Birthplace: MIDDLESBORO, UK.
Phil Dolan: 1986 BFA comp and I won it.
Freestyle BMX UK july 1989: Phil Dolan may look like he's asleep, he's not; could you rest through a Switch Foot Dump Truck ? Photo, Mark Noble.
1st place @ 1990 KOC, Southsea, UK, 1990.
1st place A-flat @ 1991 KOC, Southsea, UK, 1991.
KHE.
Phil Dolan rides for KHE.
Phil Dolan, BMX Now issue 2: I've got a sponsorship from KHE for all the stuff they do. Thomas came up to me at Alfreton in December. I mean he hadn't even seen me ride and he just came up to me and asked if I wanted to be sponsored. I said yeah, of course. They sent me a bit of paper and I signed it. I've got a contract and everything. Quite funny. It stipulates that I should ride in a KHE T-shirt at competitions and I get something like 50 marks if I win. It's alright, it's pretty cool. Being unemployed it's nice getting spare parts for free.
You may have heard of Phil Dolan. You may know that he's a rad flatlander who's not afraid to speak his mind. What you probably don't know is that he is 22, lives in Essex, has been riding for nine years and won't admit to any embarrassing middle names. He started riding because his mates were into it, but they have all given up now. To start things off I asked him why he didn't give up too:
PD: Oh, I enjoy it too much. I have thought about giving up in the past but I can't think of anything at the present time that I could replace it with.
BN: Who do you ride with now?
PD: I still ride with Lincoln sometimes, and James White, that's about it.
BN: What's the deal with this rapper guy your involved with?
PD: There's this geezer who was in the film 'Wildstyle'. He was involved in rap back in the 70's. For some reason he wants to start his career up and he's releasing some songs and wants to go on tour. He wants to use us as a sort of visual thing on stage with dancers and us doing syncro tricks and stuff like that. So every saturday we go and rehearse it. We've been practising about a month.
BN: Who else is involved?
PD: Aju's definitely in it. Gerry (Galley), (Dave) Beveridge, (Jason) Webb. Well Webby was doing it but he hasn't turned up for the past couple of weeks.
BN: Are you going to get paid for it?
PD: Fingers crossed. I hope so. I might be employed then !
BN: What's your attitude to competitions at the moment?
PD: I think they are a good laugh. I think they can be quite enjoyable. Not to be taken too seriously.
BN: What don't you like about them?
PD: I don't like the 'sports hall' atmosphere. It's too clinical. I can't get comfortable in that situation. The lights are crap, the floor's too slippy, its just weird. I think Southsea is the best competition.
BN: Where do you get your tricks from?
PD: Ideas ? I don't know. You'Il be just doing something and it will occur to you to try something else. It's not like a blinding flash of light which strikes you clown or anything. I used to get ideas from magazines and videos but now it's like every virtual position you can do on a bike has been done. I believe new aspects of freestyle will come out, I don't believe there won't be any more creativity. I just think it will get more intricate and more complexe I mean how far can you develop a new style?
BN: What do you think of the 'Larry Bull' type hopping tricks? .
PD: I think it's good. Not that I would want to do it myself but it's good to see someone doing stuff like that. It's not American!
BN: How do you see your own riding style?
PD: Tricks that feel good and flowing and hard. Things that enjoy the feeling of doing. It's more enjoyable to do tricks you have thought of yourself rather than a hitchhiker or something.
BN: What other riders do you admire?
PD: All the people on Dorkin 4. Well, not all of them. I rate Chase Gouin and Kevin Jones, everyone is creaming over them. I think Jesse Puente's really good. I can't really say much about the English riders because so much of it has come from videos. I can go to a comp and appreciate someone riding but it's not for the fact they have made it up themselves. I rate Geoff Martin, he's rad, totally rad. I rate Albert Retey. There's also a geezer called Klaus, a German Guy... Armin's rad too.
BN: Did you ever ride ramps ?
PD: Yeah I did but the council took the ramp down, so that was the end of that.
BN: Why do you think you've ended up dolng flatland rather than ramps?
PD: Well the thing is, we had a halfpipe near here built by the council. I hardly ever ride ramps but because it was just down the road I would go and ride it for a few minutes every day and I ended up getting about 5ft on it. l'm not scared, it's just the availability of ramps. I find flatland a lot more satisfying. Flatland's definitely harder than ramps.
BN: What about sponsorship?
PD: I've got a sponsorship from KHE for all the stuff they do. Thomas came up to me at Alfreton in December. I mean he hadn't even seen me ride and he just came up to me and asked if I wanted to be sponsored. I said yeah, of course. They sent me a bit of paper and I signed it. I've got a contract and everything. Quite funny. It stipulates that I should ride in a KHE T-shirt at competitions and I get something like 50 marks if I win. It's alright, it's pretty cool. Being unemployed it's nice getting spare parts for free. Ceramic Rabbit want to sponsor me. I've got to ask KHE if it's alright.
