BMX Union

Red Bull – Raditudes: All Down Hill From Here

November 11, 2016

Red Bull have made episode one of season 3 of “Raditudes” embedable. We got a look at this one last week, but figured it could use a repost since it’s pretty damn gnarly. Hit play to watch Mike “Hucker” Clark take his hang five skills to a few super steep hills around San Francisco. Talk about crazy.

“Mike “Hucker” Clark “hangs five” — a front wheelie with just one foot standing on the front wheel’s pegs — down San Francisco’s steepest hills. His bike is nearly vertical as he hits speeds of up to 55kph.

Raditudes takes a behind the scenes look into some of BMX riding’s biggest moments and the lives of the pro riders that are pushing the sport forward. Featuring Tyler Fernengel, Drew Bezanson, Mike “Hucker” Clark, Corey Bohan, Sergio Layos, and Anthony Napolitan.

Music:
0:00 “Trailblazer” by Vision (Sounds of Red Bull): http://win.gs/2eL9D0L
0:15 “Scare Me” by New Beat Fund (Red Bull Records): http://win.gs/2f0HwvD
1:12 “Precision” by Wide Sky (Sounds of Red Bull): http://win.gs/2fY4PLA
2:26 “Crossing The Water” by Breathless (Sounds of Red Bull): http://win.gs/2f0Eg3c
4:47 “Acceptance” by Ripped Up (Sounds of Red Bull): http://win.gs/2eLdACV
5:38 “Fly High” by Here And Now (Sounds of Red Bull): http://win.gs/2eL6q1i”

The Chile Road Trip

November 11, 2016

Every once in a while we will get a submission that catches our eye. In this case, today we received a bunch of photos from a trip that Sebastian Venegas, Cristian Oñate, Cristobal Leyton, Enzo Villalon and Claudio Miranda Diaz took over in Chile recently. This one is interesting because Claudio kept a journal of the days events. Although it wasn’t the craziest trip ever, it looks like they had a great time and took in some sights and even caught a few good sessions along the way. Take a look!

Words & Photos by Claudio Miranda Diaz

“Thursday 20th, October 2016
In exactly one more week we start our journey to the city of Antofagasta, Chile. The reason? … thats the real question. Ahead are 7 days of travel, 5 riders and 1 department. Posibly like in all TRAVELS, the answer of that question is the search of that incredibe sensation called freedom, where we are pleased to feel a habitant of the earth, love to feel small before the planet and above all, save the best of every moment in our minds.

Day 1. Thursday
October 27th. 7:08 am. After sleeping only 1 hour, we woke up to realize that we where going to miss our flight, wich departted was at 8:15 am. Being the fastest we could, we made it to the airport at 7:36 am, but the flight was already closed like 7 mins before. After some arguing and paying a small fee we boarded the next flight at 10:30 am. After 1 hour and 50 min of flight we arrived at 12:20 hrs, in a desert with a very dry landscape. Antofagasta is located in the north of Chile. It is the 5th most populated city in our country and its development is in the base of the minery, so the city esthetically isn’t the prettiest place in our country, but its considered the capital of steet riding. At 13:40 hrs we where already settled in. Feeling very tired we spent the day chilling by the coastline of the city, resting and buying some food for the week.

Day 2. Friday
Today, already settled and rested we start the day full throttle. We woke up at 10:30 and spent some time chilling in the pool, then took a shower and made some lunch. We were out at 14:00 with our bikes in search of shoes for Oñate, then to a rent a car so the next day we could go to fulfill one of the goals in the trip. That goal was to take some shots of the milky way in the paranal observatory and the desert hand.
After that we made our way to the local skatepark, that is a very fun bowl. We spent all day in there and came back to the flat at 22 hrs, to eat and sleep, because tomorrow we have a very busy day.

Day 3. Saturday
6 am the alarm is already ringing. We woke up and then headed out to the Antofagasta main spot to watch the sunrise. Aprox at 9 am we head back to the flat and then to the paranal observatory at 130 km outside of Antofagasta at 2635 m above the sea. We arrive and we had to wait like 2 hours to get in. After a little tour of the facilities and the telescopes, we went out into the desert to take that photo I was waiting for… the Milky way. We were out there at 23 hrs enyoing the clear sky in the desert. After that we went home to eat something and sleep again. We drove 400 km that day.

