Double up.

Two edits today that are pretty much hit and runs as far as detailed posting goes from my end - time's tight I'm afraid! Osiris took some of their riders for a cruise around Arizona - sweet vid. Half cabs = danger danger.



Akin was someone who a lot of people spoke about when I lived in London but I didn't really ever get a chance to see him ride much. Fortunately, he's now hooked up by Superstar so we all get to see him now:

Wahey.

Some thanks are owed to a couple of websites for the awesome videos you're about to behold - Stranger for the Craig Passero "You really need to watch this now" edit, Osiris for the Miles Rogoish "Marmite ETs" edit, and BMXUnion for putting up this interview with Lloyd Wright and also posting up an old Dig edit featuring him and some of the rest of the Kink team. Muy bueno!







Bonus points go to whoever can work out which rider's catchphrase the title of this post is - hint: featured in this post...

Out of the blue...

Pretty ideal video to pop up of a Saturday morning - a 35 minute web-video feat. pretty much all the most interesting riders around. Click here to view it, see some good riding, and if you're "One of them" to realise that a good video doesn't mean you put a 50mm on your dSLR, put it on a tripod then film the same boring ultra close up, slow-mo'd clips of people's tyres at a skatepark over and over again, then make a cripplingly boring 5 minute long video that could've been 30secs...

A day late...

Well, slightly more than that in that this is a "Tuesdays by Miles" video and it's a Friday. Still, it's pretty rad!



Kevin Kiraly is pretty handy when it comes to riding bicycles. As a direct result of that, he's now got a signature setup coming out on Verde which you can check out here.

Lastly, if you want to see Lloyd pulling a classic "I've eaten too much" face, go here. Calzones rule.

Have a good weekend...

'Yay' and 'Nay'.

This is cool:



The last clip in this is not cool:

Mark's Tedious Link?

In an old interview, Eddie Cleveland replied to the question "What would you change about yourself?" with "Bigger feet and hair like a white man." Well, Eddie has another interview up, and because I have larger feet, I missed out on getting the awesome pair of Etnies from TK Maxx my house-mate got by having undersized feet. Speaking of Etnies, the Odyssey X Etnies shoe is out - click that link to check it. How's that for editorial link-up? Pretty damn fine, if I say so myself.

One of my favourite web-videos from last year was a Give-D edit of the San Diego locals with some kind of remix of Born To Be Wild as the sound-track - Albert Mercado and Hoang Tran were stand-outs in that vid, and now Albert Mercado has a new little skatepark edit I spotted on the Kink site, and Hoang Tran has some lines in the latest Tuesdays With Miles I saw on TheComeUp.





Time for some photos methinks - first up, some awesome photos by Rob Dolecki (I shouldn't need to put 'awesome' before 'photos' there, bearing in mind Rob Dolecki hasn't ever seemingly shot a bad one) on Dig from a recent Banks Jam, and then some photos of Mike Hoder in a "The new flipbook" style thing on S&M.

Blimey.

The new Ride (#135) is out sooooon, featuring one of the nicest cover photos (and indeed designs) in aaaaaaaages. Check it oot, to quote a Scottish colleague of mine.



Go here for some sample spreads. Also got some samples of Chase Hawk's new Cult frame.

Not content with releasing some photos of a bangin' looking Tierra, Fly have bobbed up some new photos of the Pantera frame. Looks pretty fly (InstantRimshot.com). Got some new Pantera bars too that are now 8.35" tall, and feature a non-kinky crossbar. Apparently Sergio learnt to work around a normal crossbar to get his no-handers done.



Precious little info on any geometry changes or anything, but hey ho.

The ever-interesting (for want of a better word) Miles Rogoish is now riding not just for fun, but also for Subrosa. Look, proof!



I've eaten too much fish and chips.a

Lunchtime video spectacular?

Got a few choice video treats for you this lunch time...

TheMake have banged out another little short 'n' sweet web-edit, to celebrate the launch of some new items of clothing finery:



Miles has done another Tuesdays with..., this time featuring a place that looks preeeeeeeeeetty fun to ride.



Kriss Kyle appears to have gotten better, smoother, faster and somehow a lot older looking in the space between this edit and his last. This one's for BSD.

Reconsider.

Ah, what am I saying - long live the blog!

