Ryan Sher with a big tuck no-hander from the Shadow Euro Tour on the cover. Photo by Keith Mulligan.
Up Front: Taj on Odyssey, Tony Neyer, Ryan Mills, Tom Haugen, Dave Freimuth off MacNeil, Subrosa, Vancouver Metro Jam, a scenester contest, an interview with Seth Kimbrough and tons of fine print...
Pro Q&A with Chase Hawk.
Free Agent's 2007 catalog.
Video reviews: Second grenade, Fit life, Props Road Fools 15, Shook Breakthe tape.
Then & Now: Jim Cielencki; from working at an amusement park to owning a bike company … a lot changes in 15 years.
Product Test: Odyssey's Wombolt cranks and The Shadow Conspiracy's front hub guard both score well.
Setups: Alistair Whitton's MacNeil.
The Shadow Conspiracy's Euro Tour: 14 days in England and France and the craziest wallride ever.
On Topic: Seven Riders - Seven Different Topics. Luke Parslow, Gary Young, Cory Nastazio, Karl Poyter, Scotty Cranmer, Van Homan and Simon O'Brien speak from experience.
BMX House: The Mutt Condo in Portland, Oregon It's a disgusting house filled with riders who shred.
Focus: Vidal Vigil, Matt Wilhelm, Steve Woodward, Mikey Gaidos, Joe Hastreiter, Sergio Layos, Ruben Alcantara, Chester Blacksmith, Sandy Carson, Manuel Cantero.
Workbench: Wheel Lacing.
Steps: Half-Cab Barspins: Dave Jacobs shows you how it's done.
Bio: Brett "Mad Dog" Banasiewicz, an 11-year old from Indiana that can do flips.
Ten to End: Jamie Bestwick.
Three-time NORA Cup Dirt Jumping winner, Corey Bohan keeps it simple and stylish and lands the cover with a sweet one-handed table at Rick Lakin's house in Riverside, California. Photo by Jeff Zielinski.
Up Front: Interbike 2006, Dew Tour final results, sponsor changes, a Sunday frame up for grabs and a sprinkle of news.
Pro Q&A: Vinnie Sammon, questions on pegs, music NYC and more.
Diversions: An interview with Bruce Crisman about the new Facad vide, a spotlight on Emerald Nation Zine and two video reviews.
Then & Now: Chad Degroot from 12 to 32, Chad takes us through two decades of his life.
Bike Test: Black Eye's Pistola tested by Matt Colisch.
Products: Frames, pedals, shoes, pads, shades, bag, spokes and even an amp. Plenty of goods to make your pockets burn.
Product Test: Macneil's Gary Young frame and Eastern's Ti cranks.
Setups: Rob Wise, this machine goes backwards up handrails.
Steps: Tailwhips: Dave Dillewaard shows you how to whip on dirt.
Focus.
Bio: Darryl Tocco.
Letters: Probably the most honest, useful, informative edition of letters ever printed in Ride. Yeah, right…
Ten to End: Dave Freimuth, one day we'll remember that the "I before E, except after C" rule doesn't apply to Dave.
Nora Cup 2006: The biggest, the baddest , the best.
By Invite Only: An inside look into the trails you dream about riding.
Long Story Short: See where BMX Has taken Ryan Worcester…and where he's taken BMX.
Sunrise Session: Sometimes waking up early pays off.
Matt Beringer's GNAR-BQ: A heavy riding and grilling session in Beringer's backyard.
A wall, a bench, a barrel, three scrap pieces of wood, a mellow grass bank, and Scotty Cranmer doing an abubaca-to-frontflip on the cover. If we didn't have the sequence, it'd be impossible… Photo by Ryan Fudger during the Road Fools Rock N' Roll Tour.
Up Front: Sponsor changes, a tribute to the late Jeremy Barcik, the Ghetto Am Jam, Nyquist talks about his downtime, a huge Odyssey giveaway, the Arby's Action Sports Awards, four buses of BMX and of course the Ride editors' staff picks.
Pro Q&A with Aaron Ross. Questions about Austin, pizza, tailwhips and haunting tricks. Diversions: Jimmy Levan lists 10 amazing and very influential bands, four videos are reviewed, and flatland's Bobby Carter is interviewed about Diversion Video Magazine.
Private Property: Darin Read and friend's basement cement bowl.
Products.
Product Test: Diamondback Accomplice complete, Mankind Archangel frame and GSport Marmoset front hub.
Setups: Ruben Alcantara.
Focus: Sweet photos. No reading required.
Steps: Icepick Grinds: E-Man locks into a long one for you.
Bio: Kelly Bolton, a Californian that is good. Real good.
