Slack.

Well, life's been hectic recently, and although that's no great excuse, it'll have to do for the serious lack of updates. Sorry John!

To make up for it, a bumper one:

Remember that link to the LD-TV site, with the J.J. Palmere video? Well, head over to Transam's site (the parent site of Little Devil, Orchid, etc.) and check out an interview with him. Click!



JJ Palmere table, by Aaron Buckley

Brian Tunney, now rolling on United (Along with Robin Fenlon...), has popped up a video on his site, Assblasters. I don't know how the porn industry hadn't bought the domain name up before him, but there we go. Get on it and watch it, some cool original stuff being done.

Talking of original stuff, the 4down trip rolled through London, and apart from everyone getting rained on for an entire day, a lot of amazing stuff happened. If you see Street Joel around, just say "Scotty D" or "Ben Lewis" and time how long he talks for. It's incredible. But that's all fun and games - go to the 4down site and check out the daily trip updates. Dean Hearne bought himself a point-and-shoot and has been putting up snaps every day, and little video clips. Go to either Day 5 or Day 6, and check out the Ben Lewis, Curb Sesh video.

What?

Again, with some sweet timing - talking of "What?" - check out THIS video of the Dew Tour Highlights from Vital. Pretty nuts. Park riders - get on it!

Vital also have a big wodge of info on the new Animal Cush pivotal seat, and Stump and Stump Wedge Mod post. Check out the video here, think "Hmm, my bike would look cleaner like that", then pester Carlos into ordering you one: click! Got some cool ideas, notably the metal support in the body of the seat to prevent Macneil Droop, plus a decent shape, nice amount of padding, etc. Apparently, it's like an SL/Capitol seat hybrid. All good by my books.

Primo's Pivotal seat is almost done too - check out the photo of it here on Tony Neyer's bike, from BMXOnline:





It looks super clean, especially with how it covers the guts, but the main thing to remember is that it's basically a Balance with a Pivotal base, and we all know how good the Balance seat is in it's current form. Can't wait!

Macneil have put some new stuff up on their site, with some new colourways on most parts, and some full revisions on others, especially the Gary Young frame. Gary has a full interview in the new Ride, and if you go over to Ride's Site, you can also check out a "The Making Of..." video for Mike Miller's interview, feat. the Backyard jumpbox set up in a carpark. Pretty boring video overall, but still some sweet stuff in it. One for the tweakers.

While we're talking tweakers, the Street vs. Tweaker jam is set to go down on the 12th August - breeze over to StreetvsTweaker for full details. StreetDave's taking time out from making me tasty mochas at Shakeaway to set the jam up, so if you've got any ideas for it, or can lend a hand from adverts to helping organise things on the day, give him a buzz and give him some of your time. Not many people give much back to BMX, instead prefering to bad mouth everything online instead, so get behind this venture and get involved. It'll be a fun day no matter what, seeing as Southampton's littered with spots to ride, so get on it.

This is some "C" footage from Voices - basically, stuff that didn't make the full video, and didn't make the bonus section. Saying that, it's still awesome, so put it on mute and play it:



I need to watch Voices again... Tomorrow We Work's due in September though. If I had a tail, it'd be wagging...

Help save Southsea Skatepark!

If you're reading this blog then you need to click on the link below and sign the E-petition. It will only take you 2 minutes and you could save Southsea skatepark from closing. This park has spawned some of the best British riders and is home to the King of Concrete event. Can't bear to have a park so rich in BMX history to close... so go spread the word. NOW!

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/save-southsea/

"The future of Southsea skatepark is looking uncertain. Portsmouth City Council is preparing to close the park in September of this year unless a suitable plan can be made in conjunction with a private party that would need to take over the lease of the facilities. A private party with the full support of current skatepark users has approached the council and their business plan was rejected due to out-dated views expressed by council members as to the usage and potential user groups associated with the park. The users of the park; skateboarders, bmx and inline have united To form a user group that will hopefully convince the Local and National Government that these facilities are a necessary part of the local community and that the park is unique and an investment in the future of all active members of the public young and old. Please add your support if you use the park, have ever used the park or if you value a genuine piece of British skate and sporting heritage and the right to campaign for adequate sporting and recreational facilities for the present and future.

Thank you

The Southsea Skate Park Users Group"

Eli Platt > You

No joke.

Duo brand news, and Corey Martinez owning...

We've seen the grips and some spy photos of products from Doyle and Van Homan's new company Duo, and now - thanks to Defgrip - we can see the new Duo tyre, Pivotal seat and Homan "New Edwin" grips. In white, the Homan grips make me think of Mini-Milks. This is no bad thing.

Click here for the pics.

Also, to get your T-Nez hit for the week, check out the Levi's Clip of the Week here at here. As they say in Team America, "everybody needs a montage" - so go get your's there.

Suzuki BMX Masters 2007

Got a call from J.P on Saturday... it was too good an opportunity for him to remind us that while we were slaving away at work, he was out enjoying himself in sunny Germany at the BMX Masters! Probably beer in hand and yelling abuse at the locals. I'll have to see if he can be persuaded to do a write up of what happened...