Yet another of the most consistently awesome series of web-vids ever, Tuesdays With Miles. Seriously - so good! This time, in Salt Lake City. Winners.


Go to BNQT for more videos.


I never really feel qualified to say whether a trails video is good or not. They mostly seem to be the same series of kick-outs, just that some of them aren't in the trees. You do get some occasional stand-outs though (e.g. anything with Mulville, Dropsy, Aitken, Chase Hawk, etc.), so I'll leave this up to the public opinion as to how good this is:

VINYL'S TOM ARKUS FROM SUNDAYBIKES.COM

Serious. Business.

Jeez, you make one fake post as Glenn P.P. Milligan and people get all upset...

Anyway, Simple have been on a trip:



Tuesdays With Miles never disappointment. Fact.


Go to BNQT for more videos.


OMG, Corey Martinez is wearing a pair of ETNIES!!!!11!!



Ride have a little interview with Tom Sanders about getting the cover-shot as part of the Hull scene check, which - incidentally - pure awesome. George Marshall can literally do no wrong. Apparently some people complained about it being too negative, but... well, the long and short of it is that they're wrong, and if you found it too depressing to read there's the colourful pictures and short little bits of text that float around Ride US or BMX Plus! you can check out instead. Everything's wonderful!

Oh, and lastly, Animal have the first coloured steel pegs. Glorious.

Worst case scenario?

No, not RTRBTN 2.5, the crash at the start of this. Anything that involves killing your knees, falling into water, and bleeding out of your head sucks, so combining all three is pretty impressive/savage.


Go to BNQT for more videos.


The ending line is this video is pretty long, but I'm not counting half of it purely because of how bad the song is. Like a bad Razorlight, and that's really saying something.



In "Products I thought would be out way before this" news:



Half the length, all the price. Picture taken from 4Down, who have the new Mk.3 pegs from Animal too.

Forgetful.

Forgot this entirely. Saw it up on Federal:

Misc.

Raul Ruiz has a little edit up for DC to show off their new BMX shoe. About time?



While we're talking new product - T1's new SFA has it's own page now!



4.5lb T1 frame?

In "New video" news:

Kriss Kyle, by Miles Rogoish:


Go to BNQT for more videos.


The idea of processed cheese on microchips is worrying.

Dakota Roche. Dakota Roche? Dakota Roche!

Levi's® Clip of the Week - Dakota Roche SoCal... - More BMX Videos

Eastern have a trailer out for their new video, but they've made it a lot of hassle to embed, and for a trailer that's not even that good I'm not going to bother. Just imagine little second long fragments of clips set to music you don't care about. Thaaaat's it.

Actually, to fully carry out my blogging duties, here it is. Warned you...



Lastly, TheComeUp have an interview with Rich Hirsch. Talks about what's going on with Fremont, Coast, etc...

Debatable.

First up is a video by Miles Rogoish of the Worlds. Can see how it'd be annoying for someone to not wear a helmet after being told, but getting "The Heavies" out to try and lay down the law seems ridiculous. Otherwise, some awesome riding!


Go to BNQT for more videos.


Seeeeecondly, this features the best skater snake I've seen in some time, and bearing in mind I live right next to a busy skatepark now, that's saying something. I like to think of that as being part of the justice I still need to hand out to the skaters at a certain concrete skatepark in London. Snaked 4 times riding the bowl once. Do one!



Thirdly, this is Day 4 of the Range Of Motion videos. Posted up about this before, here's the continuation.

Furious jelly.

This is probably more for filming geeks out there, but yeah, 1000fps. Bang. Anyway, even if you're not into the rest of it skip to around 1:55 to see some furious jelly. You'll see what I mean.


I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

I'd also recommend watching it in HD on their actual vimeo page.

While we're talking about non BMX stuff, here's a documentary (Well, it's 3 minutes long) on Reverse Graffiti that ties in nicely with the new Solid ad.





Mutiny have been a treasure-trove of good videos today, firstly posting up this BNQT/Tuesdays With Miles vid featuring some pretty big names (And some pretty big hops thanks to Brad Simms):


Go to BNQT for more videos.


And then this Robbo edit from Up In Smoke's bonus section:


Robbo's 'Up In Smoke' Bonus from Seventies Distribution on Vimeo.

