If you walked up to me a year ago and told me on a weekend in early May Jacksonville would host a 2-day bike festival, Diplo and Black Kids all in the same weekend I would have called you crazy. But that’s exactly what happened last weekend. Jacksonville is growing up fast and it’s all due to people in the city making things happen.

Bury Your BIke Two

Here are some awesome bike tricks posted by the Urban Velo site. They also publish a magazine about urban bike culture called, hmmm, Urban Velo

Bootleg Sessions v.3 — Full Trailer from Ride/Relax Productions on Vimeo.

Fixed Magazine produces a top notch publication with great photos, layouts and art direction. You can tell they put a lot of effort into the design. You can download Issue 2 here. Issue 3 coming soon at fixed-mag.com

Finally you can see photos of track bikes and fixies from around the world on Flickr. Here are two good links:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/56662375@N00/pool/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/fixie/

Zombie Bikes and Burro Bags are throwing a massive 3-day rager to celebrate 1 year of bike service in Springfield. They’re printing a limited runs of tees, patches and posters to raise money for Zombie Bikes. This is the same weekend as Diplo at TSI so its shaping up to be a good weekend.

The Events!

May 1, Friday
Critical Mass leaving the BBB to ride through First Fridays. Ride out to a secret show. Then live bands at Shantytown. One-legged tandem bike race through Springfield’s alleys….and more

May 2, Saturday
Raging, bike games, scavenger hunt and race, tall bike race… Warehouse party with live bands and dj’s.

May 3, Sunday
Bike Polo. Grilling and chilling.

Stay up with the Zombie Bikes blog to hear about updates and additions to the schedule.

Last Year’s Bury Your Bike

http://www.urbanjacksonville.info/tag/bury-your-bike/
http://jaxscene.blogspot.com/2008/05/bury-your-bike-5408.html
http://www.bikejax.org/2008/05/bury-your-bike-allycat.html
http://picasaweb.google.com/bikejax/BuryYourBikeAllycat#
http://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanjacksonville/2459413922/

It’s a big week for bike events. This weekend is the Night Ride and they need volunteers:

Just an hour or two of your time is all that is required and most of it can be done while you are out enjoying the different festival happenings. None it requires anything in the way of labor or heavy lifting. If you can help out email bikejax@gmail.com

1. I need a couple of people to split time and help out at Fuel (festival central)
2. I need a couple of people to hawk raffle tickets throughout the day. (Can be done while out enjoying the fest.)
3. I am going to need several ride guides for The Night Ride itself.
4. I am in need of a couple of people with digital video cameras that would be willing to document the event in all of it’s glory.

Here is the massive Night Ride schedule. The Night Ride is a day long celebration of the bicycle and it’s rider. All events are Free to all that attend and are held throughout Riverside and Five Points.

• Bike Art Show – All Day @ Flux Galley – Creations of Local And Not So Local Artists Held at Flux Gallery.
• Bike Tour of Bold City Brewers – Noon to 5 PM – Celebrate the Opening of Bold City Brewery With a Tasty Bike Tour. Tours are on the hour every hour Noon thru 5 PM.
• Bike Film Festival – Starting 1 PM @ Fuel – Features and Shorts staring the bike and those who ride it. Films will be running thoughout the day starting 1 pm at Fuel in Five Points.
• Bike Polo – 1 – 2 PM
• Woman’s Workshop – 2 PM @ Jax EBikes – A ladies only workshop. Learn how to maintain your bike along with basic repairs from the gang at Zombie Bikes CoOp.
• Bike Polo – 3 – 4 PM
• Bike Maintenance Workshop – 4 PM @ Jax EBikes – A workshop open to all. Learn how to maintain your bike along with basic repairs from the gang at Zombie Bikes CoOp.
• 70’s Theme Costume Contest – 5:00 PM @ Fuel – Funkyist Male & Female Receive a hand made bomb proof Burro Bag.
• Raffle – 5 PM @ Fuel – Sweet swag from the fine merchants in Five Point and Jacksonville Area Bike Shops.
• The Night Ride – Ride starts 6:30 PM – The Night RIde is the culmination of our day long celebration of the bike. I hope you will make plans to join us on this epic event for and about cyclists. Where: Riverwalk Under the Fuller Warren Bridge When: leaving at 6:30 PM Oct. 11th
• 8:00 PM – Bike Films @ Fuel

On to other bike related events. Yes, there are more.

Burro Bags is planning a birthday party for this January
Movie Night! Tomorrow Night at Zombie Bikes: 12-4 and MOVIE NIGHT at the shop bring blankets/chairs we’ll be watching Quicksilver at 8pm

Royal Treatment Records, Burro Bags, Zombie Bikes and gone, but not forgotten, Inertia. That’s what most people call 1520 Main Street in Springfield. Hardly anyone ever calls it The Buyers Market Lodge, but that was the original name, current name, future name, who knows. Tony Allegretti gives a nice history of The Buyers Market Lodge. Long live Main Street! Here are a few excerpts:

The Buyers Market Lodge was a concept/brainchild/idea that Triclops (owner of some bar on 6th – Shantytown) and I and our benevolent landlord (SRG) came up with to do three things. (1) Create a “place” on Main St, (2) create a few no to low paying green collar jobs, and (3) create a shopping experience of simple yet sometimes hard to find things the new urbanist (really any body, but it sounds sweeter) would want and need.

