Last week we went out and filmed this edit with Pete Radivo at a private indoor spot that he is fortunate enough to have access to. I was impressed at how easy Pete got this done and he seemed to be really enjoying riding, which is great to see from a guy who has had more knee surgeries then I could probably count on both hands.
Ed note: That was awesome Pete… F-ing stoked !! – Millar.
About six weeks ago we posted about this years Ausbike tradeshow happening in August down in Melbourne and that we were going to hold a street jam/comp on the main day of the event where we invite 20 riders from across Australia to get their jib on!
Well today I started building the things to ride. The course will consist of a bunch of ledges, wedges, banks, rails and what ever else we can come up with to keep the riders psyched! I thought it would be cool to post up some progress photos as I go through the build. Here you can see a couple flat ledges and also an up ledge that I am real excited about, these are basically done besides coping. Plenty more building to go so stay tuned!
As most of you would know Chris Courtenay did his ACL a couple months ago, well I spoke to Chris just before and it seems everything is going well in the recovery. He is off crutches now and should be back on the bike in about four and a half months. I spotted this photo of Chris on facebook (obviously shot before the injury) and had to post it. Shot by Michael Harris at Shoalhaven Heads park in NSW. Dialed!
Henrique Castro sent over some nice photos from a jam at the Carapicuiba trails. Thanks to Rui Ogawa for the photos.
Oleg Alexandrov sent us over a few photos of his bike and him riding a cool bank. Oleg is our team rider over in Russia repping a bunch of Colony products…
Teddy Frame, Phantom Forks, Colonial V2 Cranks, Fantastic Plastic Pedals and Clone hubs.
Most of you would by now know that both Liam and Nick have parted ways with Colony but it was all on good terms, here are both their final edits with the footage we had off them.
Many thanks to both of the guys for the many laughs we had over the years. Good times for sure…
A friend of mine reminded me of this spot today and it got me thinking about a bunch of moves Mick Bayzand did on it probably three years ago now if not longer. Mick went to town on it and most of the photos we shot never saw the light of day so I thought I would bring this one out.
We have a new splash page up, this one is of Mick Bayzand from the recent Europe trip we took. Goodtimes.
Below is our double page advert in the current issue of 2020. Bit of a story behind this one as Clint has talked about wanting to do it this rail for years, 10 years to be exact. Last time I was in Brisbane we went down to this rail to suss it out, we got there too late in the evening to do it but Millar called it out so the next day we went there and he fired it out first go!
Some more photos from our trip across France and Barcelona, thanks again to Unleaded for helping us out across France.
First up we have Mick Bayzand hanging a rail in France, then we have Liam Fahy-Hampton, Mick Bayzand and Bruno Faucon chilling before the comp down in Aurillac and last but not least this was a spot in Marseille that the locals took us to and a school group were stoked on BMX, they had Marnold doing stunts for them.
The trip is coming to an end now, we have a 15 hour flight in the morning then another 8 hours to get home, besides Mick Bazyand who has to wait in singapore for 15 hours until his 2nd flight. Here a few photos I put aside from the trip, I will post up a few more as well.
First up is a photo of me, on the borrowed bike I used for most the trip. Then we have a photo from the centre of Barcelona and last up is a photo of Zac Miner who unfortunately dislocated his knee half way through the trip but he kept positive the whole time.
We trekked down to Montpellier and although it was terrible weather in Lyon once we got here it was great! We had a great days riding around some local spots, it was good to have a solid days riding after a few days of wet weather. Thanks to all the locals who showed us around.
Yesterday we were treated to some what of a private session at the indoor bowl here in Aurillac, France. This thing was super smooth and was a pleasure to ride, even for the more street rider types it was still awesome to hit the vert wall with some speed. Thanks to all the locals who made it possible for us to ride and sorry that we were late!
The photo below is of Marnold who felt right at home in this bowl. Today we continue the journey across France!
We have made some last minute modifications to our new stem & here are the first photos of it. This is the final production sample & is now much cleaner with a smoother look. Called the Variant Stem because you can choose to run it as a top load stem or inverted for the same feel as our Official stem. It is also made to the same high quality specs as our Official stem in CNC 7075T6 alloy with an optional removable gyro plate.
We also have our Clone Front Hub Guard which replaces the cone nut for hub & spoke protection on the front wheel. The guard is made from CNC 6061T6 alloy.
Both items are due out in September across the planet as with all our 2011 products.
Today was the local comp in Aurillac , it was actually a blast to hang out at. It had a good vibe the whole time and everyone got right into it when the riders were having there runs, at the end of the day the group of Mick Bayzand, Bruno Faucon and Le Goff Guillaume came up on top. The funniest thing about it was that Mick won a cured leg of ham and some local goats cheese. That would have to be the strangest prize ever won at a comp and also the funniest!
Paddy sent us over a story about a recent trip he did with some crew to India for some Demo’s, well worth the read…
10 days ago I got asked to fly over to India to ride demo’s with my mates Sergej Deier & Daniel Dressen. India??? I haven’t even heard anything of BMX coming out of India so heck yeah I thought, I am going.
