The Coolest Mug. Ever. Minimug.

Coffee is good, yes? We drink a lot of it, yes? So...

Ooooh, aaaahhh, lovely! Look above, this must be simply the coolest coffee mug ever.

The Minimug.

New Fixed-Gear Bicycle Owner's Manual

Since I've been suffering severely from the Fixed Gear Fever(tm) as reported here earlier, this amused me a lot.

EDIT:
I found the source of the text, it's BIKE SNOB NYC.
After discovering it I no longer have any need to blog about any of this stuff anymore. Ever.

New Fixed-Gear Bicycle Owner's Manual

Contratulations on the purchase of your Bianchi Pista/Specialized Langster/Cannondale Capo/Jamis Sputnik or similar. Your new bicycle should give you many days of enjoyment until you tire of it for aesthetic reasons and list it on Craigslist for the full retail price in order to help fund the purchase of an NJS-certified keirin bike, a vintage Fender Telecaster, or your move to another, trendier city.

Until that moment arrives, here are some things you need to know in order to get the most enjoyment out of your new toy:

A Note on the Fixed Gear Drivetrain

Your bicycle is equipped with a fixed gear drivetrain. For this reason you may want to alter your riding style accordingly. Firstly, ride slowly. Very slowly. This is the best way to avoid obstacles. When riding with friends on city streets, in bike lanes, or in parks, it is acceptable to disregard the flow of car or bicycle traffic and ride in whichever direction you choose. Slowly. If you find yourself traveling in the same direction as traffic and encounter an intersection with a red light or turning vehicle and are unable to stop, simply turn right. Riding around the block will eventually put you back on course and save you embarrassment and injury. In fact, did you know it's possible to get to any point on an urban street grid using only right turns? Well, it is. And it's safe and fun! Remember this acronym: AAL (Always Avoid Lefts).

Furthermore, your drivetrain enables you to enjoy your bicycle without having to actually ride it more than a few feet at a time. Fun things to try include: skidding, skip-stopping, trackstanding, and putting stickers and colorful parts on it.

Upgrading

It is important to begin the process of upgrading your bicycle’s appearance immediately. This can occasionally have the side-effect of improving your bicycle’s performance as well. Fortunately there are increasing numbers of track bicycle boutique shops. These shops dispense with the selection, service, and expertise of old-fashioned bike shops and instead focus on catering to your every candy-colored whim. They can also offer you sound and practical advice. Best of all, they carry lots of cool t-shirts.

Proper Usage

Though the model name or advertising copy for your bicycle may include words like “pista,” “track,” or “entry-level racing,” in no circumstances should you attempt to use your bicycle on or for any of the above. Doing so shall void your warranty.

“Proper Usage” includes: riding slowly to the bike boutique to purchase accessories and clothing; photographing your bike for submission to on-line galleries; participation in ad-hoc skidding contests; and doing track stands for hours outside of the residence of a person you would like to impress.

Handlebars

Your handlebars are wrapped in tape made of synthetic cork. Please note that the purpose of this tape is to protect your bars during shipping. This tape should be removed immediately.

You should be aware that once the tape is removed the bars may be slippery and difficult to grip. If this is the case, remove bars from stem, invert, and re-install. Then, using a hacksaw, cut in the middle of the curved portion until the excess length is removed. Your hands will now be slightly less likely to slip from the bars due to the limited hand position. This is called “flop n’ chop,” and your bicycle is now a gelding.

Brakes

Depending on make and model, your bicycle may have been shipped with a brake or a pair of brakes pre-installed. These brakes should only be used in emergencies. Once you are comfortable bringing the bicycle to a safe and complete stop without using the brakes, they should be removed and discarded.

The term “safe and complete stop” means bringing the bicycle from 5mph to 0mph in a distance of no more than 50 feet.

Safety

Whenever operating your bicycle, safety should be your primary concern. Be sure to have a qualified mechanic install a top-tube pad immediately. Thanks very much for your purchase, and welcome to the exciting world of track cycling!

Cycling in Helsinki. Hazardous business. And then some.

Since we been discussing different aspects of bicycles and cycling here, here, here and here, recently I wanted to bring couple of bits of information related to biking in Helsinki and in Finland that I've read on main national newspaper Helsingin Sanomat during the last two days.

Here we go. Some pro-biking propaganda, or something like that, from yours truly.

1.) Yesterday the newspaper reported a study concerning bike accidents in traffic in Finland. It turned out that according to a serious estimate while there are annually lot of bike accidents, in seventy, yeah you got it right, 70, percent of those the cyclist had been DRUNK. Like what the f**k? People please. And yeah, I've ridden my bike while intoxicated fo'sho but still.

2.) And from today's newspaper: According to survey done by the City Of Helsinki, while the citizens were most happy with the public traffic and less happy about the state of car traffic and they were least happy about the state of cycling lanes and generally thought cycling in Helsinki scary and difficult. Yeah, you got that f**cking right. Don't even get me started on this one.

