Ronnie Gaska Bike Check.

So before Ron goes on his one man road trip to TN to win some mains I figure I should post this.... Oh, and this guy's birthday is Friday also... be sure to email him your birthday wishes.


Part Brand/Type

Frame: Standard 125RG 21"
Fork: Sunday Morning
Bars: Sunday TRIUMPH
Cranks: Shimano DXR 175mm
Pedals: Shimano 545 Clipless
Pedals: Mosh (DX Replica) (note from Patrick: they never get used)
Stem: Odyssey Classic
Sprocket: Rennen 4-Bolt 44 (soon to be 39th)
Chain: Sedis
Seat: Generic
Post: Thomson Elite
Clamp: Zoom Quick Release
Headset: Odyssey Integrated
Grips: Primo Stricker
Brakes: Tektro V
Lever: Tektro V
Cable: Odyssey Linear Slic
Hubs: Profile Mini Cassette w/Ti Driver
Cog: Profile 16 tooth (soon to be special Rennen 14th)
Rims: Alienation Deviant/Runaway
Spokes: Odyssey Butted Race Spokes
Nipples: Odyssey G Sport Nipples
F Tire: KHE Folding Dirt Tire 20 x 2.15
R Tire: KHE Folding Park Tire 20 x 1.90"
# Plate: Team Long Island

Total Weight 20.11 lbs


Ron also told me he had a separate column in his spread sheet that listed individual weights, but said "that shit is top secret, and you're just making fun of me."

This man was to modest to do a full on interview, but I got these questions out of him.

Why do you ride a more or less all chromo race bike when most other
people are riding aluminum and carbon?

I had two bikes, a chromo trail bike and an aluminum race bike. I felt like
constantly switching bikes was preventing me from getting 100% comfortable
on either of them so I decided to build a bike that I could use for both.
For a trail riding bike aluminum was out of the question and besides one or
two headset spacers I have never had any carbon on a BMX bike of mine.


What's with those crazy cranks?

The 'crazy cranks' as you say, along with the gigantic looking front
sprocket and the V brakes are part of the racing side. The cranks are super
stiff and the big gear and V brakes are just more reliable than a small gear
and 990 brakes.

With all the Sunday/odyssey parts you run, it hardly looks like a race
bike... What's the deal?

The Odyssey and Sunday parts were also on my aluminum race bike when I had
it. They don't scream race bike but that's just because they aren't marketed
towards racing. That stuff is light weight, high quality, and super strong.

Any shoutouts?

Yeah, a lot of people helped me get this bike together:
Chuck at Quality Collision, John at Sign Designs, Nuno at Odyssey, Rick at
Standard, and Steve at Bike Discounters.
Also, Rich Soper helped me out with some stuff and my wife Lynnsey gets a
shoutout whenever I get the chance.



I stole most of these photos from his facebook, but also shot some of them.

Check ESPN. ESPN South Park Gallery

I can't even steal a title from "It's Always Sunny..." because Tom already did.... The Gang Gets Racist.

South Park is the best.
Good long ass weekend. Learned some things, Mike is a griller, Rich's favorite Disney character is Tiger and Ronnie Gaska is a legend more then we though.
Team Long Island is comin up.


We watched the first 2 seasons of "It's always sunny" on this trip.

The back seat of an escalade isn't made for 33 year old men.

Folding the seats down and sitting on top is just a temporary relief.

This tree got stuck the fuck by lightning. We had a crazy storm Friday evening.

Once the storm passed, Mike Grillkullen took out his 10 lbs of chicken that had been marinating for 2 weeks and got his grill on.

Rolled in style. It's a shame you don't have rims dugan, we coulda been ridin on blades.

Bikes.

Gaska kept telling us that he wasn't a big deal and to stop making him seem like one. Until the announcer started announcing. Not only was Ronnie the last to get announced before every lap, but he was referred to as "The Legend himself" This guy is bigger than jesus.

Crazy Al Cayne clockin some footy.

In his first moto of the weekend, the G-Man showed everyone that he was NOT fucking around this year.

Dugan is also starting his comeback tour.

At one point while I was shooting photos in one of Toms races, all I could hear was the dude next to him telling him how much of a faggot he was.

