News / Fairdale Feed from FairdaleBikes.com

Volunteer Human Society Cat Trapper/ Fairdale Team rider Sandy Carson spotted this amazing Cat 1 rider yesterday cruising the streets of Austin. Follow the man himself on Instagram at Sandy_Carson or follow this link.

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Yeah, I’m done! It’s obviously nothing too deep here but it gave me a good laugh painting it. …and it was very boring for Monty. So the idea is that each rabbit is one of the Empire team riders. Here’s Tina, Tom and Owen; the Empire family. Joel Moody is look suave. Chris Doyle stands with his arm around Joe Rich and Aaron Ross has got his phone out. George Boyd has his Mutiny bike up in the air and Kevin Porter is holding a coffee cup full of Integencia or whatever it is he likes so much. Chase Hawk has his white Cult bike with Blue Odyssey parts, and Tommy Dugan is hanging loose lounging out at the bottom. Morgan Wade is doing a bar ride on a red bike which doesn’t really make any sense because his bike is apparently army green. Tom Smith is standing next to him with arms wide open. I decided Tony Cardona should be jumping around so he’s the guy on the left side there over Sergio Layos shoulder. Dylan Smith has his arm around Sergio and Danny Hickerson towers above both of them. So there’s Dylan and Danny again on the left side, Hanson Little’s rabbit sort of has a beard and then Sean Sexton is chilling out at the bottom in the curve of the ramp. And then holding up the banner up top our are lost buds Empire’s Bonnie and my old pup Roscoe. I’m pretty sure they are both happy to be looking over everyone. I’m pretty stoked to have taken this little project from this ratty rained on sketch and blank wall to…. This ratty sketch and base paint on the wall to… this final (?) Empire team wall.

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Things are starting to come into focus over at Empire. Got a good solid day of detail work at least, but making headway….

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Are any of you out there into monster trucks? I need some help deciphering what I’m hearing on the radio adverts. This is what I think I’m hearing…. in your best monster truck sunday, sunday, sunday voice, “SUPER MODIFIED TWO-WHEEL DRIVE WHEEL STANDING TRUCKS!!!” What the hell is that? All I can only assume that they now have monster truck segways?? Can someone confirm if that is true? Thanks!

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Somedays riding my bike is quiet and peaceful and refreshing. Other days it feels like I’m riding through a battle field and every single car on the road is trying to kill me. I don’t usually think it’s intentional… it’s usually from cars simply not paying attention. Being on a bike in traffic you are afforded a slightly elevated view into cars and can see what is distracting drivers so much. This is especially true when stuck at a light waiting to turn left. As cars drive past you can see everything going on in cars. I reckon that one in every five cars that passes me holds a driver ignoring the road completely, instead poking their phone. This got me thinking and so I have prepared some statistics for you based on my experiences around Austin. 1 out of every 2 drivers are on the phone. 1 out of every 5 drivers are texting. 1 out of every 25 drivers has an open beer in their cup holder. 1 out of every 6 drivers will make a right turn through a red light or stop sign faster then would seem safe on a green light. 1 out of 20 cars smells like weed as it drives by.  1 out of 6 drivers doesn’t use their turn signals while changing lanes. 100% of drivers who don’t use their turn signals annoy me.  50% more drivers will drive in the bike lane oblivious to the fact that they are not in a auto lane on the Eastside then on the Westside of town. 1 car has passed me with every occupant texting, and not one single person driving.  Can anyone out there provide me with some more useful stats?

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Sandy Carson was in a Slideshow Potluck art show the other night. Here’s his segment from the show. Always such awesome photos from Mr. Carson. Watch the show on  Vimeo Here

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You can sort of see the shadows starting to take shape today. I feel like I need to spend a whole day up there to really knock this out. The Empire folks found this old photo of me from 12 years ago in a German BMX mag. Always likes this picture because I never really knew what trick it was. One-footed X? Some kind of vertical Nac Nac Xup? Or almost sort of 1 footed look down?

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Well, to be honest I didn’t accomplish a whole lot on the Empire mural today… or at least it doesn’t really look any different. So here instead is a picture of Monty getting ready to head home from last night. We rode the bike path home along Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin and saw this pretty sweet moon lit skyline. Today at Empire I pretty much just sketched in the details of the dudes. Tomorrow I’ll get to start putting in some shading and lead up to the final outlining.

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Today I showed up to empire and just started drawing on the wall. Didn’t really have too much of a plan but knew I needed to fit 19 people on there (Empire team and Empire family). Don’t think I’ll be able to make it up there again until tuesday so I’ll have a few days to think about how to handle the next phase.

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Spent a little bit of time up at Empire and got to this point on day 2. I guess if we take my sketch a little further its heading for something like this… Going to basically paint the Empire family hanging out. I’ll keep the updates coming…-Taj

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