Our man Lee Cruickhank is one hell of a good guy. How good I hear you ask? Better than good is what I say to you. Lee has been a super supporter of Hell On Wheels since forever and he is a top bloke to go riding with. Lee recently cracked his frame of almost 3 years and was in dire need of a replacement for his old faithful. His choice was made and the frame ordered.

He chose wisely, and settled on A Fit marv frame. It just would not be a Lee Cruickshank bike with paint on the frame now would it? A tasty shade of raw was the call, and my word does it look spiffy! After riding any frame for nearly 3 years and you get pretty damn used to its geometry. As the Marv has a few rather different characteristics to his old frame, Lee was expecting a bit of ” gotta get used to it time ” , however that proved to not be the case. Adapting instantly, Lee was more than excited as to how the new vessel rode.

Fit + Lee’s impeccable taste in bicycle styling = One very attractive machine!

Lee getting it done downtown through the lens of MC George………..

………………………………. Just in case you were wondering as to the relevance of the tittle of this post, other than the fact that it has Lee’s name in it, then I have a fairly boring story for you. When I first got started in BMX racing around 96, there was this top gun amateur racer in the states who rod for GT and his name was actually ” In Hee Lee”. For some reason he never really raced in the pro class but he always go loads of pics in the magazines. At the time I was sooo into anything GT did and so I would study all the pics of this GT clad race pilot. Then for no reason, whilst trying to think of what to type here today his name randomly popped into my head and that brings us to now. See, rather boring story.

Here is our man looking youthful back in 88………………….. mmmmm relevant!

When our old buddy Pete Dawson from the UK told us he was moving to New Zealand we were naturally pretty damn stoked. Then weeks after moving there he told us his car got stolen with all of his belongings inside it including his bike , naturally we were pretty damn bummed for him. After many facebook messages trying to get that dream list of parts just right we set to work to create Petes new vessel, and my word isn’t she pretty as a picture. The fact that the bike is mostly all black and the fact that Pete now lives in New Zealand is merely a pleasantly unplanned coincidence .

Seeing as though Pete is over the age of 26 and his preferred brand of riding is trails, he opted for a very manly set up indeed. A Fit Brian Foster frame mated with some pitchfork XLTs, a challenger stem, metal odyssey pedals, a 28t tree sprocket along with 180mm profile cranks and a radically railed S&M seat make this an object of desire while at the same time being a deadly weapon of mass shreddery! Oh and it also has brakes…………. did you hear that folks ……….. brakes……….. wow! What a man!

The Blue Falcon himself would be proud of this mobile for sure. Pete I hope you get many amazing sessions in aboard your amazing new vessel! Get on.

Im a sucker for any oldschool bikes, cruisers as specially. So when one this special rolls through the door I get a little bit excited and emotional.

Our Buddy Aaron has been working on his amazing Zeronine cruiser for quite a while now and the time and effort he has put in really shows. This thing is an absolute masterpiece! Zeronine is a company many of you would never have heard of. If you care to take a little history lesson, you can read a bit abut them here.

Nice one Aaron! You can bring your old machines in for me to freak out over any time.

Thats right! Our man in race land Ben Hidalgo has been repping the cromo race machine in the form of an S&M 38 Special for some time now, needless to say he has been loving it to death. When S&M began offering custom versions of some of their already existing and amazing frames, Ben and I got thinking how sweet it would be to improve onthe 38 special just a little bit to suit his riding. So the online custom frame order form was filled out and 5 weeks later ……… boom! This frame looks an absolute treat and Ben assures me that it rides like a dream.

With a longer top tube, steeper head angle and a change in BB height, this frame rides exactly how Ben needs it to. Ben is a lucky man indeed, he is even luckier to land a girlfriend as cool as Ash, who got a custom chainring made for Ben for Valentines day! Legendary move Ash!

Expect to see Ben smashing it out aboard this fine vessel in the Elite mens class this year. For now I managed to dig up this old video of Ben scoring a second place at the national tittles a couple of years back.

YEWWWWWW!!!!!

What is S.H.I.A i hear you ask? It simply stands for ” So Horrible It’s Awesome” and that my friends was the inspiration for the latest custom build to come out of uncle Tommy’s evil bicycle laboratory. Yesterday once the building began, I could not come up with a name for this new work of evil genius no matter how many ideas and names I found at the bottom of my mind tank, I was just drawing blanks. Today was a fresh day and as soon as the beast was complete, the name just came to me, it was so organic. Enough of the fluff, without further ado, ladies and Gentlemen a round of applause for………

………….. The one and only Olletanod!!