Mike Grillkullen hasn't quite got his swagger back yet, but be assured that he is fucking siked and that it will return shortly.
He unclipped this weekend and left his pedals and shoes in the dumpster. Flat pedal revolution.
I sometimes make things completely up.

The first step to getting big time is our factory sponsor?

Gaska earning a demerit. Flatter than a bottle of pepsi water?

Bivs making moves from the outside.

Grillin kilkullen still has a little swagger though.

I can't believe little Matt Polkamp beat me by so much this lap.

Gaska made it to the podium, Phil Potosnak is awesome.

Gaska, opincarr, Potosnak.

The gallery...

The files...

FBM - I love my bicycle weekend.

Rain fucking sucks.
FBM's documentary premiered at the Bicycle film fest this weekend. The whole weekend was just a mess. The video was awesome though.
I got a new iPhone, so get ready for messy video clips, and hearing my obnoxious laugh.


Boston George and I got lost trying to figure out where I lived friday night. We never made it. We built these hoboshacks(might have just been him building?) and slept under the BQE until 10am.

This is a Film Festival, start hurting yourselves. English put me thru a table or 2 and Kelly punched me in the face. All in the good way, haha.


We had to ride our bikes to the other side of Brooklyn to meet up with people. We got caught in this rain storm. Noone wanted to pick us up.


Russel Barone won the long jump, something stupid like 25 feet?


You can't see shit in this one, but you can hear it. It's the director Joe and Steve Crandal giving speech type things after the video


Fuck BMXBoard. Kelly Baker, I love you.

The Nice!est guy in BMX, John Lee.

John Lee is on every ones top 5, and is one of the nicest people around...

Photos stolen from Facebook, FBM and RyanHoey.com




FuckBMX: so your teeth all good?

John Lee: yup, i had a cleaning last week and no cavities and today i had a perodontical charting to check the condition of my gums

FB: so i guess we can start this with the typical 'how long have you been involved in bmx' question?

JL: geez, thats a tough one, i been jumping a bike ever since i learned to ride one, but i guess i started riding around 92-93

FB: what year did you start racing? around the same time?

JL: nope i started racing later, when i first got into riding i was racing R/C cars down the street from shorehame in wading river. There was a hobby shop called Latest Hobbies and raceway i would go there every sunday to race and one day on the way to racing i asked my mom to stop into bmx track to look at it
JL: but it wasn't unitl my friend brian waller and i went to track in 94-95 that i did my first rookie race
JL: shoreham was crazy then, my first race in 14 beginner has 1/8ths
JL: i didn't even race the main because it was midnight and my mom had to pic me up from the track and they were still running semi's
JL: plus my friend brian crashed over the doubles on the last straight and ripped the head tube off his MCS
JL: after that i didn't go back to shoreham for about a year and then really got into racing

Endwell.

FB: wow that's crazy... i thought you had started way earlier since Oak Park was already crazy by the time Shady Bunch came out in like '98.... How long did it take you to move up the ranks in racing?
FB: (after you committed to it)

JL: um... i moved up to novice locally after i got the 5 or 7 wins that you had to do. And racing nov at shoreham tuesday nights was fun, i did my National year as a novice,

FB: back then novice was an actual class i suppose, now it's kind of just a big joke... When did you start digging at Oak Park?

JL: man, novice was crazy then, i mean my first novice race i remember clearly. you had to be able to pick up and speed jump the camel into the first turn in order to be in the game,
JL: and everyone was pedaling over the first roller
JL: in beginner if you could jump the last doubles you could take it anytime, in novice everyone could do that. And open wheels at the time was really crazy
JL: As for oak park the earliest footage i have of that place is around 92-93, but i think i started digging there in begining of 92, it all started because Chris watson took me to sterits in patchogue after school one day and when all the older guys weren't looking i tried to jump a roller and case so bad that it turned heads
JL: they guys there told me i should build my own jumps to learn to ride, so i took there advice
JL: Originally Oak park was Chris watson and myself, chris got his learners permit and stop riding and at the same time James Zylowski, Ron Jones and Brian Waller started riding with me and we all built at oak
JL: When James, Ron, and Brian faded, Matt Vietch and Reid were right there

FB: That's pretty wild that it started because you essentially got kicked out of other trails... and then turned out to be a few years before it's time
FB: did you guys just like pedaling and going as far as possible?

