November 2004 - Gemeente Laarbeek, Noord Brabant, The Netherlands
Aarle-Rixtel is a place well known in the BMX community. It's the town of the FAT-JAM and Paul's Boutique. A few years ago Aarle-Rixtel joined with villages Beek en Donk, Mariahout and Lieshout (home of Bavaria beer) to form Laarbeek. The local councils became one so if we needed a ramp of some sorts we had to go to this one place.
Aarle-Rixtel has had a mini ramp since the early nineties. Last year we got a new one. We had the official opening at the mini-FAT-JAM and it turned out to be a good day. Little did we know that people from the local council were checking out the event. When their budget at the end of the year wasn't gone yet, they needed to find a way to spend it. It was decided to spend it on ramps (yes, really!). Every village was going to have the same ramp as the one in Aarle-Rixtel. When we heard about it we advised them to make different ramps in every village. It doesn't make sense to have 4 exact same ramps within a 7 kilometer radius. A few designs were thrown in a hat. Now Mariahout sports a 1,80 meter high - 5 meter wide mini, Lieshout has a hipped mini and Beek en Donk got the spine ramp.
Sure it's polyester pre-fab certified and warranted stuff but it's better than nothing. The ramps will last and if you don't like them, don't use them. They're open to bikes and free to use. No security guards telling you to wear your pads either. Having 4 public ramps within a 10 minute drive is pure luxury, but we'll take it.
BdJ
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After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.