FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

A cherished race. The one and only California Cup

Congratulations to this year's Inductees. We saw a record number of people cast a vote for the BMX Hall of Fame this year, as anticipation for the Grand Opening of the BMX Hall of Fame & Museum in Tulsa, OK drew near. Now that it is opening to the public, we are thrilled to announce the date and location for the 2022 Hall of Fame Ceremony:

Saturday, October 29th - in Tulsa, OK, at the BMX Hall of Fame & Museum! Who's in?

The colour of the cover changed with every issue. I sometimes checked on the cover color before Joop (R.I.P.) started photocopying but at times I couldn't be bothered and found out when the 'zines were done. It's still 1988 and Carlo Griggs scores the cover. Jamie Cameron took the photo. Nice one.

The 'zine is starting to look professional with an official editorial page, contents page, and articles.

Interviews in issue 6 come from Tommy Guerrero, Dennis McCoy, Rick Allison and Robert Moeller. There's a photo of Axel Reichertz flatlanding with a fullface. Paul, Menno and I did a Coca Cola commercial and made easy money.

Frank Peeters reports about the Titus Cup, Le Clip provided the free sticker, we went to Bonn for a contest at Mathias Rechenburg's place, we cruised over to Den Haag for a sk8 contest, we visited Tropica in Germany and also discovered the banks at the University of Düsseldorf (1988!).

The Stokebros are starting to make a presence and Olli contributed a nice drawing of Alf.

Just flip through the 'zine page by page and discover something weird. Find the link below to turn the pages.

USA BMX Olympic Stadium in Tulsa & BMX museum. Ribbon cutting day, the official opening is next month.

Random Adventure meets Alan Woods of Alans BMX, a shop that has been on the Wigan BMX scene for over 40 years, and John Lee an ex racer who's love has been rekindled for the sport when his own kids got into it.

It was 1988, the year after the Tizer World Championships in England and the IFN had called for the Tizer World Cup. My plan was to get a ride from Robert Moeller after the Trier contest but while over there they told me there was no space for me in their car. I bought a single train ticket to England from Trier, Germany and had 10 pounds left for food. Luckily I got the leftover bag of bread from the contest so I did not starve. My sleeping bag was the bike bag again so I wouldn't have to pay for my bike on the train. 14 hours later I arrived in Manchester. Read the contest report in issue 5 of FAT-'zine.

We have interviews too with street pioneer Dave Slade, Carlo Griggs, Steve Giberson, Chris Potts and Jeff Cotter. They've got some funny things to say.

The 'Zines scene was getting big and we have reviews from Euthanasia (Jamie Cameron), COW (Mike Rose), Crucial Mania, Totally Intense (Effy), The 'Zine (Pat Wirz), Damage (Dave Slade) and Decade 'zine (Thomas Fritscher, Bresie, Thrasher and Geisser).

The free sticker was provided by FAT-'zine. Yes we had stickers back then.

Joachim Mulkens, Speed and Ollie took care of some great art again. Paul writes about his freestyle activities in 1982. We did a contest report on the Kenn/Trier event. Check this. I went by train to Duesseldorf first. We shredded the city there all afternoon and then took a train to Trier.

Issue 4 of FAT-'zine is more of a skate issue. BMX Freestyle was at an all time low so we did some fun things next to it. It kept us on the streets and the ramps that we had placed at the end of the street could be used for everything. It was the time when we did shows with the Town & Country crew. Bert, a T&C distributor was a crazy guy who organized demos for us at some of his dealers. We loaded up the ramps, did some demos and received dinner at the local snackbar in return. When one shop did not want to give us the gas money or some decent food, it was time to do some anti-promotion. Charlie Sport sucks! Haha, funny shit.

Vert ramps were hard to find back then but we found one in Rotterdam. The hiphop concert review of issue 4 is from the Stetsasonic concert at De Effenaar in Eindhoven.

A free sticker came from Seaflex again Charlie Sport did make it on the Lame side of the RAD-LAME list (of course).

We had an interview with Dave Vanderspek and mini interviews with Elger Blitz and Dan Archer. Find a photo of Bart doing a cancan on a scooter wearing pink Oakley blades, pink/blue T&C pants and a pink T&C backback and win nothing.

Sniper Frans Swinkels was getting rad on his Zorlac representing Vision Streetwear in 1988 and

It was rough at times to do a 'zine. Photos were received by post and then photocopied. The original photos were returned and you had the paper to work with. You made a layout of the page and started typing on the actual page. The space you had available was the space you needed to fit your story in. The pages got stuck in the typewriter very often which caused major headaches. The typewriter ribbon faded out after a while too and finding a new one for the old typewriter was a challenge in itself.

The page numbers were added at the end with a number mold. The pages needed to line up and all of you who have done a 'zine before know that this did not always go smoothly.

But it's 1988 and issue 3 came out. It had the following content:

The cover was shared by Jeroen Hoogaerts (RIP) and Bart on the skateboard. The issue had lots of art again, made by Joachim Mulkens and Speed One who showed up with new drawings during school breaks.

We visited a secret spot in Germany which is not so secret these days: The University of Düsseldorf with all those brick banks. 1988!

I stopped by Rainer's Bike Shop to get my Skyway TA BMX from 1983 back together - I came across the frame, fork and Tuff Wheels last summer by chance through a buddy in my hometown who had the bike since the '80s and kept the frame hanging on the wall for 25 years.

1989 Mega Free 2 Bercy, France - Les Coulisses by OSBMXF.
Images : Jacky Frattini