Fl!pbykes Flatmaster 2K9

The guys over at Fl!pbykes in the Philippines are holding an international Flatland Contest over December 12 & 13. Shintaro just let me know that he's going to be making it & the word around is that there are going to be a whole bunch of other well known riders involved as well.

For more info check the flyer below & click here.

Bike Check: Ronnie Rampton

While on the theme of super light bikes started by Ginny a few weeks ago, Ronnie has stepped up with his own ride. Ronnie digs a light bike, but this one gets used on the daily.

Frame: Ares 09 AY Spear
Fork: KHE 09 Tanaka
Handlebars: 07 Ares AY Bars
Grips: Demolition
Barends: Colony Konka
Brake levers: Odyssey medium
Cables: Shadow Conspiracy
Brake: Suelo
Headset: Ares Headset
Spacers: 1/2 degree spacer in bottom of fork to adjust offset & carbon fibre spacers under stem
Stem: 07 Ares (Ti bolts)
Seat: KHE Watanabe
Seatpost: Thomson

Seatclamp: Ares
Cranks: St. Martin Holloway cranks
Bottom Bracket: Road bike BB w. Ti
Sprocket: St. Martin 20t (w. 10t grinded off)
Pedals: Odyssey Chameleon
Chain: KMC hollow-pin chain
Pegs: Magic Fruit
Front Wheel: Proper magnalite radial laced to Alienation PBR using regular stainless black spokes with black aluminium spoke nipples
Rear Wheel: Ares Boo freecoaster with Ti axle with black double butted stainless spokes with black DT aluminium nipples 4x laced to Alienation Deviant rim

Rim strip: Odyssey rear & electrical tape front
Chain Tensioner: -
Front tire: KHE Mac 1 1.75"
Rear tire: KHE Mac 1 1.75"
Tubes: Standard

Mods: nope, all standard
Weight: 7.2kgs

While we were out getting the pics, Ronnie's wheel exploded & actually destroyed the rim in the process....

Troy Williams interview

I've known Troy for quite a few years now, first meeting him in Whyalla maybe back in 2002 or so. He lives in a small town with one skatepark a few places to ride flatland & a long way from other flatlanders. That hasn't stopped him though, he's kept with riding & being involved & he recently came over for a day to Adelaide so it was great to spend a bit more time with him for a catchup.

Shane Badman

1. Full name & years involved with flatland
Troy Williams, been riding since 2002ish

2. How did you get introduced to flatland?
its actually cause one of my classmates at school had a BMX so I got interested and picked up a copy of 2020 and it had a interview with Shane Badman in it and I was hooked, I wanted to start riding after that

3. Describe living in Whyalla? How is the riding scene there?
the riding scene here is good, we got a couple of youngin's coming up that are mad good and in summer chill sessions down at the park and the bowl go well. As does street on any decent night. We are all a fairly tight bunch and help each other out, everyone jumps on my bike every now and again and now everyone here has learnt how to do Fork Glides!


4. What are you biggest influences in riding?
I'm a big fan of the whole Aussie scene, Shane Badman, Simon O'Brien, Stumpy...pretty much everyone from here. But Shane opened my eyes to it all, he happened to be in Whyalla like the day I picked up my first 2020 and I e-mailed him and he came to the park and rode...it all started from that. Mike S and Matt Wilhelm are big influences too.

5. Travel destinations?
I loved Melbourne when I went there for the Games this year, IMAX is awesome! besides that I want to try and get to every round of the DUG that I can...going to the worlds or Circle Of Balance would be mad, even just to watch

6. Goals with flatland?
I don't really have any goals, I just want to have fun and I do, even if I am on my own. I mean, if I land something new no one is going to know except me, haha.

7. How would you describe your approach to flatland?
I'm pretty laid back I guess, I get frustrated that I cant progress some nights when I think I'm close but I don't get mad and throw my bike and stuff like that, it just makes me want to try more. I'm really more into back wheel links but I'm too lazy/broke to put back brakes on and I love the look of a bike with just fronts.

8. Any one to thank?
Thanks to Shane for the interview/inspiration/good times, Thanks to Clint for going through the effort of getting my frame painted, thanks to Ross Lav for painting it for me and thanks to all the guys at IMAX for cheering me on to come last! haha. Like I said in forums, someone had to do it!

