New Years On Wheels!

Looking for something to do in the city for New Years? Tired of long lines? Sick of shelling 100 dollar covers for the privilege of cramped dance-floors and overpriced drinks? Determined not to repeat the same mistakes as last year? Then ring in 2008 in style while riding your bike!

Voted the #1 Best Free New Years Eve Event in Manhattan, the Times Up! New Years Party Ride will start at 10:30 PM under the arches in Washington Square Park (BKLN&Queens meetups too!), and end up at Belvedere Castle in Central Park by midnight...directly under the city fireworks~ Booyah!

If you have something better to do than party in a freakin' castle under the country's biggest freakin' fireworks display, please let us know.

Straight from our friends at X-up:
" Start the year off right- on your bike! Come celebrate New Year's Eve in the great outdoors with Music! Dancing! Fireworks! and Great Merriment! Now joined by the RUDE MECHANICAL ORCHESTRA! We'll be riding up to Belvedere Castle for the best (and free!) New Year's Eve dance party in town! Dress festive- don't forget your noisemakers and party favors- bring food and drink to share!"

See you there in 08!

Five Days to 08...

So much has happened in Brooklyn this year, so we're closing the shop for the rest of this week to take a holiday breather and ring in the New Year all classy-like.
If you have a question just leave a message or Email BMW@brooklynmachineworks.com and we'll get back to you as soon as we return.

In the meantime, here's a little video to tide you over: one of our welders Seth finishing up the very last frame of 2007. a SR6 front triangle, which also happens to be his 100th production frame this year.

Game on!

After selling out of our last run of the SR6, we extended our latest production schedule an extra week to weld up some frames for stock colorways.

We took advantage of the extra time to cut out extra tubing for the Gangsta and to weld up one of the four new prototypes we're considering for the o8 lineup.
Here's another shot of the project 26" playing around during lunch. It's low, tight, and light at only 28 lbs with profile hubs and cranks.

We'll have some better action shots once we understand the crazy weather here in NY and the dirt jumps dry out enough to session. Meanwhile, check out some more spy pics on the forums.

12 step programs.

If you're looking for last minute Chrismahanukwanzakah gifts, our friend Mackie has a bright idea:
The Crooklyn Yo!
We found a bundle of 12 Crooklyns hiding in the bottom of a box- the final dirty dozen. These are the last of our 07' supply so when they're gone that's it.

Get yours today before you make the girl angry.

Also, for the rest of the year, we're offering free UPS shipping on all painted Park Bike frames to orders in the lower 48. They won't fit in a stocking, but look pretty good all wrapped up. We have about 12 colors to choose from, so call the shop or Email bmw@brooklynmachineworks.com for availability.

(Photo Yanked from the boys at Gear Patrol.)

Reed Pages.

A camera crew from the Jeff Staples camp was in the shop the other day shooting a feature for the upcoming design issue of Reed Pages. While you would think we'd get used to having people taking pictures of us at work, it was hard not to drop everything we were doing when standing in front of the lens.
Here are some of our pictures of the Staple crew taking pictures of us, taking pictures of them, umm...taking pictures of us-it's all very postmodern between BMW and Staple Design.

(Check out Grindstate for their review of the Reed Space winter lineup. )

Heading up the team was Delia, who effectively emasculated everyone here with dreams of joining the professional Xbox circuit by reminding us how much we suck at video games. According to Delia, she has a 52" plasma dedicated to gaming so she can unwind at the end of the day by "walking into a dark room and zoning out". The shop TV is significantly less fancy.


Despite the interruptions, we've taken advantage of the cooler weather to knock out the final tweaks of our 08 lineup:
Check back later in the week for updates on this project 26 and other sneak peeks of what we have in store.

Busted!

As the sport of mountain biking grows, so too does the black market for stolen bikes. Thieves are getting ballsier and more sophisticated in their tactics, as evidenced by the heist of the entire Brodie Pro team trailer in Vancouver a few weeks ago.

Things even got shook up in our neighborhood a few years ago when the shop was robbed of $40,000 worth of bikes. There were a few hot leads and a close call or two, but then the trail went cold and we figured the bikes were gone as we installed our new security system.
But on Monday the BROOKLYN dragnet was activated and after a few calls between the NYPD, the blue hitman was recovered in Manhattan.
Joe was there at the precinct to file the proper reports and found that the old gal was in surprisingly OK shape save for the ghetto green paintjob and circa 1996 barends.
And here's the money shot of the thief taking a face-full of justice, proving that Brooklyn Machine ain't nothing to mess with...
The bad guy went to jail and the bike is on its way back to Doc, so all's well that ends well except for the resulting mountain of paperwork that keeps our government running smoothly.

