RAIN OF TERROR AT BFF

Storming the Williamsburg bridge.

This past weekend, I headed to the kick-off of the Bicycle Film Festival in New York City. It's worth noting that the weather called for 100% chance of heavy rain FOR THE ENTIRE WEEKEND. This is not really the kind of thing that inspires a great deal of confidence when it comes to tooling around the streets of Manhattan on a bike. But I wasn't going to let that stop me! So I packed up my waterproof messenger bag with hardshells, lots of extra shirts, bike lights, PRO BARS (mmmm), extra inner tubes, and my copy of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. As luck would have it, I sat next to someone on the Chinatown bus who may or may not have had swine flu. He had the most hilarious incessant hacking/screeching/whining cough I have ever heard. Realistically, that neither adds nor subtracts from the tale....but whatever.

The BFF block party was a rainy sloppy freaking mess, with people pretending to care about the vendors simply so they could step out of the rain into the vendor's tents. Even so, the block party was good fun. Lots of people hanging out, lots of amazing bikes rolling around, and some fun events. A few kids on 700c bmx fixed gear bikes bored us to death with extremely lame displays of 12 inch bunny hops and watered down versions of tricks that would be AWESOME on a BMX. In fact, they were awesome on a BMX. I know this because just before the fixie dudes made us all yawn, the BMX comp went down. The BMX freestyle and trick comps were ri-damn-diculous.

This guy was CRUSHING it. He won the contest by sailing a 48" bunny hop.

Some BMX freestyle action. It was soaking wet. Dudes were eating asphalt HARD.

The weekend otherwise consisted of my friends and I getting utterly gluttonous on some vegan food at New York favorites Cafe Atlas and Pukk. Atlas is equipped with a giant glass case full of Vegan Treats. Which makes my stomach come equipped with a sensation of insatiable desire to visit The Vomitorium. At any rate, when I wasn't on a vegan binge/purge cycle, I was riding my bike around in the rain, watching bike polo, seeing some girl more drunk and messed up than I have ever seen anyone in my life, and lots of other weird and wild times. All in all, a great weekend.

I somehow ended up at a party where people were *actually* wearing glow sticks. I took this crappy picture because I know that anyone who knows me would never believe I would go to something like this.

Rather literally The Calm Before the Storm. This was at 5:30am. It started raining 3 hours later and did not stop for almost 16 hours.

The Lock-Up outside the after party.

Morning after ride with the Geekhouse boys. Joe was feeling a little rough.

A friendly game of bike polo in the park.