Stuff 2

We'll, I got a new frame from Giant during the week and I am having a great time on it. It really feels good. The geometry is perfect for me. I send in this photo of me doing this hop to smith on an angled bank, to Giant's BMX division and Chris Arriage ran it on the blog. Click to see the full image. Photo: Donovan.



We also had a mini premier of the new "Via the backroads" dvd at my place this week. Real good DVD which is centered around a month long roadtrip through SA, Swaziland and Mozambique all via the backroads and searching for spots and things that have never been skated or ridden by bikes before. Lots of good skating and BMX trickery in this one.


This morning a whole bunch of riders came through to the Gen-X park in Parklands. This is a realy fun, laid back park with a bit of stuff for every type of rider. The bowls are busy getting repaired but still saw some action. With guys like Savage, Clemie, Scott, Josh, Zane and returning riders like Donovan and Grant in the mix, you know it's going to be fun. Here's some shots by James (me) and Josh.

Scott - Photo: James

Savage - Photo: Josh

Oscar Hirschfeld - Photo: James

James - Photo: Josh

Clemie - Photo: James

4 pegs for life!

I just got my new Giant Method frame, which kicks ass and I put it to some use this weekend. He's an oversmith grind at the Gen-X park shot by my long lost sidekick, Donovan. He's back on his bike and learning new things too.

There's a big street ride going down in Cape Town CBD on Saterday the 19th. We'll be shooting photos and getting some filming done. Check my Facebook status for details later in the week and see you ALL there! (notice, there's no question mark - JUST BE THERE).

Son Skate BMX Photo's.

Once again, I forgot to chage my camera. Here's a couple shots.

Werner Mathee - on form again. I hope he gets hooked up soon because he's got the drive and really wants to be good. I look forward to great things from this kid.

Malcolm is always a treat to watch. Here's a nice table out of the new vert quarter and also a footjam on the thing too.
Savage was doing these on the vert quarter too. I've tried handplants in the Gen-X bowl but could never get it. After watching Stephen abit, i think I know how they work.

ToeFu's (Toe Fufanu) look good and Savage has them on lock.

I don't know who won the comp. Malcom left straight away and Wayne, Savage, Brendan and myself went riding down the road. I left just before Best Trick started but heard that Wayne did a giant 180 wallride to 180 in over the spox. He always delivers. If anyone does know the results leave them in the comments.

Son Skate Nationals.

Don't forget the Son Skate Nationals this weekend at The Shed in Stellies. Pratice is on Friday, Prelims on Sat and Finals on Sunday. I'll be shooting photos on Sunday, so see you there.

Re-up Giant Method bmx now availible

These bikes are now in SA and are the best value for money bikes on the market. Made by Giant, who makes many other brands like Colony, MirraCo, etc so you know the frames are good. Great parts too. Click the link for the photos.

http://wcbmx.blogspot.com/2009/11/giant-bmx-arriving-soon.html

Get your Purp on!

Here is the new colour of the Avalanche Domin8 bmx bikes. These should be in most cycle stores by the weekend. There are only 200 availible! Light race/jump bike (11.5kg) with a slimmed down frame with good rear V-brake. Perfect bike for jumping and shredding the local pavements. R 1090.00. Also in Black.

Racing is rising!

Theres been some good racing going on at the developmetn tracks across Cape Town over the past few months and the biggest will be the Canal Walk Foundation Reconciliation Cup to be held at the Velokhaya track on the 16 Dec. Click the image for a bigger picture.

Although the Gen-X youth centre has closed down the Gen-X park is still the place to be for some great riding. Click the link on the left panel for a map of where the park is. Come on down and get your grind on. R20.

Me (James Brawn) Underside Icepick - photo Scott Owen

Scott Owen - Switch handed peg grab - Photo James Brawn.

Don't forget the Son Skate nationals on the 11th, 12th and 13th Dec at The Shed in Stellenbosch. Click here for a map.

I told you!

Like I said the other day, The Riot has been filming and here is an edit of some riding they got done last week. I like it when edits get put together so fast. Keep it up guys. There's some great riding in this.

Giant Team cut.

As some of you know, I work for Dragons Sports, importers of Giant Bicycles and some of you might have seen a discussion on my FB status a couple weeks back about Giant cutting the bmx team and yep, it's true. I found out just over a week ago but couldn't talk till it was official.

Basically Giant doesn't make any money from their BMX programme but never intended too either. Giant makes BMX bikes because they are passionate about covering all the bases of all types of bikes and that's what makes Giant such a great company. They make top end, high quality BMX bikes and parts even though they don't make any money from it.

With that said, they were spending large amounts of money on a team that wasn't really getting any exposure. Not making any money from a BMX programme is one thing, needlessly pouring money down the drain, is another story all together.

The only rider who is going out of his way to promote his sponsor is Tony Cherry , who will be staying on and he will be joined by a new team of hungry riders.

Giant has some great parts dropping soon and they'll be in South Africa early Jan 2010. Quality high end parts at really good prices. Parts include: PC pedals, slim sealed alloy pedals, 11butted 8x27 bars, light butted full cromo forks w/built in race, Piv Saddles, Frontload stems, coloured grips and more. I've got photos but can't release them yet (stay tuned).

