FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

When walking the streets of Tokyo Travis Collier took us o a BMX/skate shop in town where I was given a copy of a Japanese BMX magazine called DegreeBMX. It's always nice to see new magazines even if it's impossible to read Japanese. Volume 2 sets you back 300 JPNYEN (3 Canadian bucks according to Travis). What you get is an A5 size full colour glossy BMX 'zine with a Marbow spotlight, Repo on the King of Ground, Endpoint 81, Rollin' on stage skate vibes, Respect the roots, E-news, Product section and more. Next to the good portion of flatland coverage it also has its fair share of ramp/street riding. The man in charge is Hajime Yamazaki who can be contacted at:

Ph/Fax: +81-50-1018-3866
Tokyo, Japan.

The new issue of Props just came out. They're at issue 63 which is incredible. Props to that. A couple of good things about the Props issues are that they are top quality. Good angles, good editing, good lighting and one must say that they've got 99% of the riders' names in the picture which must be a nightmare to pull off at times. Issue #63 is long, which is good in my book for a video magazine. You don't feel ripped off. Coming up with new things each issue is difficult but you can find a Props stamp on the cover of # 63 that will be your entry form for a Hoffman - Animal product giveaway. Nice touch as not everyone is sponsored but everyone can use free parts for their bikes, especially when they come from Animal or Hoffman . Enough blahblah, here's what's inside:

-Credence Road Trip Part 2
-North East Scene Report
-Vancouver Metro Jam

Here is some pics of the new S-Hole stem due out early April 2007. Several of Greasy Comb's team riders have been testing this stem since last August with positive results. By machining away spare metal in non load bearing areas we were able to reduce weight while keeping strength to a maximum.

Material: CNC machined from Billet 6061 T-6 Aircraft Aluminum. 

The Shadow Conspiracy have released their spring collection of T-shirts. It's one of three drops with the next one being the Back To School line. We're pretty sure Megadeth would be proud of some of the designs and we saw Alistair Whitton rock the pre-production Dead shirt in Estonia at the bar and it worked well for him. Hit the next page for 8 more designs.

So with a thousand other liquid speed style products out there...the peeps at Bawls definitely want to make sure your FAT ass is not running behind. This new energy drink is the official sponsors of the NBL for the 2007 season, and expect some new track records, because this shit works! So we have received a nice little package from our friends at Bawls Guarana. A box filled with a bunch Bawls Guarana energy drinks, regular and sugar free (not sure why we need a sugar free one...) and a couple dozen bouncing balls. Which always leads to new fun, especially when you are high strung of this Amazonian jungle juice.

For those who don't know much about Guarana, It is a shrub or small tree in the Sapindaceae family, native to Venezuela and northern Brazil. The seed of the Guaraná fruit is a central nervous system stimulant with thermogenic and diuretic properties (as found on a quick Wikipedia search). 

It's nice to see Dave Osato on the cover of the new BMX Plus! magazine. What else is in there? Also BMX Plus! is having a photo special in their March issue. Next to that there are simpel tips to make your bike lighter that will be interesting for a lot of you out there. Get ready to fill those tires up with helium, the BMXperts say it works. SE and Volume have bike tests, the ABA Grands report shows that Bubba won his third ABA #1 title in a row, and Matt Hoffman does a barhop on a bike with a bashguard. He's wearing high-tops too and runs 4-piece bars. Wait a minute, that's the Nostalgia page. BMX Plus! brings you three how-to's, a salty Bicycle Union glove test and Integral 13T freewheel review. There's a Shook road trip that starts on page 22. The Ramp Rats Fall classic gets a report and also the Block jam gets some coverage. Steven Cisar has a fast bike, it's a Redman. Or is it Steven who's fast?

Man, you gotta love the BMX mags. We got so many of them this week tha it's hard to make it through them all. That's when it's handy when RIDEBMX makes a special 2007 Photo issue with over 45 of the 116 pages filled with "Out-of-this-world" BMX photography. We have to say, the pics are damn nice and if you're about to put some new wallpaper on your clean walls, my advise is to spend 4 bucks on the April issue, instead of a roll of off-white wall paper. Edwin Delarosa gets the cover and he's bringing purple back to the streets where Nigel Sylvester is doing his part too to make purple a popular colour among 4 peg brakeless street riders. The Up Front section has all kind of little news bits from team changes to Junk in the Trunk to How-to not be a pro BMX-er. Diversions is the VDO section and Brian Castillo answers some questions On the Clock and Ralph Sinisi explains a bit about the Animal Road Trip DVD.

Tobias Wicke came down to Paul's Boutique unexpectedly last night. It was a nice suprise as he brought Ben Hennon, Andy Zeiss and Thomas Fritscher with him. We planned on taking some pictures but he was wearing the wrong hat and the bike was hidden somewhere in the car between the two other bikes and they were actually on their way to The Promise Park in Heerlen. Next thing you know wethepeople's Rob Harrison comes through with loads of pics of the bike and a few details on what parts Tobias runs.

It doesn't get much better than this. You buy your copy of  FreedomBMX and you now get a  Circle DVD for free! Okay the retail price has been bumped up to € 5,80 in Germany and Austria (or € 8,10 abroad) but still, it's a fair price and when it comes with a DVD, it's a steal.  What does Freedom #73 bring?
The format is huge and it's Robert Kroenig who gets the cover with a lazy one-handed toe-jam on some concrete quarterpipe obstacle. Fuzzy Hall gets the inside cover. He might be off Mongoose but he's still on VANS. You can make a video clip out of the contents page. Cut the pics out, put them on a stack in the right order, put some staples on the left side and flip through the booklet. Let me know how fast that 50-50 grind to crooked grind looks. If you have a happening BMX scene, you will probably have someone reporting about it in the news section. The Bcrossionale receives a report but you gotta have the video to really feel it.

If you're trying to get rid of your 44-16 gearing but find the Profile cassette hubs a bit on the expensive side, you can look into this Madeira Dexter hub. Madeira is actually a sister brand of Profile racing and is also made in the USA but has a different price tag attached to it. Read on to see the specs of the black cassette hub.