Letters: An awesome drawing, a good photo and six thought-provoking questions from our readers. Well, they may not be thought-provoking but they are entertaining.
Ten to End: Shawn "Elf" Walters.
Bike From The Past: Torker's "Haro Freestyler", Jeff Tollefson rebuilt a classic. One day you'll be old school too…
California Dreamin': From Ohio to Los Angeles with Aaron Bostrom.
Road Fools Rock N' Roll Tour: You've seen our online coverage of the trip, now see the best of the best including Scotty's street frontflip sequence.
Autumn Sessions: A 14-page pictorial of Northeast trails. You'll wish you had some…
OCGC: The Ogden City Ghetto Children: Tired of reading about the pros? Well this is a cool story about the working-class BMXers that ride for fun just like you. Just don't write to us and complain that you weren't in it…
Baco A-Go-Go Jam: 10 Random facts (8 good, 2 bad) about the Florida contest.
Scotty Cranmer about the cover, www.ridebmx.com, january 2007: I am so excited about getting the cover! I always thought that it would be cool to get the cover of Ride. It's pretty unreal—I still don't think that it has actually hit me yet! And as for the trick itself, I learned tailtap-to-frontflip the day after I did manual-to-frontflip. Since there aren't any cool street obstacles near my house I was hoping that on Rock N' Roll Road Fools there would be something to do it on. When we stopped in Little Rock I had a flat tire and the worst allergies of my life! We all sat in the parking lot for a little bit and I wasn't even going to go out for the street session. I was light headed, my eyes would not stop tearing and my nose was dripping uncontrollably—but I said screw it! I fixed my tire and got ready to go out with one of the groups. We headed down towards the water and Morgan Wade and Tobias Wicke were filming at this flat rail so I was scoping the scene for new terrain and that's when I came across the perfect wall to grass bank for a tailtap-to-frontflip. But there was no way to get up to the top of the ledge to do it. I told a couple of the guys that I was thinking of doing it and they went on the hunt for wood. Less than three minutes later they returned with a couple small pieces of scrap wood—PERFECT! We took two garbage cans and laid them down but they were too small. Tobias came up with the idea of putting a bench against the garbage cans but when we went to pull the bench over it was bolted down. So I tried to come up with a new plan and then I see Tobias with an adjustable wrench taking the bolts out of the bench. So two minutes later the bench was free and we put it against the garbage cans and then placed the wood on the bench. So now it finally looked possible and I gave it a go—came close but didn't rotate enough. I did that once more then tried it a third time—came around but my feet blew off due to the moist grass bank. So I borrowed Walter Pieringer's dry shoes and gave it another go and it worked. I was pretty happy about the trick! I was waiting for that set up!
Edwin De La Rosa does a bunnyhop truckdriver that is out of this world on the cover. Photo by Jeff Zielinski.
Up Front: Fuzzy talks about parting ways with Mongoose after 17 years on the team. Steve Crandall explains how not to be a pro. Levi Strauss Signature. Dave Dilleward on Demolition. Premium. Jeff Zielinski's portable photo studio. 101 sponsors: Morgan Wade.
Diversions: Brian Castillo on Volume's On The Clock. Glenn Milligan on Ride's Flipside DVD. Ralph Sinisi on the free Animal Road Trip video. PlusVolume on the clock and Lotek Vancouver reviews.
Products: Twelve items that will make your pockets start to burn… including the power cordz 75% lighter than steel cables.
Product Test: Matt Colisch rode a Mirraco Black Pearl complete and a Fit Chase Hawk frame and gave them both high ratings. You'll have to read the articles to see why though… Oh yeah, and Fudger tested a Lotek Coast backpack.
Setups: Chester Blacksmoth. A new and dialed Wethepeople Miller Lite with plenty of cool components.
Straight Shoters - 9 questions with the 13 photographers who have a photo in the issue: Three Ride staffers and ten others tell who influences them, what their favorite piece of equipment is and what the oddest thing in their camera bag is.
Opposite ends. New York City and San Francisco. Two photographers spend a day in two cities on opposite sides of the country. Keith Terra covers NYC and Ryan Fudger shoots San Fran.
Piecing Together LA. A collage type photo project by Jeff Zielinski.
The Photos. Only the best of the best (and the most unique) made it into this year's photo issue. And there are lots of them—23 to be exact. Cole Dow, Jim Bauer death gap, Ben Brassfield, Zach Sky, Ryan Worcester, Erik Ambrose, Chris Doyle, Owain Clegg in Lyon, Justin Inman, Ian Platt, Mark Gonzales, Eric Holley, Franck Juliano, Dave Osato, Ryan Sher, Will Fisher, Jim Cielencki Ian Schwartz Karl Poynter, Van Homan, Davey Watson, Paul Ruiz, Kevin Porter, Sean Burns.
