1989 Mega Free 2 Bercy, France - Les Coulisses by OSBMXF.
Images : Jacky Frattini
Remarkably, and considering how labor-intensive Bicycle tire manufacturing is from a single mold, our first batch of reissue Panaracer Freestyle Tires will be completed on time. Those who have preordered can expect to see their tires in late March, or at the latest, early April (but we feel good about March). We have opted to air freight this first batch into the country to keep our promise on delivery. A second small batch will be arriving by ocean shipment sometime around July. Beyond that, we don’t anticipate seeing any more of the tires available for sale separately until late 2022.
We have updated the website with available inventory from both batches. Please note, we do have a
Name: Travis Hess
Hometown: Martinsburg WV
Started riding BMX in: 1986
Number of bikes in the collection: 21 (11 BMX bikes, 10 Schwinns)
Being into cars, hot rods, drag racing, what made you decide to look into BMX bikes too?
Travis Hess: I think for me it was the early racing innovation that made me attracted to the early BMX era..like I love how Redline, Champion, Gary Turner etc were building flat track bikes, drag cars and stuff and then their kids wanted to race BMX.
Did you run into BMX bikes while looking for car stuff?
Travis Hess: No, I went down this deep rabbit hole from Schwinns. I got my first Stingray in like 1995/6 and my Dad and me were way into them In mid 2000s. Then you know how it goes, you drift into other
Starting from issue two we had a little theme going. We had regular sections such as the Believe it, or not!? page where we could make up news and leave it up to the reader if they believed it, or not. We also had the RAD/LAME list which was liked and feared at the same time. The free sticker of issue two came from Lageja skateshop in Eindhoven. A shop that supported us through thick and thin.
The rap concert report this time was from the Just-Ice & DMX concert in Den Bosch. Good times, good times.
More and more English text so by now you should be able to read most of the FAT-'zines (if you don't know how to read Dutch). There's a report from the skate contest in Belgium which was also a good time. Scooters were still hot (in our eyes). Remember, we were living in the year 1988.
There's a German scene report by Robert Moeller and a report from the UK by Dave Beveridge (RIP).
Paul writes about his last contest in Hampton, Virginia and of course there is some grafitti art by Speed this time.
Mini interviews were published with skateboarders Marcel Jansen and Floris Mansvelt-Beck. Flip through the pages and go back in time, 20 years to be exact.
History Of BMX | Stu Thomsen | Bob Hadley/FATBMX shirt | ABA | by The Stuntabiker
The American Bicycle Association is a US-based BMX sports governing body in Gilbert, Arizona created by Merl Mennenga and Gene Roden in 1977. It is the largest sanctioning body in the United States concerning BMX. It has tracks in Canada and Mexico as well as in the USA
Name: Brian Malmquist
Hometown: Valparaiso, Indiana but I currently reside in Charlotte, North Carolina
Started riding BMX in: Approximately 1985 so I would have been 11 years old
Number of bikes in the collection: 18 completes and 22 framesets waiting to be built
Next to working on cars as a hobby, do you find it easier to work on BMX bikes?
Brian Malmquist: Of course there are far fewer parts to a bike, but it's surprising how complicated they can be to put together properly sometimes. Different headset stack heights, tight bottom brackets, chains that go tight and loose, wobbly sprockets, dialing in brakes. I am a very detailed person, so I don't just throw a bike together for show. I build every bike to ride smoothly.
35 years of FATBMX. Going back in time: Issue 01 of FAT-'Zine (1988)
After the first "Try-mag" we released in 1987 the feedback was so good that we decided to continue with the FAT-'zine project. Paul had just got back from the USA where he stayed for a few months and visited the 2-Hip KOV in Washington, Mount Thrashmore skatepark and the Powerhouse Bike Shop in Hampton, VA.
Issue 01 had three stickers, one FF sticker, one Powerhouse Bike Shop sticker and one Skeletor sticker that Paul found on a roll in the $ 1 dollar shop.
Mike Loveridge got interviewed and street riding is starting to take off. Paul and I used to do BMX freestyle demos and placed a full page ad in the FAT-'zine. Or maybe it was just a filler, who knows.
Some things that made it on the RAD list were: Town & Country wear, Club Homeboy, Fingerboards and Centerpull brakes. Yes, these were the eighties (1988). Things that made it on the Lame list were: The Del Mar killers, Grabber seats, Dyno shoes and Lee Chi brakes. Some of this makes me laugh.
Scooters were still hot (in our eyes) and we even had a page on Snowboarding (the next cool thing to do).
Robert Moeller got introduced as the first German FAT-'zine correspondent and we also took a trip to an LL Cool J, Eric B & Rakim and Public Enemy concert in Amsterdam. Memories........
Name: Jeremy Golden (Goldie)
Hometown: Raised in SoCal made the move to AZ in 2001
Started riding BMX in: Started in 1984
Number of bikes in the collection: 12 completes, almost enough parts for 6 more.
Do you remember the moment that you decided to start collecting BMX memorabilia?
Jeremy Golden: I started collecting right around 2004. I built my Hawk f-20 that I had since the end of 91 for my son to ride and after he was done riding it there was a few parts missing and I wanted to build it back up. I then realized there was a collector’s market when searching for parts and that spurred my desire to search for the other bikes I was enamored by as a kid.
Enjoy the rad, really rad, really really rad radness of Mike D. riding my halfpipe back in the day.
35 years of covering the BMX scene: 1987 - 2022 FAT! ISSUE 00. The official start of FAT was in 1987. It's 2022 now. That makes it 35 years of covering the BMX scene trying to make it bigger and better for everyone to enjoy. Find the info on issue 00 below and then flip through every page by hitting the link at the very bottom. We're starting off with issue zero here which was fueled by the fact that a Dutch BMX magazine (Trickx) started putting more racing and international freestyle riders in their magazine instead of the Dutch riders.
That's actually where the name comes from: Freestylers Against Trickx (FAT). It wasn't a goal or plan to make a total of 34 issues but after issue 00 came out the Dutch scene wanted more. Anyway, the "Try-MAG!!!" is mostly in Dutch but that will change soon in the issues to come.
It all started in 1987 and we were young and stupid. There were no computers in sight and the internet had to be invented for most of us. Markers, scissors, photocopies, rulers, the typewriter, these were the things you had to slap a 'zine together.
Compared to now the quality was shit but at least you had something in your hands that you could relate to.
Issue 00 already had a free sticker page. It actually came with two free stickers; one of the Freestyle
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.