Rider Catch-Up

Some doings in the Ghostship camp. Mike Stock has been super busy. Between renovating his house, getting a new puppy, going to school, off-roading, working (what else did I miss Mike?), he managed to fit a few downhill races into his hectic schedule. Managed a little heartbreak in his last race thanks to announcing difficulties. Note the custom Ghostship jersey. Guaranteed to add time to your run....

Doug Jenne's been a busy, busy man of late. He raced the Breck Epic back in and finished 7th in the singlespeed class. Then followed it up with a PR in the Vermont 50, taking 26th overall, 7th place in his age-group (on a singlespeed). (All things equal, if he had raced in the SS class, he would have netted a 3rd place finish.) Taking 30mins off your previous best time is pretty awesome.

Nice work guys! Doug did a nice little write-up of our new kits here. Photos of folks getting rad in them have started surfacing...Send in your flicks, we'll post 'em up here!


-Eric leading out the Train of Pain.


-Resident homegirl/badass Ginger took a second from tearing up the trails in Gay City to get her pose on.

Some Ghostship shirts have been spotted in the wild as well....



-One of the Brother's Pronovost supporting the Gship.


-Not sure who this is...if you know, gimme a shout and I'll give credit. SexandtheSingleApe recognized and put me on to it.

Keep it up folks! Grip it and rip it.

Balancing Act

After reading Dougy Fresh's latest blog post, I realized how hard I've been slacking updating the Ghostship website. (I'm also busy chasing the cat around my dirty studio, trying to keep him from eating bugs, spray can caps, dust and anything else he can fit his mouth on). It's a delicate balancing act. Which is the precise reason for the lack of updates here in the past several months. Lots of things have been going on. Shake-ups in my personal life, big changes at work (no, I'm not making a living from Ghostship) to name a couple. Cyclocross season is here so training has been replacing time at the drawing table and in the silk screening studio. Freelance projects have also taken over things on the creative end. I guess what I'm getting at is trying to balance everything I'm involved with is a pretty delicate thing. Certain elements become prioritized over others and in turn, some become complete pushed off the shelf.

I continually hear people tell me that I should be making profit, or that I could be making profit off of Gship. I liken the Ghostship "business model" (it may not even be fair to use the word business...if you're never in business from the start, you can never go out of business, right?) to that of early punk rock or hardcore bands. It's not about the money. I make barely enough to cover my material costs, maybe even a little (if I'm lucky) to get some more blank shirts or stickers (if I'm really lucky). Make stuff, try to sell it, give some of it away, make some more, the process continues.

Ghostship to me, is really a giant art project. I do it purely for the love and satisfaction of seeing a piece evolve from the start and become a finished product. It's also extremely satisfying seeing someone stoked on a piece of art or shirt we've created. It's pretty similar to the reason I race cyclocross. I'm not a great racer. I don't chase points. I've won more cash and prizes from disorganized alleycats than formal bicycle races. So why spend $20-$30 in entry fees, $40 for a tank of gas to get there, and who knows how much in parts, accessories, clothing, etc, that you need to race? It's fun. Addictive. It's punk rock on a road bike. I get to act like a dirt-bag bike racer to piss off the starched-collar, prissy roadies. Plenty of reasons.

I guess the short of what I'm trying to (hopefully somewhat successfully) convey, is that you can't force artistic process. Ghostship is still here. Even if things are a little quiet now and then, you can always drop us a line on the dreaded Facebook, or follow our Twitter feed. Thank you everyone who has supported us in the past and continues to support us now.