This story originally appeared in Spoke Magazine. Another, fuller version also ran in Privateer Magazine. Before you read this, let me give you some background to the story: I’d just spent the previous ten months traveling almost non-stop (in fact, I’d been traveling for a lot longer than this but 2011 had been a particularly…
Each summer Chromag Bikes hold a Show ‘n’ Shine event where owners attempt to win the coveted Best In Show award. Well, not every owner goes for the win. While some people spend months putting together a fresh, beautiful bike or coming up with an equally impressive way of displaying their bike (think peepshow, full…
The weather changed this weekend. Summer, the longest and most violently summery one I can remember, finally loosened it’s grasp and slipped below the Earth’s waistline to shine and heat another world for the next half year or so. I was thankful to see the rain return after such a dry year and having the…
I was asked to scribble a prayer for the start of the Chromag Bikes 10th anniversary (actually, the 11th) ride, Exile On Steel Street. The loose topic I was given was ‘why’. Here it is. WHY? It’s stiff and it’s harsh, It’s brutal and jarring. Every bump is a thump, and each root is a brut. It’s antiquated and…
Twenty years of biking has taught me this: Keep your house in order. Learn how to maintain the trails you have. Sure, build new trail if you really need it but don’t forget to keep what you have tidy. Learn to corner, it will make your life better. Always reserve the right to maintain a…
I’m currently writing a feature story for the local newsmagazine, The Pique, and was reminded of this I wrote for the 2012 Crankworx Joyride finals. Thunderstruck kid gets in the van The heat choked the air from lungs and drained sweat from pores, evaporating all energy and vitality from the town. Fleshy young girls and…
Momentarily Forgotten By Seb Kemp I attempt to hurtle down an old familiar stretch of singletrack. I know the tempo of the trail, what’s over the blind crests and around each turn, but still how my tires play with the details of the route is something I have to be alert to. The web of…
A month ago I was lucky enough to earn a scholarship to attend the Dan Barham School Of Being A Better Photo-dude. What follows is a few shots that I came back with that weren’t actually that bad. I’m a terrible photographer – well, I’m certainly a reluctant photographer – so before going on this…
[This piece appeared in Dirt Magazine #146 and was republished on the Dirt/Mpora website. While it was produced many months ago it provides a counterpoint to Mike Levy’s opinion piece that appeared on PB just last week.] HEY YOU HATE THIS SMARTEN UP, DON’T DUMB DOWN Words by Seb Kemp Illustration by Jon Gregory I’m…
After the long and agonizing Bible Of Bike Tests process, Dan Barham put together this slate reel. In it you get to see how confusing things become when you ride bikes in the sunshine all-day and then get dragged away from your dinner to talk about them, for 15 days straight. See the bumbles and…
I’ll confess, I’m a big fan of Grant Robinson’s photography. His work demonstrates that there’s many ways to take a good photo and there’s no such thing as the perfect way to do so. While many action sport photographers create beautiful, pixel-perfect photos, Grant is one of the few who doesn’t just document the act…
Illustration by Jon Gregory [My monthly column in UK super magazine, DIRT got plonked onto the unsuspecting audience of the web this week. I asked for it to go up because…well, I knew it would wind some people up and I could stand back and watch people blow off steam on their keyboards, much…
[This was one of my favorite projects to work on last year. It was totally impromptu but came together really well I think. It was fueled by beer and my total desperation of how to cover a race event that is totally saturated by the mountain bike media. I approached the group of yelling, boozing…
This story was originally intended to be a feature story in the December, 2013 issue of Bike – an accord between words and pictures, as has been the powerful legacy Bike has nurtured for twenty years of print publishing. At this moment in time twenty years can appear to pass in one year; modern means…
Behind my house is a small stand of cedar trees. They aren’t the tallest or the biggest, but they certainly stand out from the crowd of pipsqueak pecker-woods. I like to take a stroll and hang out with the cedars from time to time. It often strikes me that even though I might be able…
Roller-blading CrossFit Bicycle Motocross It’s all amazing. It takes all sorts to make the world go round. I just know where I’d like to go on holiday on that planet.
