One mission .....
Spend the least amount of money possible going to the North American Handbuilt bicycle show (NAHBS ),without getting caught or looking like a cheap ass ....
The weekend started with me hitching a ride to Sacramento from Oakland ( about an hour or so drive )
Cost for a ride - $8.00
We rolled up to bicycle polo in one of the most radical places I have seen polo played in.... Think it was called the rats nest or something like that and it was right downtown Sac, like about 6 blocks from the state capital. Luckily I was able to throw in on a game and go back to my polo playing roots and hang with the big dogs for a game, I am really not bad at polo but damn the players are getting so good, I looked like a rookie out there really. The Polo was all indoors in an old warehouse... so sick !
cost to play polo - $0.00
I decided to walk around the streets by myself for a while and along the way I happend to run in to Mike Cleaver, Josh and the crew. Cleaver as you may not know can get in to trouble on a regular basis and this night it happened to be getting booted from the state capital for climbing the orange trees, or maybe it was everyone at the base thrown oranges at him while he was at the top. Either way he got security to kick him out.
cost to raise hell - $ 0.00
I was lucky again... Josh offered for me to crash at his hotel that was provided to him by Chrome Bags for building that cargo bike, so I crashed it and kicked it all night in the hot tub in the room. Plus food in the morning..
Cost of a super nice hotel room - $ 0.00
this is the outside of the hotel- The American Dream !
it was a nice place !
The NAHBS show Saturday was super rad and happening. Got to see all these really rad bicycles and see everyone I always like to see at the shows. Ran in to Chris D. from QBP Problem Solvers, Chris King, Ross Shafer founder of Salsa, Bruce Gordon, Kyle from Chris King, some fellow aerospace welders and so many others.
It was a really great time, Josh and I went in the morning to get dry ice for his booth and upon arrival we noticed a blue neck laniard laying on the ground so I put it on and walked in to the show. Kinda cool it was laying there, figured Don wouldn't mind if I was at his show, think its way more fun cruzin around BSin with everyone then if I would have had a booth there anyways because I don't really sell stuff.
Wasn't really expecting so many people to say hi to me and chat about MLS, so thanks to everyone that did that, it made my day getting recognized, I felt cool.
Cost of the show - $0.00
I happened to run in to Jim from
Cranky's bicycles in Santa Barbara, CA. You might remember I built his bicycle shop racking years back on one of my MLS blog post. But either way he thinks its a great idea to sponsor my lunch since its a contest to see if I can make it the weekend under 20 bucks. But the deal is he wants logo hits..... I felt like a sell out eating and drinking at the show.... But I was hungry......
Cost of lunch $0.00 + loss in dignity
The sticker tasted as bad as the coffee
Sell out...
During the day I was handed a card.... Almost like a drug dealer hip transfer, I look at it and it happens to be a special invitation to a special party thrown by the crew, such crew as
All Hail The Black Market, Blue Collar bicycles and Soulcraft bicycles, later Saturday evening.
the front of the card
The back
The party was rad.... It was all the people you all want to see at a party. Paul and Kate from Paul Comp. were there, wearing a coat that I wanted so bad, I used my free beer wrist stamp to try to get him free beers until I noticed he had the same stamp ( I just wanted him to get so drunk I could steal his coat )
Paul from Paul had the most rad coat
K&T Milwaukee Milling machines jacket
I have a K&T machine in my shop, its my baby....
That patch was NOS on ebay and was like 40 years old.
Chris King and his crew were at the party enjoying the night ( Spent a bunch of time talking to Chris during the afternoon, hes really a rad dude ), Mo from
Rebolledo Cycles was there and he won best track bike of the year so Stevil bought him a big drink called a SEX KITTEN for winning the award.
Cost of the night of getting so drunk I couldn't see straight - like $8.00 in tips, drink were on the house.
A photo I saw on All Hail the Black Markets site
That night I crashed at a friends place down the street who had a bunch of dogs.... I had a dog that looked like Todo at my feet, a lab at my side and a herding dog on top of me.... Talk about a night !
Cost of smelling like a dog - $0.00
Grabbing a ride back to Oakland Sunday morning was not hard, the polo crew in Mikes truck was expecting my drunk ass anyways I think, what was hardest part of the ride, was not barfing in the truck because I was still drunk which I blame on All Hail the Black Market.
Mt. Dew and skittles did the trick!
Cost of getting home and sobering up - $5.00
Over all the show was great, the people were great and the bikes looked great.
Had a blast - Party on Wayne !
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