Rocket Fuel - vintage cycling style

602nds is a new Australian based website giving reviews, interviews and covering all things cycling. Rocket Fuel jumped at the chance to have their bubbly personality CycleGirl review one of our caps.

After a fact finding phonecall to find out what colour her main bike was, a cap was dispatched in matching colours for her to review.

And what a glowing review it is. Read it here. While your there take some time to check out the rest of the fantastic information and reviews on the 602nds site. You can also follow them on twitter @602nds and CycleGirl can be found on twitter as @CycleGirlPdC

An exhausting long weekend of bike goodness is over for another year Didn't make it to as many events as I would have liked due to be overwhelmingly busy but here's my review.

November 12 - Art show in Darlinghurst. Despite a threatening rainstorm a few people braved the heavy thunder and cracks of lightning to make it out for the art shows. I was volunteering at the Bike Valet Parking so helped Gilbert, Yogi and the others park bikes.

The BVP is a brilliant service, they take care of your bike so you can go see any of the events and then just come back and pick it up when your heading off. The whole time it's been looked after by a dedicated team of volunteers. This team worked super hard all week going from event to event and were cheerful and having fun for the duration.

If you ever want to give back to the bike community volunteer for a session at BVP and help support this great initiative (as an added bonus you also get to look after some super nice bikes!)

November 13 - the start of the films. I was so excited for the films, I always love seeing bikes around the world and how the stories all come together.

Made in Queens - very endearing film about kids from Trinidad and Tobabgo who now live in Queens New York and have attached the biggest sound systems to their bikes. With over 5000 watts and weighing in at over 300 pounds it was not surprising to see them occasionally having to push their bikes! Nice film though felt like you were part of the 'crew' while you were watching it.

Where you go - follows the Tour d'Afrique. Very inspiring the idea of riding through Africa for 4 months seems like such an attractive prospect after seeing this film, as long as you don't think about the bugs. My favourite person in the film was the older gentleman from South Africa. He was so sad when the ride ended as he just wanted to keep going! I hope I'm still riding that hard at his age.

Second Session

Parasol - nicely done animation all drawn onto paper parasols but the story itself was enough to draw you into it and after awhile you forgot it was all on parasols and just watched the film.

Thoughts on my bike - one of the few environmentally slanted films this year, encouraging people to get out and ride before we all have to go live in a bubble on Mars.

Red Hook Criterium - I'd seen this one earlier in the year on you tube but was good to see it on the big screen. Done like an entertainment report it shows the annual red hook criterium which is raced on open city streets. Each lap racers must deal with cars, buses, pedestrians and a nasty cobblestone section. Great watch.

Where do you start, where do you stop - followed the commute of San Francisco riders as they rode to their jobs. Liked how the road rider had a crazy long commute to his job as an investment banker and that the lecturer used the San Francisco 'wiggle' to get past the hills.

28.6 - interviewing a great framebuilder. I liked this but I wanted it to be better. It kind of felt a bit rushed or not quite done as you wanted to know more about how he makes frames and why he does. Good but it had more potential.

Friends we love featuring Ellis G - The street art of using chalk to draw around the shadows that his bike created was nice, is certainly an idea I'll be keeping in mind for some future events I think.

Le Dernier Voyage De Maryse Lucas - the story of a man and his best friend returning his mothers ashes to her hometown. The thing that struck me most about this film is that he was heartbroken about his mother dying and it was lovely to see him healing himself by getting out and riding with his best friend. It was like the ride was helping him heal and the destination was not really that important. Very lovely film.

November 14

Street Party - St Mary's Cathedral place. Despite a low turnout it was nice to catch up some friends who were BVP volunteers, chat to some of the Le Pista Resistance crew and say hello to some new friends as well.

Was a bit of a slow day but things picked up when Lewis and Stefan started organising foot down comps and go slows. Would have loved to have seen competitions like that scheduled for the whole day with a timetable so people could plan what to see and what to enter. Perhaps a scavenger hunt or alley cat that had it's start and end points at the party would have helped bring down some extra people and added excitement to the day.

The first session of films on Saturday night was one of the more attended sessions with lots of the couriers and fixed gear riders turning out to take a look the polo, urban and fixed movies.

Was a good set of movies even if I was flinching a bit to see some of the crazy moves being pulled out in the Lucas Brunelle film. Amazing riding but wow they take some risks.
 
My favourite film was Soul of Steel about the legendary framebuilder Ciocc. He is amazing, still riding to work and dreaming of building new bikes. He is so passionate about what he does and so keen to keep it going and always striving to be better. Craftmanship like that is an awe inspiring sight but combined with his passion and humility just made me want to move to Italy and build bikes. If you can find this film I can't recommend it enough for making you fall in love with bikes all over again.

The second session of the night was BMX time. I was super keen to check these out and the first film didn't disappoint. Great riding, lots of interesting places as they were travelling and filming it all themselves. Made me wish I had ridden the BMX up that night so I could go for a spin after the films.

The second film was the story of FBM bikes. It was interesting from a BMX and business perspective. BMX wise these guys helped change BMX into being a by riders for riders type community and as a business they have set back after set back but continue to want to do better and provide better bikes. It was good but long and it was the session most people walked out on. I enjoyed it because I enjoy both BMX and the stories of business but others I spoke to said they didn't know all the people they were talking about and that it got boring so they left.

November 15
Last night of the films and from the look of the program contained some good stuff. This was the session which had the most audience reaction. More laughs, more buzz and more interaction. This combination of films had people talking more than all the other sessions put together.

First up we started with some downhill mountain biking by candlelight. Beautifully shot this really made you want to try riding in the soft glow of candles. I was sitting next to Will from mtnbike.com.au and we were both saying how it was a really nicely shot film that made you want to get out and ride.

-40c was the story of a commute through ice and snow at -40c. I really liked this because it gave me extra insight into one of my favourite blogs Up in Alaska. In the blog Jill talks about the temperature and how to ride in those conditions so for me it was great to see those conditions in this film and how you possibly get through it all.

7 deserts - beautiful beautiful film. Following the story of Sergi as he crosses deserts on his own was magical. I love how he befriended the camera and his funny personality added such a humaness to the harsh climates he was going through. If you've ever thought about packing it all in jumping on your bike and heading off into the sunset on your bike then this is the film for you.

Second session was a repeat or in the case of Made in Queens a threepeat. It's a good film but as a season ticket holder of the BFF who went to every session I felt that with all the hundreds if not thousands of films they have to choose from why did we have to get this one three times? It just made me feel like I was missing out on something?

Where are you go was just as enjoyable on the second viewing as it was on the first and while I did enjoy the second viewing I think I would have liked to see some different just because it is the Bike Film Festival and if you have access to a multitude of bike films then why not show a multitude of bike films instead of repeats?

 I enjoyed the festival
highlights
- were the hardworking team at BVP they did a great job crossing all over the city and setting up and taking care of peoples bikes.
- the number of events to choose from to attend
- some of the films were truly inspirational
- nice community atmosphere and friendly people

lowlights
- low attendance hopefully next year we see some more people turn out in support
- that I was too busy to make it to all the events, tried to get to as many as I could but would have liked to have made it to all of them.
- would have liked a bit more variety in the films. Maybe some from Australia? or make sure to have fixed, urban, touring, BMX, mountain bike and road bikes all featured at least once. Sydney has a wide range of riders and I feel the more they are represented the more they will turn up.

Can't wait for next year can only hope it is bigger and better with all the bike riders of Sydney turning out to support their community.

For more photos check out the Rocket Fuel events page and let me know what your thoughts were on the films and events.