All in good time...

Man, I've got so much more to say but I'm super tired. It involves Randy Brown, who features in this rad little Orchid ad (See Fit? These 'ads' are better than not-so-good photos with product photo 'ads'!) with Van Homan, who also will feature in the post I'm gonna make possibly tomorrow.

But yeah, w00t:


Van Homan and Randy Brown 2009. from Orchid Footwear on Vimeo.

Randy's sig shoe is gonna look like thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis:



Swish. Function low-top.

Pijin Mug

This brought a smile to my face last weekend. Best present ever. Thanks Christian!

Hopefully a thing of the past...

...at least for a few months? Almost out of the January/Winter-related woods.

Adi Gilbert.

You might recognise the name from his work with 2&8 and various other companies, but I just saw his folio site as a result of Taliban Tom's blog, and there's some cool stuff on there. If you're into creative stuff, scope it!

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...

One More Brew deadline...

You may have heard of a little video project called "One More Brew"? 10 UK filmers have been tasked to come up with a 5 minute video edit of riding antics over the cold winter months. This is no easy feat considering the dismal weather recently and finding spots/people willing to brave the slippery outdoors to pull off some stunts on 2 wheels.

Deadline is by the end of the week and if you're in Southampton and can do the odd trick on 2 wheels, get into contact with Mr Joel Nicholls! He will be out and about, trying to squeeze more footage onto his video camera...



Contact Joel on :
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=852400371
http://www.myspace.com/buildbmx
joelnicholls@hotmail.com

Glow In The Dark Mirco Particles!

Got glow in the dark pedals? Or glow in the dark grips? Kinda gets annoying when the stuff loses it's charge and you have to recharge it again by holding it up to the light.

Well... not anymore! A US company has invented glowing micro particles (called Litrospheres) which can glow for 12 years without recharging! I'm not sure how they got the 12 year figure from. Unless they started testing their first batch 12 years ago...

A long time coming.

I, like a good few people I know, used to constantly buy BMX magazines. Ride, Dig, Cream and any other lesser known BMX magazines I could find - even Ride US (and that's really saying something. I'm talking about before they made their more recent improvement in content so that interviews weren't purely photo-based and might actually contain some kind of text somewhere in the entire issue). I'd buy things I knew were probably going to be bad just because I enjoyed reading about something I was fully into, and it was cool to see other people's opinions on it. Recently, I've bought about 2 magazines in the past few months (Both of which were Dig). I used to buy Ride every single month without fail, then read it cover to cover, but I simply can't be bothered any more. Paying £3.40 to read the inane rants from unoriginal writers stating the tediously obvious gets pretty old pretty fast. The photography was still as top quality as ever, and the majority of the interviews and features were good, but who actually cares about what "Certain People" (no need to make it personal...) think about other "Certain People"? Similarly, why have sections of magazines dedicated to talking about internet-based news (Especially when they're as accurate as last month's issue was, such as the section about H-Man's bike "getting stolen" and "getting it back" from Billy at Brixton, when the guy who's bike was stolen was nothing to do with H-Man at all, and there was a hell of a lot more to it than that (Not to mention it being pretty old by then, anyway...))? I know that's essentially what I'm doing here, but this is free, and I'm not really in the same position of authority and power that magazines are. The internet is threatening print magazines more than ever, and while magazines continue to squander their advantages over internet sites, it seems like they're becoming closer and closer to being over-run. Complaining about a lack of originality in the way "Kids" ride today seems pretty ironic when the article you're saying it in is pretty much a template of every other "I hate the way BMX is today" article.

In completely unrelated news, here's a completely hilarious, incredibly original and well informed piece from 20negative. Oh, wait... But seriously - I don't mind people talking about the 'negative' sides of BMX, but at least make it relevant to BMX. iPod shuffles, skinny jeans, tight t-shirts and fluorescent Nikes have long been the staple uniform of the scenesters in the majority of the UK, so attempting to use that to take the piss out of BMXers seems pretty weak. Similarly "lol, bikes are getting smaller and lower, lol" got pretty old when people started having a go at Fly when they released the Tierra and Blackeye were talking about the Cory Jarman signature frame. That was at least a year ago...

Anyway, that's enough from bad-tempered Mark for the day.

EDIT: One last thing - I should probably point out the newest Ride "Interview" issue is actually pretty good.

Whooooa...

The new Ride site might not be the best looking thing in the world, but content wise they're certainly doing alright. For example, this ridiculous video from Federal flow rider Shayn Steels (Reminds me of Joel's riding a lot?). What the hell?! Federal's flow team are nuts...


Federal Bikes - Shayn Steels from Slack BMX from Federal BMX on Vimeo.

Here's the overspill photos from the 3 Tom's Malaga trip (Video's posted below somewhere...), and here's Garrett Reynolds, Dennis Enarson and Gary Young's runs from the Simpel Session, as well as their Finals vid. BMX is being taken to the next level - how do you do tricks that hard, that consistently, and that well?




Jammin' Simpel Session - Finals Highlights! >>

Country Bikes Products Sneak Peak

Carlos returned in the afternoon clutching some Country Bikes prototype forks and bars. For those of you that don't remember, they're a bike company based in Germany... who've not really made anything for a few years (not that I can remember anyway).

First impression from the prototypes are very good. Everything looks nice and neat. The forks are a nice slim design, and weigh in under 2 pounds. Bars are light at a tad over 600g.*

I'm not sure the Excitation fork would live up to it's name though. Can a fork ever cause excitement? Hmmm... However, I do like the way the bottom of the forks are cut away at an angle and the dropouts are really small but just big enough to run pegs if your that way inclined.

As for the bars, just where did they get the name from? They have a sticker with a plucked chicken on the side and are called the Hendlbars. Get it? They're light, have holes drilled at the grip section like the MacNeil Silencer bars and have quite a lot of backsweep (don't know how much exactly as I don't normally carry a protractor in my pocket).

These are still prototypes for now, but it'd be interesting to see how well they hold up after a few sessions down Hoglands...

Now if Country Bikes can come up with a sensible price and good warranty, these are looking like a very good alternative to some of the more expensive parts from the American companies. Expect more info in the coming months. Parts will hopefully see their way into the shops around April time...

* I don't know why, but I've got used to weighing frames, forks and complete bikes in imperial units and everything else in metric! It's a bit retarded but seems kinda natural at the same time...