I don’t even know where to begin with this photo.
Taken during Trent B’s (goride09) recent Golden Gate Bridge ride, it’s such a classic picture.
From the the trick itself (when’s the last time you saw someone uncork a bar endo?), the Golden Gate Bridge in the background to the extended hand for extra style points…
This pic has got it all.
So good.
Den Dowling is the man behind the camera. Check out his Flickr photostream for more pics of Trent and the Golden Gate Bridge ride.
Whether you’re 7 or 47*, nothing quite matches the pure fun of riding your bike.
Whether it’s street, dirt, park or racing 7-year old Finn Finestone is not missing out on any of it.
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Having a bike stolen can feel like a sucker punch to the gut. Your prized possession…gone. In many cases, never to be seen again.
Since your bike is the link to doing what you love, hearing a story about someone having a bike stolen seems to prompt a visceral response when you hear it. I know it does for me.
Just imagine how you’d feel in this situation:
It’s 4 o’clock and time to meet my buddy Matt for a Monday street session…except my bike is no longer on my rack. At first I thought it was a joke – I scour the shop to make sure it’s not hiding behind any of the shelves, stuffed in the machine shop, or behind the trailer. Nothing. I realize my bike was stolen right off my rack, 10 feet away from my desk. I was separated from my car by a bay door.
That sinking WTF feeling.
It can happen to anybody.
Even guys that work for big bike companies like Profile. Check out Matt Coplon’s stolen bike story (where the excerpt above comes from) to find out how he handled it.
For more on Matt Coplon, check out Matt Coplon’s 24 hour session.
I get pretty stoked after a good riding session but it appears certain people are taking things too far. Some believe it has the makings of an epidemic.
For more on this, click on the image below for a report from theonion.com.
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Although he isn’t the editor anymore, I will probably always think of John Ker as the face of BMX Plus! magazine. And now because of his magazine’s seemingly hot and cold treatment of cruisers in recent months I feel compelled to write him this (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) “Dear John” letter.
John Ker: no love for the 24?
Dear John,
I thought we really had something. After not reading your magazine in what seemed like forever, I picked up your magazine at the local store and noticed you had changed over the years. No longer were you associating with Radical Rick or doing “who’s radder” features….you were actually showing some honest to goodness riding once in a while. More importantly, you showed some love for the cruiser with a couple of 24″ bike tests in 2009.
Your advertisers seemed to have noticed this too. One of them rewarded you with not one, but two 2-page ads for their cruisers.
But your self-destructive nature got the best of you, didn’t it? Out of nowhere in your April issue, you featured an article called Cruising into Oblivion: The Death of the 24.
How could you do this? Both to our fledgling relationship and to your advertisers? For the love of God, there’s a 2-page ad for Redline‘s top-of-the-line Flight 24 in the very same issue that you say 24s are cruising into oblivion!
It makes me so mad…and I imagine Redline isn’t any happier. I wrote a post about it, hoping to salvage things, to help you see the error of your ways and to let you know that 24s are not dead yet. After that I didn’t hear from you for a month.
Now all of sudden, in the June issue it seems that the ‘love’ is back with a 10-page race cruiser shootout. While it’s a grand gesture, after declaring our relationship essentially over, to try to win me back with a 10-page article, it seems just a little to late. I guess you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, right?
I know what you’re going to say, that you’ve changed.
But I’m not sure if I can bury the hatchet just yet. I think you’ll have to prove to me that you want this relationship to work.
How you ask?
A full-on 24″ freestyle cruiser shootout.
I think that’s what it will take to win me back.
So John, what do you say?
I smile every time I watch this….really what’s not to like?
Jam packed with 80s freestyle legends, Jon Faure shredding on his cruiser, a weird close-up of Wade Nelson and a quirky soundtrack.
The soundtrack alone takes me right back to my teenage years when I used to read BMX Action and Freestylin’ cover to cover.
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Looks like Steve Swope is once again gathering the Superfriends (Old school BMX stars) at the Justice League (Woodward West) to fight the forces of evil (for the Old School BMX Reunion).
The invite list features a “who’s who” of 80s BMX legends. Just check out the list of invitees for an instant Freestylin’ magazine flashback. Should be an awesome weekend…I’m really looking forward to checking out the photos and video from the event.
Former Plywood Hood, Brett Downs was there last year and clicked this sweet turndown on his Model-C to commemorate things.
Turndowns are just timeless, aren’t they?
It’s all going down Friday, April 2 – Sunday, April 4. Check out Kickstand BMX for all the details.
For more pictures from last year’s event, check out b dubbs photostream on flickr.
For the theme music I imagine them playing when they enter the building, click here.
The ABA grand nationals went down this past weekend. Billed as the “greatest race on earth”, it has a lot of hype to live up to. Titles are on the line and the pressure to perform is at an all-time high. In these situations, you never know what might happen.
You expect upsets, people channeling their inner psych and taking their skills to the next level. But if you’re like Barry Nobles…you channel your inner Cru Jones and backflip the pro section in the Pro Cruiser main!
Unfortunately for Barry, this wasn’t Helltrack so instead of the win he would have to settle for a broken collarbone and the infamy that comes with throwing caution to the wind during a big race. Nice work Barry! As they say, pain is temporary, but glory is forever. Thanks for mixing things up and keeping the event interesting.
Does this look like a guy that would go for a backflip in a big race?
GO211 didn’t get the flip on video (so I don’t have it to show you). Hopefully we’ll see it somewhere in the next few days. Someone, somewhere must have had a camera rolling during that main!
Jay Miron and the Macneil gang were in Toronto last weekend for a street jam as part of the Macneil Eastern Canada tour. Word has it there were almost 200 riders taking it all in/participating. Miron took part in the whole thing onboard one those 26″ beach-style Macneil cruisers. Will Macneil step up and put out a street-worthy 24″ next year? Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
If you were a BMX kid in the 80s and 90s, Freestylin’ magazine was your bible. Before that it was BMX Action magazine. Put out by Wizard publications they set the standard for BMX magazines everywhere. Regretfully, by the early 90s they were no more. There’s some debate about caused the demise of these great magazines…you can google a bit and find out the theories.
Recently, with a lot of hype, the limited-edition Freestylin’ book was released by the original editorial team of Andy, Lew and Spike. It was an attempt to capture those early, heady days when freestyle bmx came into its own. It’s a pretty good look back from what I’ve seen. But it didn’t capture everything. Steve Emig, a former staffer, seems to have had his experience there glossed over..well, actually left out of the book completely. Feeling miffed, he decided to post some of stuff that was left out of the book….and it’s some of the funniest, most addictive BMX-related writing you’ll find on the web. Topics range from Windy’s Boobs to riding with Craig Grasso. This is like the True Hollywood Stories of Wizard Publications. You have to check freestylinmagtales out.
cruiser revolution 
