one less car news

we're giving away stuff on twitter today. all you have to do is retweet our tweet. that simple!
so, if ya want some free stuff (who doesn't!?!), follow us on twitter if you're not already, RT, and win!

that's right- just like the title says- all t-shirts right now are buy one, get one free! not only that, but it's on ALL MONTH LONG!!! To take advantage, you gotta click the banner on our home page: (www.1lesscar.com -and if you don't see the banner, please refresh your page!).

cole has been sick with a cold or something, and i don't know what kinda medicine he got, but take advantage while you can! we've NEVER had a deal THIS GOOD before and might not again...ever.

share this with your cycling friends!!! i would be really rad... and we'd appreciate it lots!

so happy monday...or february as the case may be!

-brandon

Its been almost five years since I started One Less Car. We've come a long way since then. The first days of printing were out of the back of my brother's tattoo shop with a screen printing kit we bought off ebay for 300 bucks.

We have had our highs and our lows, but through it all we have stayed true to our word. I am renewing my efforts to One Less Car.

Over the past few years sales have slowly declined- maybe due to the economy, or maybe when we started, we were the only ones making shirts like this.

I've had to take on other jobs to help support OLC. In doing so, I may have slacked on a few things and I'm seeing the results of that now. This is why I have made a commitment to One Less Car.

We now have our own work space instead of the back the room of my apartment. We have a few different presses. We've got an exposure unit, dryers- the works. And site wise, we have a lot of great reviews up with a lot more to come!

I have a great friend working hard to help out. And I hope we still have you- our customers, because with out you,, what’s the point?

So, with that said, let's look to the future! There will be a lot of changes coming soon- more new shirts (we already have 2 this year!), more new stickers, and a lot more reviews to help you spend your hard earned cash.

Let make 2010 the best year yet!

Thanks!!!

-Cole

look left for details...

if you haven't heard of Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac yet, i don't know where you've been hiding. i live in a tiny town kinda in the middle of nowhere and i know about it... i don't know what the lesson is there, except pay attention. keep your eyes open. take the time to look at the things around you. shut off your screens for a minute and read...or go ride a bike!

Chicago has a pretty big art scene and a pretty big bike scene, so combining the two only makes sense.

The 2010 bike show opens this Friday at New Wave Coffee (2557 N. Milwaukee).

The coffee shop I used to go to to use the internets was the host for the past few years, and it was always kinda cool to see all the art. Granted, there wasn’t that much “crazy” art- mostly pics of Critical Mass rides and a few other things, but it was still kinda cool.

Last year I set up a booth at the after party and was pretty disappointed. I thought we would sell a lot and we sold very, very, very little.

The party was pretty cool, but there were a few people who were just assholes about it.
Brandon came down to check it out and I'm hoping he will chime in with his thoughts.

Anyway, over all it’s a pretty good event and is good for cycling in Chicago, so go check it out, have fun, and say thanks to the people who set it up!

-Cole

My Two Cents by Brandon Dee

Winter time in Chicago- not the best time of the year to visit, but there's less snow there than home, and it's always good to see your best friends when they live 3 states away, so what the hell...let's go to Chicago! And to Chicago Bronwen and I went, filled with dreams of getting rich quick...or at least a couple slices of pizza paradise.

I don't know what happened before the after party show wise- I wasn't there. Probably some good stuff, but like I said- I wasn't there.

Now, maybe I'm wrong- my memory can be hazy sometimes, but i swear the after party was 3 floors of craziness. Packed wall to wall all night. There probably was some rad art there, but there wasn't enough of a break in the crowd to hardly check any of it out. It seemed like the hippest of the hip were all there- I'd drop some names but I ain't that hip- plus I only knew two people there (the two I came with), but because I was wearing colors (Wild Angles), I did get an invite to a Rat Patrol party later on, but we didn't go.

A handful of bands played, from big bands full of horns to hit whatever the hell is there with drumsticks, noisy, sampled...noise. Our pal Leslie's band was pretty rad, and the only act I caught part of. Don't remember their name, or I'd give them props.

But for the most part, I was there for business. We were promised a table, chairs- the usual. We got there to set up & someone finally found a little coffee table for us to use & I found a chair for the three of us to share for the rest of the night. There wasn't any space to put our banner (we figured we'd hang it on the table) and we had about a poster sized space to use.

So we made a cardboard sign. A couple. But in the end it didn't matter. The people were there to party- not to shop, that was for sure. Talking with other vendors throughout the night, nobody else I met seemed to be doing very well either which I thought was kind of a shame, since that was a big part of it- or so I thought.

While we stuck it out through 'til the end, we all knew it was a lost cause pretty quick. We came broke. We left broke. But that time in between can't be replaced. I got the chance to ride bikes around the city, go to decent book & record stores, and most of all, spend time with my favorite people in the world. Living three states away we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, but when we do it rules... and that made last year's Winter Bike Art Show super rad.