Photo by Tim Kainu | Sean Milnes from OPEN Bicycle in Boston doing a 180 down some stairs.

Two weekends ago was the Mid-West Mayhem in Milwaukee. It was the dead of winter and yet somehow, this event drew riders in from every part of the country and even Canada. NorCal, SoCal, Texas, the South, North East, New England, everywhere. Through the aid of their sponsors, riders were able to pay for tickets and ship their bikes out to the event. I don’t think anyone expected it to be as big as it was. The date approached and I flew out to Milwaukee at 6am.

I’ve been sponsored by Milwaukee Bicycle Co. / Ben’s Cycle for a few years now and I had never been to their storefront before. Since I was in town so early, I got the full tour of their facilities.

It’s an amazing shop. They stock everything from vintage parts to modern road, mountain bike and fixed gear components.

The bikes they’ve collected over the years are gorgeous.

… and in pristine condition.

Across the street from their internet sales and main storefront, is the Ben’s Cycle and Fitness storefront. The main shop has been open since 1928. A few years ago, they bought the storefront across the street, which was an old movie theater. Inside this theater is loads and loads of vintage bikes, new-old-stock components and crazy junk (there’s no better was to describe it).

Back over in the internet sales office, Drew gave me the grand tour of their facilities. Of course he made me drool by pulling out these new-old-stock, or NOS, Campy Pista (track) cranks. They may not look like anything special to you, but this model in particular is incredibly rare. They lack the flutes (carving out) in the arms and have a printed Campagnolo shield. The last pair of these they had sold for $900.

It was now getting later in the day on Friday and people started showing up. Eric Puckett came in from Texas with a few other kids. Dude’s a ripper and we hook him up with Mishka stuff.

Tom was also there.

Doing what he does best.

He was doing this all morning. Like bouncing a tennis ball inside a prison cell.

I wanted to do bike portraits this entire trip, but only took a few. Here’s Tom’s Charge Scissor. Thing’s got some war scars. A huge dent in his down-tube from bailing on a nose-manual at the Brooklyn banks.

Here’s Eric Puckett’s Volume Thrasher.

Which he knocked over while I was taking photos of it.

We were all stir-crazy at that point and wanting to ride. Luckily our friends from COG Magazine were there to show us around to a few spots. So the crew that flew into Milwaukee on Friday took off around the city hitting up spots. Here’s tom pedal grinding a ledge.

Check after the  jump for way more photos, video and a recap of the entire weekend!

After we finished riding, we went to get some food. A few people continued to ride elsewhere in the city. We were beat after dinner. A few of us went out to some bars in Riverwest where we were staying. No photos from that night unfortunately.

The next morning we woke up and met up at Ben’s Cycle to do some much-needed maintenance on our bikes. Drew has worked at Ben’s for some time now. He and I work together on fixed gear products and over the years, I’ve probably spent more time on the phone with him than with my parents. Seriously, a great guy. He kept the shop open a few more hours for Tom and I.

Tom’s bottom-bracket had been rusted out and was in need of an overhaul (which meant throwing it out and replacing it with a spare I had).

Later on that day as the Revival premier at the Hi Hat in Milwaukee. The weather had quickly turned to shit so everyone huddled into the bar to watch the film and eat some food.

Photo by Andrew Temkin

I woofed down a Cowboy Burger.

Luckily for us, the owner of Ben’s Cycle had just bought a huge box truck. It was one of those “sure, why not” things. If we didn’t have this truck on Saturday night, we would have been screwed. The Cream City Skatepark was clear across town in Milwaukee. Easily 15 or 20 miles, through shitty streets, bad weather and bad neighborhoods. There were enough locals there to transport people, but there would have been no way we would have gotten all the bikes to the park. Cream City opened it’s doors, for the first time ever, to bikes that night.

Photo by Andrew Temkin

Man, was it worth it!

Photo by Tim Kainu

I know I’ve been posting a lot of photos of Tom, but those were seriously some of the best photos from the competition. A lot of the photographers were saving some of their pics for magazines.

The trick jam went down. Two classes; A and B, determined by your experience. The heats were simple; 3 riders rode for 10 minutes and the judges determined who would win overall.

Rob and Jeremiah from Hold Fast were judges, along with Kramer from Ben’s Cycle, Mosher from Volume and Jeff from All-City.

Shit was nutty. So many people showed up to ride.

AJ, aka Red Dick, from Texas ready to ride. He’s also on the Milwaukee team. Good dude.

I got some tricks in. Here’s a full cab into the bank.

… and a 180 down the long 5.

Ed Wonka nailed a big-ass wallride, which was the highlight of the night.

Photo by Andrew Temkin

Here’s a shot to give you an idea how big it was.

Everyone had a blast.

Here’s another edit from the night.

Like I said, there was a big turnout. All kinds of cyclists showed up. This is Mark, we crashed at his place in Riverwest while we were in Milwaukee. He’s a well-seasoned bicycle freak and even he was impressed with the weekend events.

Puckett again, looking stoked.

Mosher was to announce the winners.

The organizers handed out the prizes. Mishka threw down huge for this event. Like all events we sponsor, we want people, including the organizers to get a piece of the pie.

Mmmm pie. Cream City kicked us out at 2:30am. We were starving, so we found a 24 hour, pay-first diner. It was “meh”.

But people made the best of it.

The next day, most of the people had left. Tom, Kevin from COG Magazine and some locals went to Comet for their bottomless bacon baskets and cheap food.

Yes. Bacon baskets.

I think we ate two of them.

… on top of our dinner. Here’s my meatloaf sandwich.

That night we stayed at Kevin’s place. He showed us his Vanilla Speedvagen.

Damn! Single-speed cyclo-cross bike at it’s finest.

He also gave me a sneak peek at the new COG Magazine, which features our film, Empire.

The next morning, Kevin drove Tom and me to the airport. My flight got canceled. Twice. I spent over 12 hours at MKE waiting on a flight back home to NYC. Luckily, at the end of the afternoon, I ran into Mosher. We talked about the future of his website, Trick Track and in general, how epic the weekend was.

It really was an unprecedented event in the sport. I’ve never seen such energy at an event. A true milestone.

I’ve got some more in-depth coverage of the weekend over on my blog. Here’s Day One and Days 2&3. If you wanna see more photos, here’s my Flickr set from the event.

I want to thank everyone for throwing this. Mishka for sponsoring it and Milwaukee Bicycle Co. for flying me to the event. Seriously, thanks a ton guys!

- Prolly