As I move a little further down the road to bringing my vision of Marshall Taylor being a household name, I decided to redo the look of my blog a bit. Unfortunately, web design ain't my thing and when it comes to paying the proper respect to Major Taylor and his legacy through web design, this is as far as I take it folks! I am a firm believer that people should stick to their core skill set and this sure ain't mine as you can see.
Nevertheless, I have been SUPER BUSY working on the long range strategy to make this blog a worldwide success and what I can tell you is I am moving away from my 'Urban Design' ONLY thought process. I came to this conclusion because what I have come to understand about Major Taylor is that he was a man that had a vision, and eventually accomplished it. It was, as was the title of his autobiography, 'The Fastest Bicycle Rider in the World.' Yes, he was an urbanite in many respects but he was a World Sprint Bicycle Champion who happened to be black instead of a Black Bicycle Sprint Champion. His race didn't define him and living in a time when Jim Crow was the law of the land here in America, he succeeded in spite of his race
He overcame to become a champion between 1899-1901 even though the racing circuit at that time was determined at seasons end from a total point placement system and Taylor wasn't allowed to race on tracks in the south and was banned in his hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana because he was black. Had he been able to race in the south and Indianapolis AND not banned from a cycling organization (Racers had to be a member to be recognized as Champion) because of his race, I guarantee he would have been World Champion from the years 1897 to at least 1905!
Anyhow...as the Terminator said in the 1984 movie "I'll be back."
I have found him! Who you ask? Someone I have come to know as ‘The Fabricator of Funk’. Over the last 7 weeks or so, I hinted at the fact and posted a raw frame picture, concerning the fact that I was working on one of (the 1st) of my prototype designs. I posted on craigslist in an attempt to find someone who could fabricate some of my designs. I got a response from 2 people and both of them referred me to the same person (one gave me his email address) who I only knew as ‘Casey’. I contacted Casey and the rest (when our launch comes) you will be able to say is history! I will not give you details, contact information and such about him because he is launching his own machine shop dedicated to building and creating original works of art (you may know them as custom designs) to remind the world that originality is king! Although I love design and talking about bicycle design, where aesthetics is concerned), there is much I don’t know and Casey my friends, IS the ‘Missing Link’.
We are closing in on completion of my 1st design in a few weeks. This design is called; ‘Illuminati’ which means; Someone possessing or claiming to possess a higher level of enlightenment. This name is very appropriate although I know that I do not have a higher level of enlightenment, but I certainly do claim so, do I not?! I think where bicycle design is concerned, enlightenment is ‘Relative’ to what you like and think is HOOOOOOTTTT! I saw some heavy weight ‘TREK’ Beach Cruisers in a shop not long ago, and I must say that I thought they were VERY NICE. Not HOOOTTTT (ala the Nuvinci by Ellsworth) but nice all the same. Someone else may look at that same ‘TREK’ and be like ‘YUK!’ Anyway, Casey has viewed a few of my designs and saw fit to refer to me as ‘Eccentric’. The purpose of the 1st design, Illuminate, was to not only build but for me to get a feel for Casey’s fabrication\alteration style and for him to feel where I was coming from. In my opinion, I couldn’t have found a better Fabricator-Machinist than he! Standby my dear readers for the roll-out of the 1st Signature Line of ‘RYDZ’ by Marshall Taylor in the spring of 2009….. REMEMBER THIS TERM… PROVOLUTION; Bringing the best of the past, forward to the present, and carrying that ideal into the future.
One of the most well known entertainers of the 20th Century started this. Your boy LIBERACE started this! Oh yeh my dear readers, check it out!
Felt Racing is obviously doing some BIG things! I tell yall what, I ran across some of there products in the way of beach cruisers and all I can say is the title of this post: Nice...Just flat out NICE! As someone who doesn't give a 'Hoot' about all the little gadgets and accessories on a bicycle and with a focus more on aesthetics, these are some of the cleanest designs that I have ever seen!
As I was viewing these designs, I said to myself "It is a shame designs like these can't or aren't sold in the 'Big Box Retail Stores' where 82% of the inner-city demographic purchase their bicycles." And looking at the MSRP of these bicycles, I do believe if Felt Racing partnered with a company like Pacific Cycles and all the distribution and purchasing power they have (if they haven't already) the prices could be forced down with bulk and these bicycles could be sold for between $150 and $250 in these stores.
I know that I am over simplifying the process but it just nags in my craw that the HOT bikes are in these independent dealer locations (no offense) and the hottest designs, like these never make it to the streets in big numbers because the large manufacturers settle for selling good designs instead of GREAT ONES!
Man yall, Felt Racing I know these designs have been out for a minute, but these designs are partly what I am talking about when I introduced you all to the new term of T.R.U. Bicycle Design! This ain't it, but I sure love the vision here. 
Like Marshall 'Major' Taylor, he had to contend with racism but he overcame the odds. Like Taylor, one of his wins was snatched from him by the judges awarding the win to one of his well known white rivals during an event. NASCAR did do the right thing a few days later by reversing the decision of the judges after irrefutable evidence of Scott's win. Scott, like Taylor many years before him had to overcome the many obstacles that went along with being the 1st and only black in a major sport to compete. There were racers who wanted him to fail at every turn and even conspired to bring about his failure but he kept on pushing and experienced great success as a stock car driver!
Pioneering blacks in American sports were men of vision and one thing they all shared in common was a love for their chosen sport and the will to succeed despite incredible odds. I marvel at the likes of Tiger Woods, Major Taylor, Wendell Scott, Jack Johnson, Arthur Ashe and others were true visionaries within the black community. After you read this, I want all of you to take a moment to reflect and research the careers of some of the African-American community's greatest and least talked about sports heroes. Without them, the groundwork for the mega sports stars of today would never have been laid and more importantly, the can do attitude of an entire community may never have existed! PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW FOR MORE OF SCOTT'S STORY.
http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Wendell_Scott.htm
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