BN: So you don't have to wear uniform?
PD: No. Sod that. I would rip the contract up if they made me wear a 'bandit form'.
BN: What would you like to be doing in, say, five years time ?
PD: Hopefully I will be living in another country, enjoying myself and having a laugh. As long as l'm enjoying myself I don't really mind what l'm doing.
BN: What do you hate ?
PD: (pause) People with inflexible thought processes, just don't like people who havn't got the mental ability to change their ideas. Something like that anyway. I hate greed. Take the America Govern-ment for example, it's all take, take, take.
BN: So do you worry about world politics?
PD: I don't worry but it interests me. I'm sort of concerned. If you start worrying then you start causing yourself problems. As regards British politics, I don' think the Government puts enough into education. The education system is not effective enough. I don't like this privatisation business. Certain things like the Health Service and the Electricity board shouldn't be privatised. If it becomes privatised then you can get ripped off, not that you don't get ripped off when it's nationalised. I just think you have more control when it's in the hands of the Government. If I do vote, I will vote for the Green party. I dont really know much about their policies because you don't hear much about them. I would vote for them because even if they didn't win the election but started to become a threat, it would make other parties incorporate more environmental issues.
BN: Just going back to tricks for a minute. What are you working on at the moment, anything interesting?
PD: Well, I sort of gradually pick things up. If I think of a link then I will go out and learn it but sometimes it takes me a year to learn a trick because I never get round to it. There's tricks I've thought of years ago. Like when roparonies first came out I hought of mega spin into that but I didn't learn it. If I had learnt it when I thought of it, it would have been so much better. At the moment l'm learning stickbitches to stubble duck to stickbitch. So, in a sense, you're just spinning 360' on your peg, but its hard. Ive only pulled it a couple of times. Now that will take a bit of practice. I am doing mega spin to roparonie and then jumping into a switchfooted gyrator variation and out'of that into a backward wheelie to switchfooted stickbitch to undertaker.I want to get that consistent.
BN: Do you practice complete links then?
PD: No, not really. I practice bits of links and then you end up throwing it together sometimes. I've learnt double decades. I think it's a good trick. I like doing tricks that look good as well.
BN: How do you get your fork wheelies so fast?
PD: Oh, meditate. No honestly, it just happened. Sometimes you go out and you feel like riding fast and you just do. Dennis McCoy made me begin to ride fast because when I saw him ride at Holeshot I went out and thought of the 'chainsaw'. I thought I've got to think of something spinning and fast.
BN: O.K. Pick a subject, something we should talk about?
PD: There's loads of things. Things like the typical male stereotype of what a man should be like. How society views people. I just don't like all this male macho shit.
BN: Have you any ideas on how to combat it?
PD: Well, if someone is hungry for power and they believe that a woman is lower for some reason then he passes that onto his son. It's quite difficult if those sort of people are in power or in a position change things. It's going to take a couple of generations at least to change anything. I'm still quite interested in Malcolm X. He was well racial when he was younger. The X is for the name he lost when the Africans got taken to America. It's dead interesting. He was quite an interesting bloke. His biography is by Alex Haley. You should read it.
BN: Is there anything else you want to say ?
PD: Yeah. Are you going to come down and ride ?
London 1992. www.cmbmx.co.uk
3rd place pro flat @ 1993 Worlds, Limoges, France, july 1993.
March 1994, Phil is now riding for Standard with KHE components.
WORLDS.
4th place pro flat @ 1994 Worlds, Cologne, Germany, august 1994.
KOC.
3rd place pro flat @ KOC, Southsea, UK, august 1994.
2nd place stuntman flat @ BS round 1, Moreno Valley, february 1995.
MORALES.
Phil Dolan switched from Standard to Morales.
KOC.
6th place pro flat @ KOC, Southsea, UK, august 1995.
5th place pro flat @ BS round 1, South Padre Island, march 1996.
WORLDS.
Pro Flatland World Champion @ Cologne, Germany, july 1996.
BMXICOS COVER.
BMXicos fanzine #1 nov96 (photo: worlds de Cologne)
BMXicos #2 january 1997
INTERVIEW.
Ride BMX US #26 february 1997.
VIDEO.
Video "Soul #10".
WORLDS.
4th place pro flat @ 1997 Worlds, Eindhoven, PAYS-BAS, july 1997.
