Context.

I'm typing this seated on a brand new office chair, sitting at a desk with my laptop, a proper mouse and mouse-mat, a digital typewriter, an external hard-drive, a massive dead moth that's staring at me and some turbo strength cold/flu medicine. Just thought I'd set that scene for you. Feels pretty pro...

Speaking of pro - the Rail Jam at Interbike is potentially the only real thing I'm going to post from Interbike in so much as it was the only thing that actually involved riding, and I'm very much more interested in that rather than more unimaginative parts. Some of the lines people do in this are about a million % more original and innovative than almost every part shown at Interbike this year. Vital had this video up - I don't want to put any spoilers, but damn... I really want to say how awesome it was to see some of the moves in there.



Speaking of things that are awesome - any Erik Elstran footage is good, and this video for The Set is no different. I'm keen on anything that's pretty much done purely to wind up people who deserve to be wound up, so if you find yourself recoiling in horror and heading over to TheComeUp to cry about the double 'giver' in this video, then you and I probably wouldn't get along.



In total contrast to that, most Etnies edits seem to be produced to try and appeal to as many people as possible and offend as few people as possible, and this video's not really much of an exception. That being said, there's some cool stuff in there.



Cult apparently had a promo they made to play at Interbike, so it should be cool seeing that when it drops for us 'normies' who didn't go to the Worst Place In The World just to look at some bicycle parts and watch Garrett Reynolds do a fakie nozzer down a ledge (Spoiler!), but The Trip have already put their promo video up. Pretty much a remix of their sweet 35min long 'promo' video from before, but still, worth watching:



Speaking of promos, I can't remember if I put this up before, and checking requires extensive clicking and looking so I'm not going to do that, but hopefully I didn't... Eclat's team is "Stacked" as they'd probably say on ESPN, and for good reason.



That's it. Apologies for the lack of external linking, but I'm very much not in the mood to type a href = "" target="_blank" and all that jazz over and over again. I hope that I'm not about to find that writing that in the middle of this paragraph explodes the Blog when I click "Publish Post" after I write the labels in for this post. If I didn't, woo. If I did, fffuuuuuuu-

Webvid Day?

So, couple of videos up today. First off, Dakota Roche has banged out an edit at a park in the US of A for Cult. In related news, turns out the Cult 'zine is still going, which rules!



Ashley Charles quite often seems to get overlooked by people as he's not a big, in your face sponsored pro dude, but he's still ridiculously good. I mean, just watch this video. Winner. This was for Eclat.



UK street, aw yeah. This is a 'To Flat' edit from the P5/Dub street jam in London (although technically Scotty D doesn't really go 'to flat' on that ledge ride...), which features an ender that was featured as an ender for the old Carhartt jam from years ago. Still a ridiculous trick though, you really have to go there to get an idea of how gigantic that set is, and how bad the run-out is.



Put up a part from a video called 'Gotta Blast' a few days ago - turns out it was an old Shook video. Here's a few more bits from it:

Gotta Blast: Jeff Martin, Jeff kocsis and Anthony Villani - watch more skate, snow, surf, and moto videos

Mentioned yesterday the news about Ian Schwartz GTFO of the BMX pro world. Adam from TheComeUp did a bit of a retrospective that has some of his old videos on it, click here to see that. This is his part from the Sunday video though. Too good.

Randy? S and M.

This dude now rides for Eclat, and is also a winner:



It's been a while since Randy Taylor's had an all-out banger section, so it's always good to see this again!

A bit of S&M for you too. I'm too kind.



If you've got a WTP Warrior frame, go here to win some stuff. Pretty exclusive contest - if you've got one, you've probably got a good chance of winning!

Lastly, courtesy indirectly of TCU, and directly of Manmade, a reminder that a fair while back Garrett Reynolds was better than almost everyone else is today.

Mixture...

You want Eclat stuff? Pijin's got what you need. New drop of Eclat stuff is up on the site now, including the delightfully awesome looking Gonzo seats. Been waiting for them to come out for a while now, somewhat typically after I just bought a different seat. I lose...