Day 4: Sunday
We woke up very tired, and it’s already 14 hrs and we are just finishing eating, but today its going to be mainly BMX. First we went to the mall center to get some batteries, then to the coast. Today turned out to be very boring. We spent almost all the day in one spot. Later that day we went to a skatepark that had no bikes allowed, but we still managed to get some riding time in at this spot that was in the entrance of a mall. Tomorrow we hope to go to Antofagasta to ride the local skatepark.

Day 5 and 6: Monday and Tuesday
Today we were out at 12 pm to Calama, at 220 km aprox of Antofagasta. Here we thought about spending the night in a hostal, but changed our minds, bought a tent, and went to San Pedro of Atacama to spend the night there, in the Moon Valley.

After spending some time in a Little town, at 12 am we went to the highway to find a place to put the tent, then in the desert we made a fire, some burgers and then went to sleep.
At 4:30 am we woke up, and headed to the geysers at a place called Tatio, the bigest ones in the southern hemisphere and the 3rd in the world.
Aprox at 82 km of San Pedro of Atacama, at 4300 km above the sea level, we arrived at this spot to wait for dawn at 6:40 am.

At 12 pm we were back in San Pedro of Atacama and then heading to Calama to get out bikes that were in the house of a local rider (Luis Gutierrez). Finally we head back to Antofagasta.
1300 km in 4 days. Not all the riding we were expecting, but still we had a blast. Achieved trip?

Riders: Sebastian Venegas, Cristian Oñate, Cristobal Leyton, Enzo Villalon
Thanks: Sebastian Ruiz, Jorge Rojas” – Claudio Miranda Diaz

Game of Add-On at Pastranaland

November 11, 2016

The final video from the time Big Boy, Matty Cranmer and the rest of the crew spent at Pastranaland has arrived. This time around the whole crew play a couple games of Add-On. This one gets real interesting and this one takes some serious memory to remember everything that went down. Take a peek and see what went down!

“SCOTTY CRANMER ROAD 2 RECOVERY FUND

Scotty Cranmer

LAST DAY AT PASTRANALAND. We had an amazing time at the compound. All we wanted to do was ride a ton. The skatepark was amazing so Matty and I had the idea to play a game of add on and it ended up being super fun.”

Radio Bikes – Justin Dowell Welcome Video

November 11, 2016

The crew over at Radio Bikes hit us with some news and a new video for you guys to check out! They have added Justin Dowell to their squad over here in the United States. After watching this video, it’s easy to see just how they picked Justin for the team. He’s a ripper and isn’t scared to send it on the ramps! Check out what he cooked up for his first video for the brand!

“What a better way to kick off the weekend then a new addition to the family. Justin Dowell is 16 years old from North Carolina and is an absolute savage on a bike. Justin rides with the amplitude and ferocity of a rider twice his age, and his mix of burly tricks and technical lines really caught us off guard when we were first introduced to his riding.

Justin is the first addition to our new US squad which we will be announcing more about real soon. Check out this short teaser for his full welcome video which is in the works and we cant wait to show you.

Welcome to the team Justin!

Filmed and edited by Bradley Burnham.”

Colony BMX – Alex Hiam Bike Check

November 11, 2016

Colony coming through with a new Bike Check with Alex Hiam and his brand new 2017 Sweet Tooth setup that he is running. It looks like he has a gone with a colorful mix of colors between his frame, the Griplock tire with the swirls and Green Storm colored Contour rim. Overall, it looks like a real dialed BMX bike to us! You can check out more photos of the bike over on the Colony website — Alex Hiam’s New Setup