Change is good and with Chris Arriaga at the helm I think things are just going to get better. Check Chris's interview at EXPN.com

The Riot gets Savage!

Yep, Stephen Savage is riding for The Riot. There's some big things coming from The Riot with new stock coming in at great prices as well as some heavy filming sessions going down. Team DVD coming soon? Check Sunday! bikes for Savages 2 part interview.

From Giant BMX - Tony Cherry, Troy Merkle and a bunch of other locals put together a little jam at their local trails to take advantage of the good weather. Looks like it turned out to be a super fun time. Be sure to go on over to PERSPECTIVESBMX to check out some more pics from the jam

This is my type of trails.

Into The Woods - BMX Trails Montage from Brian Dickman on Vimeo.

If you want to see something good.......

goto TheRiot. They just got in a whole range of Odyssey and Sunday stock and the prices are really good. R3200 for Sunday Funday or Ian Schwarts frames. Free postage and a frame that can handle anything you can do.

Do you trust the frame you are on right now or are you checking welds after every session? Just get a Sunday! and stop messing around!

There's also a vid from their team rider and crowd pleaser, Wayne. Check it!

Giant BMX arriving soon.

These should be arriving before the end of the month (give or take a week), so I thought I'd just give you some info.

These bikes will be available from any quality bike shop that stocks Giant Bicycles across SA.

Giant is renowned for its quality, highend MTB and Road bikes and they put the same effort and attention to detail into the BMX range.


First is the awesome Method 00. (Retail around R3799.00)



Features:
— Complete 21" 4130 Cr-Mo frame w/CNC machined head
tube & spanish BB
— 3 piece tubular Cr-Mo cranks
— Cassette rear hub
— Sun Rhyno Lite rims
— Digital 2 Cr-Mo 8” rise bar




Next is the Method 01 - (Retail around R3100.00)

Features:

— 20.5" Cr-Mo main frame w/CNC machined head tube &spanish BB
— 3 piece tubular Cr-Mo cranks
— Digital 2 8” rise bar
— KENDA K-Rad / Kiniption tyres
— FSA integrated headset

Finaly we have the Method 02 - (retail around R2600.00)

Features:

— Full 20" Hi-Ten frame w/removeable rotor tabs

— 3 piece digital tubular Cr-Mo cranks

— Digital Jr. 6.6” rise bar

— KENDA K-Rad/Kiniption tyres

— SST Gyro

If you have any questions on these bikes or where to buy them, drop me an email and I'll fill you in.

We will also be introducing the Giant range of BMX parts before the new year incl, Stems, Bars, Forks, PC pedals, Grips and Piv seats. All at really awesome prices.

I've also got other parts in the works that should keep most mid-level riders happy but more info on that, later.

Halloween Jam edit!

Halloween Jam from The Riot on Vimeo.

The Riot has a great writeup and photos from the Halloween Jam. They also mentioned on FB that they'll be getting in the Odyssey and Sunday order soon. I know they are Getting Fundays and Ian Frames for sure. Get your hands on the strongest frames in BMX right now, RIGHT NOW.

Halloween Jam!!

Well the Halloween Dirt Jam has come and gone and if you weren't there, I hope you have nightmares.
Quite a few guys dressed to impress and a Malcolm Peters took the cake there. At least two people that I spoke to though this happened earlier in the day while he was riding.

Rupert is back from Scotland and is still wearing the same clothes he left SA in 2 years ago. Stephen Savage was seen hiding in the tall grass a couple of times during the day and jumping out at people.Buddy Chelan and Pieter Retief trying to deceide who's going to pull the knife out.

The Road Masters are a regular feature at Gum Trails and can do swipes and G-turns better than you.

This event had the biggest turn out of any event this year (the power of Facebook?). Here's half the crowd.

Check my new tent. It's Giant!

This kid is coming up. Werner Mathee. Look back over the hip.

Malcolm with a Turndown. Always clicked.

Wayne "shovel hands" Rieche is reponsable for 70% of the work put into building Gum Trials. Along with the Twins, Jason Hood. Boet and a few other locals, they got the place into perfect order for the day. Here Wayne celabrates the day and takes the win. Frontflip.

Judging was taken care of by having the top 7 riders all getting their names put on a cup each, then all the riders who took place in the event got given a smaller cup of dirt and got to put it into the cups of the finalists who they thought rode the best. The guy with the most dirt in this cup won. Simple and effective.

Top three were 3rd Colin Loudon, First Wayne Rieche and 2nd Greg Illingworth.

Thanks to Markus at OSP for the running and organizing the sponsors for this event. Great job.

Preview pics on TheRiot

Wayen sent TheRiot some preview pics of Gum Trails. This is the premier BMX jumps in Cape Town and this Sat is going to be awesome. Click for below for some older pics of Gums.

Halloween Jam!

