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2025 T1 Barcode Clear over Raw 21"tt Joe Rich and I grew up together. I've seen him progress from barely being able to jump, to being one of the best riders in the world. When he started T1 I really wanted to get a Barcode but I had just gotten a new ride and then I stopped riding. Flash forward to 2024 and I'm back riding and a new batch of Barcodes were being built. I had to snag one this time and boy am I glad I did!!

#bmx #bmx bike #terrible one #sandmbikes #root pedals #odyssey bmx #profile racing #fly bikes #joe rich #easton high school

Queen Beryl by Lichon Via Flickr: Melting Mirror as Queen Beryl from Sailor Moon <3 Check out her blog post about creating this outfit. www.meltingmirror.ca/beryl.html I need to sleep on this edit, but I really like this picture.

I think one of my favorite filmer/editor in BMX is Joe Rich. Which is strange to say cause video is not something a lot of people associate with him. Owner of T1, guy who had dreads and did huge turndowns, photographer but not really a video guy you know. Probably cause he doesn’t have the biggest body of work but neither does Stanley Kubrick.

Speaking of Stanley Kubrick. He is known in the film world as an auteur. Making movies is highly collaborative and when a director transcends the collaborative nature of film and injects his own personal style into all their work, they become an auteur. I would never use that term in BMX though cause that’s pretty much anyone who takes filming and editing BMX seriously. Honestly its never that collaborative enough to warrant such a title. But that idea of a filmer/editor injecting their own style is what I wanna discuss about Joe Rich and filming right now.

Like he has a style that is very distinctly his. Certain traits that constantly reappear in his body of work. Like he’s known for his photography skills and a lot of his videos he pushes that into video form. Often coupled with zooms or slides to give it movement and to emphasize what he feels was important about the still photo. He does the same with the video camera, in this particular video 8mm but he does it with a digital DSLR too where he keeps the camera still as if it was a photo. Sometimes the subject does all the motion, other times it emulates a still photo. Which seems popular amongst videographers who have some photo background. I say that cause Joe Cox often uses the same technique. Videographers with mostly just video work tend to move the camera more.

Travel is also a big theme in his video which more evident if you ever scroll through his Vimeo. It’s a theme really prevalent in his work. Which isn’t that unusual in BMX, being how travel oriented it is but still worth mentioning. He explores the personality of a place a lot. The locals there, the interesting sights. T1′s only video, “You Get What You Get” is just that.

I think the most easily overlooked factor in his videos is his choice in highlighting people’s quirks around him. Like Ruben’s interlude showcasing the things you can do on a train. It’s these shots that make the video really memorable and full of real personality. It shows a humane side in everything where in any media driven world including BMX there is a lot of posturing. It’s a naturalist style that really draws me in personally. People say BMX is all about fun but then they fail to show that side of it sometimes. Joe really is able to capture just that and not in any grandiose way but in subtle things that bring out the most in the people around.

Also a lot of post rock. Which I personally like more with riding videos than any other type of music cause it forces more focus on the riding rather than being distracted by lyrics. But that’s a personal thing which I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who thinks that. But yea Joe Rich’s videos are always something else. It’s all very humble in their nature. Never any of craziest riding, not to say crazy riding or crazy spots don’t happen but it’s never the highlight of it all or even the main focus. Just something that happens. It sucks that he makes videos far and few between but always a treat when they come out. This video is one of my favorites. Always wanted to do train trip since.

Joe Rich & Ruben Alcantara

A Song For Our Fathers by Explosions in the Sky

Fifth Street by Delaville

Train Trip (2010)

Edited by Joe Rich

#t1 #terrible one #bmx #joe rich #ruben alcantara

We just posted a mix section section from Chasing The View Off The Cliff featuring Stuart King (in the screen shot), Joe Rich, Jeremy Smith, Mike Griffen, Luc-E, Mike Forney, Taj Mihelich, Jeremy “Mad Rat” Verhulst, Mark Murphy, Jody Donnelly, John Peacy, and more!

www.snakebitebmx.com/mix-section-1-chasing-the-view-off-the-cliff-1994/

#Chasing The View Off The Cliff #Stuart King #Joe Rich #Jeremy Smith #Mike Griffen #Luc-E #John Englebert #Mike Forney #Taj Mihelich #Jeremy Verhulst #Mark Murphy #1994 #Jody Donelly #John Peacy

I think it’s crazy how the culture of a certain time shapes who we are and how perceive the world and interact with it. Like culture itself is a bizarre notion, one of those things where if you stop really think about it gets more bizarre as your dissect it. A group of people who hold similar customs and beliefs, act upon those thoughts and create some sort of social unity to strengthen one another’s bonds. People are naturally social creatures so it’s probably a byproduct of all that. You’d think something like that would be a constant and unchanging but it’s proving to be not. Even though what we need now is no different than what the first homo sapiens and what everyone in the world needs, how we develop to face those changes in our world seems like how a lot culture develops.

