The Foot Down

Owen doing a nose bonk

There’s going to be an alleycat in Glasgow on Saturday 27th February taking off from George Square at 3pm. For more info click your mouse right here.

The new DVS / Cadence Milan CTC collab shoe is now available to pre-order at Nucleus Online which is where I work as a photographer/web monkey kind of thing. We have only ordered the black and the grey but if y’all are really into the yellow hit up the comments and I’ll see what I can do. You can order them now for £69.99 and as soon as they arrive at the shop I will personally ship them out to you with some stickers and a nice Foot Down spoke card.

Last night we went to Tesco to do some skids and stuff, we all used Owen’s camera and came up with these beauties, enjoy.

Charge have been putting out a whole load of cool fixed gear stuff for a while now, it seems that every single thing they make kicks ass. The Slice Bullhorns are awesome, Kerry loves her Plug, EVERYONE rides the Spoon saddle, the Chopstick seat post is just begging for it and now they have the Shaker Hub and Grater Cog combo!

These things look hooooot, I don’t strip threads (do you?) cause I weigh about the same as 17 loaves of white sliced bread but I swear if Marc ‘The Hub Crusher’ Evans doesn’t buy one of these I will personally karate chop his Bob Jackson into a million pieces. I still want one even if I don’t really need one. Why have a screw on sprocket that could possibly maybe slip at a crucial moment when you can have a bolt on one? Wiggle has these for £72 but don’t all rush over there at once cause they haven’t got stock (as of Jan 23rd 2010) and you should try and get them from a smaller retailer, innit.

So, these things are 32 hole, 120mm spaced, come in a bunch of colours and have those fucking cool allen key nuts. Chaaaaaaaaaarge!!!

I mentioned before that Charlie the Bikemonger had moved into a real shop made of bricks, well here is a bit more info in the form of a press release right from the horses mouth…

Charlie The Bikemonger now also in a real shop

After 5 years as an online purveyor of fixed, single speed, and tweed… we have now settled into our new shop in Swanage.

Based in the heart of the Purbecks on the Dorset Coast, we are in great location, not only within minutes of some great riding and the beach, but also only three miles from the Square & Compass (Cider Pub of The Year 2009, and that’s quite important to us).

Yeah sure, we could do a lot more business if we were based in a larger town, but down here we are in a world heritage site, where the riding and life in general is very good.

We are still dealing online at www.charliethebikemonger.com, but the high street shop means we can offer a unique selection of demo bikes. Not your usual bunch of boring full sussers:

• Surly Big Dummy cargo bike,
• Niner SIR9 rigid 29er single speed
• Salsa Dos Niner 29er1x9 soft-tail
• Surly Long Haul Trucker touring bike
• Surly Steam Roller Fixie

This move illustrates that the cycling world is becoming larger, but also much more diverse, and that a very specialist business can survive and indeed flourish. I can sit on the shop sofa, with the shop dog, surrounded by organic tweed cycling caps, track frames, cargo bikes and bottle cages designed for hip flasks, proud that we have established an oasis of steel and tweed in a world of carbon and lycra.

All the best,
Charlie & Michelle

New Address:
137B High Street, Swanage, Dorset, BH19 2NB
Tel: 01929 475 833
Mail@charlietehbikemonger.com
www.charliethebikemonger.com

So, I managed to get hands on with the new DVS / Cadence Milan CTC collab shoe yesterday. They have a super tough sole and some snazzy loops on the tongue that you can put your laces under at the point where your clips rub which is kinda cool. They have a really nice shape, they are slimmer than I had thought they looked in pictures, clearly I forgot to take a photo from above so you’ll just have to take my word for it. They’ll be available in the UK around late July early August. I won’t be getting a pair cause they are suede to the max and I’m a vegan but I spotted a right lovely pair of grey Gavin’s that have got my name all over them! I got a glimpse of the two t-shirts too, the skid one is cool, not too fussed on the splodgy pattern thing, it’s kind of like a early 90′s Manchester album cover or something. UPDATE: They are going to cost around the £65 mark, I was expecting them to be crazy priced but clearly not. You’ll be able to pre-order them from the skate shop I work in VERY soon…

What do you think of them? Gonna get a pair? Two pairs? What do you ride in now? Why the hell do people ride in Vans Authentics when they are so uncomfortable? Hit up the comments!

SOLD

I’m selling my Canon G9, it’s in absolute tip top condition, still boxed with all accessories, a spare battery and a 2GB card. Somebody give me £200 quid for it so that I can get something a bit smaller to make taking crappy photos for this site easier! It’s a killer camera, pretty much an SLR in a compact body, go and Google it. I’ll send it by FedEx and you’ll have it within 24hrs. Sweet. Contact me over there>>>

A new strap has been released… Dualism, based in Manchester are making these really nice looking FRS style straps. They look super simple with nice little colour accents in purple or teal. These things are only £20 which is an absolute steal if you ask me, hit up the shop and get your order in!

You have probably noticed the snazzy new look of the site, well not really new, it’s just the look, until now it had no look, haha. The banner and background wrinkly paper dealy were done by Martipants who I used to skate with way back in the day before he moved away. He now does all kinds of awesome illustrations, hand drawn tees, makes music and various other creative fings. As well as the site graphics he very kindly drew these for me…

Obviously go and check out Martin’s projects and repost these drawings but don’t let me catch you biting The Foot Down’s steeze y’hear? Haha.