Phil Dolan won't be full factory KHE for 1998. Phil didn't renew his contract with the German company yet will remain co-sponsored by KHE for parts and gear. KHE will also start making the flatland specific Phil Dolan bars but Phil won't be riding a Premium Lagger frame. Instead, he is now co-sponsored by Scoop and Standard Bykes and will be riding a Tao flatland frame.
FISE.
3rd place pro flat @ FISE, Palavas, France, april 1998.
TRICK STAR.
Video OG "Trick Star".
COSA NOSTRA.
Video KHE "Cosa Nostra".
X-GAMES.
8th place pro flat @ X Games 1998, San Diego, CA. Phil Dolan spun the smoothest spastic hitchikers in practice but couldn't hold it together in the finals.
KOC.
1st place pro flat @ KOC, Southsea, UK, 1998.
WORLDS.
6th place pro flat @ 1998 Worlds, Portimao, PORTUGAL, september 1998.
BURNING BIKE.
3rd place pro flat @ 2hip Burning Bike Festival, Arizona, november 1998.
INTERVIEW.
Interview in Ride BMX UK #38 december 1998.
1999 pro flat Silver Medal @ X-Games, San Francisco, CA, july 1999.
WORLDS.
Pro Flatland World Champion @ Majadahonda, Spain, july 1999. Phil Dolan was on a mission all weekend. He had it all planned out and went the safe way. No touches is what the judges like nowadays and Phil had it down. 1 touch and 1 rearwheel trick. The rest of the time Phil was jamming on his front in his own style.
RIDE BMX UK COVER.
Phil Dolan shortly before he was picked up by GT USA (photo by Mark Losey) and Jamie Bestwick with an opposite walltap at Derby Storm (photo by Paul Roberts) on the cover and interview in Ride BMX UK #42 august 1999.
KOC.
5th place pro flat @ KOC, Southsea, UK, august 1999.
2nd place pro flat @ FISE, Palavas, France, april 2000.
WORLDS.
Pro Flatland World Champion @ 2000 Worlds, Cologne, Germany, july 2000.
X-GAMES.
2000 pro flat Bronze Medal @ X-Games, San Francisco, CA, august 2000.
KOC.
2nd place pro flat @ KOC, Southsea, UK, august 2000.
Interview : Ride BMX UK #50 december 2000.
Phil came into 4th with his trademark brand of walkarounds, and...a pedalling straddle roni.
4th place @ BS round 1, Anaheim, CA, march 2001.
Phil Dolan, on holiday from England, pulled some great rolling combos like pedaling puppets and whiplash walkarounds. Phil is on his way back to England soon. Hopefully, he can find a new sponsor. He deserves it. Any takers?
FISE.
1st place pro flat @ FISE, Palavas, France, april 2001.
FLY.
Phil is riding for Fly Bikes.
BS ROUND 4.
1st place pro flat @ BS round 4, Bristol, CT, june 2001. Phil, aboard his new Fly flatland bike, made some good money this weekend, scoring first place with some good stuff, like pedal picker glides and switch foot hang 5 glides on the pedal.
X-GAMES.
2001 pro flat Silver Medal @ X Games, Philadelphia, PA, august 2001.
INTERVIEW.
Ride BMX UK #54 august 2001.
INTERVIEW.
www.fatbmx.com
3rd place pro flat @ Backyard Jam round 1, Telford, UK, march 2002.
Phil Dolan put his brakes on again. Stopping is fun.
FISE.
5th place pro flat @ FISE, Palavas, France, april 2002. Phil Dolan roule sans frein et du coup, pas énormément de nouveaux tricks, nose wheelie switch feet to juggler, dump truck to rope a roni sur la pédale to pedalling, nose wheelie les 2 pieds sur les pédales sur une bonne distance.
EXPN.
4th place pro flat @ EXPN Invitational round 1, Grand Prairie, TX, april 2002.
KING OF PACA.
2nd place pro flat @ King of PACA, Gemenos, France, may 2002.
WORLDS.
7th place pro flat @ 2002 Worlds, Cologne, Germany, july 2002.
X-GAMES.
3rd place pro flat @ X Games, Philadelphia, PA, august 2002.
INTERVIEW.
BMX Rider #3 november 2002.
23MAG COVER.
Phil Dolan at the 2002 worlds on the cover of 23mag #6 november 2002.
BMX RIDER COVER.
Phil Dolan on the cover of BMX Rider UK november 2002.
PROPER.
November, Phil Dolan won't be riding a FlyBike Micromachine anymore. He's now riding for Proper.
Phil Dolan on Fenix Bikes!
flatmattersonline.blogspot.com, february 2011: Viki Gomez just signed Phil on a two year deal for Fenix Bikes! Congrats Phil!