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Jackson Goldstone don’t need pedals…

[From Plus Size BMX]

Kent’s the nicest guy in BMX, bar none.  He may, in fact, be the nicest guy on the planet.  As always, solid riding from the old man, 25 years in and still going strong.

Kent Pearson Profile Edit from Ryan Davis on Vimeo.

So, news broke this week that Edwin Delarosa and Tom White quit Fit to go ride for Skavenger.  Skavenger (correct me if I’m wrong) started as Edwin and Vinnie Sammon’s crew, then a sticker company, then a clothing company, now it looks to be an Animal affiliated frame and parts brand.  If you haven’t read it already, Vinnie has an interview about the whole thing up on ESPN.

Two questions immediately come to mind about this situation.  The first is the obvious, does BMX need another frame/parts company?  I mean, let’s be 100% honest here, BMX frames are now differentiated almost entirely on image.  30 years ago you could tell the difference between a GT Performer and a Haro Freestyler (but not necessarily between a Freestyler and a Torker). 15 years ago you could tell the difference between GT Show and a Huffy Full Ton. Today every bike has more or less the exact same frame design and more or less the exact same geometry.  So, a company’s image is the thing.

Kind of like skateboarding.

But the thing is, the slightly grimy, NYC centric, street only, brakeless X amount of pegs image that Animal has went from being Animal’s image in BMX to being the image of BMX (well, except, maybe, the NYC centric part).  In an odd way, by launching Skavenger as a frame brand now, Edwin, Vinnie and Ralph are showing up late to their own party.  I wonder how that’s going to work out.

The second question is where does this leave Fit?  While Edwin’s departure seemed like it was a lot more professional/on better terms than when Robbie grabbed everyone who gives the teenage boys hard-ons, without Ed and Tom Fit’s pro team looks like this:

• Mike Aitken
• Brian Foster
• Eddie Cleveland
• Van Homan
• Justin Inman

Now, the cynical part of me likes to point out that Fit almost certainly exists so that Moeller could move into the lower/entry level market with imported bikes without abandoning S&M’s “buy American made or you’re a loser!!!!” image.  To whit, Fit has always had a team comprised of hot, young riders.  Kind of like Menudo there was always some hot new rider waiting in the wings to get a push from Fit.  When part of your deal is selling bikes at a $200 price point this is just good business.

But now the fit Pro team is almost old school. Meanwhile, with two exceptions every single pro on S&M is between 24 and 26.  Which is to say the old man brand is now young and the youngster brand is now old.

Hmmmm

Not that this’ll last forever.  I’m guessing Fit’s still ridiculously profitable and they’re going to make the moves necessary to stay that way.  Still, as it sits right now everything’s upside down. Again I say hmmmmm.

The Mrs. got me a pocket HD cam for Christmas.  Haven’t used it that much, but I took it out to Settles yesterday when Steve and Todd were riding to play around with it.  My current PCs don’t necessarily have 1080P  editing capabilities, so long for videos may be out, but we’ll see…

It’d probably be better if my blog were wide enough to show the whole video. Hmmmm

Two BMX posts in a row..lookit me.

Look, there are constants in the world.  Gravity (more or less), the speed of light (more or less,) time (more or less) and that Catfish’s bike will be an abomination against good taster and/or eyesight.

However, in an attempt to pick up on a little of the local flavor while riding for the troops in Bagdad Catfish done painted up his bike.

Can’t says I’m diggin’ the gold brakes, but the flat sand w/digital camo green highlights is aces.

Somehow, some way I’m stealing this idea, yeas, yes I am.

I’ve waxed nostalgic about my love for my first gen GT Pro Performer and my man-love of Eddie Fiola for a long long time.  Sean Reid went so far as to even build up a 2nd Gen Pro Freestyle Tour and rock a classic GT uniform.  At one point I was completely addicted to Guav’s Flickr because of all of the pretty, old BMX bikes on it.

So, I had smiled a bit when I saw this on the website of The Best Vert Rider of All Time

I have always wanted to own this bike. Ever since I was a kid i loved the Bike that Eddie Fiola rode at the Kellogs BMX event in England. Its not fully finished, but its looking good!

The details may not be completely right, but you can’t hate on the bike.

One of the things I dig about the idea of MTB Street riding is that there’s the possibility for for a different mindset to look at familiar terrain.  Danny Macaskill’s April 2009 video is still pretty awe inspiring to me for just that reason.

This, however, is just kind of a guy who put some pegs and a rigid for on his 26″ and proceeded to shoot another BMX street video.  That’s kinda disappointing, really (the above bar height double peg at ~:50 was kinda impressive).   I don’t want mountain biking to be just BMX with bigger wheels, but it seems to be going that way.

Wiosna 2010 from Kolor on Vimeo.

/Found on Plussize BMX/

Worked Special Olympics all weekend.  Basically I’ve been either unconscious or at Emory since 10 PM Thursday.  I decided to peruse The Come Up just to see if anything interested had made it through the BMX videosphere (so. tired. of. tuck. no. handers. so. so. tired) and there was this.  Now I was kinda hyped on Terry Adams’ recent webvid which was a similar thing, and anyone who’s watched this space (well, not exactly this space, but this space-ish) for a while knows that it is my belief that Rodney Mullen rules all, so I’m really psyched to see flatlanders taking the ridiculous tech to the streets (and this kid’s on some Krys Dauchey gymnast trip as well).

Also, the second trick was a little baby flail boomerang, so there was absolutely nothing wrong with this video.

So, a few years ago I knew this kid with an afrojewfrow who could do these half-assed, kinda one handers, kinda tobaggans.  Then he went to Woodward for the summer and could do backflips.  Now, apparently, he’s pretty good…But he’s still the kid with the fro and the one handers to me.

Russell Summerville from Ryan Davis on Vimeo.

Also, I’m almost positive the picture on Beastmode is one of mine.

Anyone who showed up to the Twilight comp last week was treated to a massive lightning storm and Terry Adams riding flat in a torrential downpour wearing a free Maxxis parka.  No ramp riding took place.  This was obviously not right.  Dowker and Kent agree.  So, I got this from Jon in my inbox yesterday…

Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately do to rain we did not get to run the ramp classes at Twilight this year

Kent Pearson and myself have decided to hold another event on May 15th at SPOA (Skatepark of Athens) between 1:00pm and 5:00pm. Kent just received conformation that the city will allow us to run the event at that time. We should have a new flyer up in a couple of days!

We are sitting on a bunch of product and prizes from sponsors of the Twilight Contest. We wish to use those prizes for this event now. If you are a sponsor and would prefer to get your product back please email me and we can try to make arrangements.

Kent and I apologize to all of you that made the trip to Athens from far off places. We really do appreciate everyone that made the trip. Hopefully everyone still had some fun? I know I did

So, you know, not optimal, but still a time to be had.

And, there was video of the flat.