The latest BMX Videos, Products and News!
It’s that time again. For the 39th edition of Products: we’re going to take a closer look at the updated BF frame from Fit Bike Co., the 23 Forks from And Forks, Wethepeople‘s Royal cranks, Sunday‘s Triumph XL bars and the Generator hub from Hoffman Bikes! Let’s get into this!
If you are anything like I was growing up as an aspiring photographer, then you might be curious as to how the ads come about in all of the magazines. Sure, it’s obvious that someone shoots a photo and then it shows up in the mags but there is clearly a lot more to it then that. How does the photographer get picked? How much does the photographer get paid? Does the rider get paid? How does a company decide on which team rider gets the ad? Which magazine will it go in? If I remember correctly I got lucky and the first legit ad that I got in a magazine was an old Haro ad of a rider from Ohio by the name of Dustin Bauer. I used to live/ride with him in Upstate New York and he ended up getting on Haro during that time. One thing led to another and the next thing I know I had a two-page spread ad for Haro in Ride and I honestly couldn’t have been more stoked about it. Fast-forward to now and the newest ad that I shot happened to be for Stolen and features the rail wizard Chris Brown. Anyone that knows Chris knows that he has a true do-or-die mentality and will double tire, feeble and manual round rails all day. Read on to find out how the ad came about from start to finish and learn what happens when you push your luck.
Gotta love Saturdays. Time to ride all day and check out the new edition of Products:. This week we’re going to take a closer look at Cult‘s B-Boy frame with Chase Hawk’s signature colorway, Deluxe‘s new F-Power stem, the Turmoil sprocket from Wethepeople, the XYZ pedals from Diamondback U.K and the Stay Strong complete bike from Fit Bike Co.. Let’s get into this!
Anyone who checks this site on the regular knows from time to time I can sound like a broken record. If I got a dollar for every time I said something along the lines of complete BMX bikes these days are amazing, I’d probably be able to quit my real job and update The Union from a private island. Even though I say it all the time, I do honestly mean it. When I started riding about 12 years ago, bikes were on a whole different planet. Frames were made from tensile steel with massive drop outs, extra tubes just because and there was undoubtably some crazy geometry going on. Bikes came with one piece cranks standard, wheels bent in half when you couldn’t muscle the 40 pound bike past 90 degrees on a 180 and it wasn’t uncommon to see ball bearings blowing out of every part of the bike, even ones that didn’t have bearings.
BMX is still young in comparison to pretty much every other actual sport and with time. Mistakes will be made and learned from and technology will advance. Over those years, there’s been one brand that I’ve watched evolve their complete bikes range from some of those bikes I’ve described before to some of the most dialed bikes I’ve seen in the entire world. That brand would be Wethepeople.
This past September they debuted their 2013 complete bikes range at Interbike and I was honestly stuck drooling over the whole range. I couldn’t stop looking at all of the details the bikes had just thinking about how stoked I’d be to ride one of these bikes completely stock.
Then, the other day they dropped a video that showcased two of their higher end completes, The 2013 Trust and Reason, being pulled straight out of the box and handed over to two riders who were able to hop on them and do whatever they wanted with them. It got me thinking it would be cool to take a closer look at those bikes to see just why they’re special. Luckily, Paul Robinson over at Wethepeople was nice enough to hook it up with some photos they shot during the filming of the video (which can be found after the jump) and a couple photos of the bikes so I don’t completely bore you.
Let’s take a closer look…
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A few weeks back there was a jam held as a memorial for Newcastle’s own Andrew Leggett who is no longer with us. Scott Greentree organized the whole event and managed to get a ton of riders out for a day filled with good times to remember the friend they lost. Kris Humphries was there with his camera to take the day in. We’ve got 14 rad photos that you can check out in our new photogallery. Check this one out!
I wanted to take this opportunity to throw together a Year-End gallery that had some of my most memorable photos of 2012 in there. It was really rewarding to look back on all of the projects that I was a lucky enough to be a part of and pick some images that stood out to me for whatever reason. This is also a way to kind of take a peak into my body of work for the year with the exception of some photos that are coming out in print as we speak and some that are still yet to be released. The following images have all come out of my camera at some point in the past twelve months. Some you may recognize, some you may not but either way I hope you enjoy them and feel free to leave some comments about which ones stand out to you. In fact, if you tell me which one you like most and why, I will read through the comments and personally pick one lucky winner to get a print of their favorite image. Here’s to the New Year, and here’s to pursuing your dreams. Check the photogallery now.
One of the fun parts about running The Union is all of the different brands I am introduced in and outside of BMX. You would be amazed at how many companies will drop an email asking if we can promote their brand on the site with zero real interest or knowledge of what BMX is really about. I’ve turned down a lot of people along the way since there’s no room for them on The Union or in BMX.
A few months back I caught wind of a new watch brand called Novo Watch that got my attention. They’re a watch company that comes from an action sports background like BMX, skateboarding, snowboarding and MMA. It seems like 2012 was a year where BMX picked up a lot of clothing and apparel brands from underwear to shoe lace belt brands, so I figured some of you might be interested to see what’s out there for watches. I recently got a closer look at Novo’s Absolute watch and have been pretty stoked on it. If you’re looking for a watch that doesn’t look like you bought it in a kids store… Take a peek.
It’s crazy how fast 2012 went. The year was jam packed with amazing people, amazing places, crazy videos, dialed photos, fresh products and more. It’s the first day of 2013 and we are excited to see where and what the new year brings us.
We would like to thank every single one of the 383,239 different people that checked out The Union this past year from around the world, all of the brands that supported what we’re doing, all of the riders and industry members who let us grill them with questions and all of the different people who contributed photos, videos and words for our original features.
None of this would be here without you guys and we’re looking to be able to do A LOT more in 2013.
The new year is looking to be real interesting and between The Union and our partners, Bikeguide, The Merged, Flat-Matters, Can You Dig It and Free-Coaster. We hope we can be your go-to place to keeping you guys entertained with all the best BMX has to offer from the people, videos, photos, products, events and more. We’ll be doing our best to bring it to you every single day so we hope you will be checking it out!
Let’s do this! – Kurt Hohberger