Matt and Chris (Burro Bags) hand craft these custom bags to your specs (if you wish) and they use recycled materials. Right now they’re kickin vinyl from billboards. Who said clear channel was rubbish? Now you can wear clear channel’s rubbish! They also pad bags for electronics/computers etc.

the real soft spot in my heart is the zombie bikes. These guys are solid. My daughters bike was swiped and she is just learning to ride. I dropped in to the shop (its like the taxi teevee show only greasier) and walked out with a spider man special. Under $20 and built to spill.

Thanks for the history lesson Tony!

More on The Buyers Market Lodge Complex
Polo Is My Life – Bury Your Bike Festival

While many hood rats were sleeping off their hangovers from First Friday in Five Points, the dead were rising in Springfield. You may have spotted some of them, walking… or rather riding among the living at First Friday because Friday was day one of the free Bury Your Bike Festival.

A subculture is rising in Springfield. Even after the sad departure of Inertia Records (don’t worry, Royal Treatment Records is selling Days of War Nights of Love on their behalf), the ironic fashions and deeply held ideals thrive on. Replacing Inertia Records is Zombie Bikes, a bicycle collective and a bike shop that welcomes you to come to customize your ride among fellow enthusiasts.

We are just adamant bikers that wanted a bike shop that we’d like going to said Zombie Bikes’ founder Devin Wolf. 

This most recent tenant puts the building at 1520 N Main Street at capacity, since only a few weeks ago Burro Bags also opened their shop inside of the space. What was once being tentatively referred to as Buyers Market Lodge is truly living up to that name. But rather than being a traditional commerce center, it is more like a community center where recycled materials are being made into useful luggage, old records are being re-sold to new fans, and old bike parts are being brought back from the dead and returned to the street.

I spoke with Devin Wolf while he was busy welding two children’s bikes into one medium-tall bike. I presume he was doing this so that this bike could enter the tall bike race that would happen tomorrow. According to Wolf he was one of the people responsible for the tall bike movement in St. Augustine and now we can expect them to be invading the streets of Jacksonville.

The tall bike trend has arrived, Wolf proclaims. We’re definitely gonna make an impact on the community. 

I didn’t catch the tall bike race, but I did get to watch some of the bike polo tournament on Saturday. It was brutal. From seeing shirtless dudes fly over the front of their bike as their wheel jackknifed to seeing an ambitious player fly wildly into the a busy mid-day Main Street, it was nerve racking, but the players seemed to be capable of striking the small rubber ball with their oddly long mallets without striking one another. Bystanders had lawn chairs and beers. It was like tailgating but with more tattoos and an uncommon sense of community.

Following the bike polo was a Zombie hunt, wherein painted tires were hidden all over the city and participants raced around trying to collect the most. Other activities included a bike build-off at Wild Bill’s (a rather surly bar near the stadium) a bike toss and a dirt jump.

Zombie Bikes has a workshop with pipe cutters, welding equipment, tools and plenty of spare parts. Zombie has the sort of vibe that makes a welcoming place to hang. There are couches and a television and plenty of workspace. Resurrect your bike at Zombie Bikes. Go to zombiebikes.com to learn more.

As for Burro Bags, they’ve only been open for a few weeks but they are already managing to crank out a substantial collection of custom luggage. Spend as little as $40 for a small bag or get a $200 large custom bag. In addition to courier satchels and smaller bags, they also make bags from recycled vinyl fast food promotional banners and other reclaimed materials. They hope to soon introduce wallets. Check out burrobags.blogspot.com.

Burro owners Chris Williams and Matt Bort live in the same house as some of the Zombie Bike guys, so being neighboring businesses has just become an extension of their home and the partnership is flowering into something much more significant. It is just another evolution as Springfield grows its own distinct personality and brings Jacksonville another step closer to being the kind of community that can sustain a variety of interests, the way a big city should.

More Photos
Bike Jax’s Bury Your Bike pics
JaxScene’s Bury Your Bike pics

Inertia Records and Books is closing it’s doors this Friday.

The largest factor against it in the last few months is that I don’t have time for it. I’m hardly an idle person – but the store has been consistently on the backburner between the time taken at my library job and being in three active touring bands.

Josh IMed me late yesterday and told me the news. I was sad and happy. Sad to see Inertia leave, but happy for Josh. Running a retail store is tough work, even if the rent is free. Rent is not free, it’s very low, almost ceremonial thanks to Mack Bissette and SRG.

The Vultures @ Inertia

Inertia will be selling off all remaining merchandise for 50% off. CASH ONLY. Thursday March 27th and Friday March 28th from 6pm-9pm. Josh is also selling over 400 CD security cases and a glass display case. Contact him at deadtank at gmail dot com if you’re interested.

Don’t be too sad though, Zombie Bikes, Jacksonville’s only bike co-op, has moved into the space (which someone has yet to name) and the Royal Treatment Record shop is still going strong.

4pm every Sunday (5th and Main in the gray complex next to Chan’s) – Zombie Bikes holds bike polo matches, bike repair workshops with free and discounted parts as well as bikes to anyone. Come resurrect your broken bike!

Zombie Bikes will also be celebrating its official grand opening by hosting a bike weekend, Bury Your Bike, April 11 -13 with nightly bands at Shantytown, Wild Bill’s and Fuel and tons more to do with bikes.

Finally to end sentimental note, here is a trip down Inertia lane:
Inertia Photos
Antarctic, your new favorite local band @ Inertia
Crap Fair @ Inertia
Bike polo in Springfield @ Inertia