9. Final words?
Get off the computer and ride your bike, unless its raining or too hot or something!

oh, and have fun!

Ginny's new ride... world's LIGHTEST bike?!?!

Ginny has just finished work on his latest ride which is possibly the lightest flatland bike i've ever heard of. Total weight is 6.7kgs.... you heard that right.

Frame: Abadthing Slim Fit
Forks: KHE Tanaka brakeless
Fork bolt Carbon capped, ti bolt, alloy jam plate
Bars: KHE Swiss Miss (drilled griptubes, alloy bolts)
Bar ends: Fly bikes Nylon
Headset: Kink Intergrated
Head spacer: Custom made 34mm Titanium
Grips: Ares 88
Pegs: Ares Uma plastic
Front hub: Proper Microlite (blue six flush fit Titanium bolts.. milled down with allen key head) Double butted stainless spokes, alloy nipples
Front rim: Alienation Deviant
Tyres: KHE mach 1 Premium foldable
Crank: Ares 130mm, 19mm alloy axle, alloy tension bolts, titanium clamp bolts, hollow alloy sprocket bolt.
B.B. : plastic with custom made teflon inner bearings
Sprocket: Modified St Martin 16t English sprocket
Chain: KMC X9SL hollow pin, drilled plates
Pedals: Wellgo WR1 alloy body, titanium axle, sealed bearing.
Seat: Severely cut down Odyssey Senior, Blue six hollow Titanium bolt, custom made plastic bolt anchor point.
Seatpost: Abadthing cut.
Seatclamp: Proper with titanium bolt.
Freecoaster: KHE Geisha lite 36h, 9t. ceramic balled steel caged bearings. Double butted stainless spokes, alloy nipples, titanium stub axles, Dragonfly modified titanium nuts
Rear Rim: Alienation Deviant
Tubes: KHE twiggy, st martin tube liners.
Weight: 6.7kg (14.7 lbs)

Where can I start? Maybe the front?

First off, The Ares plastic pegs will only take the smallest flange nut you have ever seen. (I can't even get a 17mm socket down them) I could have used a standard 15mm steel nut, but no It still won't fit properly, and yeah.... I have the Proper Microlite female setup on the front. So here we go...

I turffed the original 17m steel socket bolts, and hooked myself up some smooth faced titanium Bluesix 6mm hex key (no socket head) bolts. After ramming a lubed chunk of clay on a stick down to the bottom of the peg, I realised these still didn't fit the small landing on the bottom of the peg. I lathed them (and the alloy washer) down to 13mm. The absolute maximum diameter the pegs could take.

I had to make a custom Titanium headset spacer (34mm) to get maximum spacing, as well as optimal clamping area for the drilled griptube KHE SwissMiss bars. I fitted them with purple alloy bolts as well. I opted against the original KHE fork bolt, I used a carbon capped, ti bolted, alloy 'jam plate' to clamp itself on the inside of the forks... It's surprisingly powerful. And even lighter than a Tree alloy bolt.

The crank was a fair drama as well, the plastic bottom bracket 19mm hole fit for the Ares crank was as sloppy as a shithouse. I bought some 30mm solid PTFE (teflon) white tubing and custom lathed the inside hole to be the tightest interference fit I could get onto the alloy spindle.

I drilled (4 holes) 2mm deep blind holes around the perimeter of the bearings and ground some dry lube into the divots... Far superior to the solid nylon inner bearings. The inner runner actually hangs onto the spindle, and runs super smooth on the outer... I can actually clamp the crank tension bolts down alot harder as well... It's how it should be.

The St Martin 16t sprocket was also a bit of a nightmare to mount up as well, I had to grind away a small part of the crank arm so the chain could run around it and also grind away part of the mounting bolt.. That sucked lining that thing up. The tolerances are so close. But it seems to have worked!

Even the Proper seatclamp, I replaced the steel bolt with a titanium one but it wouldn't seat properly... Back to the lathe... I champhered a slight edge onto the bottom edge comparable to the original one. That was an absolute shit to do. I could barely clamp it in the lathe. It took me near an hour solid of light as all hell lathing with out damaging/bending/stripping anything. Just to take the equivalent of .005grams (or 0.02mm) off the bottom edge of the bolt...

