With 48 pages this was a skinny issue of FAT-'zine. We're still inthe year 1989 and we went to Paris, France for the BMX Freestyle World Championships. John Yull, Mike Canning, Rolf Seiler, and Dave Beveridge got the cover from the Freestyle Championnat du Monde in St. Denis, France. The pages got messed up a little. It was pretty tricky to put the pages in order and then Joop van den Kimmenade had to be on top of it too when he stapled the 'zines together.
Kees Lemmens wrote a report about a session in Den Haag, Erlangen, Germany was covered by Matt Pingel,and Haluk did the Tropica contest. We had an interview with the very talented Scott Carroll (RIP), and Lars from Mars wrote a story about bikers and skaters riding together.
We drove over to Uden fr a street skate contest which was won by Dirk Winkelman. We checked out De La Soul live in Eindhoven and this report was followed by the Paris World's article.
Stephan Prantl was interviewed (page 42-43) and we had an anti-drinking campaign sticker (Drank maakt meer kapot dan je lief is) in issue number 11.
Still a lot of stuff was put onto the 48 pages and like every week you get to flip through it page by page.
We made a lot of them 'zines back then. There was no plan really but this was issue number 7 and the year is 1988. It's the issue that covers the first FAT-JAM. Riding street in 1988 was a new thing.
Having a car on the course was exciting for the street guys, and thrashing it afterwards was a good time. Check the sequence at the end of the issue.
Joachim Mulkens came through with more incredible artwork that he finished during regular school lessons. So good. He's a cop now but could have easily made his money doing comics or whatever.
Issue 7 has an interview with Sander Nieuwenhuis who still is our best Dutch vert rider. Pat Wirz contributes a report about the AFA Masters round 6 in Ohio where Joe Johnson did a tailwhip on a quarterpipe 4 feet out!
Matt Pingel went to London and visited Southbank. We got a free General Bicycles sticker this time. Jeff Hedges gets a BIO, we visited a MC Marvellous and DJ Cash Money concert and made a trip to Cologne for a contest.
It must have been our first time as it took one hour to get from the train station to the Jugendpark.
The 'zines are starting to get interesting......
Congratulations to this year's Inductees. We saw a record number of people cast a vote for the BMX Hall of Fame this year, as anticipation for the Grand Opening of the BMX Hall of Fame & Museum in Tulsa, OK drew near. Now that it is opening to the public, we are thrilled to announce the date and location for the 2022 Hall of Fame Ceremony:
Saturday, October 29th - in Tulsa, OK, at the BMX Hall of Fame & Museum! Who's in?
The colour of the cover changed with every issue. I sometimes checked on the cover color before Joop (R.I.P.) started photocopying but at times I couldn't be bothered and found out when the 'zines were done. It's still 1988 and Carlo Griggs scores the cover. Jamie Cameron took the photo. Nice one.
The 'zine is starting to look professional with an official editorial page, contents page, and articles.
Interviews in issue 6 come from Tommy Guerrero, Dennis McCoy, Rick Allison and Robert Moeller. There's a photo of Axel Reichertz flatlanding with a fullface. Paul, Menno and I did a Coca Cola commercial and made easy money.
Frank Peeters reports about the Titus Cup, Le Clip provided the free sticker, we went to Bonn for a contest at Mathias Rechenburg's place, we cruised over to Den Haag for a sk8 contest, we visited Tropica in Germany and also discovered the banks at the University of Düsseldorf (1988!).
The Stokebros are starting to make a presence and Olli contributed a nice drawing of Alf.
Just flip through the 'zine page by page and discover something weird. Find the link below to turn the pages.
USA BMX Olympic Stadium in Tulsa & BMX museum. Ribbon cutting day, the official opening is next month.
Random Adventure meets Alan Woods of Alans BMX, a shop that has been on the Wigan BMX scene for over 40 years, and John Lee an ex racer who's love has been rekindled for the sport when his own kids got into it.
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.
Name: Bill Kaczor
Hometown: Bowie, MD, USA
Number of bikes in the collection: 17 currently down from 27
Have you saved your first BMX bike all this time?
Jah Witness: I have held onto my 1984 GT Pro "L" stamp since I've had it. I will never let that go!
Was your first bike the starting point of collecting more?
Jah Witness: No, I was given a GT from the mid '90s by my friend's parents after he passed away. I was clearing out my basement and sold it to a local collector. When he came over to pick it up he saw my '84, and pointed me to the BMX Museum and it opened up a can of worms.
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
Name: Bob Medrano
Hometown: Concord, California, USA
Started riding BMX in: 1973
Number of bikes in the collection: 10
It looks like you were one of the NorCal BMX pioneers in the '70s. Did you realize what was being developed at the time?
Bob Medrano: No I would have never thought it would be an Olympic sport.
Did a lot of it come from imitating motocross?
Bob Medrano: Yes for sure. I just wanted to ride (motocross) bicycles or motorcycles & be around the riding spots in the area & there were a lot of MX & BMX spots in the '70s.
What were the early tracks like and how did the bikes hold up on the BMX tracks that were created?