It's Friday. That means two things; the FATBMX Pin Up will go online and also the FAT Friday. We've set our priorities by making sure you had a Pin Up photo to look at each Friday but we've lacked on consistency on the FAT Friday. Being on the road doesn't help and it's been a while since we were behind the desk top. And if I don't do one now, it's not going to happen any time soon as we've got the Telekom event coming up this weekend, followed by the Eurobike trade show where we'll take pics and show you all the new 2011 products. The first weekend of September we'll be at the Motocross GP 10 minutes down the road for some braap braap followed by the Rebel Jam weekend in Portimao and then the USA trip (UCI BMX SX and Interbike).

Busy? yes, but we wouldn't want it any other way. Make sure you got the site bookmarked because we'll be bringing you the latest and the greatest in the BMX world starting off with this weekend's comp in Hamburg that you can follow live on FATBMX thanks to Freecaster.tv.

Dude, I'm sweating my ass off behind this computer. The hot air is going to the roof and it's next to unbearable but I'm staying put, getting you the FAT Friday. After that I'll dive into the rubber swimming pool, or I better step into it as 10 inches of water won't be enough to catch me. I don't want to end up in the hospital like so many riders this week. Bas Keep broke his pelvis and his collarbone doing a bio air in Barcelona that landed on flat after the sun had blinded him. Bjorn "Bommel" Mager had an open leg break after trying a 360-double whip over the BCN spine. Over in England on the Dirt trip, Greg van Tulder landed on his head and was taken to the hospital with a helicopter. They don't call these things in if it's not serious. Matt Beringer fell on his head as well and I'm sure there's more riders dealing with some down time right now. To all of you, good luck, get well and try to make the best of this BMX high season.

-The KHE crew will be going on tour next week and will end up at the BMX Masters in Cologne. Dainel Dhers and James Foster are on the

Sorry for missing out on the FAT Friday for a few weeks but they're just a lot of work to get together and the time just wasn't there. New attempt this week. Some of the news might be a little old because we did make attempts to get one out in the last few weeks. Anyway, thanks for hanging in there. If you're on the FATBMX mailing list to receive these, you still are and nothing went wrong on accident. We're off to Barcelona today for a weekend of BMX at the Nike 6.0 BMX Pro event. There's flatland as well so we'll get you an update from the flatland area too. 

It's tough to do these FAT FAVs from the road but we gave it a try and came up with the following BMX news. It's only a section of what happened in BMX land but it's been tough staying on top of things with the Asian X Games going on at the same time. On top of that there is no access to Facebook, Youtube, Blogger, Vimeo, Twitter or any of those communication sites over here in China. Add to that that I hear the beats pumping from the hotel bar and you know how hard it is to get this one out. But here's the attempt. Back next week.

-This week we got the chance to see the G&P factory which made perfect sense to make it a Workshop Wednesday episode. If you've ever wondered how a Chinese bicycle factory looks, go to the Workshop Wednesday section on FATBMX and find out.

-DJ over in the UK sent over some BMX news. Here's his contribution for this week. Thanks to DJ and if you have anything for next week's FAT Friday, just make sure we have the news by Thursday.

You know what? This is the last post I'm going to do today. I'm taking the weekend off as well. Will be back on Monday. This gives you time to go through the updates from week number 16 and there are a lot of them. I'm pretty sure you haven't watched all 50 movies we put up this week and read all the FAT FAVs, Good Stuff lists and Josh Perry injury updates. Just scroll through the site and enjoy what we came up with in between running events. Last weekend was the Helm Jam and the Flame Trails jam is next week. This weekend

We're jumping right in this if that's okay with you. Today I watched a clip of "the biggest jumps ever" and I expected Mat Hoffman in there with his crazy big air he did years ago. With, or without the engine on the bike. It wasn't. But please do not fear. The Birth Of Big Air has been documented by no less than Johnny Knoxville and Spike Jonze. The piece has been directed by other Jackass Jeff Tremaine, all good friends of Mat so this is going to be good. Can't wait to see it.

-Just yesterday I saw this McDonald's commercial on TV and looked it up on Youtube. I was surprised to see a tailwhip in a McDonald's commercial and it can only help the BMX awareness. This is national TV we're talking about.

-Local TV came and filmed at the little pump track we built by my house and made this edit out of it. It was filmed on a normal Friday afternoon at 3pm. Look at all the kids! If you feel like riding this place, don't come on 2 May, we've got a jam planned and it will be busy.

