FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

It was 1988, the year after the Tizer World Championships in England and the IFN had called for the Tizer World Cup. My plan was to get a ride from Robert Moeller after the Trier contest but while over there they told me there was no space for me in their car. I bought a single train ticket to England from Trier, Germany and had 10 pounds left for food. Luckily I got the leftover bag of bread from the contest so I did not starve. My sleeping bag was the bike bag again so I wouldn't have to pay for my bike on the train. 14 hours later I arrived in Manchester. Read the contest report in issue 5 of FAT-'zine.

We have interviews too with street pioneer Dave Slade, Carlo Griggs, Steve Giberson, Chris Potts and Jeff Cotter. They've got some funny things to say.

The 'Zines scene was getting big and we have reviews from Euthanasia (Jamie Cameron), COW (Mike Rose), Crucial Mania, Totally Intense (Effy), The 'Zine (Pat Wirz), Damage (Dave Slade) and Decade 'zine (Thomas Fritscher, Bresie, Thrasher and Geisser).

The free sticker was provided by FAT-'zine. Yes we had stickers back then.

Joachim Mulkens, Speed and Ollie took care of some great art again. Paul writes about his freestyle activities in 1982. We did a contest report on the Kenn/Trier event. Check this. I went by train to Duesseldorf first. We shredded the city there all afternoon and then took a train to Trier.

Issue 4 of FAT-'zine is more of a skate issue. BMX Freestyle was at an all time low so we did some fun things next to it. It kept us on the streets and the ramps that we had placed at the end of the street could be used for everything. It was the time when we did shows with the Town & Country crew. Bert, a T&C distributor was a crazy guy who organized demos for us at some of his dealers. We loaded up the ramps, did some demos and received dinner at the local snackbar in return. When one shop did not want to give us the gas money or some decent food, it was time to do some anti-promotion. Charlie Sport sucks! Haha, funny shit.

Vert ramps were hard to find back then but we found one in Rotterdam. The hiphop concert review of issue 4 is from the Stetsasonic concert at De Effenaar in Eindhoven.

A free sticker came from Seaflex again Charlie Sport did make it on the Lame side of the RAD-LAME list (of course).

We had an interview with Dave Vanderspek and mini interviews with Elger Blitz and Dan Archer. Find a photo of Bart doing a cancan on a scooter wearing pink Oakley blades, pink/blue T&C pants and a pink T&C backback and win nothing.

Sniper Frans Swinkels was getting rad on his Zorlac representing Vision Streetwear in 1988 and

It was rough at times to do a 'zine. Photos were received by post and then photocopied. The original photos were returned and you had the paper to work with. You made a layout of the page and started typing on the actual page. The space you had available was the space you needed to fit your story in. The pages got stuck in the typewriter very often which caused major headaches. The typewriter ribbon faded out after a while too and finding a new one for the old typewriter was a challenge in itself.

The page numbers were added at the end with a number mold. The pages needed to line up and all of you who have done a 'zine before know that this did not always go smoothly.

But it's 1988 and issue 3 came out. It had the following content:

The cover was shared by Jeroen Hoogaerts (RIP) and Bart on the skateboard. The issue had lots of art again, made by Joachim Mulkens and Speed One who showed up with new drawings during school breaks.

We visited a secret spot in Germany which is not so secret these days: The University of Düsseldorf with all those brick banks. 1988!

I stopped by Rainer's Bike Shop to get my Skyway TA BMX from 1983 back together - I came across the frame, fork and Tuff Wheels last summer by chance through a buddy in my hometown who had the bike since the '80s and kept the frame hanging on the wall for 25 years.

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

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

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........

In celebration of Profile Racing's 50th anniversary, owner and founder, Jim Alley, invites us into the company's original Florida location where some sections of this dark and dusty industrial cave have been sealed off since 2004.

Enjoy the rad, really rad, really really rad radness of Mike D. riding my halfpipe back in the day.