Tuesday, March 12

BMX Update 03.12.02

By Josh Root
EXPN.com

I'm writing this from 30,000 feet as I fly away from Toronto after the LaRevolution contest. It was an excellent event that you all should have been at if you were anywhere in the area. If you weren't, try to be there next year.

I can't remember if I wrote about this before, but Dave Osato is on We The People now. If I haven't mentioned it, now you know. If I have, it's worth mentioning again because Chase BMX magazine is giving away a complete We The People bike exactly like the one Dave rides. Check out the Chase website for more info on that.

Speaking of Chase, the new issue looks to be about 70 pages thick. Which I happen to think is great. Good work to Ken and all the boys up in Vancouver.

Rumor has it, that after his Props Road Fools 9 trip, Dave Mirra is now running 2 piece bars, two pegs and a sprocket guard. Someone told me that it was a dare from Matt Berringer.

Van Homen is well on his way to being fully mended. And from the sounds of it, is really excited about getting back on his bike and tearing everything to pieces again. Good news for all of us who like to see great riding, bad news for ledges, rails, and other urban playgrounds.

You know who's really good at bicycle riding? Edwin Delarossa.

The new official word on the first 411BMX issue is that it should be out at the end of April. It will have a Dave Osato profile, Portland OD.O.S.O skatepark spotcheck, Toronto La Revolution contest, and a bunch of other stuff. S&M is distributing it, so ask at your favorite shop.

In other video magazine news, I saw the new Props road trip vehicle. Basically, it's a huge black RV with a semi truck attached to the front to pull it. Pretty amazing.

I hear Matt Purro is now on the Mosh B team. He's one of my favorite unknown riders. I'd say watch out for him over the next year.

Colin Winkleman is part of a group of riders trying to put together a BMX riders group similar to the one that exists in skateboarding. They are trying to have a first meeting in Florida sometime during the Roots Jam. Colin blew his knee out pretty badly at the Toronto contest trying a crazy flair transfer. So he'll probably have time to get everything together while he rests up.

Upcoming contests this month:

March 16-17 is the first of three Backyard Jams in the UK. The NEC in Telford is the location for the first. See www.backyardjam.com for more info. The 2002 bike show has a contest the weekend after that in Birmingham, England. Although it is called Bike 2002, everybody I know is still calling it Bike 2000 because they are too lazy to put the extra sylable in there for the word "two". Look at www.thebikeshow.com for info and tickets on that.

And now for some etnies team news:

Dave Friemuth headed to Japan recently. He went out there with fellow Etnies riders Joe Rich, Nate Wessel, and Ruben Alcantara, along with some others that don't ride for Etnies. They did some demos and rode some crazy terrain. Details to follow...

Joe Rich is currently wrapping up his road trip from Austin to Southern California to Northern California and then back to Austin through Arizona and New Mexico. They were in Albuquerque riding some parks the other day. They've hit a ton of spots along the way, one being the ditch that was featured on the cover of a recent Thrasher magazine. He was also at the ASR trade show in Long Beach on the last day.

Nate Wessel has just been chillin' locally at home, after his trip to Japan. He went to the Minneapolis Street Jam recently also.

Mike Escamilla has been working on his interview for RideBMX mag lately. He just needs to get a couple more tricks and the interview will be ready. He is also planning on doing a road trip in March (if he doesn't go to the Backyard Jam) through California and making an article out of it in TransWorld BMX. He is also trying to get a few more tricks for the Etnies BMX video. Mike is in the latest RideBMX mag in an article along with Nate Wessel. He also has one side of the poster in the new issue...he's on fire!

There you go. Everything is superhappyfun in the world of bmx.