Today we had a film crew visit the local Flame Trails spot. After a few phonecalls and online promotion about 60 people showed up on a Friday afternoon. It's great to have this crew together but it already sucked to wait in line to get a go. But the crew got their shots and the riders did their laps. It delayed this FAT Friday news post for a bit but we used the evening for that. What we got? bad news from the Josh Perry camp, get well soon. Dave Mirra is on the better hand though and recovering. More news in this post. Read on.

Running a bit late with this one but thought I'd squeeze it in before everyone makes it over to the 2010 Mini-FATJAM this afternoon. It might just still be Friday somewhere on the planet right now so this weekly FAT Friday news post will make sense to them. What have we got this week? Again, loads of stuff. We went to the UCI Supercross BMX race in Madrid and reported about that one. The Good Stuff lists have been going strong as have the FAT FAVs lists thanks to Susan Linerode who has been contributing like a mad man, or mad woman, or superwomen? 

Hey out there, no FAT Friday today, sorry  but if I have to do it from this shitty slow internet (at € 21,= Euros for 48 hours) I'll be stuck here all weekend behind this thing and that's not how I wanted to spend this weekend. I'll try to get some stuff up from the UCI SX tomorrow but if you can't make it here, there's the Rookie Jam in Germany and the Extreme Thing in Vegas going on too. Ricardo 

It just couldn't last forever, that shitty weather. I understand it's probably different where you live, but people over here were looking forward to some dry days so they could go ride outside. Trails are being fixed up and sessions have been going on every day. Feels so good, let the good times roll. Spending some time outside might have had a bit of an influence on the updates on the FATBMX site but I believe there was plenty of stuff to get you through the day. Here's a summary of the most important BMX news of this week:

Packing all the BMX news in one post is next to impossible. This week has been a good one and you've probably struggled catching up. Why so many posts? Well, because there's so much going on. This week we had a strong contribution from Susan Linerode with a bunch of FAT FAVs, the Toronto reports, an awesome Kathy McGrath/Levi's team interview, a killer Trish Bare Grounds ITW and later today we'll bring you a Drew Bezanson interview. That's enough content for a week but of course we have the daily FAT FAVs, a couple of bike checks, Good Stuff lists with plenty of BMX Olympians, and more videos than you can put on a 60 minute

You had a busy week, right? No time to watch the 40 clips and suck up the team changes and read all the FAT FAVs and Good Stuff lists of the BMX racers? Cool, because this post gets you right back in there, like you haven't missed a thing. The good thing is that it's here every Friday with the same purpose. Or better, you can have this update mailed to your mailbox by signing up for the FAT Friday newsletter. Easy, you do (as Ruben would say). It's been non-stop again this week. We saw a new trick from Alex Coleborn that you have to see. We went to the 900BMX jam in Belgium, opened the Flame Trails in Helmond, and posted the daily FAT FAVs lists of some heavy hitters out there. Pro racers are getting some coverage in the BMX Racing section and the other day we received the Good Stuff list from Anne-Caroline Chausson, Olympic Gold medalist. Not that we're turning into a BMX racing website but we're going to add a bit more to the site. This weekend Chase Hawk, Cory Nastazio, Ryan Guettler and others of the Vans team will take it to the track in Phoenix, Arizona. At the end of this month FATBMX is going to the first

This week we started something new on FATBMX, the Good Stuff list for BMX racers. You'll see plenty of them show up in the next couple of months and today we had the list of Jill Kintner, the bronze medalist of the 2008 Olympic Games. Talking about the Olympic Games, I haven't been watching much but if there's some action I'll watch the summaries. I don't stay up all night watching the sports, gotta sleep at some point... 2 thing stuck out this week, 

Do you have a hard time keeping up with all the new posts on FATBMX? Maybe the FAT Friday is your friend. It's a summary of this week's BMX news and maybe just enough for you to keep track on what's going on in the BMX community. Been out of town for a few weeks? Hit up a few FAT Fridays and you're back up to speed without scrolling through the numerous posts. Here's the news of week #7:

The 2010 season has kicked off with a big banging weekend in Estonia. It's incredible how the organization pulled such an event off when the excuses for sponsors are right there (crisis). Once again they did things just right and fixed what needed to be fixed to the best of their ability. 110 pros rode and some were turned around when they still showed up and wanted to ride. The success of the comp has become their toughest problem. Who can ride, and who can't. Anyway, thumbs up for the people there. Here's this week's BMX news for you:

Spent some time on Facebook this week adding friends. It's amazing to see how many BMX people are on there. I was surprised by the number of flatland riders on Facebook. Looks like that community is going strong but you don't see it at all contests any more which is a shame. Something else I saw a lot were people on BMX cruisers. I'm not a fan of cruisers, I don't think it's BMX.

