ride with the Assasin
this is Harry the Copper....he wears really really small shirts...but not today.
Cops in France are fags
The homies and the MAN.
(from left to right:super ted, artoo, andy, kyle, hal, ryan, the man, me, jupes, massan, and nish)
artoo and the film crew
its like Jon and Kate plus 8, minus the drama and all the kids.
Adriana and Grace..the brains of the operation.
The Story:
Land in London and met up with Adriana who was our Nike contact and semi camp counsler. She got us a cab, and we were off to the hotel near the marble arches in downtown London. We ended up meeting in the lobby a bit later and to my surprise the trip that was supposed to be 4 or 5 people ended up being about 12. It was awesome. People from the ages of 18 to 44 from all over the world came out to try and ride this major trip. They all had fix gear bikes which at the time I thought was insane, and Jupiter and I had road bikes. I just didn’t think it was possible to ride a fix bike for 200 miles. I was wrong.
Here was the line up;
Hal- from Japan. He was the world messanger champ of Japan or something, dude was gnar.
Ryan from New York- cool cat, super mellow, and a homie for sure
Nish from new York- Ryan and him were traveling together until Nish had an internal blowout and ditched the crew a few days into the trip
Artoo- best german with the biggest fucking heart ever.
Andy- London connect and all around ripper
SuperTed- his name says it all, but this was my right hand man at the bars and anytime off the bike.
Kyle- brains of the operation. If it wasn’t for his maps, this whole thing would have been shit.
Massan- from SF, this was the tagger of the crew. Sick ass dude who always rolled hash spliffs.
The first night we decide to go out and have a few drinks at one of the Dope Peddlers bars Thirst. It was super fun, and got to meet up with AL aka the Assasin and do a little riding the next day through the woods of London. The rest of the gang had to put their bikes together and visit some stores, so I took the opportunity to go on a nice long road ride while still having the chance. Al took me to all the tourist shit and then back to the hotel to prepare for take-off the next day. Kinda thought that when we all would start riding the next day as a group it was gonna be really slow and not fun….i was wrong.
The call was to meet in the hotel lobby at 8 am for a 830 departure for out first leg out the city and to the ferrie that would eventually get us to france.
Debikecle #1 – Adriana rented a car that was WAY to small for anything and then got in an accident.
So then the 8 am riding time turned into an 1130am departure which put us really behind schedule to catch the ferrie that night which I should mention only come’s once every 12 hrs.
So we rode, those dudes on fixed, jupes and I on road bikes. We were mobbing pretty hard. Good times. We stopped fairly often so Ted could pound a few Guiness, and then we’d carry on. We then decided to go to a little town off the map to have luinch and drink.
Debikecle #2- from the restaurant we got lost a few times. Maps were fucked. Ended up going the wrong way, in the wrong direction, on the wrong side of the rode with 12 people on bikes on an autobahn where cars were driving 120 mphs, in the dark...what could possibly go wrong? We had about 20 miles to go, and 20 minutes to get to the ferrie before we couldn’t get on.....
Debikelce #3 my spoke snaps on my fromnt wheel. This will wreck the rest of my trip and from this point on…im really fucking bummed. There are no bike stores in the town we are going to, and if there was, id have about 45 minutes to find it, get my spoke replaced, and my rim trued..and we all knew that wasn’t going to happen.
Hauled ass with a wheel half taco’d and made the ferrie.
We all got on the ferrie at about 10 30pm, washed our faces and past out on the dirty ass floor for a 5 1/2hr boat ride.
The next morning is where we saw the next HUGE debikele.
Debikecle #4- rain, cold, and no spare car to film. This was the day/night we were to end up at a camp site and do some camping so we had to get camping supplies. We went to the store with Adriana from Nike, tried to buy camping shit, and her credit card got declined. Fuck. So we have no camping gear, I don’t have a front wheel. And the later the day gets without us being on our bikes, the closer it gets to us having to find a campsite in the dark of a town/country that none of us are familier with. This happened the day before and we did not want that to happen again. Long story short, we shit canned the day and decide to make up the miles the following day. Which would be 127 miles from Diepe to Paris, on fixed gears..over rolling hills….without getting lost. Yeah right.
We got drunk that night again and set the alarms for 7am the next day.