I Cut 3" of the Abadthing pivotal post, and replaced the hollow steel bolt with a Bluesix hollow titanium one. Cut and ground off the seat nose, and ground off the uncomfortable edge on the back of it. I even replaced the unnecessarily heavy 'half barrel' alloy seat for the bolt with a custom made plastic one... That last point right there is like 20gm straight off for something so retardedly unneeded.

Pedals not everyone may like, but they are sealed bearing, alloy bodied, titanium axle jobbies... Wellgo WR-1's with purple anodized end caps of course. 175gms a pair.

The Geisha freecoaster runs steel caged/ ceramic bearings, as well as titanium stub axles with Dragonfly titanium nuts.. (lathed down to 13mm on the flanges of course ... *sigh*).

New Shintaro Misawa Autumn 2009 edit!

Spied this over on Effraim's Flatmattersonline blog, Shintaro has just put out a new Autumn 2009 edit & as always with a bunch of super tech switches thrown in....

King of Ground photos

Shintaro Misawa has had a great year. He's travelled all over the globe & been consistently placing in nearly every contest he's been in & rounded out the year with a 3rd place finish in the series result for the 2009 King of Ground.

Shintaro also sent over the following photos from the weekend. Great to see Brett Dighton, Ronnie Rampton & the Queensland crew in amongst it all - look forward to hearing the stories from their trip soon!

Good luck to Brett Dighton who will be having his Japanese wedding shortly!

King of Ground Round 3 - pro results!

The finals have literally just finished! Get the world exclusive Pro final results here:

1. Shinichi Kiba
2. Hiro Morizaki
3. Nao Yoshida
4. Tomokazu Morinaga
5. Yoshiki Uchino
6. Akira Okamura
7. Shintaro Misawa
8. York Uno
9. Takahiro Ikeda
10. Yoshihiro Nishikawa
11. Tsutonu Kitayama
12. Moto Sasaki
13. Yoshihiro Shinde

Ronnie Rampton at King of Ground

News just in from Brett Dighton over at King of Ground in Japan is that Ronnie Rampton is having a good weekend!

Ronnie qualified in 4th place in the Novice class out of 51 riders throwing down near flawless runs. In the finals he touched a couple times but still finished in 8th place... awesome effort.

Looks like he's gonna be on a mission for round one of the Newcircle Down Underground going down in Perth next month....

Colony/Focalpoint giveaway competition!

Colony is working with Focalpoint on their Monthly Giveaway competition with the winner receiving a full pack of Colony goodies.

To enter & a full run down of what's in the prize pack click here.

Karl Hughes interview in Cream Magazine!

Karl Hughes aka Paradoxium on the forums, does a lot for flatland. By now his work on the World Bike Projects is known world wide so it wasn't going to be long before a big name magazine recognised his efforts & wanted to know more.

Click on the pic below to read the full interview....

Attila Godi from Hungary!

Ok, so this isn't directly involved with flatland but Shane Badman was recently over in Hungary for the OG Summer Camp & Contest & while over there he spent a day with fellow Colony rider Attila Godi in his hometown of Pecs.

While there he put together the following edit...

Attila Godi - Hungary - One Day in Summer 2009 from Colony BMX on Vimeo.

Newcircle Down Underground round 1 - November 6!

Round one of the Down Underground series is only a few weeks away, this time brought to you by the crew over at newcircle with support from Colony & a host of others.

Check the flyer below for all the details.

R.I.P: Parris Whakarau

It is with great sadness that on October 7, 2009 well known New Zealand flatlander, Parris Whakarau, passed away.

He was known as a very talented rider in both the New Zealand & Australian scenes & beyond. He was also part of the group of riders that included Kerry Gatt, Dylan Worsley & Dion Geaney.

A Remembrance Page has been set up for him on A Memory Tree - please stop by to pay your respects by clicking here.

Our thoughts & condolences are with his family & friends - R.I.P Parris Whakarau

Newcircle now has Zion products in store!

