Bart de Jong
Name: Alessandro
Age: 22
Hometown: Venice, Italy
Hook-ups/Sponsors: DS Company
The FAT favorite list:
-Spot to ride: I really enjoy every type of spots in the street.
-BMX video: Joram van Dijk x Dig
-Food: I eat and love almost every type of food
Shop name: Back Bone BMX
Location: Belconnen, Canberra, Australia
Years in business: 2021 is our 16th year!
Best year yet: Every year is a good year
Worst year yet: Last year was difficult and the most challenging, but I don’t know if we’ve had a ‘worst year’. We’ve had some tough years, but we don’t want to get stuck thinking about them too much.
What were your first thoughts on Covid-19 when it hit?
Tyson Jones-Peni: COVID had been kicking around internationally, but we were always optimistic, and probably pretty naïve. We ran a local competition on March 22nd, which was meant to be the first event of a year full of events. We took all of the necessary COVID precautions and thought the event was a success – but literally, that night, the Prime Minister of Australia addressed the country and announced that lockdown would take place that very next day.
Check out Silvan Schmutz getting busy on some of his local spots in Basel, Switzerland.
The Canadians have been busy recently! Matthew Macleod was working on this last summer until he messed his foot up but there's some real nice stuff in there including some sick backwards manual lines.
Another blast of BMX news from Sean Tompson in his van!
What's Your Story? with Andrew York.
Name: Mark McCorkle
Hometown: Beaverton, OR
Started riding BMX in: 1978 in Littleton, CO
Number of bikes in the collection: 14. 11 vintage/old-school.
Do you remember the moment that you decided to start collecting BMX memorabilia?
Mark McCorkle: It was 2008. I still had my original race bike from 1979. I had been hauling around, place to place for nearly 30 years. One day I just sort of realized I didn't feel I'd ever really use it. I figured if I could get $1000 for it, I'd let it go. After digging around on eBay, BMXMuseum and OS-BMX (now BMXSociety) websites, I generally found it was probably a $500-600 bike. So I decided not to part with it.
Name: Karl Hinkley
Age: 43
Hometown: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Current hook ups: The Bar-end Guy, Mudslingers bike shop & my wife Carrie
Past sponsors: Dirt Master, Atomic, Drop out products & Andrew’s Bicycle shop
The FAT Favorite List:
Spot to ride: Current: The Nowear Compound. Past: The P.I.T. Skatepark in Rockford, IL
The Cobalt line combines proven geometry and dialled components giving you the best start out of the gate during your first days racing. The Cobalt Expert steps up to a 19.5″ toptube, a longer 50mm reach cobalt stem, a slim Radio combo seat and wider 1 3/8″ ARISUN “XLR8” tires.
Fresh out of the box for 2021 with incredible new paint and graphics, you’ll be able to spot a Cobalt on the track very easily. All Cobalt bikes now feature full sealed front hubs and integrated headsets, making them simply unbeatable when comparing price to spec. The Cobalt is one seriously unstoppable machine.
Check out Kevin Nikulski throw down some timeless Flatland moves in Berlin, Germany. Add Raph Jeroma-Williams and his trusty VX1000 to the mix and you got yourself an instant classic. Well done, guys!
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.