This was the long day. Adriana didn’t know how to drive a stick shift car, so she asked me to drive. Kinda bummed, but at the same time I didn’t feel like riding that far on a fucked wheel. So I volunteered to drive with the map and make sure these dudes had a real smooth ride all the way to paris. None of those riders had ever done a 100 miles, so I thought it was only fair that I drive and they ride. It worked out good that way anyhoo.
Great day..made it 127 miles and they were so siked/ tired when they got to the hotel because they had made it. Fucking amazing if you ask me. Jupes had never even ridden 70 miles, let a lone 127. Truly amazing.
July 26th…..the next day was the Tour de France day. What a fucking day. Best day ever. Souveniers, beer, bikes, a lance Armstrong party, a tequila bike that we got wasted on, my birthday, more booze, superted passed out, booze, some girls, and more booze. Best day ive had in a really long time man. Best birthday in many many years that’s for sure.
Yesterday was recovery, and now im on my way back to work. Hope to stay in touch with all these fuckers. And do it again next year.
The call was to meet in the hotel lobby at 8 am for a 830 departure for out first leg out the city and to the ferrie that would eventually get us to france.
Debikecle #1 – Adriana rented a car that was WAY to small for anything and then got in an accident.
So then the 8 am riding time turned into an 1130am departure which put us really behind schedule to catch the ferrie that night which I should mention only come’s once every 12 hrs.
So we rode, those dudes on fixed, jupes and I on road bikes. We were mobbing pretty hard. Good times. We stopped fairly often so Ted could pound a few Guiness, and then we’d carry on. We then decided to go to a little town off the map to have luinch and drink.
Debikecle #2- from the restaurant we got lost a few times. Maps were fucked. Ended up going the wrong way, in the wrong direction, on the wrong side of the rode with 12 people on bikes on an autobahn where cars were driving 120 mphs, in the dark...what could possibly go wrong? We had about 20 miles to go, and 20 minutes to get to the ferrie before we couldn’t get on.....
Debikelce #3 my spoke snaps on my fromnt wheel. This will wreck the rest of my trip and from this point on…im really fucking bummed. There are no bike stores in the town we are going to, and if there was, id have about 45 minutes to find it, get my spoke replaced, and my rim trued..and we all knew that wasn’t going to happen.
Hauled ass with a wheel half taco’d and made the ferrie.
We all got on the ferrie at about 10 30pm, washed our faces and past out on the dirty ass floor for a 5 1/2hr boat ride.
The next morning is where we saw the next HUGE debikele.
Debikecle #4- rain, cold, and no spare car to film. This was the day/night we were to end up at a camp site and do some camping so we had to get camping supplies. We went to the store with Adriana from Nike, tried to buy camping shit, and her credit card got declined. Fuck. So we have no camping gear, I don’t have a front wheel. And the later the day gets without us being on our bikes, the closer it gets to us having to find a campsite in the dark of a town/country that none of us are familier with. This happened the day before and we did not want that to happen again. Long story short, we shit canned the day and decide to make up the miles the following day. Which would be 127 miles from Diepe to Paris, on fixed gears..over rolling hills….without getting lost. Yeah right.
We got drunk that night again and set the alarms for 7am the next day.
This was the long day. Adriana didn’t know how to drive a stick shift car, so she asked me to drive. Kinda bummed, but at the same time I didn’t feel like riding that far on a fucked wheel. So I volunteered to drive with the map and make sure these dudes had a real smooth ride all the way to paris. None of those riders had ever done a 100 miles, so I thought it was only fair that I drive and they ride. It worked out good that way anyhoo.
Great day..made it 127 miles and they were so siked/ tired when they got to the hotel because they had made it. Fucking amazing if you ask me. Jupes had never even ridden 70 miles, let a lone 127. Truly amazing.
July 26th…..the next day was the Tour de France day. What a fucking day. Best day ever. Souveniers, beer, bikes, a lance Armstrong party, a tequila bike that we got wasted on, my birthday, more booze, superted passed out, booze, some girls, and more booze. Best day ive had in a really long time man. Best birthday in many many years that’s for sure.
Yesterday was recovery, and now im on my way back to work. Hope to stay in touch with all these fuckers. And do it again next year.
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A Maze Ing
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