Mash SF

Posted on | March 2, 2009 | No Comments

mashlogo MASH is a dvd documentary directed by Michael Martin and Gabe Morford that celebrates and reveals the inside scoop on fixed gear (one gear – no brakes – designed for track racing) bicycle riders in San Francisco. What started as a project to gather footage of friends and other riders, turned into a brilliantly designed and executed film project.

For all of the controversial aspects of riding a fixed gear bike in traffic, and the death-wish abandon these guys ride with, the overall feel of MASH SF is one of vision and joy and freedom. The stakes are much higher and surviving requires a keen awareness of all things: cars, lights, speed, pedestrians, hills…everything. To watch the riders in action is to see strength of mind, grace and elegance defined.

House of Cat interviewed MASH rider Andy Peterson on track bikes, culture, SF and the film.

What was the initial appeal to using track bikes for urban travel? For me, riding a track bike was appealing because it was reckless. I think you can get a broad range of answers to this question, most of which revolve around some sort of rationalization to the use of such an odd tool on the city streets. People may say, “it’s simple and cheap”. Still others may provide some epic answer such as, “it’s elegant…” But seriously, who the fuck are these people kidding? You ride a track bike on the city street because it’s stupid and reckless–and by default: bad-ass. It’s time that track bike culture admitted it.

MASH SF seems to be a real labor of love among friends. How did the idea for the film project come together? Filming was incredibly organic–no rhyme or reason to much of the footage that was shot. That being said, there wasn’t much organization to the filming other than finding one person to blast down the street on a bike and another to chase on a scooter. There was certainly an incredible amount of enthusiasm during our first showing at the bicycle film festival.

Andy Peterson

The tone of friendship and excitement during that night arguably motivated the rest of the project to end up where it did. It was a night where everyone’s differences were set aside to return to the touchstone of adolescence- a feeling of careless childhood summers spent skating or riding bikes with no end in sight. The rest of our time involved with the MASH project was a desperate scramble to regain that feeling and provide it to others.

There are some crazy stunts on the dvd. Do you have any safety tips for newbie riders? Bail out techniques? Don’t feel stupid riding a brake. Wear a helmet. Practice on streets/hills with no traffic (I did this frequently). Set your bike up properly- no suicide hubs and use double straps. No spds- only time attacks or speedplay zeros (Editor’s note: These are pedals and clips and gear things you should check out if interested). Check your bike frequently for cracks from hitting pot holes etc.

However, the #1 tip to people getting into riding bikes in a city is to keep your cool around crazy people in cars! Riding a track bike in the city (as compared to a road bike or cruiser) makes you 100 times more stressed around cars. Your fuse can be really short when people do silly things in cars. The logical impulse is to react violently, and one certainly has the right to do so considering that a car can kill you.

However, and I can say this from experience, it’s not worth escalating bad situations to something worse. I think we all have gone through a maverick phase while on our track bikes in SF– you can see this in the vid. I think its a natural part of doing something reckless on the city streets. Though many of us have had to learn our lesson the hard way to keep our mouths shut or our hands off someone’s car. The bottom line, unfortunately, is that drivers, as ridiculous they may be, are still armed with 2 ton killing machines and can put you in the hospital in the blink of an eye. Keep you cool, shut your mouth and turn onto another street when you feel the urge.

What kind of reception has MASH gotten in San Francisco? Any haters? Lots of Haters. Lots of Lovers. The reaction has been all over the board. The one reaction which I’ve become very tired of for its lack of ingenuity is the patronizing argument that a track bike in SF is “stupid because it’s not functional”. Well duh… of course its not functional. I think that’s the motivation for most of us to ride these silly bikes.

I can tell you, however, that the criticisms I truly consider are from those of bicycle advocacy groups. While there hasn’t been any formal criticism of our project from such groups, it’s certainly reasonable to assume that they are unappreciative of a bunch of ‘punk kids’ blasting through stop lights, harassing drivers and putting pedestrians on edge. I can appreciate this position–it motivates a breadth of maturity and reflection on the way in which you conduct yourself when riding a bike on the city streets. On the other hand, I think the film has given a form of transportation (the bike), once seen as mundane and inferior, a good kick in the ass and it is now appreciable by those who would have never pondered riding a bike in the city.

It seems like track bike riding has moved far beyond sport or job into a culture of it’s own. What is the general vibe within the community? Friendly? Competitive? Both? mashsmall The vibe has really fluctuated over time. At times it has been very competitive – others, very friendly. On a whole, I believe that the community has matured in leaps and bounds. Admittedly though, there is still the strange phenomenon of being gawked at when riding a track bike in SF- and this, for some odd reason (I know i’m putting my foot in my mouth right now because i’m IN the vid) has always bothered me.

Perhaps a litmus test to the scene can be my motivation to ride my track bike only at night, under the cover of darkness, and away from heavily populated areas. I suppose this could just as well indicate that I’m a bit crazy.

The dvd packaging is really nicely put together. I know that several riders are designers of some sort. Was this an in-house project? How much input did the riders have on the final product? The design, editing, technical writing, packaging- ALL of it was done in house. Except, of course, the mass production of the final product. We have some very talented individuals who’ve been involved in this project and i’ve been very lucky to learn a lot about these related fields.

Any words for riders and appreciators everywhere? Thanks to everyone who has provided support for MASHSF. There’s definitely a feeling of satisfaction in knowing that our project has inspired people to ride hard, feel the pain of long hours in the saddle, and enjoy life.

You can get the dvd, check out more videos, gear, images, blogs and stuff at www.mashsf.com

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Mash SF

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