Well where to start? Because you wouldn’t even believe what life is like over there. Let’s say it’s a mix of religion, poorness, happiness, history and far away from our world as we know it. It seriously takes its time to get use to things like that there’re almost no traffic lights and the streets are packed with people, cars, animals, motorcycles, trucks and bikes. Everyone is going where they want and they show their presence by honking their horn but for some reason, it all works out.
We rode demo’s in different citys like Udaipur or Gnarghar. We spent lots of time in planes and cars to go from one city to another and it’s kinda normal that you’ll need around 12 hours of driving for 400km because the roads are just wrecked, full of holes and half finished construction, a pain in the a… to be honest. The people just don’t care, even when the streets are flooded with water everytime it started raining because there’s nothing like a sewerage in small citys where we’ve been. Big citys like New Delhi seem kinda modern but at the end there’s no difference. I’ve seen way too much suffering, sickness and things I don’t understand like their religion and castes system. Lots people get treated like their life is worthless and others seem like gods for them just because of money.
I think we had the chance to make a lot of people and kids happy for one day because of riding our bikes for them. At the places we’ve been a bicycle had the meaning of not having enough money to own a car and having a lower value in their society. I remember having a street session with Sergej at a curb-hip construction and after 10 minutes the place was so crowded that the police had to stop our action because we just caused a traffic jam. So the demo’s were absolutely amazing for them and for us as well because the people thought we’re from a different planet and we felt that the more we ride, the more we’re creating us a place in their hearts, and we did! The ramp set up hasn’t been what we’re used to but we’ve done our best and had a lot of fun doing it.
Well I can’t explain in words about my experience in just a couple days and my mind is over flowing with things, people and life I’ve witnessed. I already have been to lots of different places in the world because of that little kids bike but no other place expanded my horizon as much and made me apreciate the life i have even more as India did!
Yesterday morning we headed out from the Unleaded office to drive all day into the middle of France to the small town of Aurillac there was some amazing scenery on the way here which helped keep the drive interesting, we are here to hang out at a local comp and to ride some spots, looking forward to the next few days for sure!
Here is one just for the Ringwood Locals !! Shot in France at an awesome plaza that we dropped by to ride.
We drove down to Marseille France yesterday and thanks to the locals we rode some amazing spots then we were treated to ride an indoor park which was no doubt the best indoor park I have ever been to. The photo below is of Mick Bayzand getting his box jump game on!
This edit features Shintaro from his time in Austin Texas for the Mc Duff Jam that happened recently.
After a bit of a mission to get here we are now in France, we took two trains, a bus and then a two hour drive, all up it was about 11 hours to get to where we are now but it was worth it, we put together a bike for myself and had a fun day out riding with the locals at a cool street plaza park and then we had a roll around at some spots, thanks to Unleaded and the locals for their hospitality.
As the Barcelona leg of this trip comes to an end I thought I would post up a few random shots. Have a look at the photo of Zac Miner jumping the gap, this clip got missed as a car was coming to where Zac was going to land hence why you can see Clint waving but Zac was to focused and got it done.
So it seems Barcelona cops have decided it’s time to take action on bmxers and skaters that are riding spots here. Yesterday I had my bike confiscated by them for no real reason at all, all I was doing was riding a bank, no grinding no damaging property but with this language barrier all I know is that I just lost my bike! Whilst we were at the police station there was a booklet about how skating in the streets was an offence, I’m not sure if this is a new thing but either way anyone who heads over here be careful.
As much fun has it has been here I am really looking forward to going to France on Monday and hanging out with the Unleaded guys. The photo below is of Marnold shredding one of my favourite spots that I got to ride.
Today started off good, we hit a bunch of spots which was fun however things turned from good to bad over the course of the day, we got kicked out of a couple of spots then ventured out of town a bit of more and rode a real fun spot for a fair while, then we were just eating some food around the corner from the last spot when four police officers pulled up, pointed at me and proceeded to speak in Spanish which all we got out of it was that they were giving me a fine for grinding on the rail (which I actually didn’t) they then asked me which bike was mine, I tried to keep it all nice so I showed them and the dude literally took my bike and put it in the cop car, because of the language barrier we have no idea what the story is. Basically all we know is that in two days we have to go to the police station and deal with it then.
The photo below is of happier times from yesterday after riding amazing spots all day and meeting new people.
The new issue of 2020 is out very soon, it has some coverage of a trip some of the team took from Brisbane to Canberra along with a trip that Richo and Guettler took to Sydney. It also features a Chris Courtenay interview which should be interesting.
2nd day in Barcelona, Spain and it’s Zac Miner‘s 23rd birthday today, we had an amazing ride today at some awesome spots! The spot below was the first spot we hit up. So stoked!
We flew into Barcelona this morning after a very very long flight. We were all really tired but we went out and explored and had a ball riding around. Tomorrow we should be back on the normal sleep patterns, more updates to come…
Simon O’Brien won round two of the Flatland Down Underground Series happening across Australia at the moment, this round was held in Sydney and Simon said it was a really good comp which was well organised. Simon also recently released his flatland DVD titled Dejavu, you can check out the trailor here and a review of it here.
Chris Courtenay has a bunch of good clips in this edit from DiversityBmx. Chris is out for a little while with a knee reco but I can’t wait to see him doing stuff like this in again.
