FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

Red Bull Empire of Dirt, the world’s first BMX DIRT SLOPESTYLE contest, is the brainchild of UK rider Kye Forte, and combines influences from each of the BMX styles, to create one unholy new discipline guaranteed to challenge the very best on the planet: BMX DIRT SLOPESTYLE...

CONFIRMED RIDERS Red Bull Empire of Dirt will feature 35 Top International, All-Round Riders including... Alex Dropsey FRA, Ali Whitton UK, Antony Napolitan USA Bas Keep UK, Brian Foster USA, Chase Hawk USA, Chris Doyle USA, Corey Bohan AUS, Gary Young USA, Heath Pinter USA, Joe Rich USA, Josh Harrington USA, Kye Forte UK, Leo Forte UK, Liam Elthan UK, Martin Murray UK, Mike Aitken USA, Mitch Yates USA, Owain Clegg UK Robin Fenlon UK, Romuald Noirot "bibi" FRA, Ruben Alcantara ESP, Ryan Guettler AUS, Ryan Sher USA, Taj Mehilich USA.
More names announced soon....

The new FATBMX poll is up. With the popularity of the freecoaster hub we are wondering how many of you are actually ready to purchase one. Maybe you're going for the cassette hub in the near future or will you stick to your trusty freewheel? Vote now and let us know. Find the Poll in your right column.

Round 7 of the 2007 NBL Elite Series took place this weekend on the East Coast in Woodbridge, VA. One of the most liked tracks on the NBL Elite tour, Woodbridge is a very technical track, that is fast and flows very well. A recent rebuild has made the track better than ever and had the Pros raving about it all weekend.

With just 1 US round of UCI points left after Woodbridge, Saturday would be an important day for the North American ranking system for the pros. Here is how the BMXpros.com guys finished up: 

On 2 May 2007 at 10PM EST, all Shadows are meeting in an undisclosed area for filming and shooting the new Shadow Conspiracy video and ad campaign. The crew thought it would be pretty wild to do a prate show online. The goal with the show is strictly for shits and giggles. They are going to play usic and give you a chance to interact with the Shadow crew via "AIM" questions that they will be answering live on the show. This is the first installment of "The Psychotronic Pirate Show" and the Shadows plan on doing this for each road trip the crew takes. 

The Baco Boys get away with a lot of shit, like this flyer. It does show however that they like to have fun and don't see things too seriously. We're down with all that. They're taking the Baco Jam to the mid-west again (Neighborhood skatepark) on the weekend of 26-27 May 2007.

The pro part will be on Saturday so they can go all out on Saturday night after the Pro and Bowl comp. The poor ams will have to get up early on Sunday to do their contest. Once they've put their time in they can follow the pro schedule next year.

The Neighborhood Skatepark is the largest hybrid skatepark in the Midwest. Their 25,600 square foot skatepark is located in the middle of the beautiful Jellystone Park Resort, which includes both indoor and outdoor waterparks, a hotel / conference center and lodging ranging from tenting sites to 10 person log villas.

The third year of Bike Hall Contest sponsored by Skupina ČEZ takes place at Ice-hockey Arena in Trutnov on Friday and Saturday the 4th and 5th of May. Bike Hall Contest is from the beginning one of the biggest freestyle contest in Czech Republic, which is specially build for indoor BMX and MTB Bikers. The third ČEZ Bike Hall Contest presents Park with lots of new and interesting ramps. This year`s event can introduce not only bikers from Czech Republic, but also bikers from RedBull and DC Team from Germany, Great Britain and Poland.

All bikers will be divided into Hobby and Elite Group. Hobby BMX bikers and MTB bikers have qualification on Friday afternoon and Elite group on Saturday morning. Top ten from each category from Friday semifinals and Top twenty from Elite Group enter the Saturday Show time Finals, which begin at 4 pm. There will be also two wild card bikers. And what about the reward? Prize money is 32 000 CZK and presents up to 90 000 CZK. 

Most of the time I'm not a big fan of "Photo issues" for the simple reason that I need something to read when I pick up a magazine. Photo issues are usually an easy way out to flap photos together and make a quick issue in times when there is not too much going on (winter). Good pics need to be in every issue, not just the photo issue. When RIDE UK brought out their first Photo issue, I was fearing the same thing but I was wrong. 180 freakin' pages thick this one! Next to the great photos from Dolecki, Sanz, Pairo, Bancroft, Kung, Pieringer, H-man, Terra, and Carson, there is loads to read. In fact, I haven't finished reading issue 102 yet because it's full of so much other stuff (including a 20 questions section with both LARD and Josh Harrington and all their regulars).

Hats off to RIDE for putting together another killer issue. They have now gone monthly so maybe the number of pages will go down a bit

Name: Sebastian Keep
Age: 24
Hometown: Hastings, U.K

What happened in Singapore?
Bas Keep: I ruptured my spleen and had to spend a few days in hospital, luckily it stopped bleeding so they didn't take it out! After I was discharged I spent a week in bed in my hotel room sleeping!

You almost starved to death too?
Bas Keep: Ha ha I was nil by mouth for two days because there was always a chance my spleen would start bleeding again and I would be taken in for surgery. On the third day Ali and Miron brought in some Chicken burgers for me!

How are things right now?

Freedom Issue 74 has been out for a while now but we haven't done the review yet. Captain Dotterbart makes the cover with a trick that has now made it to 3 covers of BMX magazines. Here's what you're missing out on if you have not found your copy of Freedom # 74 yet:
-News
-2007 dates
-Video reviews
-Media
-Freecoaster
-Tallinn Simpel Session report
-Muenster Beat City report
-Gallery
-Moscow

Lavar have brought out a fresh Spring 07 line inspired by some old and new BMX history. Lightning bolts, sunglasses and even a Dead Sailor design.  Available starting next week. Check a few of their new designs on the next page.