FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Summer is a tough time to make a magazine. Everyone involved in the construction of Dig is scattered throughout the world already. Then Summer hits, and most of us head out on the road for contests, road trips or whatever the nice weather might allow us to do. So we scatter even further away from each other, and then scramble around to find Internet cafes so we can make a magazine. The 80s pop band dubbed The Cars may have nailed it best when they said, "Summer, it turns you upside down." It definitely turns us up upside down, and forces us to work through some pretty haphazard methods. Ultimately though, it still works, and we end up with a finished product that reflects the tumultuous Summer months.

Dig BMX Issue 54 is the latest product of our Internet cafe search, and it's based around a theme we haven't explored in quite some time, travel. There's also the wide assortment of regular features to round out the issue, along with a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Reinforced magazine is fundamentaly a bmx magazine but will also have small alternate sections like snow, skate, art, breakdancing, bands, urban as well as covering the bigger more well known people, companies and events in bmx.  Reinforced will highlight the lesser known companies, events and riders which play just as big a part in sustaining our sport and industry. The Editor Of Reinforced is James Jones, who's roots are in bmx and has seen the sport Grow and change over the years, and has not fallen victim to all the 

Hannu Cools is cool enough to make the Freedom cover once again. The shot looks really Cali style but it's in fact the Kortrijk bowl in Belgium. The new paper and bigger pages is already giving Freedom BMX its own identity. Kay's pics are ultra sharp and they come out nice on the new paper. What's in issue 70 you ask? Hmm, after the regular stuff like news, post, video reviews and the calendar, it's time for the Bjoern Heyer interview with some special photos. The Escape the Rain tour can also be called the Eastpak/Carhartt Belgium-Holland tour. When you are planning to tour in Holland, it is no surprise that you have to escape the rain and ride indoors. Benni Kopp organized the etnies Bielefeld City Jam and Sergio showed up. La Finca's catalog is somewhere in the issue too so start shopping. The 4 page gallery gives you 4 pics to choose from to put on your wall.The Munich contest is also called the Country Bikes contest which means they either sponsored the event or we the title sponsor.

Nate Wessel and Tom Stober have formed a company called Team Blowin It. Their first product is a knee pad that goes under the pants. They've taken the good ideas from other pads they liked and put everything together in their first product. They've been working on the pads forever just trying to get them perfect.

Features:
-Kevlar outer cover for durability and to prevent tearing jeans
-3mm foam cover over plastic cap to prevent tearing jeans 

New issue. Live it, love it, buy it, read it...

Departments:
-Up Front . This is where we hide the subliminal messages.
-Pro Q&A: Joe Rich Why cut the dreads, Joe? Why!?
-Diversions. Several things to keep you occupied
-Then And Now: Matt Beringer Matts done a lot of growing upriiiight.
-Products: Twelve luscious products for you to drool over. Or maybe it's thirteen, we can't count.
-Setups: Allan Cooke No helicopters were icepicked in the making of this bike check.
-Product Test: More beadless tires and a new frame from Fly.
-Letters: The bane of Ryan Fudger's existence? Nope, he actually enjoys it.
-Steps: Nothings Like no hands and no feet, not like that thing youre doing with your life.

The folks over at Redline sent us three photos of their 2007 complete bike line. All three have two-tone frame colours so you don't have to buy a can of spray paint any longer. To see what the other two colour combinations look like, click on READ MORE and it will take you there. For more info on the company visit Redline by clicking their green/black RL link  in the right FATBMX sponsor column.

The newest stuff we have that we really need to let people know about is the new safety gear. Might not seem very exciting until you actually see and wear these things. We put a substantial amount of work into each piece. The idea behind the stuff was that we needed to combat complete bikes that are coming with great parts for $250. Equipped as well as they are from the factory, riders don't need as many upgrades as they used to. So, while we are working on the evolution of wearable items like tires and grips, we decided to make some pads (Something that doesn't come on that new $299 MirraCo bike already). The pads are super slim and have removable hard cups. The sock-like material was lifted from a Nike volleyball or soccer knee pad.

What I like about 2020 is the fact that every story in the magazine involves drinking. Yeah we had this contest and the night was fucking rockin'! It's basically what BMX freestyle is about anyway. You ride, you hang out with friends and you party. Issue 21 shows a bunch of Aussie news and assorted happenings, a reformist flatland story, got Dirt? trail jam report and also a Mean Streets battle. The paper is full colour and of great quality and so are the pics. Daniel Dunn gets an interview and the Ghetto jam has arrived down under (C-town). The Cromo Crown contest gets a report as does the Heavy Metal 13 comp listing 13 good things and 13 bad things that happened at HMH 13. If you like step by step photos of tricks so you can learn them you need to turn to page 66. That is if you want to learn a Hurricane. Anton Ayres from Brisbane gets the Bio which is called "Behind bars"in 2020 mag. Colin MacKay's friend Kenji Tsuruta also receives a full page in a sort of Bio thingy and so does Sydney's Troy Charlesworth. 

I just spent some time trying to grab the content page from this issue from the www.4130.com page. It didn't work. Sorry about that. We know that the new issue is already here so I'm not sure how bad you want to know what's in issue 95. According to the RIDE crew it's their best issue ever and it's hard to argue with that. I believe it's insane how they get magazines like this with so much stuff out in time. That's Sergio Layos on the cover and not Mike Miller as Dave Osato thought it was. It could have been though. Both have great style. This could have made things interesting at the upcoming Rebel Jam as there is a style award for each discipline but Sergio is going to the USA for an Etnies thing leaving things open for style cat Mike Miller. But we heard that Mike Aitken and Chase Hawk are coming and if they're not, there's always Leo Forte cruising around. That should be photo opportunity enough for another cover of RIDE BMX.

These backpacks are rad. The Alpha is designed after an assault pack Bill Bryant (Snafu-ace) used in Iraq and loved. The insides are lined with bright materials so you can see your shit in low light conditions. The Alpha also has a separate gear stash pocket for putting shit like sweaty pads in. All small pockets are lined with soft fleece so it won't scratch your phone, iPod, dildo, whatever. You could do a 4 day trip in this pack no problem. The smaller one is more suited to typical school boy operations, but has a secret fold down flap on the back perfectly suited for holding toiletries and such, in case the school boy wants to run away from home. Flip-down water bottle pockets are kind of trick and of course both bags still feature the SNAFU grips as the handles.