Letters: The time has come to end the mountain bike letters. And they end with a bang as we give a reader a Felt Sheriff frame.
Ten to End: Kevin Robinson.
Bart de Jong, www.fatbmx.com, february 2007: Man, you gotta love the BMX mags. We got so many of them this week tha it's hard to make it through them all. That's when it's handy when RIDEBMX makes a special 2007 Photo issue with over 45 of the 116 pages filled with "Out-of-this-world" BMX photography. We have to say, the pics are damn nice and if you're about to put some new wallpaper on your clean walls, my advise is to spend 4 bucks on the April issue, instead of a roll of off-white wall paper. Edwin Delarosa gets the cover and he's bringing purple back to the streets where Nigel Sylvester is doing his part too to make purple a popular colour among 4 peg brakeless street riders. The Up Front section has all kind of little news bits from team changes to Junk in the Trunk to How-to not be a pro BMX-er. Diversions is the VDO section and Brian Castillo answers some questions On the Clock and Ralph Sinisi explains a bit about the Animal Road Trip DVD. PP fills you in on Flipside and Lotek Vancouver gets reviewed too. There's two pages of product, a Mirraco bike test, FIT Chase frame test and also a Lotek backpack test. Chester Blacksmith receives a Bike Check on his new wethepeople bike. 13 photographers answer 9 questions each and it's all cramped into 2 pages because some room needs to be left to show the great pics. Keith Terra writes an article about NYC while Ryan Fudger tries to get a report in from the San Fran area. 2 groups of riders, 2 days and over 2900 miles apart. Man, everything in America is big, even the distance between these two cities. Jeff Z. pieced some LA pics together and then the photo issue starts. Some letters get answered on page 112 and then Arnold Zwarzenegger, uh, I mean Kevin Robinson gets the Ten to End page to complete the April issue that will be displayed in the newsstands until March 27.
Jeff Zielinski about the cover, www.defgrip.com, february 2002: The background is a black paper seamless with different sized holes poked into it. Then I placed a few flashes behind the seamless and when they fired through the holes it made the star effect. The three larger bursts are the "hot spots" of the flashes-where the flash was directly behind the paper. The amber colored star was achieved with a gel over the flash, which was Keith Mulligan's idea. I've seen this concept used in fashion photos, so it wasn't like I was doing something entirely new, but since this was my first time trying it, I had to figure out how to get the best looking stars, so Keith and I moved the flashes around until we figured it out. The ground is three sheets of plywood, which I had to paint black, then I had to set up six flashes-three behind the seamless and three on Edwin, and I had to poke the holes, so I'd say it took about an hour. I originally intended to shoot the photo in a different studio with lots of space and a more than adequate runway. Unfortunately, that entire studio was full of quads, dune buggies, and a giant trailer. I would've shot it outside at night, but the seamless is like a giant sail, so even the slightest breeze could be hazardous, and we were in prime Santa Ana winds season. So I had no choice but to shoot in the very cramped Ride warehouse where Edwin had about two cranks, and he had to pop the truck in the middle of the seamless because it's only nine feet wide, and as soon as he landed he crashed into a workbench.You have to take into consideration three things here, bunnyhop trucks are not an easy trick, doing one with as much pop as Edwin did is ridiculous, and doing multiple ones in such a confined space takes true skill. Edwin earned that cover! The moon dust is just dirt from Edwin's tires and everyone's feet, it was a happy accident.
Jim Bauer about the "death gap" on page 72, www.ridebmx.com, february 2007: While doing a Lavar photo shoot with Juse and Mike Ardelean in downtown Los Angeles, we wandered into a construction site. I always like to check out construction sites, because if you catch them in the right stage, you have gaps and platforms and ledges with no railings or walls. During that original scouting session, we found that the third floor and up were at a level of completion that I could get enough speed and not have as many walls, fixtures, and other obstacles in my way so I could do the gap. I figured if I was going to do it, we should film and shoot it, so we waited until next weekend to do it. During that week, the construction had advanced to the point where the sixth floor was the lowest floor that was rideable. We had to move piles and plies of construction materials, but we got it cleared out enough for me to be able to do it. Braking the chain on the approach was the only thing that stood out as a major factor in it not working. I checked all the links pretty carefully and gate started it a bunch, but really, that’s all I could do. I was thinking of which would be a better bail out: home-run slide into a railing or flying squirrel to the other side. The first time I did it, I my front end was too high and I was humping the bars, so I went back right away and tucked it on my second try. I don't have a death wish or anything; it was pretty calculated and I was sure I could do it. Basically, if “Z” says I got it, I got it.
