FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

The end of last year sometime Jon Greer said he had an old mill that he was putting ramps at. I asked him if the cops were chill with it? He said yeah! He said I want to have a contest! I said "Cool, do it we can call it the 1st annual Failure Bikes contest!" He said sweet! so Jon and his bud ryan and a bunch of the inland empire 909ers (which is were we get all the great Metal Mulisha fashion comes from!) started making some of the most shakey ramps ever.

When ESPN announced that the Flatland discipline got dropped from the 2004 X-Games schedule we contacted some flatland riders to check on their view on this. For a few reactions, read on:

After the Transit RIP editorial of February we received a whopping number of 1 story from Erik de Bruin (thanks Erik!). It's either that the editorial was not read by the people who experienced a ride in Markus' van or they were too drunk to remember. We'll give it one more month for you to type out a story of you in the Transit and place them all together next month as a tribute to the BMX van that survived 467.000 BMX kilometers. Show some appreciation.

Yes, February again, time for rain, hail, cold winds and another edition of the now famous Circle Cow International Flatground Contest in Servon, a small village near Paris. Alex Jumelin invited us to stay with him and so that Friday, after a four hour drive, we arrived at his doorstep, in the middle of Paris where he and his girlfriend and of course his son Nathan lived. Frank Lukas and Andy Zeiss (works for Chico and Red Bull) from Germany arrived later that evening and also stayed with Alex.

Repco Sport, Haro New Zealand distributors, stepped up again as the key BMX sponsor of the annual Vodafone X-Air comp held in Hamilton, New Zealand on the 6th and 7th of Feb. A sick field of international and local riders all ripping on street, vert and dirt. The Haro sponsored comp is the biggest action sports event in the country and the riding didn’t disappoint.

It takes a lot to organize a good contest. After last weekend we don't have to explain that to Michiel Verberg of Soulcycle. The Braun Flatground comp was very well organized but to give you an idea of what is needed to make it work I'll give you a list with a few things that need to be taken care of:

Kuoppa and Gomez Bikes did a release party in Amsterdam last weekend, Marti living in Finland and Viki living in Madrid it was a wise decision to do the release in the middle of that so with Amsterdam filled with Flatground riders it was busy at "the Bitterzoet" bar. Marti and Viki decided over a year ago to start their own company cause they wanted to be Real Business men! No, they wanted to show the world that they know everything about Flatland and that they "will change that flatlandworld forever", first part is true, Viki and Marti are amongst the best 10 flatlanders in this world but it takes more to change the world than riding bikes and design a frame.

BMX has brought me to the strangest places. When the opportunity came up to go to Estonia for a freestyle contest I grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Estonia, isn’t that over there near Russia? That’s right. By vehicle it would have been a 1900km drive through Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to get there. By plane it was less than three hours and a lot safer. But how shady is this place?

by Anita Hodgin Dear Fat, I haven't written in a while...I thought other girls were keeping you boys involved in our little run at the bmx freestyle world. but just to let you all know...we are still around and having fun riding our bikes.

Some things you cannot explain, you should have been there to understand what was going on. If you're boring and go to sleep early with a cracker and a bottle of water, don't expect to understand all the stories from the wild ones in the morning. Sure, stupid things are done but it's the moment that leads to it. Everyone having a good time, that's what it's all about. No one needs to be beat up to have a good time, no bar stool needs to be thrown through the window to have a story in the morning, no hook ups are required for a good night out.