I was really looking forward to seeing Scotty Cranmer go head to head with Pompey local Mark Webb... but it was not to be. Scotty made the trip to Germany but didn't ride (rumours are that he was too tired and stayed in bed for all 3 days) while Mark broke his arm in a 900 attempt on the Braun Spine Mini comp while still managing to come 3rd behind Daniel Dhers and eventual winner Ben Wallace. Good to see the Pompey locals up on the Podium!

Street finals was won by Daniel Dhers with Ben Wallace in 2nd. Here's a clip of Dhers runs on street... whippy crazy and front flip over the spine?! That guy is all over the park - eaten too much sugar methinks! Craaazy.

For all the results, see http://www.bmxmasters.com

For more footage from the masters checkout http://www.freecaster.com/

New...news?

Well, it seems that finally there's actually new stuff going on in the BMX world - United have released a big new product update, along with talks of a free, cover-mounted DVD on Ride 107, which should be pretty sweet judging from the clips of their team riders floating around on the interweb.

United have updated their Trinity range to include a new Pivotal stump post and seat (Fat Capitol by the looks?), with T-Nez's Trinity logo. There's also a Corey Martinez-related slideshow on the go there too, so get over there and get involved.

Pics found on Digbmx.com







Federal have put some (tiny...) updated pics of Bruce Crisman's bike up, incl. white KHE Reverse hub and Federal 1066 frame.





Derek Girard's company Little Devil have updated their website again, this time with a whole load more content than before. The opening videos are pretty sweet, so after you're done following my request to check out United's site, check them out...

Dan & Joel @ Abshot

Don't you just hate it when you go home and you find that there is no food in the house? So far, I have found one old banana and a pot of Rowntree's jelly. Another nice healthy dinner for me then! Grrr...

Anyways, here's some pics of Joel and Dan at Abshot over the weekend courtesy of Pies.

News...

Well, after pinning the Down Low tag on a few of their parts, the next component name the guys over at Fit pulled "seatpost" out of the hat next, and lo, here it is: The Down Low Seatpost:



I-beam internal setup
Shorter so you don't have to cut it down
That's pretty much it. It is, in essence, the same as every other massive guts I-beam post out there from virtually every company, just with less post.
Woo.

WTP have finally released their freecoaster that's been in testing for quite a while now, the Blind.



Rumour (and that's all it is so far, with WTP chosing to make fun of KHE instead of post much useful info...) has it that it uses the same internals as the Rollex, i.e. bad ones. Not ideal. Here's hoping that isn't the case, anyway.

While we're talking freecoasters, here's the early photos of the G-Sport freecoaster, just 'cos it looks so puuuuuurdy.




Remember John posting some photos of what used to be the Eject Option front hub, but is now the Simple Eject hub after the Simple/Eject collaboration? Well, that's continuing now with the new System stem. What we're looking at here is basically a Kink Relief stem that doesn't make my teeth feel scared.







Same clamping deal, but possibly a bit stronger? Who knows...

Keep updated on Stephen Murray's condition by hitting up BMXTalk, and go to the main riding forum, then check out the stickied thread about him. Gets updated every day or two by his family, so you know it's reliable.

Lastly, Mat Hoffman's old Haro Master, and a crazy video from the Mansfield King of Vert comp. Weird how times change. (from RideBMX UK)

Carlos likes the Fit 2008 Bikes!

You don't get anywhere by standing still. I know we've only just got halfway through 2007 and Christmas is still a long way off... but as a bike company, you have to plan ahead of these things.

As far as complete bikes go, the most anticipated range is probably from Kink. It's their first venture in the complete bike market and their new range should be due very soon though I don't have an exact date yet. Normally known for the high end American made frames, they've finally decided to produce some more affordable stuff.

Seeing the competition, Fit have really upped their game in their 2008 range. The guys at 4Down popped by with some of the 2008 demo bikes. Unfortunately I was away at the time but judging from Carlos' reaction, they must be pretty damn good! Those of you who know Carlos will know what I mean. But for those that don't know, let me explain. Carlos is particularly picky when it comes to bikes and parts and likes to spend most of his time criticising rather than praising parts... so when he tells me that the Fit 2008 bikes look really good and that I should definitely get some for the shop, I guess I should really take notice. Yep, it is the first time Carlos has actually said a complete bike is 'nice' so Fit must be doing something right!

First up, all the bikes come with 25/9 gearing. Yes, even on the entry level bike which costs £219.99! All bikes come with mid bottom brackets. Integrated headsets come in at the £279.99 range and the top of the range have some quality parts... Odyssey/Animal tyres... the new Fit ECCD and S&M thin seats and even the new KHE Reverse Freecoaster on the Flow Street bike.



There's good news for those who can't wait till next year to get your hands on one of these... we should have them in stock some time in October!

:-O

:-O :-O :-O



Chase Dehart: Officially too good, and getting better.

Primo roadtrip vid

Awesome Primo roadtrip video on Vital. The ol' Embed thing isn't working at the mo', so apologies for not reducing your workload by one click...