On the cover, Sean Burns toothpicks a steep 18-stair rail with a 45t sprocket, a crazy paint job and a leather jacket. Hell yeah! Photo by Jeff Zielinski.
Up Front. Davey Watson on Federal, Chad DeGroot on Profile, Athens Final Exam Jam, Red Bull Illume, Mutiny Scenester winners, Injury Report wit Laird, Millar, Johnson, Tanner, Badger, Baker, Vigil, Young and Harrington (that's a lot of hurt dudes), Do's and Don'ts with Kevin Porter, Staff Picks, Vans Trivia Contest, Chenga Reborn, Ardelean and Mosh, Rooftop off Redline, Fuzz on Redline, Rob Wise on Mirraco, What's on RideBMX.com… That and a bunch of fine print too. Do we keep you in the know or what?
Diversions. Chad Johnston's wild flatland rating system, Stoked (action sports photography book), and four video reviews.
Products. All the basics covered, frames, forks, brakes, grips, shoes, hats, bags and more.
Product Test. Sean Logan tests a Specialized complete, Josh Betley tests Fly cranks and Fudger tries out Vans shoes.
Pro Q & A with Tim "Fuzzy" Hall. One of the biggest smiles and best attitudes in the sport answers questions about competing, bikes in parks and of course, Mongoose.
Steps: Quarterpipe airs with Scott Foster.
Bio. Beeler Van Orman, one of three brothers that rides, Northwest trails style.
Letters. Riders' girlfriends, posers and big kids.
Ten to End. Eli Platt.
Opposite Ends. Two photographers spend a day in two cities on opposite sides of the country. Keith Terra covers NYC and Ryan Fudger shoots San Fran.
Making Trends & Setting Standards - 20 years of S&M Bikes. S&M's Chris Moeller takes us back through the years with a scrapbook-style article and interview. Readers young and old won't want to miss this one.
Serious Characters - Relearning How To Have Fun. Sean Burns, Leif Valin, Leigh Ramsdell, The Gonz, Chad DeGroot and Matt Beringer are some of the most entertaining people in BMX—so the article is sure to be entertaining as well.
BMX Harvest. The Scene In Iowa. A good scene yields great photos. And in case you were wondering, the Iowa state bird is the Eastern Goldfinch.
The Desert is a Strange, Strange Place - A Collection of Interesting Moments From an Empire Trip: Walter Pieringer has been known to get into outrageous predicaments and this Empire trip was no exception.
...the issue hits the bookstores on March 27th.
On The Cover. Chester Blacksmith scores this month's cover with a huge, scary over grind on a rail-to-drop off into a bank. Photo by Fudger.
Up Front. X Games cuts dirt from the BMX line-up and six pros give their thoughts on the subject. Plus an injury report with seven of your favorite pros who are down and out. Also, staff picks with the editors, Karl Poynter interview about being on Shadow, Mike Spinner and the first 1080 ever pulled, Wormz on FBM and Brian Hunt on DK.
Letters. You send 'em in and Fudger answers them. And for once he is pretty nice to you guys. Well, most of you anway…
DC poster with Dave Mirra and Allan Cooke.
The 2007 Buyer's Guide - 704 Products! Frames (6 pages of them!), Bars, Hubs (cassette, freewheel and freecoaster), Seatposts, Forks, Grips, Shoes, Sprockets, Brakes and Brake Accessories, Stems, Cranks, Pedals, Jeans, Wheelsets, Backpacks, Knee/Shin/Ankle/Elbow Pads and Gloves, Tires, Rims, Chains, Seats, Clothing, Pegs, Bar Ends, Miscellaneous Parts and Accessories (Hub guards, headsets, bottom brackets, tools, glasses, wallets and more!), Helmets, Seatpost Clamps.
Taj Mihelich breaks down bike parts, shows gear ratios, explains angles and more.
Pro Q&A - Bike Shops and Mail Orders. Shop and mail order company owners Shad Johnson, Van Homan, Jim Cielencki, Fuzzy Hall, Chad Degroot, Dan's Comp and others answer your questions about buy parts.
10 To End. The ten most important BMX parts of all time as voted on by the pros.
Keith Mulligan, www.defgrip.net, april 2007: Products—especially components—are such a cool and important part of BMX, we felt there really needed to be an issue devoted as a buyer’s guide. Since we don’t have the luxury of doing a 13th issue as a buyer’s guide because of the costs involved, we had to make it one of the regular monthly issues. This issue is both for the reader and the industry. Readers don’t get to go to Interbike to see all the latest stuff and chances are their local shop only carries a few brands, so to be able to show a reader in one place every brand’s products along with all of the important specs, it helps them see what is out there and make better buying decisions. Just about every kid who rides cares about his bike and what he or she runs—there’s no denying that riders love products. On the industry side, it helps fuel sales, which in turn helps everyone; kids get great new parts and equipment, companies have better sales and stay in business, and their sponsored pros and ams get paid better. I think it also pushes companies that are slacking or producing sub-par products to step it up. I hope so, anyway.