Oh, and people please do remember, tomorrow, Septermer 22nd, is The Annual World Carless Day. So leave yo polluting metal cows at the parking lot tomorrow and ride yo bikes (or public traffic) instead. It's good for the environment, less car traffic is generally nicer for everybody, your health might actuallu improve and all that.

Oh, one more thing, my salvaged fixed gear bike project (pictured above) is currently taking a lil' time out since I'm still missing some crucial tools and parts but also because I already have my lovely Raleigh USA Racing Gran Prix fixie up and running AND because I just acquired yet another interesting project, and for very reasonable price too.

Rock Star Phenomenon

What's up with this thing, that rappers like to rap about rock stars, about acting like rocktars and such things? First came out Party Like A Rock Star by Shop Boyz, then R Kelly's/Ludacris' "Rockstar" and now Chamillionaire's new album has a song titled "Rockstar". And to top it all Chamillionaire's "Industry Groupie" samples long parts of "Final Countdown" by Europe. Well, judge yourself, if it works...

Chamillionaire - Industry Groupie mp3

Saturday Night's Alright for Pimpin'

Yrz truly, Alppila along with one of the original Helsinki hiphop heads, DJ Fyrre will spin that rap-rnb-related shit. Tomorrow, sat 15th at We Got Beef (Iso Roba, for those of you who grew up in a barrell).

Resident DJ Henrikki cannot make it because of some recent family business. Congratulations to Henrikki & his familia!

Nuff said, homies. See you there.

Dude, where's my Lamborghini?

Kriton is movin again. This time it's commercial.

Yes, we just made our first leap into big budget advertising business, by making this beat for a new Lamborghini campaign, Where Is My Lamborghini?. To be exact, it is a teaser site for a future Lamborghini game (which platform, i don't really know...).

Why, you may ask. Because we friggin could. And Lambo's are cool. Plus, we got to make exactly the beat that we wanted, without no "suits" getting in the way of our creative process (read: beer drinking). So we'll definitely make more stuff like this in the future too! fun. Fun! FUN!

Art direction by fiilin.com, 3d and flash stuff made by some other peeps, who did a great job BTW. Don't you just love fast cars!

Party like a rockstar!

Early last sunday I took a long and a slow longboard cruising session around my hood. When I got to Ruoholahti I found out that some wannabe rockstar seems to live there. That's what I thought 'cos there was this pile of electronics that turned out to be a tv that had been thrown out of the window. After quick investigation I realized that it was no real rock star who had done it: it was a crappy old tv, no HD-ready flatscreen. But it had gone to really small pieces, so the actual throwing must have looked cool though. Totally dude!

What's synthtron? Or anthem breaks?

Yadadamean? If you're not sure, surf to Ishkur's Guide To Electronic Music. It's a cool web site that maps various (techno) styles together and offers soundsamples of each genre as well.

But why isn't there a detailed description of the differences between Punavuori Techno and Kallio techno.

See what I found on a garbage dump today. Fixed Gear Bike Project.

I'm a kind of a person who gets really into something every once in a while and I also love to have all kinds of hobby projects. Well, I recently wrote here about how I got into bicycles again and how I converted my old MTB into a single speed cruiser.

I'm still really into the bicycles and the next logical step after my single speed bike project I had could only be to get a real fixed gear bike, like the kind all bike messengers and hipsters ride. Important part of that game is that you really need to build the bike by yourself, not just to go to a shop with your credit card in your hand and buy a Biachi Pista, Giant Bowery, Raleight Rush Hour or some other fixie that some big bike brands are already churning out from their conveyor belts. No sir, that would be lame.

Interestingly, while I been studying & and getting into the whole fixed gear bike thing, I've found people saying on several discussion forums stuff like: "fixed gear bikes is the new skateboarding...", there are also ex-pro skateboarders making skate video -style movies about riding fixed bikes in San Francisco and Tokyo etc.

Anyhow, now after this over-long intro, here's what happened to day: I was on nice Sunday walk with my girlfriend and our daughter and I just happened to look into a garbage dumpster by a house, like I often do, and now what did I find there?

A cool 1970s vintage steel frame racing bike, with a real leather seat and all. Bit grimy fo'sho but all intact except for the tires. Like whoa, dude! Sure, I took it home and I will convert it into a fixed gear bike ASAP because that's the best thing you can do with those kind of bikes, basically. The actual project with the bike that I'm starting now could be bit complicated but I will keep you posted about the developments. First I need to acquire some things, like new tires, bottom bracket, crank set, chain wheel, chain, pedals, riser handlebar, grips, a track cog and a lockring - just to get my project started...

But wait, there's more. I wanted to know more about the bike but there were no decals or any other markings of any type, only thing I found was that all components had XB3 written on them. After some Googling I found out that the bike was apparently made by Ukrainian Kharkov bike factory, and of course in the Soviet Union. Actually, it was made by one of the only two factories in CCCP making racing bikes, and apparently Kharkov was the better factory out of the two. Nice.