Lastly, Macneil have a competition that you only stand a chance of winning if you're 17, are about to turn 18, and you live in America. So... yeah. In completely unrelated news, I'd forgotten how good this Josh Betley video is.


Josh Betley / Felt Bikes from kyle carlson on Vimeo.

Represent.

Southampton RPRZNT.



ET Variations RPRZNT.



Fly RPRZNT.

Gazza RPRZNT.



Old school KP/DS RPRZNT.



Federal RPRZNT.



Trails RPRZNT.



Vic Ayala RPRZNT.

But yeah, enough of that. I'm pretty tired from riding a hell of a lot then going and playing football for 2 hours in a big metal flood-lit cage, so apologies for the lack of effort. I'm gonna go take my pegs off and see if my hub's fallen apart (again). Something feels awful back there.

Bike maintenance RPRZNT.

Tuesdays With Miles...

...this time with Brian Hunt and Mr. Fictional Name (Surely?), Zak Early. This video is sweet for many reasons, up to and including the first full song that's used, and the turndown that that Zak dude does at around 2:33. Clickedy click,




Go to BNQT for more videos.

Things you want, and things you need.

First off, something you might want - Miles Rogoish and Jeff K riding some interesting looking skateparks:


Sun Ringle JAN 09 from Miles Rogoish on Vimeo.

And something you don't want - weird prices. If you've called up to ask for the price of a product recently, you might not have received a blisteringly fast, precise answer. There is a reason behind this - VAT (Which is applicable to the vast majority of bike related stuff) has been cut by 2.5%, meaning that prices are basically 'weird'. For example, using some stuff from the site, the new Deluxe frames is £224.13. Obviously, that's not the usual "£XXX.99" or whatever, and as a result, the shop dudes aren't necessarily going to be able to reel off prices instantly because the price they quote you on the phone could well be more than what it is. Basically, all I'm saying is bear with people while this change goes through. This is also the time when '09 prices come into force which, unfortunately, often mean a price rise.

Something you're gonna want to see:


TemperedBikes Jerard Vandervalk Afternoon Session. from TemperedBikes on Vimeo.

He might run drilled pegs, but that doesn't make him a bad person...

Something you don't really want, but probably need to know about - I've posted up here before about the CPSC (a.k.a. Consumer Product Safety Commission). These guys are the people who try and make sure that stuff that gets sold in the US is legit, and isn't going to be potentially harmful. They're doing a good job, and helping avoid instances like in China where toxic paint was used on kids toys - not an ideal situation. "So what does this have to do with us?" you might ask. Well, the CPSC passed a law that stated that all 'toys' sold in the US have to have less than "600 parts per million" lead content. Lead's obviously not a great thing for kids to be sucking on, as it can cause a whole load of problems.

Where this intersects with our world though is that all bikes with a wheel diameter under 24" are now classified as 'toys' according to the CPSC. This obviously means that bikes now also have to clear these measures. This is a lot of hassle for completes, where every single part of them, from the grips to the stickers, now need to be tested for lead content. One of the plus points as far as non-complete, aftermarket parts goes is that they could theoretically be labelled up for 26" use, meaning they'd be exempt. However, frames are obviously for 20" use or not, and as such frame manufacturers, as well as people making completes, are going to be hit by this new ruling.

This is only for the US, but as it's going to be fairly expensive to get everything tested, it's likely the cost is going to be spread over other countries too. To use a simple example, if you sold a product in 10 countries, and in one country due to testing costs prices would rise by 10%, if you spread that 10% over the other countries too, that's a blanket 1% increase, rather than risking all your sales in one country by raising prices by 10%.

There are people fighting this rule - the bike industry are rallying against it, as are other people - whether it's trying to get bikes classified as 'sporting equipment' so that they're exempt from the 'toy' regulations, or just trying to get the 24"> rule discredited. It remains to be seen what's going to happen, but if anything happens you'll find out here.

There's a lot of other issues here too (e.g. the way that after February, all products without a certificate of their 'clean' state will be illegal to sell), so click here to read a Washington Post article on the matter, or click here to read a post from Bicycle Industry and Retailer News.

Obviously it's not that fun or whatever, but it's something that's potentially going to have a significant impact on The Industry, so it's worth knowing about in advance. Couple that to rising material costs, a global recession, and a weakening currency and we've got more expensive parts on the horizon. Much, much more expensive parts...