An unbelievable amount of work goes into an issue like this. It’s best described as an organizational nightmare because of the volume of product and information, as well as the fact that there are so many companies that make it difficult. Nine out of ten companies sent their stuff late and didn’t send the information we specifically asked for and needed, so there was a lot of e-mails and calls to follow-up on everything. We had James Ayres help us out with that, which made it a lot easier. We were also honored to have Taj Mihelich write all of the informative sidebars that are spread throughout the issue. He broke things down in a way that will be really helpful to kids who don’t know how parts like a cassette hub works, or what the difference is between the various bottom brackets, etc. Many of today’s jaded message board jockeys will think it’s lame and not core, but there are new kids getting into BMX everyday that need to know this stuff.
On the photography side, we put in a lot of effort to make it look really different and interesting. Everything was shot inside our office, but none of it was shot on white or clipped out. It was very time consuming, but fun.
I ended up shooting a majority of the photos, but Jeff Z and Ryan also did their share. We took it product by product and had to factor in how many of each thing we had, how many pages we thought we had to work with, colors, important features to show, etc. There was no real master plan. Sometimes the ideas came quickly, other times we had to put in some time to figure it out. Ryan and I also went to Home Depot and found some cool stuff to use.
On the cover: Ruben Alcantara goes where no man has gone before with one hell of an amazing wallride. You'll have to wait until the new Etnies video drops to see the footage. Photo by Jeff Zielinski.
Up Front: Allan Cooke explains the Local Exposure Tour, Bobby Carter tells of his journey through Costa Rica for the fourth annual Ticos Flatland Jam with Chase Gouin and Scott Powell, twelve riders are injured, one lucky winner got hooked up with an enormous Odyssey prize package, 2-Hip, ASPT Dew Tour, and Road Fools Rock Tour dates announced, Mat Hoffman picks his brain, Ride introduces our new videograper Ryan Navazio, Matt Beringer shows off his ultimate BMX vehicle, the Ride staff gives our top picks of the month, quoes from famous people and lots and lots of other fine print.
Diversions: Chad Shackleford tells all about Nine to Five Films and six videos get reviewed. Bad timing just kidding, Cuttin' it deep, Shook Interactive put in werk, Square One Up close volume one, Standpoint left right, Empire Chill bro!
Products: Shoes, hubs, pegs, bars, sprockets and barends for you to browse. Plus the Mutiny X Shadow Conspiracy frame kit.
Product Test: Steve Woodward puts a Volume Black Sheep to use and Jeff Zielinski tries out the new vegan-friendly Lotek kicks.
Pro Q&A with Corey Bohan: Corey Bohan takes time to answer your questions about US vs AU, pegs, favorite riders, flatland and more.
Setups: Corey Nastazio's S&M Black Bike.
Etnies Unveiled. A Few Bangers From Etnies' "Grounded" Finally See the Light of Day: We've been sitting on a lot of photos that where shot during the making of the new Etnies video. Now that the video is dropping, so are the photos… Morgan Wade, Ruben Alcantara and Josh Stricker bust big moves.
Opposite Parallels - The Journey From a Remote Village to the World's Largest City—All in the Name of Flatland: The story of the Red Bull 14 and Circle of Balance contests and Fat Tony's first full-length article with photos in Ride, reaffirming his new nickname, Flat Tony.
Making of the Brand - The Levis Strauss Signature BMX Team: Not really like a reality TV show like the title may suggest, this article is about Morgan Wade, Jamie Bestwick, Corey Martinez and Anthony Napolitan getting hooked up by LSS and hitting the road.
Two For Two: Two photos, one spot and the stories behind them. Sometimes you just can't decide which one to use.
Focus: Sequences of Kelly Bolton wallride to barrel-roll, Dakota Roche, Nigel Sylvester, Larry Alvarado and Mike Aitken.
Bio. Tony Malouf: Straight from Illinois, Tony has mad style and height and Kevin Porter tells you a little more about him.
Letters: Stunt Junkies, Shamco Industries, Not so Metro Jam and Iowa plus a photo of a bike on a bridge.
Ten to End with Justin Inman, Northwest represent.
On the cover. Chase Hawk going way too high above the big stepup at Heath Pinter's trails in Riverside, California. Photo by Jeff Zielinski.