Awww hell...RIP.

"What does it feel like to crash? What the hell do you think it feels like? Christ almighty. It hurts." -Evel Knievel

Anyone who ever stacked plywood on a cinderblock as a kid should to pay a tribute this weekend to Evel Knievel who, after surviving a lifetime of broken bones, lawsuits, liver transplants, hookers, divorce, world records, and religious conversions, passed away last night at the bitchin' age of 69 years old.

According to medical experts, Knievel died from being a total badass adrift in a world of girly men. After your ride this weekend, be sure to pour one for your homie Evel, and be glad he left with most of his integrity intact.

1938-2007

Play in Traffic, Bitches!

The new site is up for another NYC original, Monstertrack 9.

The most infamous of all alleycats, past events have been held in the dead of winter, where the windchill drops to -10 degrees on the city streets and piles of dirty snow are stacked at every intersection. This year's race looks like it will be held in March, so the streets will be cold and wet. Awesome. Remember- no brakes, no whining, no sex in the champagne room.

(check out the full movie at playintraffic productions, give it a few minutes to download)

Bootleg Trailer

The guys from the Bootleg Sessions have been shooting footage like mad all summer and are now working on the final cut of thier video, a collaboration of some of the most progressive fixed riders across the country.

Check out their latest trailer which opens up with BROOKLYN rider Tom Lamarche killin' a Philly skatepark on his Gangsta Track.

According to the site :
"Bootleg Sessions will not be a "film." It will be a down and dirty DVD compilation of cuts from several of our favorite riders from around the U.S. who have agreed to bootleg their daily sessions, progressions, and general post-transportation tomfoolery. It is not meant to be ground-breaking, life-changing, trend-setting, or scene-defining. It's just fun. Ride/Relax."
Word.

Black Friday.

For those of you that have come out of food comas to do your holiday shopping, get away from the mall madness and break in your gold card on Madison Avenue or in Beverly Hills.
There, amongst the bejeweled bidet scrubbers and silver platters for your fancy bacon-wrapped hor'dourves, you will find the BBC/Ice Cream collaboration bike built exclusively for Barney's NY.

[Edit: personally, we think the ad looks better like this]

Built with the best offerings from FOX, Hope, and Thomson, the bike is topped off with some custom milled parts from our CNC that aren't available anywhere else. Shipping included with your purchase, Marc Jacob jacket model not included.
Check out BNQT for decal details. Email bmw@brooklynmachineworks for the full spec.

If you're looking for other bike related gifts, note that we're taking pre-orders for the Gangsta Track, which which will be back in production mid-December. Meanwhile we'll be busy making the SR6, which is now available in stock colors and several custom flavors like this burgundy frame, set up with Saints and a DHX 5.0 for big urban riding.

Don't Let Your Nose Bleed On The Turkey.

We were trying make a hugs n' kisses Thanksgiving entry for all our dealers and shop friends when someone pointed us to a shot of Hollywood's favorite trainwreck courting her own dealers amongst a backdrop of the world's finest track bike.

We didn't attend.

For more west coast Gangsta Shiz, check out Orange 20 bikes in LA who are rockin' the BROOKLYN love Lohan style:

Anyway, be thankful that you have fewer problems than our friend Lindsay, who needs give thanks for being alive and take a breather and return to the simpler things in life.

Nevermind the Bollocks.

Brooklyn Machine Works was reppin' in London over the weekend to see the sights and check out Ged's setup on his aurora black SR6.

(the curtains match the carpet!)

The riding was limited to big urban stair gaps and skatepark play, but the inital impression of the ROCO air is that it's fantastic. The earliest versions of Marzocchi's TST valving seemed to be a bit overdamped, but the latest offerings seem to have fixed the issue and are an excellent match for the SR6 compression ratio. We'll have longer term reviews after a winter of trailriding, but initial impressions are very good and it gave us something to consider on the long flight across the pond.