Finally! Finally someone recognized the beauty in this shot that Camilla Stoddart took a few years back on my last trip to New Zealand. I mean, just ignore the plonker on the bicycle barely holding his shit together and look at the view! NATURE…Goulet! I have no idea what is hawt and what is not,…
A year ago we kicked this project into Go Mode. We (that’s We Are Union) are dreaming about the next chapter of The Escape and if all goes to plan then we will be hitting the road on some new and humungous adventures in the near future. Watch this space. But for now, enjoy a…
Story by Seb Kemp/Photos by Dan Barham/Video by Callum Jelley For the full feature, check out the December 2013 issue of Bike Traveling to a foreign land gives you a glimpse of its character. That’s a given. There’s a world of distinction, however, between being a tourist and being a traveler. The tourist experience…
Shimano MW81 Winter Cycling Shoes Price: $230 bike.shimano.com By Seb Kemp/This review originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of Bike Magazine. Winter can take a long run off a short pier as far as I’m concerned. Where I live, winter means dealing with a choking layer of devil’s dandruff. It’s not impossible to ride,…
By Seb Kemp Who is the greatest mountain biker of all time? Tomac? Lopes? Peaty? Vouilloz? Overend? Chausson? While all of these candidates have the qualifications and qualities to take the position, I believe considering only these nominees demonstrates a narrow assumption of what constitutes “great.” My nomination for the greatest mountain biker ever is…
A little while back Union Production Co. (one of the production companies 2Flat collaborates with) was asked to created two short videos to coincide with the release of two new Santa Cruz bikes. We were given very little brief other than they needed to be driven by the personality and work of some of their…
Brett Tippie is famous for his skills on the bike, for the role he played in bringing freeride to the masses and for his infectious laugh and famously oversized sense of humor. All of that is just scraping the surface of who Brett Tippie truly is. This is a look into the life of a…
In 2011 2Flat’s photo-whore/scribbling-dribbler Seb Kemp accompanied Jordan Manley and Rob Story on a trip through New Zealand for a Bike Magazine assignment. It was a fantastic opportunity to watch two professionals work up close and to roam through New Zealand’s South Island singletrack. Two years later and one of the shots from the trip…
The following is a collection of just some of the videos that we collaborated with Dan Barham, Vernon Felton and Bike Magazine (bikemag.com) for the annual bike show gathering, Interbike in Las Vegas. Rather than go down a familiar route we chose to try something a little different, a little humorous and a little more…
*Here’s a video that Dan Barham, Vernon Felton and 2Flat collaborated on for Bikemag.com. This was an amazing opportunity to get to know an incredible person and in the process produce something quite heartfelt and moving. Mark Weir is an icon. He’s the tough man of modern mountain biking. The grimacing guy, charging down an…
*The following is a little different than usual. A short piece of fiction about a world sometime in the future. Don’t take it too seriously. The Rooster Of Marcelo A short story about good intentions, bad worms and unforeseen consequences. By Seb Kemp Wayne Reid felt so pleased with himself that he vowed to…
I board my plane to Vegas in just a few hours. To warm my mind for such a change in season I decided to read through a short piece I wrote for Dirt Magazine several years back. I doubt much has changed and I am excited to be bamboozled all over again. — The Desert…
Crankworx has been and gone. As usual it was filled with hot days, long nights, missed connections, cursory contacts, lift line hellos, coffee shop commiserations and bar room congratulations. In among the blurriness the problem of creating creative, original, engaging content was forefront in my mind. Crankworx is the epicenter of the world mountain bike…
The following is an excerpt from ‘The Idiot’s Guide To Whistler’ that appeared in Dirt Magazine in 2010. Words by Seb Kemp. Whistler is proof that hard work, determination, and passion can bring anything to being. In 1960 Whistler didn’t exist, all there was was a few shacks and lakeside lodges on Alta lake, and…
A Couples’ Ride from Darcy Turenne on Vimeo. This video is brilliant. Anyone who is in a polygamist relationship with their partner and mountain bikes will nod emphatically at all the simple insights. In issue 135 of Dirt Magazine I dabbled with a similar topic. It is in no way as funny as the above…
The ranch at sunset. While living and working in the mexican desert I got to see the sunrise and the sunset most days. It was good for the soul to experience the big sky of open plains because the previous four years I’d lived mostly in mountain towns which meant big sunsets were a rare…
Here is a little rhythm from our time living in Hagley Gap, Jamaica. Photo from above by Ian Hylands. Winding seal, unfeasible hill; Dirt and rock, for my luck I knock. Roofs corrugated, walls brightly decorated; Unfinished stories, hopes of wealth and glory. Honest buildings gaily painted, it’s patrons long time acquainted; Darkened doorway barely…
One of the most interesting and rewarding projects that 2Flat has been a part of this year is our collaboration with several other creatives to form the Union and execute The Escape, our contribution of love letters (and photos and videos) to British Columbia. Our partners on this project were Dan Barham Photography and Tall…
It’s louder than a fart in an elevator, and just as menacing. The Corner, looks like a bunch of spring breakers who have gate crashed the civil war front line. A round pf rolling thunderous shouts issue from the assembled, half naked men and women. Flags waving above them, beers cans scattered like emptied…
Time for another quality Quinn Lanzon post. This time he muses on the link between movement and words. READING AT THE WHEEL There are a slew of fancy mantras about the experience of traveling from point A to point B. Can’t recite any offhand, but they tend to follow a trope where sometimes the commute…
News Of The Tweet, despite a little vacation during February, is back to regular programming on BIKEMAG.com. This week the Twitter highlights are all based around some pretty heated battles between the sexes. Check it out after the jump.