Up Front. Beringer talks about his newest additions to his backyard—slide parts from a water park! Sponsor switch-ups—who is riding for who? Disabled list—who got sent this month and who is broke off. Scotty Cranmer gets interviewed about the shop he just bought. And of course, lots of fine print in a black column.
Pro Q&A with Eddie Cleveland.
Diversions. 22 riders list their top three albums of all time and six videos get reviewed. Props Rock'n Roll Tour, Team Pimpske, Fly Bikes Dos, Here and now, Rodeo Peanut, Roundabout.
Products. Cranks, softgoods, sprockets, frames, seats and a complete.
Product Tests: The Ogio Monster Bag and Mutiny Hub Guard both get good reviews.
Bike Test. Sean Logan tests the Felt Fuse.
Setups. Sean Burns' Metal Blood Wolf, a crazy custom paint job and a huge sprocket.
Private Property. Paxton's, Heath Pinter's trails (as seen on the cover), this spot has seen a ton of heavy hitters in the last few months.
Local Knowledge With Mike Brennan. This Jersey rider fills you in on the local knowledge of his home turf.
Dennis Enarson Interview. One of the best 16-year-old riders ever is making a name for himself in a big way.
BMX Bros, It's In Their Blood. Kye and Leo Forte talk about each other.
Garrett Reynolds Interview. Another young'n that rips. He loves hair metal too.
The Golden Ticket, Local Exposure Tour IV. Hopefully you've seen our coverage of this tour on the site already… Allan Cooke, Will Stroud, Adam Banton, Ryan Nyquist, Mike Laird, Dave Dillewaard, Micah Kranz, Catfish, Domonic Travato, and Leif Valin all tell the story from their point of view.
No, No, No! - Wait, yes—go to China. Ryan Fudger and Gary Young spend two weeks in China.
After Hours. Five Days' Worth of Nocturnal Street Shredding.
Steps. Nose Manuals With Dakota Roche.
Bio. Aaron Buckley.
Letters. Our loyal readers speak their minds.
Ten To End. Tony Hamlin, the little guy from New York.
On the Cover: The Wall of Life has seen its fair share of sessions—most people choose to wallride it, others stall the top of it, and Kurt Rasmusson felt compelled to 180 over it! Photo: Jeff Zielinski.
Up Front: The latest sponsor changes from big names and some up-and-comers, quotes worth hearing, the Disabled List—complete with details on nine injuries we all wish didn’t happen, and a couple dozen random happenings you should know about.
Pro Q&A with Chester Blacksmith: Northwest, influences, red hair, swellbows, Wethepeople… Chester answers your questions.
Diversions: A one-on-one interview with Etnies’ Grounded’s Mike Manzoori, plus, video reviews of Make Moves, Goin’ For Broke, and Grounded.
Products: Bangin’ new stuff from Standard, United, MacNeil, Nike 6.0, S&M, Odyssey, Premium, Alienation, and more.
Product Tests: Fly’s 3 Amigo forks and Nike 6.0’s Zoom Encores get put through the ringer. One scored a nine, the other a ten. Check it out to see which got a perfect score.
Bike Test: Redline’s Link 7.1. Great geometry, Pivotal Technology seat, durable cranks, tight wheels, and more.
Return of the P.K. Ripper. One of BMX’s coolest bikes from the 70’s is back in limited numbers. Check out this ultra hip DC SE collaboration.
Interviews: This month’s meat and potatoes comes via half a dozen interviews. Read what Corey Bohan, Dakota Roche, Travis Collier, Kurt Rasmusson, Ian Munro, and Chad Kagy have to say about all things BMX, contests, injuries, video parts, life, and more. Good reads for sure.
Focus: John Heaton and J.J. Palmere throw down some street moves for you to see.
Letters: Another fine assortment of rant and rave followed by the always sour, yet sometimes sweet responses from Ryan Fudger. Ten To End — Stephen Hamilton
You never can get a straight answer out of this dude, but that’s all right. We still gave him a crack at it.
Ten to end. Steven Hamilton.
On the Cover: Nathan Williams fires out a huge 20 stair over-grind death rail on the United trip in Alabama. Photo by Ryan Fudger.
Up Front: We have a feature on the Fit & L-R-G collaboration bike, funny quotes that Fudger saves in his cell phone as he hears them, sponsor changes and injuries, a contest for a ton of Colony products, and more.
Products: Hot new parts from Fit, Odyssey, Metal, Premium, True Bikeworks, Colony, Dragon, Orchid, Fox, Animal, and Zoo York…that's a lot of products!
Pro Q&A - Seth Kimbrough: Alabama, the good Lord, Facad, Ford Mustangs and more…our readers asked lots of good questions and Seth was happy to answer.
Product Tests: Failure's Grad 2 frame and Odyssey's Lumberjack Bars both get good ratings from. Pick up the mag to see what our test pilots said about them.