Back at home winter finally kicked in and reminded us New Yorkers that we have at least another year before the icecaps melt and floods our asses. Despite the nipply weather, riders from all over turned out for the Ninth Cranksgiving charity alleycat.

The custom prize bags were dope...












...and some old friends were pimpin' the latest in fall fashions.




Best of all some lucky families will have something to look forward to this Thursday as a ton of food was collected in the name of having fun riding a bike through traffic.

(Excellent pics lifted from Erin Nicole Brown and Morg)

[edit: There was a $100 afterparty at Last Resort, which proved again that bikes + booze = weird shirtless pics]

Spaghetti Western.

This weekend the ninth annual Cranksgiving alleycat will be held in NYC. It's a free event which reqires racers to hit various groceries throughout the city and buy certain items of food . The first person at the finishline with reciepts from all grocery store checkpoints wins. All food items will be donated to a local NYC soup kitchen.

So before you spend next week getting soused and fighting at the dinner table, take some time out of your busy weekend so those less fortunate can do do the same thing.

It's a lot like this, but with bikes and better music:

Canada, on the other hand, celebrates their version of Thanksgiving in early october. According to super accurate internet history, Canadian Thanksgiving is a different sort of celebration, where the Royal Kilted Yaksmen return home to break bread over the Yule log in celebration of Martin Frobisher's kinship with the indians, unlike their American neighbors who killed off all the dinosaurs and forced the natives into backward pits of gambling hell...

Regardless, our point is that Canadians love racelinks, and we got a few pics of a pair of dropmachines in we sent up north a few weeks ago, built and ready to hit the mountain.

Get Pitted.

We finished packing a huge order for Japan's W-base, who have been slammed helping host the Tokyo MASH premiere . Our man Shadi flew over with the newest Gangsta Track to do what he does best, and he hit us back with a few snapshots of BROOKLYN Love in Japan: (He also went to a costume party , where he was dressed as a drunken unicorn.)

Back home, video featuring BROOKLYN ride Tom Lamarche became one of the top 100 youtube sports and action videos in the 24 hours after its posting.

(video by JohnProlly)

The shop was also busy cutting out 4130 for a prototype frame designed along with UK dirt jockey Jim Davage. We could claim that the project is hush-hush, but when Jim makes this look so easy, it's pretty evident as to what we've got in the works over winter...

This Week Is How We Rocked It. . .

OLD SCHOOL:

{A fan from way back brought in his battle weary Brooklyn TMX for a revamp in preparation for a weekend at Plattekill, host of the USAC Gravity East Finals}. . .

NEW SCHOOL:
{Austin Horse,our wayward son,returned from the City of Broad Shoulders with a dire need for a haircut and a chance to lace up his new profile fixed hubs to some DT Swiss nipples and a pair of Deep Vs}. . .

AFTER SCHOOL:

{The Philly crew booked a chinaton bus to New York to wrap up shooting for the bootleg sessions, a grassroots video project of the most laid back riders across the country including BROOKLYN gangsta track rider, Tom Lamarche. FYI, Tom rocks because he's is pulling this shiz riding fixed, he's only 17, his girlfriend is cute, and his bike is fly. Live it up,Philly! Life is never going to be greater than now.}

God save the Queen (of dirt)!

Sick as hell of sterile bike magazines reposting the same interbike coverage until spring?
Then look overseas to publications like Dirt in the UK which, in addition to covering our european invasion, is a publication that shows real love for the international mountainbike scene and has the balls to show a pair of hooters every now and then.



In stateside news, our favorite import from Trinidad, Anson Wellington, spent the weekend in Ohio tearing up Ray's Indoor Mountain Bike Park on his signature ACL street frame.

(photo by Yoni Arava)

Check back here for video clips of Anson in the upcoming BKLN demo reel, or hit up our friends over at NJDIRT.COM, for reviews of their beat down of the ACL prototype.

(Photo by NJdirt Nick)

Harvard's ok if that's your thing.

As much as it pains new Yorkers to acknowledge, the lesser of two evils prevailed last week over the Colorado Rockies to win their second World Series in four seasons. While NY probably isn't quite ready to give its congratulations, a custom ordered SR6 gives a nod towards our neighbors over in Bean Town.

With Avid ultimate stoppers, DT 5.1s on Hope hubs, and some custom carbon fiber Brooklyn skunkworks, this thing is gonna be sick.