Olletanod is the reverse spelling of Donatello. If you know your stuff then you know that Donatello was the Teenage mutant Ninja Turtle whose colour was purple. Donatello was predominantly green with purple highlights, the Olletanod is the reverse of this and is mainly purple with green highlights. Reverse! Wow!

Donatello was a badass. Shown here getting things done with master splinter. Olletanod is also a bit badass and has an impressive spec list to back up its wild looks. Using a Mankind Justice frame, forks bars and cranks and mated together with Proper Bike Co’s finest of wheel sets, stem and sprocket, this is one serious turtle. Fly Ruben tyres and graphite pedals, Animal Edwin and a United pivotal seat round off what is set to be one of the most talked about bikes in this room! The pictures really do not do any kind of justice to this bike so that just means you will have to get yourself down here to inspect Olletanod in the flesh and for a cool $1449 you may be left think that it is so amazingly S.H.I.A that you may just end up purchasing it for yourself!

Bike of the week time and this week we have a treat for anybody old enough to know who Darell Young is. A freaking JMC!

JMC was one of the radder companies out there in BMX land in the late 70s and early 80s. What started out as a bike shop named Jim Melton Cycles in 1969, became a full on BMX frame and components manufacturer by 1977-78. Ask most old schoolers out there and they will tell you that JMC was one of the must have bikes of the era, hell I was born just one year before JMC went out of business and after seeing this beauty in the flesh i want one!

Darell Young ( with the number 7 on his plate ) was one of JMCs top gun riders and was regarded as one of the best and most stylish riders of his time. Much like Brian Foster, he could beat you in a race and then out do you at the local trails. Legendary.

Many Aussie BMX racers of today as well as those from yesteryear will know who Damon Bevan is. Damon is an absolute legend and one of the coolest guys you wil ever meet. Pictured above in the early 80s getting rad. Damon rode for JMC for many years and I am sure he still has every single one of his old bikes tucked away safely at home making the most die hard BMX collectors extremely jealous. Damon is still racing and is still pretty damn quick around the track too.

There you go folks, nothing like a little bit of history for you on a Tuesday afternoon……. hoorah!!!!!

Today marks the retirement of my old faithful and much loved bike. The “Red Dragon” has been with me since April 2008 and has not let me down once. This Deluxe XL frame has been with we through some great sessions and some harsh crashes, it was upon this faithful steed that I was propelled face first into the concrete during the head injury plagued year of 2010. It is a sad thing to retire such a good piece of equipment, but changes need to happen eventually.

The replacement frame had been perched proudly upon my bench since a week before Christmas waiting for its time to be mated up with its bike part buddies. Another Deluxe frame was the obvious choice and the newer and slightly improved version of the dragon, the ” Tech 2″ was the frame I chose.

RAWWWWW!!! I had been planning this build in my head day after day as i saw the frame from the corner of my eye each day over the holiday period. The biggest plan I had for the build was to get rid of my red alloy spoke nipples as well as the black spokes and replace them with nice shiny silver ones for a touch of class. Since foolishly getting rid of it over 10 years ago, I have long lusted after another original Profile front hub to match my long serving and ever so classy rear hub. I had been running a more modern mini front hub, which has been great, but the fact that the hubs didnt quite match between front and rear had been bugging me for a while, ( I know, right what a freaking bike nerd!!!! ), after tracking down and receiving the masterpiece of a hub, I was ready to build. I re used the majority of parts from the Dragon as they are all rad and in perfect working order. I did however replace the old forks with a fresh set of S&M Pitchforks.

Pretty as a picture!

The new bike psych is currently in full effect and I am going to go as far as to say that I haven’t been this excited about a new bike since I was 15, I love that feeling ( more total and utter bike nerd action in effect once again ) and can not wait to take this machine out to the trails to break her in. But first the bike needs a name. The Red Dragon was a good name for a bike, but what to call this raw beauty? I dont know…….. maybe something like “Roger Raw face” ? This may take some time.

That is the case for our man David deep Cee diver Cragglan. After discovering a crack in his old faithful Simple Lombric, it was time for a new frame. A very 90s inspired white red and chrome look seems to have gone over very well indeed. I like your style fella.

Dave has recently joined a local gang and has been busy hustlin up a storm on the mean streets of the inner west side.

Dave is still running his big bad perfect 10s and is sporting one of Trents finest saddles, mmmmmmm bad ass is the term we are all looking for here. If you see Dave flying around a skate park near you………. stay the hell out f his way, he rides too fast and is packing heat in his waistband and aint affraid pop a cap .

I know that when a bike is worthy of the fabled Hell On Wheels bike of the week, It is generally a prize awarded to the best bike and that bike alone. This week however we have 3 bikes of the week. Hey dont yell, it is Christmas after all.