We are pleased to announce that Newcircle is now the sole distributor for Zion products for Australia. Not only do Zion have a great flatland team that includes Sam Foakes & Akihiko Takahashi but their products have always stood the test of time & hard core riding.

Take a look through the store & check out the great prices we are able to offer!

Stock is limited so be quick!

Zion owner Mislav Streicher

Australia & beyond news roundup!

The KOG finals will be going down in Japan over the weekend of October 17-18. Colony rider, Shintaro Misawa will be there along with a bunch of Australians: Brett Dighton, Ronnie Rampton & 4 other Brisbane riders will be making the trip over. Brett will be going over for his wedding & luckily the KOG was around the same time. Good luck to all the competitors, i'm sure there'll be some good vids coming out of this!

Simon O'Brien recently had a few pics up on the Colony site of him on his new Colony Deja Vu ride. Check it out by clicking here & if you're looking to sort yourself out with Simon's signature Colony parts then click here!

Kit McKenna has been working & riding over in the UK for the best part of what must be coming up to a year now. Having just finished in the UK, he's currently dodging bad traffic, over enthusiastic street vendors & cold, Northern European weather by spending time in Egypt before coming back to Aus in the next month or so.

Spotted this awesome photo of Andrew McDermott throwing down in front of his new baby on the Freestyle Now! site.

The new Colony catalogue is also out now carrying their whole range including the complete flatland line. Also has a great photo taken by Cooper Brownlee of Focalpoint of Shane Badman doing a blender on top of a mountain in Queensland. Check out the catalogue by clicking here!

Speaking of Focalpoint, Issue 18 is out now so get along to your nearest bike shop & pick a copy up - they're free to a good home! Click here for more info.

Shane Badman's new ride!

Colony & newcircle rider Shane Badman recently put together his new 2010 ride featuring his signature Colony Cube frame & bars along with a whole list of Colony parts to round it out.

Superman provided the inspiration for the colour scheme... ;)

Frame: Colony 2010 Cube 18.85"
Fork: Colony Cube Fork
Handlebars: Colony Cube bars
Grips: Macneil
Barends: Colony Konka
Brake levers: Colony Transformer x 2
Cables: Odyssey Slic
Brake: Suelo Front
Headset: Colony
Spacers: Carbon Fibre
Stem: Colony T.L.D
Seat: Colony Pivotal Flatland
Seatpost: Colony 330mm
Cranks: Colony Colonial 160mm
Bottom Bracket: Colony Spanish 19mm
Sprocket: Colony Jam Circle 22t
Pedals: Colony Fantastic Plastic
Chain: YBN half-link lite
Pegs: Colony Jam Circle
Front Wheel: Colony Clone wheel (Clone rim & rub laced with stainless steel spokes)
Rear Wheel: Alienation Deviant rim laced to a KHE Geisha lite coaster with 36 double butted spokes
Chain Tensioner: KHE Dubz
Front tire: Odyssey Frequency G P-Lyte Kevlar 1.75"
Rear tire: Primo Comet 1.5" (rides the same as a 1.75")
Tubes: KHE Twiggy x 2

Mods: Back to double front brakes, trimmed 1/2 inch of either side of the bars
Weight: lite!

National Flatland Championship - Peru

Francisco Lindo does a lot for flatland in Peru. A good friend of Melbourne's Karl Hughes, Francisco sent over a video from Peru's National Flatland Contest that went down over the weekend.

The contest was really nice. We had some problems, because this is our first contest in a lot of years, but the riders are really inspired to ride the best they can. The floor doesn't help too much, because it's a parking lot and not as flat as we expected but what ever, all of us do our best effort to make what we all do, riding flatland.

Some problems with the tires, like four of us had holes in the tubes, but when the problems are resolved we start to ride. The contest took like 2 and a half hours, hard to judge, but here are the results:

1st place Williams Perez

2nd place Antonio Marrache

3st place Jorge Nazario

Congrats to you guys, and keep the good riding!

One Cup 2009 videos now up!

The One Cup 2009 event that went down recently in Japan was crazy as always with the level of riding always off the hook.

Thanks to Shintaro for sending these vids over...

Qualifying Round including places 5th to 23rd & more..

Top 4 finishers..

Videos thanks to Zols Entertainment.