Obloxkz on NYC Bike Life, his love of ride-outs and how to perfect a wheelie

The Red Bull documentary NYC Bike Life propelled the already-growing bike life movement to an entirely new level. Front and center are a group of young and very talented cyclists such as Julius Barnes, who goes by the name Obloxkz or O, who perform a slew of tricks while traveling through the city streets on group rides dubbed ‘ride-outs.’ It’s the new critical mass, and it can now be found in many major urban centers across North America and European cities such as Paris. Want to get in on the bike life fun? Momentum asked the Bronx-native Obloxkz to explain the phenomenon, how to get involved, and the key to perfecting that perfect ride-out wheelie.

Obloxkz has been riding for about five years and is now sponsored by Throne Cycles, an L.A.-based street bike company.

How did you first get into cycling?

When I was younger, I used a scooter. And then I just picked up, I guess, on a habit of riding a BMX bike. And then I moved downtown and I saw a few kids wheelie bikes, and I started just hanging out with them. And long story short, they kind of brought me into this bike life. And I was just learning day by day, as I would literally go outside every day in the rain, snow and learn how to wheelie. And then they got more competitive when we started to do more tricks. And that was a hard part.

And how did the whole public ride-out side of things begin?

So I started going to my first ride out. I met this kid on 14th Street, and he invited me and my friend to a ride out, which we knew nothing about. We didn’t even know there were other kids like us that would ride together. And so we end up going and there were like 50 kids at this ride out. It became interesting from there. Like, this is something. We can come every weekend and ride and it became a daily thing meeting up with people. And that’s when social media took over. So it was kind of dope and being as I was from the city, I bumped into a lot of photographers, because seeing what we were doing was so dope in their eyes. So I met this one photographer who got me connected with a music video. And it started from there. And I said, shit, this is what I want to do — that’s how everything started.

How has this interest in what you’re doing, the Red Bull documentary, impacted your life?

I can’t necessarily say it changed anything because I love riding, you know. So without that, I’m still going to be the same person. This is my passion and I love it. But it did change my life vision on like, what I can do. And being my talent can be shown on so many different platforms, it feels amazing. I’m not a skateboarder. I’m not a BMX rider. I’m not a snowboarder. This isn’t even a sport yet, we’re creating it. So for Red Bull to take a timeout and reach out to us like, Hey, we want this kind of talent in our video. It meant so much to me. It’s like wow we’re getting noticed. It’s so dope it’s happening.

So how do people hear about the ride-outs and get involved in bike life?

Besides people seeing us riding down the street and saying hi, how can I be a part of this, social media takes advantage of everything. Like we could post a little story on our page, like, meet-up at five o’clock. If you see it, you’re going to try to be there, you understand. So especially with these big events, with bike giveaways, and just people giving out different merch supporting the kids, like, I see that other people want to be involved in it. And it can be a city bike or anything they want to ride with us, I love it.

Tell me about the importance of helping out kids.

Yes, I’m all for the kids. I’m from New York, and I’m gonna keep it real with you. People smoke around me and I just don’t promote it. Okay, like even a video that tagged me in a post and you smoking or anything like, I feel like a kid shouldn’t see, you’re not going on my page. I don’t want to be a part of it. Just because my little sister looks up to me. And she watches my videos. So now on mentoring kids, I want to, if I’m able to, I definitely try my best to help a kid go the right way and show them a bike can take you places. And a bike is playing a big part now because not only is it opening doors for us, it’s showing kids as you can trust. I met people two days ago and we’re just so close because they ride a bike. And I just feel like the connection with a bike brings so much more.

Okay, so I want to get into these ride-outs. How do I start?

Well, for starters, if you’re seeing it on social media, don’t be scared to show up. Nobody is going to look at you, nobody’s going to judge you. They’re all family. It doesn’t matter what bike you come on. Come on a skateboard and ride. We riding. That’s it. It’s a ride out. Just say make sure you’re hydrated. Make sure you have the energy for it because we’re riding, we’re not stopping.

What are the first steps to learning to wheelie as you do for blocks and blocks?

Obviously, that’s all up to you on how much effort you’re putting into this. But I know people have been trying for years, and still can’t wheelie half a block. They’re not putting in the effort. Like, I’m going to make myself ready. I’m going to do this.

And then what?

So for how to wheelie here are the steps:

• It’s most important to be sure you have back brakes that work correctly. You want to make sure it feels just right for you to press the brake.
• Then next is the pull-up. You have to make sure you’re lifting your arms and your pedaling at the same time. So it’s like a kick and I lift.
• At that point, you have to make sure you find your balance point. So when you’re rising up with your balance point, you have to pedal as well. If you feel like you’re pushing more back than your balance point that’s when you press your brakes. And then after that, it’s a routine pedaling and continue braking when you’re past the balance point.

What is the best part of this, the bike life, for you?

The best part to me is always the meet-up. I’m going to a ride out and seeing the people there before we start riding. I feel the joy of seeing everybody there, people you haven’t seen in a while, I’m excited about that. That’s the best part. I can see it does get tiring sometimes because we’re riding, we’re not talking, we are taking short breaks, water breaks, but you’re gonna have the best time of your life. You’re going to want to come again and again and again. This is just a place where you can be yourself.

Is it mostly young people?

No, it’s all ages, from six years old, up to, one I know is probably 58 maybe older. There are all ages. We’re family.

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