Over the course of the past few weeks, we’ve seen a couple really mind blowing videos from a few of the guys who are absolute animals when it comes to the front brake game these days. Obviously, in the past years brakes have really become obsolete for a good number of riders, which I mean is fine, but I almost feel like it’s almost becoming some sort of a lost art. There are so many tricks that just aren’t possible without brakes or even front brakes for that matter that kick so much ass. It’s always refreshing to see people doing things different and killing it like it was done back in the day.
Watching all of these new videos with all of this front brake magic got me thinking about not only how bad I want to get some on my bike, but a few of the guys I grew up watching who all ran front brakes. I decided since it’s a “Flashback Friday” that it would be a good time to pull out a few of these new videos and then dig in a little bit for some videos spanning the past decade or so front some of the legends of the front brake game so to speak. Let’s take a peek…
Now, I chose to start things out with Bobbie Altiser’s latest video from Colony because of a few reasons… Bobbie absolutely kills it on a bike, he’s a super nice dude and he has one of the best mustaches in BMX. All of which are valid reasons. Now, I’m assuming by now you have watched the video and understand where I’m coming from with how good front brakes are…
Filmed and Edited by Cooper Brownlee
Now this video of Tobias Wicke for Vans is badass because of the fact that Tobias qualifies as being one of the front brake legends, but in 2013 he’s still out there absolutely crushing it. If this video didn’t exist, you bet your ass that I would have dug out one of his classic parts… You know what… Screw it! Let’s get one of those too..
“Tobi Wicke rides his bike since 20 years – with unique technical tricks and his personal style.
Born and raised in Berlin, he continues to ride his bike every day like day one – with the same passion and energy, mostly at his local park, The Mellowpark.
To celebrate his 10 year anniversary with Vans and also to look back to the 2013 season, we spent 2 days In the Mellowpark, with the famous autumn lights and tree colors.
Ladies & Gentlemen, this is Tobias Wicke.
Filmed & edited by Alex Baret / Greenfilms”
Tobias’ section from the Wethepeople “ETC.” video that came out in 2004.
This is another one of the videos that came out in the past few weeks. Kent Pearson is one dude who we’ve seen videos from in the past who has always killed the front brake game. In this new video, he was on a mission to see how good the new Kink Desist brakes work, and it would appear they are in proper working order.
“Filmed while helping test the Kink Desist Brakes. Thanks to Ryan Davis for editing. Thanks to Mason Pearson, Kyle Kelsey, Nick Taylor, Jake Stancil, Kowboi Roberts, Nick Thurmond, Rob Christianson, and Ryne McDaniel for filming and everyone for the love and support!” – Kent Pearson
When you think of front brake magic, if you don’t think Dave Osato… You deserve to be mauled by a polar bear. Dave is another one of those guys who has been around forever and to the best of my knowledge he’s still killing it on his bike when he’s not fighting fires up in Canada? I don’t know. All I know is that his part in the Demolition “Last Chance” DVD from 2011 is pure front brake magic.
While we’re on the topic of Canadian front brake magic… Jay Miron’s section from the “Mad Mat” video Hoffman Bikes put out waaaaay back in 1995.
If you’re Australian and you think front brakes, there’s no doubt you think Clint Millar. Above is his section from the Colony DVD that came out in 2011. Clint has decades of experience on those brakes.
“Filmed and edited by Stu Munro.
Additional filming from Cooper Brownlee and Ryan Navazio.”
I’ll be honest, I completely blanked on Mike Escamilla when I started putting this together then it popped into my head, so there’s no way I couldn’t have added him to the list. Between his 2011 edit for United and his part in the Etnies “Forward” video, we all know he’s got the front brake magic in him.
If you’re front the midwest, there’s no doubt in my mind that you think Dave Friemuth and Chad DeGroot when you think front brakes. Hell, I’m sure those are some of the first names a lot of you older guys think of. If you don’t… Well, that’s just wrong. The Green Bay Packers love these guys.
One dude who I never thought I’d see go brakeless… Brian Kachinsky. Although he was never a super tech wizard with the front brakes, he used them to do some super high speed nose manuals on a lot of gnarly shit.
Edit: Oh my god! How could I have possibly blanked on Rob Ridge!? Where was my head at? I blew that! Rob Ridge is hands down one of the best front brake riders in the world! Thank you, Mike Frisk, for reminding me!
Obviously this is a super limited list of riders who kill it, or used to kill it with front brakes back in the day and I’m sure I blanked on a ton of obvious ones… Let’s get some comments going to list off a few riders I missed. If you can come up with a link to a video it’s bonus points! Let’s talk about it below!