First up is up and coming Five Dock ruler Jono and his sweet new Proper TTL. Jono has recently officially become a man by breaking is first frame. Nice one bud, we are proud of you! So on the eve of the eve of Christmas Jono poped down for a fresh new steed. Aint she pretty as a picture.

Here is to many happy shred sessions Jonno. See you at the dock!

Our next bikes of the week are of the big wheeled variety. Legends of the inner-west BMX community Lee Lee Cruickshank, and Rhyme master reverend Rabbi, decided they were sick of trying to ride their little brakeless freedom machines across our fair city, so some larger wheels were needed. Keeping it BMX was an important thing for these guys so the natural choice was a tasteful Focale 44 running a freewheel and just a rear brake……….ooooooh yeah!

Look out for these fly funboys to be smashing through city traffic on a regular basis.

Rhyme master reverend Rabbi was quoted to say that from here on in he is all about speed, hot nasty badass speed! Look out for the 2016 Olympic velodrome team to include this cheeky little speed demon.

When our buddy Scottish Mike asked me to order him a set of proper real ordinary slam bars a few months back I was impressed and excited that there are still people out there who know a good sized and good quality pair of handlebars when they see them. So I happily ordered them in for him, Mike then disapeared up to Bundaberg to do the tourist fruit picking thing for a few months. The slam bars sat here the whole time waiting for the scottsman with good taste to come back and claim them. Yesterday as i am closing the shop the mysterious Scotsman returned to claim his long lusted after handlebars. He also decided it was time for a new frame, fork, cranks , sprocket, chain and pedals. Get On! The end result is a mans bike worthy of riding the finest trails and parks out there.

An S&M Cam Wood frame, a set of Pitchfork XLTs, fresh profile cranks and a proudly Scottish BDS sprocket were a perfect choice!

Real Slam bars………8 x 28 is all you need kids!

Cant wait to get a session in with you and your new steed Mike!

These are some of the words that we could use to describe this rad new custom built S&M ATF, and it is also a pleasant coincidence that words in the tittle once abbreviated become A.T.F…..wow now that is really something! Good friend to the store Lorette has been on the lookout for a new complete for a while now, and after deciding that she did not like the look of any of the stock completes out there, the raw beauty of the stunning A.T.F caught her eye and we set about the task of building it up into a custom ride. We used a United Supreme parts kit to finish off the build and the end result is badass to say the least! Lorette, we hope you get many amazing adventures out of your new bike, and that it treats you well……of course it will its a bloody S&M!!!!

If you dont think this is one handsome looking machine then you are either blind or you have such bad taste that you think that Two And A Half Men is quality Television programming!

This is Sam .Sam also goes by the alias of Russ. Russ is really annoying because his nick name does not really sound like a regular nick name like ” macca” or ” Jimbo”, it is just another persons name. Depending on who you are talking to, upon referring to either Sam or Russ, that person may only him as either Sam or Russ but the not other so then you have to explain……you know the dude from Mudgee who lives on the Northern Beaches and is the brother to the now notorious 5 dock local known only as “Slim” (I know right,why does his brother have a proper, sensible nickname)…….oh that Sam/Russ…….got it.

As you can probably tell by the photo Sam is a huge S&M fan, (for good reason) and he came by the other day to get his hands on his long lusted after BTM frame. I think he was so excited that he actually dressed for the occasion.

“Hey Tom, if I cover up the ” N” and the “D” in AND, then my headtube says SAM.” Yeah Russam!

This is one tasty looking rig, and is built for some serious shred time and if you have seen Samuss ride then you know he will show this bike a thing or two. Get on!

A Hell On Wheels bike of the week, a rare thing these days. Needless to say Trent came in today after receiving good news from the doctor regarding his noggin he decided a treat was in order.

Trent only went and purchased the Anthem FBM frame. Considering Trent is also running some Boorman built GSPORT/Profile wheels this bike is basically as good as any one bike can be.

Plus it looks like a Harley, splendid.

Rohan bounced into the shop a day or so ago to build up his new S&M, he had a grin that went right the way around his skull. Anyways, here is his very own BIKEOFTHEWEEK feature and a HellOnWheels exclusive video documenting Rohan’s time at the shop.

PS…Bike cinema Friday is coming up on the first Friday in August, no doubt some ramshackle video promo can be thrown together for that also.

YEAHHHH ROHAN!

RDC BIKEOFTHEWEEK from Hell On Wheels on Vimeo.

There is a first time for everything, and seeing as though have been lagging on the “Bike Of The week” front of late, what better way to re- instate the tradition than with this incredible video bike check of our favourite large gap jumping Blue Mountaineer Alex Liiv. Enjoy….we know you will!

Alex Liiv Bike Check 2011 Starring Handsome John from samgreen on Vimeo.