It was a busy week once again in BMX. Strange actually as we're in the middle of winter and not much outdoor activity is going on. At least not by this guy. The other day I saw people ride the pump track at -6 degrees and even the snow that we got this week didn't stop them. Hungry for sure. But of course we're waiting for the sun, longer daylight and a decent temperature so we can bring the radio to the trails instead of the extra winter jacket. That time will come but it can't come soon enough. Back to the topic: BMX news. Plenty of it here:

This week we're taking you back to the highlights of week 3 with the FAT FRIDAY. Got a photo from Guettler riding trails in Oz, have the full FAT FAVs list of the latest dudes and the dudes to come. We've got the list with upcoming events for you, Harry Main tells you how hot it is in Australia right now, we'll tell you about our favourtie web clips this week, and we went old school on Facebook hitting up the old heroes. What is Lantschner actually doing over in Malaga? and why is he in Portugal right now? What energy company

Today the first part of the local pumptrack got done. Never thought I'd go out in the snow/cold to work on a pump track but since this one is built near my house and a digger was available all day I thought it would make sense to be around and give some advice. Made 8 drawings which included the lay-out and the jumps to give the driver an idea of what he needed to do. It already feels like having a place to ride in the backyard without having to deal with riders showing up when you don't have time to go ride with them. The place is not massive but for sure it will entertain the local BMX youth.

The new year has kicked off. The start of a new decade, and it's white where we live. But that doesn't mean we have no BMX news for you this week. Let's start off with the sponsor changes before we're handing this over to DJ with his news from the UK.

-Matthias Dandois on Vans
-Steven Mack on Cult
-Ashley Charles off wethepeople

Ho-Ho-Ho, X-mas is almost over. Bellies are full and it's time to ride it off again. Tomorrow we're going to join the session at Pim van den Bos' place in Eindhoven. We don't care about the weather forecast because it's indoors. Not too much going on this time of the year contest wise but we still received clips from Baco-a-ho-ho-ho and also from a good jam in the NorthWest. There ain't no stopping BMX it seems like but it's just harder getting some riding done. Last week we had another meeting at the Helm Trails in Helmond. Plans are in the making for two jams in 2010. Working together with the local authorities has its advantages. Apparently there is some sort of

Old School and New School riders are coming together again. This weekend in Greenville. Gary Pollak, Mike D., Large Ray, Brian Blyther, Mark Eaton and Ron Wilkerson will be among the guys checking out 16 riders battling for a brand new Subaru WRX, a DC tricked out dirt bike, a Breitling watch, a Yamaha TTR and a bunch of cash. BMX unites, it's timeless and it's about the good times.
We got some news for you, right here:

Last weekend I was in Prague, Czech to check out the 2010 IBMXFF World's facility and to enjoy a weekend of FMX. The World's facility just outside of Prague city looks promising but needs some ramps. With about 7 months to go I'm convinced that Marek Rejman and his crew can put that together. So get ready to go to Prague in 2010.

FAT FRIDAY. You know the drill by now, but did you know you can subscribe to this newsletter and receive it in your mailbox before it goes online? Just check that left column and go to the bottom. Then get hooked up with the FATBMX mailing list. Don't worry, we're not selling this list to some viagra company, we "detesse le spam" as well. We're keeping it for ourselves so we can send you a weekly BMX news update, that's all. Here's this week's FAT Friday just so you know you didn't miss out on anything. Ready?

Taj Mihelich posted a tweet this week and announced that Giant was going to stop paying him in January. With no other paying sponsors for Taj, he's facing getting a job to pay the bills. His resume looks someting like this: juicebar employee 1994-1995. Bike bum 1995-present. That's it! Uh oh.....

It's the same for a lot of people who have lived the BMX pro life for a while. But they've seen the world before retiring at 65 from a normal job. The travel and the good times can't be taken away.