Diversions: Micreation owner and Nine To Five web developer breaks down DIY web design and development. Remember, you may be able to post photos on MySpace, but you still aren't a web designer.
Kids Cheering, Trails Blazing, and Tranny Schralpin' - Nine Days of Demos, Dirt, and Cement with the Fox Team: Jeff Zielinski wrote a cool article about the trip with some amazing photos from the trip.
Freestylin' - Full Creative Control: Harrison Boyce, Josh Clancy, and Jason Eichhorst were all given a spread in the magazine to create any kind of art they wanted. No banger riding photos, no road trip story…just art for the sake of creating something great to look at and read.
The $40,000 Jump-Over: A while back Gary Young fractured his skull after an over-grind (similar to Chester Blacksmith's on the cover of the Buyer's Guide issue) went terribly wrong. This is his story…kind of like MTV's Scarred but in our magazine.
United By The South: The heat and humidity of the South didn't stop the United team from having an amazing time and producing some outstanding photos. Nathan Williams, Leo Forte, Corey Martinez, Caleb Kilby, Ryan Metro, Rickey Feather and Ian Morris.
From Here to There - Sergio Layos: Sergio grew up in Spain, rides for a New Zealand-based company, and spends most of his time in Texas. He breaks down the differences for us in case we never get the chance to experience them for ourselves.
Catching Up With Martti Kuoppa: One huge, stellar flatland photo and ten questions to see what he has been up to since his last interview in Ride some six years ago.
Focus: Eight of the best photos to hit the pages since the photo annual. Flatland from Poland, parks from Portland, street from NYC, and more… Julian Battelli, Snotty, Nick Pontario, Mike Spinner, Cody Bowers, Jake Seeley, Dennis Enarson, Josh Hult.
Bio: James Dickens, A.K.A Big James came up and got some photos in the magazine.
Letters: Two messed up collarbones, a pissed off dude, a kid that just wants to ride and not tell us who he is, and another guy who wants to be like skateboarders. And of course, Fudger puts them all in their respective place.
Ten To End - Alistair Whitton: He has a zip line from the top of his house to the backyard, jumps Ford Aspires for fun, attached poles to his bike for Stunt Junkies, and is marrying the daughter of Woodward. Damn.
Bart de Jong, www.fatbmx.com, august 2007: 100 pages of BMX form issue number 137 of RIDEBMX. It's got the high quality photos as you have come to expect and a whole lot of new ads that are usually good to look at too. Mirraco's Dave Rytell whips some train tracks in San Fran, Allan Cooke does a rail to rail for a DC ad, Jimmy Levan goes crooked on a big rail in an Odyssey spread, Sergio Layos gets the etnies ad with a downside whip, Colin MacKay barspins over a fence (Haro) and Gary Young does a ridiculous ditch wall ride for a new Vans advertisement. The ads are making the mag better. Rob Wise scores his third full page with the same picture. It was featured in a French magazine, a German mag and now in RIDEBMX. Kosman shot it.
Chris Doyle flows through some dirt jumps and floats a stylish 360 invert on the cover. Photo by Ryan Fudger.
Up Front: Sponsor changes, injuries, fine print about anything and everything, a Redline Link correction, and the announcement of a DC/SE PK Ripper raffle for the Stephen Murray Fund (to be given away at this year's NORA Cup party in Las Vegas).
Pro Q&A - Gary Young: He can't do triple whips and he can't do a flip whip. Hell, he can't really even backflip, but Gary Young does consistently well at all the big-show contests, and even better in that ditch down the street from his house. Nine of our readers ask him questions, and he answers them all.
Products: The latest and greatest including a Premium stem, Colony pegs, Animal seats, a Microsfot Zune, Oakley shades, 43 Bolts, Shadow grips and seats, Subrosa bars, Vans shoes, and Round Wheels.
Diversions: Musician and rider, Scott Foster talks about his top 5 shows, musicians, and albums.
Profile's Tulsa Sessions - A Tale of Tornados, Turtle Dances, Legs N' Eggs, Chiggers, & More: Keith Mulligan documented their journey with his cameras, and the team documented their experiences through lots of interesting and funny bullet points.
(Putt) Put In Work: Lots and lots of work went into making an abandoned putt-putt course a riding spot. Aaron Bostrom, Adam Banton, Jim Bauer, and KC Badger enjoy the fruits of their labor while producing some crazy, colorful photos.
Sheep Hills Reunion Jam: The night that S&M had their 20yr anniversary party there was a jam at the legendary Sheep Hills in Huntington Beach, CA. Fudger was on hand to get photos of Chris Moeller, Shaun Butler, Midget Cory, and more.