JL: i guess it was being kicked out but it was done for the best, build at your own pace and build exactly what you like to ride and its all smiles
JL: at the time with oak everyone built practice tracks in some form, and we just liked to go fast and far, so you had to pedal
JL: 45/16 was my gear of choice then, 5th gear wide open

FB: haha sick

JL: but if we had a down hill when we started oak, we would most likely have still cranked and just gone farther

FB: haha, thats how it was back then though because everyone raced anyway
FB: what year was it that you got picked up by TNT and fell in love with the stove pipes?

JL: i never rode for tnt, but i always thougth the stove pipe was cool looking since i saw one on a tnt long fellow frame. Terra had bike with stove pipe, it might of been his chrome tnt, or the teal one, it was bad ass. But I worked at sayville bike works and we had a great working relationship with tnt, and when they decided to do a dirt jumping bike (KOD) they gave me the prototype to ride and it had a stove pipe.

Fresh.

I'm pretty sure this isn't even the stovepipe frame, dude just likes life.

FB: i think most people on long island know you because of sayville (myself included) how long did you work there for before disappearing tot he unknown?

JL: I started working there when i was in tenth grade so that is about 94-99, then i went away to college and worked there summers and holidays from 99-02, then when i move to bklyn, i would work at the shop on the weekends from 02 - 06, so that 12 years of shop time
JL: Working at sayville bike works was awesome
JL: Jeff is such an amazing guy. He is a great boss, but more important a great friend and like a second father in ways, not to get all emotional and what not but he is a big infulence in my life has always had my best intrest in mind.
JL: even through he set me up with z-tec, his heart was in the right place
JL: ha ha

FB: hahaha
FB: yea, to this day the only shops i ever go to are jeff's and bird's... the atmosphere in there hasn't changed a bit.

JL: i haven't gone to birds shop, but you know bird use to work at sayville bike works

FB: bird worked at tonys forever too, and that was my local shop, so he was someone i grew up around
FB: were you a big part of all the random parts that were produced? monkey and local bars, woody cranks, the 2 eddie frames and the infamous FUF's?

JL And speaking of Bird, that dude is amazing a hugh influcence on the LI scene
JL: Ya i am guilty of some of that, the monkey bars weren't suppose to be like that,
JL: but fabweld wasn't able to do a dual radius bar, but we didn't know that until 50 pairs showed up
JL: shoe did the local bars, i was away then
JL: and the woody cranks were and big eddie frame i had a part in
JL: the frame i did the geometry, but jeff was really wanted that gnarly gusset on it
JL: which was a bit over kill, but a head tube never popped off

FB: haha yea, and it was also like 1999... i mean... i bought one...

JL: the frames were made by a place in PA, smoresbourgh, and that dude made high end stuff, so the quality was there
JL: you should ask jeff to see the prototype of that one
JL: its a monster! ha ha, It took Ron Harters help with drawings to get it to look like a bike
JL: Ron Harter does inspection at shoreham some time, he is another smart dude with his heart in the right place
JL: ron helped a bunch with the race frame, Fast Eddie
JL: which was a great race frame, in my opinion
JL: I could go on and on about the fun we had at Sayville bike works, i do miss turning wrenchs at that shop, and the amount of bmx stuff we did, but it also got me to appreciate all bicycles

FB: yeah, i have a complete fast eddie in my basement, and Ron Harter designed the race frame that Lofreddo rides now ?I'm pretty sure
FB: So where did you go when you disappeared for a while? where did you go to college, what kid of degree did you get?

JL: Ron also helped Hyper with there race frame

FB: brb i have to run down to 40th st for a minute

JL: nice
JL: i never really thought i dissappeared. I moved away from LI because i was going to school full time at Dowling college and working full time at sayville bike works, digging, riding and between all that i wasn't getting a "college" experience. I wasn't meeting new people, i was going class, making money and feeling like i wasn't getting what i was suppose to out of school. so i transfered to Suny binghamton graduated in 02 with a BA in History and a concentration in Africian Studies

FB: word... what was the deal with you running stirctly gold rims for a while... it was like your signature back when...

JL: Do you remember ross bicycles?

