FATBMX Your Online BMX News Resource Since 1998

In the sleepy towns around the middle of south England, old folklore tells of a strange figure with wild hair, an impressive temper and whenever he is spotted he is usually astride a metallic beast, which is small but well controlled by the man. His legendary status has been confirmed as he was first sighted in the late eighties mastering the same type of metal beast in areas away from the prying eyes of the general public, and even in those days his temper was feared and his skills highly regarded. Today if you walk around Bridport at night time and happen upon an industrial estate you might be lucky enough to hear the shrill cry of “FFFUUUUUCCCKK� followed by a chilling boom of metal landing with force on wood.

Karl from the UK left a message in our FATBMX guestbook and asked for an interview with Garrett. We automatically assumed he meant Garrett Byrnes. We try to satisfy our visitors and got to work. We've tried to do a Cory Coffey before but she never got back to us. We didn't know how well Garrett is with computers but we were in luck as the T1 guys told us that Garrett had just made it to Austin to hang out. With a little bit of pressure from his sponsor (not likely), Garrett sent back the answers to the questions in a matter of days. Karl, this one's for you.

Jovink's Zwarte Cross Festival - ook veur blanken Jovink en de Voederbietels are a Dutch rock band with a good sense of humour. They're MX fans and started a race called "De Zwarte Cross" (The Black cross) 8 years ago. The event has grown over the years and attracts more people than any Motocross GP or Motocross of Nations. 55.000 people showed up over the weekend to drink, drink, watch a carnavalesk MX race and uh drink. On Sunday they had to tell visitors who were stuck in the traffic jam to turn around as the MX track in Halle had reached max capacity. Imagine that, telling people to go home because the motocross track is full.

It takes a lot of time, effort and energy to organize an event. We have put on plenty of BMX events in the past and decided to hold a motocross race. Not knowing what to expect we got to work. The Motocross Des teams (MXdT) was going to be a warm up race for the Motocross of Nations which is considered the Olympics of MX where countries send in their best teams to battle for the gold. That race was going to happen in Lierop (2-3 October) which is only 4 miles from Helmond.

Since 2000, Roost BMX and VintageBMX.com have organized a gathering in conjunction with the ABA Midwest Nationals in Rockford Illinois. The Cobras Local 77 posse was rolling deep for the Rockford 04 adventure with a crew that consisted of the following: Phil Rase, Solan Foster, JR Broham, Sean Rakos and me, ST. We left nearly on schedule at 7-something Friday AM. We had a U Haul trailer full of bikes and an Expedition full of big dudes. I was the small guy of the trip at 5'11" and 195. JR was at the other end of the scale at 6'6" and proportionately weighing in. Everyone else is six foot plus. Lumberjacks?

As I did not have any official tasks at the Freestyle World's this year Paul, McGoo and I decided to hit the Motocross Grand Prix of Belgium. Neeroeteren was only 80 miles from Cologne so it should be a quick trip and back. On Friday evening we decided to meet at breakfast at 07:30am to leave at 08:00am. At 07:35 Paul and I cruised downstairs for breakfast to meet McGoo. He had just come in at 04:45am from some extra escapades in Downtown Cologne. Paul had come in at 3 and that left me being the good guy coming in at 02:00am. Needless to say we were all short on sleep. Paul caught up on some as he installed a mattress in the back of the Vito. McGoo dozed off when we neared Belgium.

This is the second time I start typing up the Bike 04 race report. I lost the text after the "Control-Z" shortcut messed me up. I'm not sure if it's worth it or how many people will read this but I decided to get you a little inside on the pros preparation for the BMX race. The Hilton hotel bar was open 24 hours. With most BMX-ers hanging out there it was a good time. Racers stayed up late. 5am anyone?

The more I get involved in the MX scene the more often I come across on how many riders actually ride BMX. The Flockart brothers live 5 minutes away from the Sowerby's in Scotland and ride the Livingston skatepark every now and then. Stefan Everts has been looking into getting his own skatepark, Josh Coppins is sponsored by Stolen Bikes and factory Suzuki riders Kevin Strijbos and Joel Smets can be found messing around on the BMX track in Dessel, Belgium once in a while.

The GP motocross series started off in Zolder, Belgium. After three years with Dorna it's back to two moto racing in the MX 1 (250), MX 2 (125) and MX 3 (grandpa) classes. Instead of 12 moto's, the season now has 32, a big improvement for the fans. 15700 people attended the opening round of the MX1 and MX2 categories. Not all that great but the weather forecast had been terrible all weekend and with the race being live on TV, a lot of fans stayed home on the couch with a cold beer in their hands.

The latest GP we visited was the one of the Benelux in Lichtenvoorde. Sander Nieuwenhuis was doing vert shows at the event so that was cool. For organizing this show we scored a free promo tent that we used to put up the FATBMX flags and put up a lot of HARO and Universal banners, both customers of EBC. We hung out for a bit at the tent on Saturday night drinking a few Bavaria's before we headed to the beer tent across the field. Once they closed that party down it was back to the vans for some sleep. Next morning the sound of the MX engines woke me up. We abandoned the stand and left for some MX GP racing.