I picked up a new wheelset for the Peugeot. In lieu of my envy for the ability to do track stands and pedal backwards, I’ve decided to give the fixed gear a go. I kept finding myself gaffling my friend’s fixed bikes at every stop so I could get my trick on. I went ahead and removed the old brake levers and eliminated the rear caliper. Eugene gave me a new long-reach caliper for the front, so I have a lot more stopping power than before.

All-in-all, I think this wheelset really gives the bike an aggressive look. Kinda like a beefed up street-rod – it keeps it’s vintage style, but with a bit more muscle to it.

For many many weeks now, the dM fam has been meeting up in Cabbagetown on Monday nights for some killer all-city midnight rides. We chose Monday nights because the streets are literally dead across Atlanta, so the rides are much safer. Some nights we pedal until the sun rises… as far as 20 miles throughout the night, spanning various routes around the metropolis. These rides are a BLAST, and further proof that it doesn’t matter what we’re all doing – we bring the riot with us whenever we are together.

Alex lugged his newly acquired 5D MKII out to snap some pics of the evening’s events. He even shot some HD footage with the camera’s dreamy DOF and awesome low-light capabilities. You can check out more of his snaps at his Flickr set from the ride.

After nearly five brutal years of service… it looks like my trusty ol’ PPC 20″ iMac G5 has kicked the bucket. I took it into the Apple Store after it failed to boot several times in a row. It would power on, but wouldn’t ‘chime’, and would rest on a dark gray screen to no avail. It turns out that iMacs have a recurring issue with capacitor caps on the logic board bulging and/or bursting – causing the board to fail. I have a strong sentimental attachment to this machine – because I edited Slide America in it’s entirety on it. I worked this machine harder than I’ve worked any other computer – it definitely had a GREAT run.

When I took this machine in, I also took two other 17″ iMacs that David Adams kindly gave me during his office’s liquidation of old computers. They wouldn’t boot either. What I find VERY strange – is that both of these machines had the exact same issue. What are the odds that 3/3 iMacs that I have failed because of the same faulty capacitors?

I did some research, and may try and buy new caps and replace all the old ones – seeing as a new logic board will end up running me the cost of a new machine after parts and labor. This is the first hardware issue I have had with Apple computers in my career. Hopefully… it will be the last.

I just picked up the ‘Halloween’ copy of Juxtapoz in which Pushead was guest curator for. The cover sports the classic “Hand of Fear”, and I was disappointed not to see a lot more of his work in the magazine. Although the pieces he selected for the issue were intense, I felt like I bought a Playboy… only to find the cover-girl basically absent from it’s pages.

This piece… “The Course Marker” was the only other Pushead work in the issue – which was the first wraparound graphic for Mountain Dew’s ‘Green Label Art’ bottles.

This video is collaboration between myself, and Will Roegge. Will shot all of the footage last November at a secret invite-only event in Nashville. His amazing edit STILL ranks as the most viewed drifting video on Vimeo. I wanted to try and focus on a different aspect of drifting with this video. I wanted to peer into what really makes events like this so special: the people.

The DriftMechaniks crew has an amazingly strong bond. It may sound cliché – but we are a family. Truth be told… it doesn’t really matter what we’re doing – we have the best of times when we are all together. That is what I wanted to explore with this video: the family and friendship we share at these events. If you take that camaraderie away… then well… it’s just… drifting.

BIG thanks to Mr. Roegge for flexing his creative genius behind the lens, and allowing me the privilege to work with the footage!

Hopefully you enjoy this look at what I feel is a more intimate side of this crazy sport.
If not… please return to taking drifting way too serious and continue not having any fun. EVER.

A quick revamp of the MotorMavens flyer I designed back in August. This version has three new images and tighter crops on a few of the other photos. Keep an eye out for these this weekend at Irwindale Speedway for the final round of Formula Drift!

I drained and cracked open the diff assembly… sure enough – shattered ring and pinion. The KAAZ looks/seems fine… both output flanges still lock when turned. One of the carrier bearings looks like it could be replaced. The ring gear is consistently shattered all the way around.

I managed to fish out a solid bit of metal chunks, slivers, and shavings from the pumpkin.
Have I ever mentioned how bad differential gear oil smells?
Seriously. DISGUSTING.

Last night Greg and I got to see one of my favorite bands, Early Man. I had the pleasure of indirectly working with Early Man last year when I edited the 2009 SHOT Show video for AAC – for which they licensed the music. I missed them the last time they were in Atlanta because I was working late at my old job… so I was stoked to finally see them play.

I had a chance to talk to Mike as I rolled up to the venue (totally out of breath from multi-mile bike sprint)… and I got to meet the rest of the guys after the show. They played 3 tracks of the new record coming out in January that were AWESOME. They totally MEGA-RIPPED IT, and played a killer show. Mike even gave me a shout before they played ‘Beware the Circling Fin’! I was hella stoked.

If you like metal, and you haven’t heard Early Man… please crawl out of your cave, go check them out, and support these guys.