CAPE TOWN RACE UPDATE. (Pic's won't load)

Race Report for Khaymandi on 17-10-09

The rains during the week caused some concern as to whether the track would be all dried up.. But the sun shone and we had an awesome event. We had 60 participants from Khayamandi, Strandfontein, Khayelitsha, Blouberg and Cape Town CBD!!!! A real broad spectrum of people and proved that is was missing. We had four women and the youngest person on the day was 9!!!!!
We start with timed runs to seed everyone and then raced like timed individuals and they had epic battles with all the top riders against each other until we had eventual winners in each category.



9-12 Age Category winners are:
1st:Yolanda Ngxgngane from Khayamandi
2nd: Zola Ngxakane from Khayamandi
3rd: Moshane Wanga from Velokhaya
4th: Zenane Anitha from Velokhaya






13-15 Age Category: all from Velokhaya
1st: Odwa Dlabantu
2nd: Mainie Mtutzeli
3rd: Jim Akhana
4th:Xulisa Maila Bald





16 + Age Category:
1st Daryn Stow
2nd: Tobie Groenwald
3rd Nils Hansen
4th: Luyolo Dunla from Khayamandi

The rest of the calendar is below. The aim is to promote racing and fun and selecting 20-30 kids to compete in Pietermaritzburg at the world Cup in July 2010.
Western Cape BMX Race Calendar

31 October – Vangate
14 November – Delft
28 November – Strandfontein
5 December –Delvera
16 December – Velokaya

The event would not have been a success without the many volunteers, “Daisyglug” crew for the timing, Gerrie for the start gate, Pedal Power Association, Mule Bar, JAG Foundation and Pronutro

See us on Facebook: BMX Western Cape

Vetically Insane Results and Am photos. (Updates)

Vertically Insane in a yearly comp put together by Life Light and is headed by local inline skater and rail distroyer, Chris van der Merwe. Due to me being lazy and also not using my head, I only got a few shots of the am riders. The am's are just getting better and better and new faces keep popping up. Here are some shots of the day.

Werner Mathee is a local at this park and it shows. This wall ride scared a few riders but was no problem for Werner. He also loves the spox jump and threw some moves over that too. He also did the big wallride out of the bowl, that most of last years pro's had trouble with, first go.




Killian of KillianBinTheTree was on form too. I'm biased and can't get enough of grinders. Killian pulled this febble up to 180 out after a coulpe of goes and banged his peg on loads of other things in the park. Good stuff.

Paul Busser isn't scared! Always going fast and always doing things others aren't. After doing this quick hangover on the flat rail he did the gap to hanger down the down side of the same rail. It isn't a high rail but it's a pretty big gap with a good lenght of down. This was great.

Other mentions go to Brandon who pulled an aweome hop 540 into a small bank and Carl for his multiple grinds to 360 out's and big no-footed cancan over the spox. I saw some great stuff fom the other riders too but I can't remember any names. I also don't know the top 3 places in Am. I know Werner Mathee won and got some great prizes.

I entered "advanced" which was a 15 min jam but after sitting there for 10 mins watching Malcolm, Stephen, Jason, Eddie and the others ride, I just wasn't feeling it. I did one grind and really should off just got the camera out again.

Eddie Botha is a quiet dude who has put on some weight over the last couple of months and isn't afraid to throw it around. This barspin into the bank was shot before the comp but he did it higher and smoother in his runs. It's always good to watch Eddie ride.

Stephen Savage ended up taking the win and deserves it. Smooth style and good lines. Big barspins and I think he was the first person to 360 the new spine.

Malcolm Peters is called "the robot" by some of his haters but the man (he isn't a kid anymore) has his tricks on lock. 360 whips, double whips, manual up the grindbox to barspin, 180 bars over the new spine and good stalls on the high sub box. Malcolm is dialed and amazing to watch.

Jason Hood is a lose cannon and showed it again today. More people will be talking about his flip out of the bowl than anything else. His single tyre mark is on the roof as proof that I'm telling the truth that he did it first time.

And that was top three.

We then all headed down the road to the "bottle bank" and had a good session there. I think I redeamed myself and we all got some great stuff done.

Check Killian's blog and Eric Palmers Facebook for them photos right now!

Thats it. Next up:

WAYNE'S HALLOWEEN JAM AT GUM TRAILS ON THE 31st OCT.

BE SCARED, BE VERY SCARED!

Greg Ill web edit and some future comp news.

Some of you know that Greg Illingworth form THERIOT was in the US with the Mongoos team for the latest Props Mega Tour. Here is a quick edit of some stuff that went down.

Mongoose Web 3 from mongoose bike co on Vimeo.

Oct looks like a good month for BMX in Cape Town

Wayne is back from his trip to Angola and is putting together a Dirt Jam for the 31st. Thats right it's Halloween so get the face paint and nail polish out because it's a DRESS UP JAM. OSP is getting involved with the logistics and this is going to be big. More Info closer to the time.

The BMXdirect team is coming down to Cape Town from the 22nd till the 27th and some of them will be staying on for Wayne jam.

Veg Down Under!

My boy, Ryan, is running BMX.co.nz down in New Zealand and doing a pretty good job with showcasing SA riding to the NZ riders. This might increase tourism and bring riders out here. Check out the site and see whats happening down there.