Anyways, someone who loses in the pedalling fast at stuff stakes is Liam Fahy-Hampton. His Run At Me Slut section was amazing (click the tag at the bottom to find it), and this one's pretty cool too.



Dan Lacey has a video interview up on Woozy - click here for the text and photos, and click Play to watch it, I guess. I had to watch it on mute which kinda doesn't work for a video interview, so it's quality is unknown to me at the time of writing. Sorry...



Photos of Mike Aitken's first rail went up a few days ago, now his first up-rail too? Boom.



For more photos, and the chance to see Tate Roskelley with a real big fish, click here.

Laaaaaastly, a bit of history - Eli Platt made a name for himself with this video, then went on to make the awesome Micreation vid too, and then featured in a bunch of other cool videos of various descriptions. Trooper. Watch and enjoy...

BMX TRICKS AND STUNTS, YO

I started off riding in a small, little town in Wales with nowt but a little mini-ramp, a 3-set and what could potentially be considered a flat-bank in so much as it's theoretically a bank, and isn't transitioned. Either way, it meant that we had to look at things differently when we were out riding to find stuff to do, so naturally seeing edits of people in roughly similar situations interest me. *Name removed for confidentiality* first e-mailed me a link to his friend's Youtube videos a while back, but then I actually got an e-mail off Joe himself with a link to a pair of new Vimeo videos. Some really creative riding here, proving that you don't have to live in a BMX fashion city to be able to put out a cool edit. Click here for his vimeo channel (Which has another vid on there).

People are Strange from ]:_:[ on Vimeo.

Thanks for the link, Joe!

Orchid mentioned on their site yesterday they'd be putting up a little Geoff Slattery edit, and lo, they have. I really like the word 'Orchid'. Orchid.

Geoff Slattery 2009 from Orchid Footwear on Vimeo.

I also really like the way that Geoff rides tight little ramp setups like that. You just know that was hard as hell to ride...

Speaking of Orchid, they also point out that Kevin Porter's now got a coffee sponsor. Hectic! Go here for irrelevant details that won't make a difference to your life.

In similar news, Eli Platt's quit Subrosa and Shadow to focus on uni. Fair play I guess, although my experience of uni hasn't exactly been favourable. Good to see him stand by his ideals though, Ride US have an interview up with him about it all. Shallow interview with a deep person.

Skating doesn't have anything to do with this blog, but I do and I like skating, so check out some cool skate company ads riiiight here, thanks to a link from InTheGnar, thanks to a link from BMXfeed.

Sunday have a new trailer up for Up, Up & Away, but it still won't make me buy it simply because I don't really want to spend money just to see the Ian Schwartz amazing double-section again. It's really good, but not good enough to buy for me. However, I'm told that I'm 'really negative' and that the video's 'sorta alright', so don't take my word for it. There's definitely some other good stuff on there, but we're pretty much talking better than Electronical (Not a challenge), but not as good as... say... That's It or I Wanna Live (Which most definitely is a challenge, because both those videos rule). I should probably also take this opportunity to point out how much I really want to see the new Empire video. So I will. I really want to see the new Empire video.

Oh, and S&M have some pics of their latest cash-cows on their news feed. Seeing as they're still sticking with their flash site, I can't deep-link to that page so you'll just have to either do battle with their site, or just take my word for it that you probably won't want a re-issued Holmes, you'd probably buy the Fit Shiv forks instead of the first "US-made tapered leg and integrated race" Pitchforks and that the seat (Which comes with Eclat-esque Pivotal adapter. Taiwan 1 - 0 Eclat) does it for me but won't do it for you. Just bear in mind I used to run race seats on my BMX 'cos I thought they looked cool - what would I know?

I am tired. That should also suggest to anyone offended by anything in here that they probably shouldn't take it personally. Getting my Kerouac steez on.

Dig, Mutiny, WTP, etc...