This piece from 20 years ago has the same type of disenfranchised youth that populate a lot of BMX today but how they perceive with their world is different as night and day. Back then the youth of BMX was populated by kids who listened to a lot of punk music. The particular flavor would be hardcore and post hardcore. Music dominated by angry kids who were fed up with the problems created by the generations before. Even though we’d like to think times prior to us as easier times, there was a very dark cloud that loomed above kids of that generation. The threat of nuclear annihilation. It was something very real. That no matter what we as civilization accomplished seemed so meaningless when all of it could be destroyed within a day. The youth rejected the idea of being part of what they perceived as a hypocritical sick system where taking the world hostage was an acceptable foreign policy. The idea that since the that they were part of a country that created a situation that seems like a plan out of a evil mastermind’s handbook. This planted the seeds of doubt in the system. Soon everything else they learned was up for reevaluation. They wanted determined for themselves their own values instead of the common thoughts of the time. It created a nihilistic attitude that dominated a lot of the youth culture of the time. I think a lot of people believe nihilism is having a dismal outlook on life cause it is meaningless but in the original concept it wasn’t necessarily supposed to be viewed as just that. It was an opportunity to create new meaning in the world where the old ones seem to have failed.

Joe Rich and a lot of riders, musicians, and cultural taste makers understood this. Here he talks a lot about riding for himself and not some big company when the American Dream would be make yourself as useful as you can be to the system and acquire money as reward. I think something like this would be easier to relate to back then. Financial inequality was less, people were forced to view the world as simpler as most people were only aware of what was happening directly around them. Remember the internet was in it’s early stages wasn’t quite the dominating aspect of a civilization at the time. People weren’t bombarded with images and videos of pockets of people who have that much more. It was ok to just have enough. The idea of more social and financial capita wasn’t mainstream belief. To rebel against having more was just rebelling against the corporations and government and to larger extent the values of the generations before who they held responsible. Even something like Joe Rich’s opinion on contests are an extension of that. Reinterpreting what it means to win and lose in the post modern world vs what traditionally were. The times were a breeding ground for this kind of newer thought to spread. There was less expectation to have so much new things and those things you did get costed less and went further. Jobs paid more proportionally. Robert who is general manager somewhere down the street who is the richest guy in the town where everything you know exists, is only richer cause he has a bigger truck. That kind of difference most people can shrug off and the kids of the time certainly did. It was ripe for new ideas cause the standard of living were met fairly easily.

Today’s world is much different though. The standard we place on ourselves are much higher. Sure the thought of nuclear annihilation really doesn’t exist but we’ve replaced it with the feelings of not being enough. We’re bombarded with images of people with more constantly. Our social circles have grown exponentially to a near impossibilty. We can peer into glimpses of other people’s lives realize now that Robert who you thought was the richest in the town actually has a cousin who lives in the other side of town has a sport car and lives the life or at least seems to. Not only him but he has a whole group of 200 friends who do the same. someone of someone is always few button clicks away from living the life we wished. We mask those insecurity and any type of deficiency we feel about ourselves cause who we our online persona’s are put out 24/7. We’re judged even before we open our mouthes. We don’t really know how to handle to hyper social world of today. We’re the first generation to really undertake it. We unnecessarily placed a lot in the importance on the internet, something that was mocked in the early days but now it accepted to be serious cause it became serious. We all created our own persona as easy as we did our homepage. Probably why people seem to value real these days and equate it with the old. Where being honest can’t be twisted into some type of social weapon against one another in today’s loud culture of blaming. Today’s society is increasingly becoming the avatar we created for ourselves. All this would be laughable in Joe Rich’s time but quite obviously is accepted today. Joe Rich and them still lingered the values of the world created before them but as time goes by and this post modern world stays those values eroded. It’s ok to sell out. It’s ok to promote yourself. It’s ok to do anything really to get ahead. Life is meaningless and ultimately everything is about the now and me. The T1 motto of “GOD BLE$$ THIS ME$$” is becoming increasingly prophetic.

I don’t believe in revolution as a outcome to anything really. Not even in just a raise the pitchforks type of way but any type of drastic change. I don’t think people at large are capable of accepting change in such a quick basis. Sure how we dress our pants or the type of bike we ride can change very quickly but who we are how we think is much more different. I think this is the cause of a lot of problems today. That change is expected to occur immediately and anything short of that is a human rights abuse. In most instances of drastic change in history the host civilization has always had a hard time adjusting. Either the change is forgotten or mended or the people have a bit social unrest for a while which is truly more problematic. Change is natural and the most normal thing. People sometimes equate never changing to being real and I think those people are idiots. Adaptation is change and to survive in the world that is also changing we have to change too. If you never change, you never really grew. Which is understandable cause those people who equate never changing to being real are all a bunch of whiny babies. The internet changed everything and for the first time it’s instant, I think it’ll be interesting in long term how we adapt to it. Just cause we adapt doesn’t mean it’ll makes us stronger or smarter I should also mention, just means there is a large presence and we came to terms with it somehow. If that means everyone turns slowly autistic than that is what it is. Which is also a theory that floats around.

But yea Joe Rich’s time was something else and watching this was a glimpse into it. 1999 seems like yesterday for me but seeing this put it into scope of how different then was. The vignette on the fisheye and the simple clothes of a guy in dreads. The most anything like this can ever hope for is to inspire a few people of the coming generation to understand the wisdom of the time and to use it help create something new for the coming world. The progress what was already learned and make sure it’s not forgotten.

Props - Issue 34 (1999)

Edited by Chris Rye & Stew Johnson

#t1 #terrible one bmx #bmx #joe rich

Make sure to check out the mix section section from Chasing The View Off The Cliff featuring Stuart King, Joe Rich, Jeremy Smith, Mike Griffen, Luc-E, Mike Forney, Taj Mihelich, Jeremy “Mad Rat” Verhulst, Mark Murphy, Jody Donnelly, John Peacy, and more!

www.snakebitebmx.com/mix-section-1-chasing-the-view-off-the-cliff-1994/