FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Only from the mind of Kevin Porter would a concept of the Ratty Bike Fest come. The second annual Ratty Bike Fest went down in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this past weekend at 4 Seasons Skatepark. Kevin got the idea during a typical contest run a few years back where he was competing against 4 of his friends. None of them cared about winning..they just wanted to have fun. Kevin realized that this was the key ingredient in having a successful BMX contest. Kevin felt that competition took away the fun. So he devised a 4 man team format in which teams competed against each other. The key being that you have a 4 man team and you all work together to shred. Last year Ratty drew huge crowds and some amazing riders and for the 2nd year things got even bigger. Riders from Florida, Canada, Colorado, California, Ohio, NY, Georgia, and even Washington state, all converged for a smashing good time all in the name of BMX.

We (me and Joey "BirdFlu" Hill left DK on Friday and headed up to Milwaukee. I knew there was a lot of chaos going on up there so we drove really fast and made the 8 hour trip in about 5 1/2 hours.

With four ABBMX events just on this year done, we already can count a total of 10 competitions in 2006. With certainty the ABBMX mark recounts in this unpublished fact in BMX of Brazil. In this fourth championship we had athletes' presence of several states and cities of the state of São Paulo that it also shows that the text "friendship & BMX" this making effect, rescuing biggest value inside of our sport, the friendship and the pleasure of to find and meet BMXer friends. 

If you’re new to the Local Exposure Tour (L.E.T.) it’s the vision of Allan Cooke, pro BMX Dirt and Street competitor, to give back to his sport. He gathers a handful of the best pro BMX riders in the sport and they all jump in an RV ripping across the country stopping off at local skate parks to check out what the local unknown talent has to offer. Fuel TV has a crew that goes along the way, Ride BMX Magazine shoots pics and writes the story and famed video producers, Will Stroud and Chad Shackelford, are there to catch all the madness for the [url=//fatbmx.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1074]tour DVD[/url] that has reached worldwide distribution!

Over the past 20 years, the Toronto International bicycle show’s Flatland events have not only exposed many to our sport but also inspired those who dedicate themselves to continue to push forward. Now, in 2005, with the threat of the Flatland being completely wiped from the shows events, the CFO made their way in at last minute to ensure the spirit remained. A year later, a stronger / more experienced team of heavy hitters stepped up to the plate to bring to you the first ever “Flatland’s Unlimited” contest. Were they able to hang in the big leagues? We’ll let you be the judge of that.

Thursday afternoon had Jamie, Dan and I in T.O to setup for the “party”. Meeting up with Chase Gouin and a few friends from the States, we got in a few hours of much needed practice to shake off the spider webs that had built up over the winter. After doing some serious mopping and taping up an access door located in the middle of the floor (affectionately referred to as ”the danger zone," we called it a night and rolled on home to get some sleep.

The No Soccer crew in Italy is doing a good job promoting BMX freestyle over there. They recently held a jam on a nice spine mini in Florence, Italy. The jam was called: Welcome To My House (WTMH). The No Soccer crew made a video of the session which has Sergio Layos and Alessandro Barbero pulling 3-whips over the spine and stuff like that. The Red Bull riders are accompanied by a full range of Italian shredders so make sure you check out the                
[url=http://www.nosoccer.com/clip/montati/Welcome.mov]WTMH video.[/url]

For the second year in a row Josh Harrington won one of the biggest contests on earth; the Metro Jam. With over 90 pros entering the contest it's hard to make the finals. Winning the Toronto Metro stop two years in a row has never been done before so Josh must be stoked. Dave Mirra decided to stop by for the first time and got second, living up to his reputation of finishing high at major contests. San Diego's Gary Young placed third.

2006 Toronto Metro Jam final pro street results:

1 Josh Harrington 94.0
2 Dave Mirra 93.4
3 Gary Young 91.6  *Gary Wins Tie Break
4 Morgan Wade 91.6
5 Garrett Reynolds 90.6
6 Brian Hunt 90.2
7 Chris Doyle 89.8

At the start of every year we are all thinking about the summer and how bloody far away it seems when your freezing your ass off in Europe! Well if you get as far away as possible from Europe then the [url=//fatbmx.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1190]X-Air event[/url] based in Wellington New Zealand kicks off the southern summer time. This year the amount of riders chasing the summer seemed bigger than ever, noteable riders who made the epic trip were Ryan Guettler, Ali whitton, Corey Nastazio, Koji Kraft, Colin Mackay , Gary Young, Matt Fairbairn...anyway you get the idea!

The first serious international contest of the year is always Braun Circle Cow in Servon, France, near Paris. Organisers Pascal & Ismael are keeping the contest alive, big props to them! Lots of riders showed up, although it seemed that there were less riders than last year, especially less French riders, I missed a lot of them, like Nico Ferrando, Francis Bessiere, Florent Guyenon and Christophe Dassie. There were also a lot of riders who were there but didn't compete like Stephane "Pokemon" Suini and riders that were working instead of riding like Manu (Agoride) and Alain (Cream) Massabova and the 713 Crew. Of course the big French pros were there like Alex Jumelin, Raphael Chiquet, Alexis Desolneux and riding for the first time in pro class, supertalent Matthias Dandois. A very large international turnup though, OG Crew from Hungary was present: Adam Kun, Peter Sarlos, Marton, Peter and the rest, UK Massive with pro riders James Smith and Keelan Philips and up-and-coming talent Paul Chamberlain and professional beatboxer/flatlander Vince Turner. Me and Bram representing Holland and a big German Crew with my friends Chris Bohm, Daniel Fuhrmann, Wolfgang Sauter and Sven Steinbach. Michael Sommer was also there, making the trip from Vienna, Austria. 

Here's some news from Mankind Bike Company:

The Mankind Team for 2006 includes this international mix of riders :

-Phil Aller UK
-Barry Kohne The Netherlands
-Andrew "Gee" Gregory Australia
-Juan Ruiz Spain
-Markus Fischer Germany
-Marcus Wallborn Germany