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A conversation I snatched on my first day. Two discuss drug limits, seems like the door is closed on Ket and one other. Fear not, an impending 'but' lurks on the sentence corner.
Some doors shut, others open. The story of my time hopping-hostels in San Francisco.
9:36am, shop-owners hose down the pavement, getting rid of the smeared lumps and stains of patchy shit from the night before. Monday today. the big dogs are out, San Francisco publics works with their soapy hydrospray leave suds on this block.
It's like hopscotch! i've never seen so much street poo.
- a bowl of cereal, a cup of coffee, half a banana and two slices of jam on toast
- orange village hostel, very international. breakfast was .. less than contintental
- to H-ashbury the hippie capital, Thompson's fitting moniker for Haight Ashbury in the late 60's.[https://londonflowscreedinfo.wordpress.com/2017/07/20/the-hashbury-is-the-capital-of-the-hippies-hst-1967-2/]
An afternoon outside MASH,
in sunny San Francisco.
On the day I visit the shop, Mike Martin (founder and owner) greets me through the door. Half-door I should say, we speak over the sandwich-board that details Mash's "curb-side shopping" experience, despite the enticing display inside. Full-bikes hang on the left wall, opposite, a rail of shirts hang above neat piles of folded clothes. The window is full of collectibles: patches, topcaps, pins, socks, frames, hats, pedal-cages and a big neon sign, "Psychic Mechanic on duty".
Mash hasn't operated as a retail shop since 2019 when it losing money keeping FoH staff employed, so it's a one man shop now - run by Mike himself.
Mike is VERY tapped-in with the worldwide scene. Toydog at Slowsquad, Pancho at Bombardiers and even the London scene. Aware of the Pirates, Hop Kingdom and Matt Leonard (bookmaker/photographer in London).
"London has a good scene, but it has no more fixed-gear shops"
Not totally true, Brick Lane Bikes has the works, but I agree. Nothing like MASH.
As I hang around the door, he shows me a busted up track frame, dark blue with flecks of silver, heavily-used and chipped by a courier in NYC with a chainlock.
It's a steel KCH frame, with a curved seattube and a bright pink fork - the Chris King headset is worn down to silver, under where the headbadge used to sit. He's looking for more parts to build the rat-bike back to life, busy day it seems...
"The scene needs more journalists" he cries as I reference LOOP magazine. "That's dead now too", Mike tells me in a sad way - Toydog cut its production, probably for the same reason I'm stood on the street (and not inside)... money money money.
From what I gather, skateboarding was here first, fixed gear followed after a New York courier brought it over back in the 80's - and like most things alt and expressionist in San Francisco, it stuck. Back then, Cannondale 'C-tracks' were $600 a pop, hence why they were used by messengers and riders in the 90's, and such grail pieces today. Chas Christinansen's wicked steed a prime example, the heyday of fixed.
Love it here.
