Most of Friday was spent riding around getting acquainted with Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. We hit up several shops including Chari & Co (below left) and Affinity (below right). Dick Lane Velodrome fans might remember the several riders from Affinity that recently dominated “The Keirin” pro series races.

Saturday we headed to the festival to see a documentary about the Race Across America called Bike Dreams. The films follows several riders along the longest and most demanding bike race in the world. Stephen Auerbach did an amazing job of capturing the race’s highs and lows. I strongly recommend checking this film out if you get a chance.

After the film we walked out into the street fair, that was now in full swing outside the theater. Vendors of all sorts had tents set up showcasing their wares. We ran into Pikey bags from south Florida who were also featuring their friend Head Set Clothing’s hoodies (below left).

We also ran into the guys from Dodici (below right). You may remember the phat loot guys gave away some at the Death Pedal 2 premiere.

Geekhouse was also in attendance. Sadly one of their bikes had been stolen the night before.

My official best of show for the street festival goes Quiros Cycles. Prolly did a write up about Armando who makes these beautiful bikes. Armando is a super nice guy and his love for bikes shows through in his craftsmanship.

The street fair also featured trick contest for all types of bikes. The BMX guys had some mad ups.

Speaking of tricks, we ran into this guy:

Sunday night brought the premiere of Empire. We were lucky enough to get tickets to the second showing before it sold out. This was an amazing film. While they didn’t deviate much from the MASH formula they showed off some of the sickest fixed gear riding captured on video in the crazy traffic of New York. Empire has a great mix of fast riding and tricks, along with a killer soundtrack. After having a few days to get acquainted with riding in The City, this film seemed to inspire me to ‘ape’ it a little bit harder as our time winded down on a great trip to a great city hosting the best event I have ever attended.