To top off this do-everytrail rig, Marzocchi sent us one of their 08 55ATAs, a combination of the Z1, AM, and a healthy dose of steroids.

The fork features both TST and ATA and all those fancy acronyms are adjusted by these knobs on the top of each leg.

And love it or leave it, they've infused the entire 08 lineup with that classic sense of subtle Italian style.

Also, somehow we're already down to our last hand full of the crooklyn: Made in the US, modeled by American child slaves, grab one before they're gone.

[note: he's a Yankee fan]

.

Sweat Equity.

Having so much fun over the past few weeks made us realize how much work it takes to create an event/trail/park/venue for everyone to ride. For instance, if it wasn't for organizations like NYCMTB and the rider base in NYC, the Highbridge Project would never have taken off and that corner of the city would still be a hideout for drug addicts instead of a public space improving the community.
Look at it now!



Likewise the crew at Get Dirty has been hard at work grooming some sick trailwork this month. Check them testing out all their hard work with BMW hardware in this video(QT. Give it a min to load).

So if you're ride is busted, check online or call up your local bike shop to see if an extra pair of hands and a shovel can make a difference in your neck of the woods. It's just a little downtime that will pay off for countless seasons ahead.
Peace!

Halloweekend.

What did we do for Halloween? Let us tell ya!

Part of the BKLN family went to Diabloween to shake up the latest SR6s. The costumes were hilarious and the moves were huge!

Check out NYCMTB.COM or the Eastern Front for the full skinny.

Back at the shop, the rest of the crew stayed behind to put the finishing touches on our newest creation...the 24' (FOOT), or 7315mm, cruiser (aka the brOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOklyn)

Flat-proof tubes, Chris King headset, custom made BMW tires. How's that ride? Sweeeeet.



Jaws dropped and traffic stopped as Ken, Dave, and Luke pulled out of 16 Powers with an entourage of BMX and tallbikes. The neighborhood kids cheered as the long-bike took up entire intersections cruising down the street to bike kill V.

What is Bike Kill, exactly? It's one of those events people are told they must go to but that it can't be described in words. Skeptical newcomers then spend a Saturday to take a peek down the alley behind the Home Depot and subsequently spend the rest of the year with maniacal looks in their eyes trying to convince all their friends that they can't miss the next one; for it, exact definitions are not possible.

It's safe to say that at it's core, it involves lots of happy people, and bikes. Bikes of all sorts. Tall Bikes, long bikes, and just about anything with two wheels.

There were chariot races, fire bikes,six pack attacks, and new for this year was the surf bike competition:

Teams of two (one rider,one surfer) were placed on longboard bikes...on top of the kicker ramp. Many limbs were mangled,teeth were lost.

(not ken!)
The BMXers were out kickin' it old school, and Ken, despite a puncturing his front tire on what was probably someone's molar, hit the beer slicked ramp in front of hundreds of cheering onlookers.

The traditional finale of the day's outdoor events was the tall bike Joust. Trying to live down the shame of passing out mid-joust last year, Luke donned the BMW turtle/dino/alligator/rampage Lizard/dirty Ebay suit and climbed aboard.

A girl agreed to joust him (not that girls can't joust, but girls are less likely to be 200lbs of pedaling beard and beer-gut as competitors, and you can't see worth a damn out of the suit)
The bike was readied, the lance was handed off, and after a few cursory acts of sportsmanship both turtle and bike were launched into oblivion...
This picture, taken right before Luke's sternum and rear wheel crumpled under impact, captures the precise moment he peered through the worthless eyeholes of the suit and realized that his female competitor was either a very ugly girl, or perhaps was not a girl at all but in fact was 200lbs of pedaling facial hair and beer-gut.
Both jousters went down but evidently the party doesn't stop until the dude from Richmond tries to eat Luke's face. If you look closely, you can see Luke's hand raised in protest to his competitor's X- chromosome.


Mad props to Diablo Freeride Park and Black Label NYC for putting so much time and heart and energy into these events. You can really feel the love that went in and it's part of what makes NY the best place in the world to live and ride (/joust/boost/explode/surf/love/etc...) your bike.

Photo thanks to: Yoni,Dave Tufino, Turd, Nick James (biatch!), Grant Cornett,Mike Green, not elyse,blue cinema, and everyone else we borrowed pictures from. If you would like something pulled or added, just leave a comment.