BMX Interviews

Inside The Kitchen

March 9, 2012

All photos by Chad Ruhl
Interview and Intro by Jeremy Ball

When I first heard rumors of “The Kitchen” I was a bit intrigued. I know that many big name pros have their own private places to ride, but Brett Banasiewicz was in the process of undertaking a huge build of his own skate park that would be open to the public (plus have areas built specifically for skateboarders) which is a bit different than the private warehouses that exists in BMX today.
Needing to ride something before a trip to Austin for Texas Toast last year (and needing to borrow a flight bag), I first visited “The Kitchen” before it opened after a phone call to Brett’s dad Bill. I asked if I could come check it out and ride because my trails were under water and I wanted to ride something big, and rumor had it that this place was not only big, but huge. His response was simple, “yeah sure, if you can make it down the step down.” Now that response made me a bit more intrigued. After I got there, I understood what he was talking about.
About a week ago, I sat down with Brett’s dad, Bill, to ask him a few questions about the park (being that Brett was in Austria at the time). Check out what he had to say! After you do that, check out the PHOTOGALLERY by Chad.
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Insight: S&M 22″ Bikes

March 6, 2012

S&M Bikes
“Dan Closser’s custom S&M trail machine next to the 22” proto type.”

Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of talk about 24″ and 22″ BMX bikes. The bikes are aimed more towards some of the older guys in the crowd or just somebody looking for something a little bigger with more stability. If you are a member on Bikeguide, you may have seen this thread that has been on going for a few years now about 22″ bikes and if they are even possible.
A few weeks back, I had emailed Chris Moeller about some stuff and he breifly mentioned that I should look into the 22″ bikes. I never really thought anything of it beside that he must have been cruising around on one. It didn’t click to me that S&M and Revenge had been working on doing a whole setup from the frame, forks rims, spokes and tires for a complete 22″ setup until a few spy photos surfaced a week or two back.
So I figured I better get ahold of Chris and find out what exactly they have in the works. Check out what he had to say!
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Drawing Board: Odyssey Twisted PC Pedal

March 5, 2012

Most of us take for granted the amount of time and effort it takes to design a good bike part, especially the ones which have been gracing bikes all around the world for many years now. Over the course of the next few months I’m going to be doing a series of interviews with the people who are responsible for creating and designing some of the most iconic and inovative products in BMX.

It’s not that often that a relatively basic product that’s almost 10 years old suddenly explodes overnight and goes on to be sold in the millions. The chance of going to your local skatepark nowadays and not seeing a pair of Odyssey Twisted PC Pedals on a bike is very rare. From entry level completes, to the bikes of many pro-riders, the Twisted PC is regarded as THE plastic pedal. I caught up with Odyssey’s Product Design Manager Chris Cotsonas to find out more about the humble origins of one of the best selling products in BMX and how it’s changed since it’s birth fifteen years ago.

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Name: Tree Bicycle Co.

March 4, 2012

There’s always a pretty interesting concept behind coming up with a name for a brand. A lot of the time it can be pretty intricate and based around a word or words that are not necessarily common. Then you look at Tree Bicycle Co. and you have to wonder where the name comes from. Is it something simple like a Tree? Or is there something more to it? Well, we caught up with Sam Schulte to find out more about where the name came from… Let’s take a look.
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George Boyd Interview

March 1, 2012

George Boyd BMX

Over the years I’ve definitely become a fan of George. Not only can he kill it on a bike, he can also kill it behind the camera as well. Without a doubt, things have definitely been going well with George lately. Graduating college, getting bumped up to the Mutiny pro team and being added to the Empire team are just some of the things that he has going on these days. I figured there was no better time than now to get ahold of him. So let’s find out more about him!

Name: George Boyd
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Introducing Dave Paterson

February 24, 2012

Dave Paterson BMX
All photos courtesy of Sam Taylor

Over the last year or so, I had been seeing this website called “The Merged” popping up. The site really focused in on the product side of BMX, which is one of my favorite things in the world, so it definitely caught my attention. As time went on, I was more and more stoked on the site. I ended up emailing Dave a while back and we have been going back and forth for quite a while and it hit me that I needed to try and convince him to get on board with The Union. I really want to push The Union in a positive direction with more original content from people other than myself that are doing good things. So I’m stoked to announce that Dave Paterson will be a regular contributor on The Union with his focus being more on the product side of things and U.K scene! Expect to see good things from him, Pavia and myself on the regular now. It’s going to get awesome.

I wanted to welcome Dave to the team properly, so check out this fresh interview to let you get to know more about him and what he will be contributing to the site! Check it!

Name: Dave Paterson
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Introducing Jeremy Pavia

February 21, 2012

Some of you who have been paying attention to The Union for a while now may have caught on to some of my subtle hints of some changes coming to the site. 2011 was a great year and I wanted to start 2012 off proper with some changes that I think will feature all of the new original content better.
We launched the new photogallery last week and there will be a few new additions to the site in the next week or two additional to the gallery that I think you will like.
I’m also stoked to announce the first of two new contributors to The Union. After Jeremy Pavia spent a number of years at BMX Plus!, he recently decided to part ways to pursue some of his personal goals. Some how, I managed to convince him to spend some of his newly acquired free time contributing here! Expect a weekly section from him starting tomorrow!
We have a fresh interview with Jeremy to introduce you to him and to find out what he plans on bringing to the site after the jump. After you check that out, check out some of his photo work in this brand new PHOTOGALLERY! Check it!
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Daniel Peñafiel Interview

February 15, 2012

Daniel Peñafiel BMX
All photos by Ismael ibañez

Daniel “Naran” Peñafiel is a rider from Spain that over the years I have constantly seen popping up in contest results and videos. In that time, I’ve learned he’s a rider with a lot of style and a big bag of tricks. At the start of the new year, it was announced that he would be changing things up for himself and he made the switch to Mutant Bikes after a number of years with Fly. Along with that news also came another real good video from him. I figured it was a good time to get ahold of the guy and find out a little bit more about him. So let’s take a look at what he had to say.

Name: Daniel Peñafiel

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