FB: yeah

JL: they were based on LI and had hugh warehouses, Well they called us up and found boxes of 20inch rimes, in gold, blue, and red. they were single wall rims like araya 7x but made by sumo. Sayville bike works bought almost the entire lot of them because they were 2 dollars for the pair and came with an unsealed hub that needed to be rebuilt.
JL: i would relace it onto the sealed hubs i was running, but at first i would just rebuild the hub and run them until they quit on me

FB: haha
FB: how long did they last? how many sets did you go through?

JL: well you had to keep your self smooth with single walls and they held up great until i started riding skateparks. I would go throught a pair a year
JL: my moms basement i still have 2-3 pairs
JL: of just gold

FB: haha
FB: any plans to resurrect them?

JL: no need, John Wells at Sun ringle hooked me up with the last pair of gold big city rims he had and i put them on the new bike, so its back to gold

FB: haha i defiantly saw that and didnt even notice them
FB: so since you seem to turn up in everyone from long island's top 5 riders.... who are yours? past and present

JL: yes i saw i made it on a few and wow i am floored, to be considered in a top five with jay bone, joe rich, and bf is an honor
JL: Is this just riders from LI? or in general

FB: in general

JL: past: Drew Jenkins, Keith Terra, Robbie morales, Mike Griffin, chris moller
JL: present: Keith Terra, Chase Hawk, Brad Simms, Chris Hancock, Clint Reynolds

FB: I'm pretty siked to see Hancock on that list.

JL: Dude, i can't even begin to tell you the magic of chris hancock
JL: he is urban legend status
JL: kinda like Gaska
JL: mythoical

FB: haha thats pretty believable. he can handle a bike better than most

JL: he is great ti ride with
JL: you should have scene when he won one of the ECT la rev am contest

FB: word on the street is that you do the best no footed toboggans of all time... what's your secret witht hose?

JL: oh wow, i haven't done one of those since Darren called me out at the Powers Jam
JL: i dunno really, grap the seat and dip it

Feet still on, but certainly dipped.

FB: are you gunna bring one or two out this summer at belmar?

JL: i am not jumping that belmar jump
JL: i spent about 8 years pedaling full speed at the oak park doubles like 50 times a day. i am over it
JL: but i am sure going to watch the chaos

FB: haha

JL:this years belmar is going to be wild, its the last one we are doing so you gotta go

FB: i am going
FB: i told shoemaker i would sponsor him
FB: you guys need to spread the word that it's the last one
FB: on the topic of "you guys" how long have you been at last call for now?

JL: It has been 3 years in janurary since i been working for FBM/Last Call


FB: in that time, Nice! has started up... I heard a rumor that you were a big influence on that company name... can you verify that for me?

JL: Ha ha, its a group effort, but iw ould say Chunk should get the credit
JL: he would always nice and it kinda stuck

FB: haha, i have to say, when i saw the post saying you lost your nice guy status, i was pretty upset. minutes later though, i saw that you immediatly worked your way back up and took it back.
FB: i think the only question i have left, aside from the thank you thing, is asking about your addiction to mexican candy.... where did it come from, and what qualifies as mexican candy? can it be found in places that are no mexico?

JL: let me set the scene for you...
JL: i went on the first props rock n road fools and it ended in Austin at the T1 ramp. i got to ride the ramp earlier in the day with a couple dudes before the heavy hitters showed up. I went to a little bodega by T1 to get a drink and some snacks and they had a lollipop that looked like some corn on the cob.
JL: I am all for trying new types of candy, so i picked it up and went back to the t1 ramp. Imagine sitting on the ramp and watching Joe Rich, Taj, and chase shred the ramp. while sitting there eating the best/worst candy ever.
JL: It is sweet and spice at the same time
JL: and sends your mouth into confusion
JL: the last time i got a big score of mexican candy was in bklyn on Canton ave
JL: across from the soccor fields
JL: on the weekends

FB: haha, so do you fiend for the stuff now, or just enjoy it when it comes around?

JL: right now i burned out on it. People just kept sending more and more to fbm and i went crazy eating it,
JL: Hoey gave it a go when he was up here last week

FB: so it's almost time to leave work... thank yous and such?

JL: As for thanks, i would like to thank the entire LI bmx scene of past, present, and future,

FB: cool. thanks for taking the time to do this while running the distro