A $2,000 Titanium Frame By Laird Frame

November 11, 2016

It’s not every day that you see the word “Titanium” in BMX, especially when it comes to BMX frames. Years ago, Eastern Bikes offered a Titanium Grim Reaper frame that retailed for over $1,000 and Terrible One dabbled with a Titanium Barcode frame before that. There was also a brand called RNC that made Titanium cranks, pegs, bars and more that eventually went out of business as the price of this type of metal skyrocketed. You can find Titanium spokes and bolts these days, but that’s about it for what is available. The price of Titanium has come down a little bit in recent years, but it’s still spendy! Even though it’s pricey, it turns out there has been some demand for another BMX frame made from the material because it looks like there are two options available. The crew at Eastern were showing off a Titanium frame that they are doing one off custom builds of at Interbike and it looks like Mike Laird over at Laird Frame has decided to give it a go, too. If you follow Mike on Instagram you probably have been checking out the photos he has been posting giving you the look at the progress of his first go at playing around with welding on Titanium. It looks like he has it dialed in and has decided to add Titanium frames to his custom frame options.

Like we mentioned above, the cost of Titanium has come down in recent years and pricing varies quite a bit. In short, it’s still a spendy material that is tricky to work with. But, some times people have a little more money to work with and this is why this frame exists.

As you might have noticed by the title, it looks like you can have a custom Titanium frame made by Laird frame starting at $1,965.00 with your choice of geometry, brakeless or welded on brakes and color. It sounds like Mike will be offering free powder coating if you for some reason want to cover up that clean Titanium look. Add in shipping and you’ll be over that $2,000 mark.

Like we mentioned above, each frame can be customized and it looks like he’s also doing 16″, 18″, 22″, 24″ and 26″ frames for those of you looking for something other than your standard 20″ version. Above and below you can find photos of the first two frames Mike has made from Titanium and it looks like the first one weighed in at 2lb. 14oz., which is quite a bit lighter than 4130 chromoly frames that are hovering around the 5 lb. mark these days.

If you are into this, you can take a look at ordering a frame on the Laird Frame website

A look at one of the first Laird Frame Titanium frames.

You can get welded gyro tabs. Unfortunately you cannot do removable brake mounts and guides on these frames.

This is the jig setup Mike’s using to weld these frames together.

Unlike the other Laird Frames, you can’t do a custom seat stay bridge since these bridges have to be cut using water and laser jets that another company is doing prior to receiving the tubing.

Some of the tubing laid out before it gets put together.

Cult – Sean Ricany SOS Frame

November 11, 2016

Last night we took a look at the 2017 Dak frame from Cult, so we figured it was time we take a closer look at the brand new Sean Ricany SOS frame that is starting to hit BMX shops and mail-orders around the world. The Ricany SOS frame is made from revised 100% Cult classic chromoly tubing with a 75.5-degree head tube angle, 70-degree seat tube angle, 11.7″ bottom bracket height, 8.65″ standover height and a 13″ – 13.325″ chainstay length.

The frame features an integrated head tube, top and down tube gussets, a Mid bottom bracket, Investment cast seat post clamp, Cult’s new Investment Cast seat stay bridge you can find on all of their 2017 frames, tapered seat stays, S-bend chainstays to give you clearance for 2.40″ tires, heat-treated Investment Cast dropouts and removable seat stay brake mounts and guides.

The Ricany SOS frame is available in 20″, 20.5″, 20.75″, 21″ and 21.25″ top tube lengths, colors of raw and black and a price tag of $339.99 through BMX shops and mail-orders that carry Cult worldwide now.

You can find custom graphics for this frame with Sean’s personal touch.

Graphics are based off Sean’s clothing brand, Further.

The new Investment Cast seat stay bridge found on all 2017 Cult frames looks sturdy!

Heat-treated Investment Cast dropouts for strength.

Available in black and raw now.

FBM – Super 8

November 11, 2016

In a world of high definition, it’s always cool to see things from the ways of the past. No, we’re not talking about VX’s, we’re talking about something a little older. FBM dropped this short but sweet video that Kenny Horton put together from some Super 8 footage he collected over the course of the summer. This isn’t your typical BMX video and that’s okay. It has a really good vibe to it and we’re sure you won’t be disappointed with this one if you have an appreciation for the way things used to be done.