awhile. Unfortunately it’s too hot here to practice during the day when the light is best, so the photos we took didn’t come out the best. Here’s a decent one of me practicing barspins on a bank.

When people think of Memphis, they undoubtedly think of Elvis. But I think the truth is that the majority of people that live here don’t really care. Well this week is Elvis Week and it’s a tradition that the Thursday Night Ride make the 8-mile journey down to Graceland. About 15 or so of us set out last night to see people partying outside of Elvis’s mansion. I’ve lived in Memphis my whole life and have never been inside Graceland, nor do I care to go, but we ended up hanging out outside. I even signed the wall.

Sorry that picture is terrible, but I did take it with a phone.

It wouldn’t have been a proper South Memphis ride had we not stopped here.

Overall it was a pretty fun ride. We had a lot of people that don’t usually ride, so the pace was pretty laid back. On the way home, my girl Lauren and I couldn’t resist going fast and raced the whole way home.