First up was the most shocking bit of news today (Well, I say "shocking", the world hasn't exactly stopped spinning) - Morgan Wade is off Mutiny. I guess it kinda makes sense with how their team's shaping up, but still, he's been there for 8 years which is a pretty long time. They've got a bit of text up on their site about it (click here for that), which essentially is a "Thanks dude!" "No, thanks to you!" thing.

Also on their site they mentioned their '08 Webvid - well worth a watch! Here it is in SB, click "HD" to go check out the... well, HD version of it on Vimeo.


Mutiny Spring 08 Web Video from Mutiny Bikes on Vimeo.

In Dig news, they had some cool stuff up on their site today, up to and including a Ben Lewis bikecheck ("Modifications:
Angle grinded the dropouts and ball hammered the rear tubes to help with my new tyre clearance." Wait - what?), a link to a cool BMXFeedesque iPhone app, and a reminder to me to post the link to the Boxed Wine Fiasco blog JPR (Of FBM) has setup - and also the news he's now on the Dig staff to do a column each issue by the same name.

I like WeThePeople. I also like my A2B, and I also especially like the new colour for the A2B:



For more angles a world of info about that frame, click here, or to buy it, click here.

Speaking of buying things - if you're tempted by the Fly Fino grips, the Eclat Complex seat/post combo or the Tree frame, but need to be reassured about their positive qualities in a soothing American voice, click Here to see Vital's Gear Guide.

Very lastly, 2 hour shark/man combat makes trying to learn a new trick seem relatively tame. Apologies for linking to the Daily Mail...

Eclat Pivotal update

Eclat have some updates on their site for their new Pivotal, which is officially on the Mark And Dan Cool New Product Forecast...

New products!

It's been a while since there's been much new product info type biz around, seems like everyone spent themselves at Interbike... Anyways, here's some stuffs.

I was checking out the sweet FBM blog today and happened to spot the preview of their updated Crown Royal stem, and their new 7075 sprockets. Check 'em out!



Mutiny have updated the Loosefer for '09, and have a little .gif file on their site and product info - click here for that.

You'd have thought with keeping Eclat's new product range running and getting their '09 product out there WTP would've slowed down prototyping of stuff for their own parts range - but not so. Here's a glimpse of their new "skewer" front hub:



There's more CAD drawings and information up on their site.

Lavar have been under the radar for a while now, but are still continuing to make really nice quality T's that are firmly in the standard Mark T-shirt Rotation System. Tom K over at Streetphire got on the case and got the 'web exclusive' of their new line, so click here to see them. Andrew Jackson also rides for Lavar, which gives me another chance to post his web-video from a while back that still rules.



In related news, it was H-Man's birthday a few days ago, so Happy Birthday dude!

Bonedave also reminded me about this on *cough*Facebook*ahem* yesterday, but I apparently brought about the recent snow storms in the UK by suggesting that the rubbish winter weather might be over. I can't really begin to apologise enough for doing that - but it's potentially not raining here at the moment so I might dust my bike off and ride it for the first time in over a week. (Edit: It's literally just started snowing again. I hate you, weather.)

You know you're bored when you start playing Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 again. Dissertation shmishertation...

Finally...

They're almost here (They come with a cover, too). The new Eclat pivotals - click that link to check out their new Supreme-esque stem too. The new Eclat line is going to be so good...

Late night...

Mulville is rad:



No joke.

In other news: Eclat, who are also rad, have released a new Pivotal seat (Well, proto anyway), which is also rad. Observe:




How awesome does that look? Phrase you're looking for is "Pretty damn!"

Main benefit is that the Pivotal guts are moved nearer the nose, with a refined webbing section for the rear of the seat, meaning no more Gonzo seats, and - at long last - Pivotals that look normal. The way the normal SL Pivotals sit super far forwards (Near the back of the rails, if they were regular seats) has been the reason I haven't run them for any length of time before, so it's cool to see Eclat have covered that area. Winners!

More pics on their site...