Red Bull Elevation, Suzuki BMX Masters, and Red Bull Empire of Dirt: We already had tons of coverage from these events on RideBMX.com, but we have some of the best contest photos printed with a brief write-up about each event.
Where's Nathan?: Nathan Penonzek is off traveling the world, so we had four of his friends write a story about what he might be experiencing in his journeys.
Here & Gone - The Life and (Premature) Death of a Connecticut DIY Warehouse Park: There are homemade spots all around the world. This is the story of one of them in, you guessed it...Connecticut.
Harry Main Interview: This sixteen-year-old English rider is a bad ass. We caught up with him to find out about his background, England, learning German, sponsors, and more.
Focus: We switched things up this month and had the riders talk about their photo. Chester Blacksmith, Randy Brown, Dave Osato, Brian Kachinsky, and Cameron Wood tell the story behind the photos.
Letters: Our loyal and loving readers wrote in about contests ideas, Scotty Cranmer's tailwhips, drivetrain-less riding, grind stoppers, corporate BMX, and more.
Ten To End - Dave Mirra: Dave wakes up early to ride, tends to his family, makes sure things are running smoothly with Mirraco, and jots down answers to our monthly ten questions. (Side note: There are three ads in this issue featuring Dave doing his no-handed 360 backflip.)
On the Cover: Virginia native turned SoCal resident, Eric Lichtenberger (AKA: The German) threads the needle with a precision 180. This is the first time a rider has had a Bio and a cover in the same issue. Not bad for the kid's first photos in a magazine!
Up Front: This month we have some bizarre stories from Corey Martinez, the DL injurty report, plenty of fine print, and sponsor changes and shake-ups.
Pro Q&A with Jamie Bestwick: Jamie answers questions about frame sponsors, going huge, England, contests, bright colored bikes, and even makes a Chuck Norris joke.
Products: Frames, hubs, stems, bars, softgoods, and more from good folks like Kink, Odyssey, S&M, Profile, Colony, and others. Sweet, sweet BMXness.
Diversions: DVD reviews on Drainkids, Skavenger, United Don't matter, Props 66, I got work, Props Mega Tour 6, Get high inc. Street pedlers.
Recreating Rad! Chad Johnston and his wife got to ride in a modern-day recreation of the famous high school dance scene from the movie Rad!. And luckily for everyone, Jeff Zielinski got to shoot photos on the production day. Sweeeet.
If I Wasn't A BMXer... Props Road Fools Rock N' Roll Tour 2: You've seen our daily coverage of the tour, now check out the bangers from the trip brought to you in a different light. And by different light, we mean bullet points written by Ryan Fudger.
First Times With Brian Foster - 35 Firsts With A 35 Year-Old. BF may be old enough to be your father, but he will still kick your ass out of the gate, boost higher than you out of any quarter (and with more style, too), and has more variations at the trails than you'll ever have. With that said, this living legend talks about the first time he...insert 35 interesting topics here.
Quest For The Holy Rail - Who's Counting Stairs? A whole article about the art of launching yourself down handrails. Yep, it includes Brian Kachinsky. And yep, one of the photos is BK on the ground...
Homage To Old School. Shad Johnson shreds an old, pink GT in a fullpipe and reminisces about the olden day
Bio - Eric Lichtenberger: Same guy who is on the cover. This kid may be the brakeless, pegless rider right now. He has double tire ridden down (and up), and grinded some of the craziest rails imaginable and is one of the most chill dudes you will ever meet.
Focus: Eric Ream, Mike Spinner, John Jennings, Sandy Carson, Brian Hunt, Russ Barone, Drew Hosselton, Augie Simocini, Eddie Cleveland, Matt Beringer, and Ricky Bates make up the section that will soon become a 13-year-old kid's bedroom wallpaper. Thirteen full pages of awesome action photos.
Letters: Six kids write us letters and one of them walks away with some sweet new parts from Fit.
Ten To End - Jimmy Levan: Metal, brah! The rock 'n' roll legend...er...BMX rider/company owner gives his answers to our 10 questions.
Jeff Zielinski, Jeff Z’s 10 favorite cover photos, bmx.transworld.net, april 2009: It’s kind of hard to believe that Eric did this 180 on two different occasions. He has a sharp eye for spotting ridiculous setups that most riders would never notice—Eric noticed this wild one while driving through East L.A. with Ryan Navazio while they were filming for Insight. Aside from the sheer originality and difficulty of the trick, I was really happy with the timing of the shot, there is a sliver of space between his back and the top railing, and his wheels are ever so slightly above the ledge still—I think that helps convey how small of a space he’s actually fitting through without ever touching the wall or the rail on the one he pulled.