2Flat is very proud to post the first entry from Quinn Lanzon. He usually blogs under the banner of Quinzon but I believe we might be seeing more from him in the future, beyond this website too. Recently, during college reading week, he trekked down to Brevard, North Carolina to sample the riding delights and came…
Video kills me. Remembering lines kills me. Dan Barham heckling me at 6am in the morning after a neck full of spiked drinks while I’m trying to remember my lines for a video kills me. This is a teaser for an upcoming video segment that 2FLAT, Dan Barham Photography and Vernon Felton of Bike…
The Escape – Teaser from Union Production Co. on Vimeo. Recently I did a wee cycle mission around BC, trying to escape the snow (or lack of). Dave Roth and I set out from Whistler on our mountain bikes, towing trailers with our gear, and circumnavigated the Salish Sea entirely by our own power (and…
January has gone by in a blur. Sometimes the best way to remind yourself of what you have achieved and where you are going is to look back at photos. Despite some people’s technophobia or snobbish attitude to them, I feel blessed to be able to carry a wonderful little camera phone in my pocket…
STAND- Power Teaser from b4apres media on Vimeo. I’m very fortunate to say that Nicolas Teichrob is a good friend. We have worked together several times and I hope we work together a lot more in the future. One of the things that makes Nic such a good person and talented individual is that he…
Dirt Magazine #128 has been out for a little while but it was only today that I saw a copy with my own eyes. In this issue I have a story very close to my heart: Whistler beyond the bike park. I’m going to post the whole story below with some of Reuben Krabbe’s excellent…
I came across this promo video for Ryan Holiday’s book Trust Me, I’m Lying. Crafty, sly, dirty, manipulation or clever, slick, truthful use of the modern system of media communication?
The following (huge) story appeared in Privateer magazine #10 (August/September ’12). I feel extremely fortunate to be able to work with Privateer because they truly aim to tell the story of mountain biking behind the “news” and “releases”. More so, when I handed them my ridiculously large story regarding the history of the North Shore…
Back in May, after getting a substantial amount of metal work put into my foot, Dan Barham and I worked on this little snippet together. We had being planning a video shoot of an entirely different kind but when I injured myself it called for a radical re-think. We were then going to make a…
The delivery man just keeps giving today. He has been three times today and the latest package had Revolution Magazine issue 28 in it. This one has flown all the way from Australia but it contains a heap of content I pigeon posted their way. There is a short interview with Ian Ritz of Chromag,…
Yesterday I spent the evening with Sombrio being a part of their focus group meeting. Sombrio are expanding and moving in some pretty interesting directions, part of these changes is to converse with consumers and those affiliated with the brand. I was honored to be asked to join and the evening was a great chance…
All of my daily reports from the 2012 Trans-Provence can be found here in one tidy link on BIKE MAG.com
Reading Terry Anderson’s think piece in Foreign Policy magazine (don’t be mistaken, I’m no well-read deep thinker, I actually found it on-line thanks to a tweet from Shane Smith of Vice) helps put things into perspective. Currently, I’m supposed to be scribbling down short reviews of bicycles that cost thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, there are…
2FLAT 