Introducing James "Jimmy" Couwenberg

James "Jimmy" Couwenberg

37 - married with 3 kids

Melbourne rider - mostly Sundays at Imax.

My favourite all time Australian riders would have to be - Brett (Stumpy) Mason, Grant Cruise, Chris Carver, Lindsay Brown, Nick Watts, Matt Hodgeson, Raiford Stott, new skool Paul Chamberlain, Michael (Frenchy) Husser, Karl Hughes, Koichi (Japanese rider) and all the guys at Imax for staying true too the sport.

I started flatland in 1988 until 1993, then on and off till 2008. The guys who got me started were Grant Cruise, Matt Hodgeson & Raiford Stott. They introduced me to the city square scene and I met a lot of guys: Chris (Tristan) Carver, Brett (Stumpy) Mason and many more. We rode there every Saturday from 11am to late then on Sundays we would go to Nunawading skate ranch where we would get a 2 hour session on a roller skating ring. That was pretty mad times: I met a lot of people there especially Matt Holmes (founder of 2020 magazine), Nick (the legend) Watts who was only 11 years old at the time and his riding at the time was at an American pro level. We would head off to knox bowl after the ranch session, many would tag along including Trevor (the king) King, Dave Scott, Scott Hodgeson, Lindsay Brown and an insane dude called Jason for which for the love of him I can't remember his last name.

My 1st flatland bike was a 88 Haro sport black /chrome, nice bike but I never liked the rear dropouts as they would restrict you from doing certain tricks.

My 2nd was a 88 Haro Master the green /chrome with hp 48's and knee saver bars. I learnt hang 10's on this bike.

My 3rd was a prototype General designed by RL Osborn and made for the Australian freestyle team, it was actually a frame given to Matt Hodgeson (the co founder of Little Black Bike) from Dennis Caddy. I've got some pics so i'll upload them when I hook my scanner to my PC,

My 4th was my babe: an 89 GT Pro Freestyle Tour full chrome. I ended up trading this bike with Nick Watts for a Skyway Street Beat (yes huge mistake).

My 5th was a 93 Haro Master I bought in Adelaide when i visited Kim Fielke (an ex - Adelaide flatlander I met at the skate ranch during a comp).

My 6th was a GT/Dyno from Grant Cruise in 1998. The 1st day I rode this babe I broke my wrist at the Swanston street skate park rofl...

So that was my old skool/mid skool bikes...

I started to ride again in 2008 and started on a Hoffman Rhythm EL2. Was great to just ride again but way too heavy. I then bought a Dragonfly Alex Bender frame and that was a good weight but the TT was too long. I then bought the Sick Child from Mik and it was nice but I wanted back brakes so I ended up buying the Colony Cube from Michael (Frenchy) Husser: the one he won at the D.U.G 2 in Melbourne. That has been an amazing frame to ride & I have bought many Colony products and have come to rely on their quality. I have now bought a Mankind Alive from Troza for which i'm now getting powder coated white and should have that babe up and running soon.

ps: just a brief word to my fellow rider Grant Cruise, without you brudda, my flatland passion wouldn't have as much flavour: props to you bro.

My current set up consists of

Frame - Colony Cube

Forks - Odyssey 08 zero offset

Cranks - Colony 160mm

Sprocket - 25t Snafu

Pedals - Primo plastics

Seat - Colony

Seat post - Thomson 330

Headset - Colony internal

Bottom bracket - Colony

Headstem - Quamen Macross 26mm

Handlebars - Suelo v2 170

Grips - Eclat with Odyssey barends

Rims - front Gsport rim with latest Fly hub

Rear: Gsport with giesha light 9t

Tyres - Odyssey plyte foldables 1.75

Pegs - front Fly

Rear - Colony one ways

Ben "Ginny" McGinnes Bike Check

I've known Ben or Ginny as he is more commonly known on the forums, for a little while now. I can remember seeing a few photos & hearing about this awesome rider who lived out on the East Coast of Australia & finally had the chance to meet him in Sydney at the BMX Games a couple of years ago.

If there is one thing I know about Ginny is that he loves flatland, he loves bikes & he loves to ride. Take a look at his bike check below & a few words from the man to get to know a little more about him...

Full name & years riding
Hey, my name is Ben McGinnes and I've been riding for around 6 or 7 years now but I've always been into BMX... just mainly little jumps and street urchin type stuff as a kid. Pretty much by myself, where I thought doing the odd wheelie was about as technical as you could get.

What got you introduced to flatland?
Ages ago I saw a dvd of Dave Mirra's 'tricks and tips' ... And right towards the end of if there were some clips from another dvd called 'Dorkin in York'... I couldn't believe what I was seeing, insane rolling front wheel tricks.. These rolling whip things, spinning back wheel tricks... All on flat ground! Who are these Kevin and Chase guys??? I had no idea any of this was possible!

....So after this 5 minute preview I went and bought some steel pegs for my old Mongoose and the rest is history. I'm not going to be some big name pro or anything, but flatland just gives me the best feeling whenever I'm working on something so intricate and finally nailing it, it just keeps me coming back. It's one of those thing that can just make your day.

What things do you look for in bikes/parts? What influences your decisions and how often do you go through parts? Any modifications?
Thankfully, over the years I've gained a bit more knowledge on bike parts.. I have broken that much stuff it is borderline ridiculous. Frames, forks, bars, seats, seatposts, stems, axles, 80 million spokes, pegs, sprockets, chains... It's endless. Some breakages were purely my error, some parts were just past their life span, and some were just well, shoddy quality.

On the bright side, you can learn from these things by looking for what actually went wrong, and look for a better design in the next part. My forks for example... I went through 2 pairs of KHE Tanaka forks... all of them cracking at the dropouts. I decided to get a beefier set at slightly more weight with the OG Vajda forks, they are solid as around the dropouts, and have alot of backup by the OG team. Good reviews and of course real world experience with parts helps alot in selecting what would be advantageous for your riding. Instead of choosing the lightest of everything and being bummed out because you can't ride for a week because your bars are snapped in half just because you wanted to save a few grams... You have to have faith in parts you run. You don't want to doubt the strength of parts when trying kickflips, whoppers, whatever.... There is nothing worse than thinking "I hope these hold up to this.."

Some parts just aren't suited for all riders. There's different styles, body weights, levels of experience - no two riders are the same, but on the other hand, It's also good to try out different things. Just getting a simple new part just gets me all the more stoked to go and try it out.

I love my setup at the moment, It's light enough to manoeuvre quickly, yet strong enough to handle what I can throw at it, plus it's a really good length - I can actually ride the bastard places!!! It's not the craziest Frenched up thing, but hey... The less attention I draw to myself in the carpark the better.. but later on I might change up some stuff if I get sick of looking at it..haha!!

Frame: St Martin Happy Place 19.1"TT
Forks: OG Vajda brakeless
Bars: KGB Sarvets 7.3" zero sweep
Bar ends: Knight Bikes Revolvers
Headset: FSA intergrated
Grips: Ares 88
Stem: Colony TLD
Pegs: Abadthing round ends
Front hub: 36h Geisha
Front rim: Sun Rhyno lite, double butted spokes
Tyres: Odyssey Frequency G wire bead
Crank: KHE Hindenburg 152mm, ti axle, KHE BB
Sprocket: Tree splined 18t
Chain: KHE hollow pin
Tensioners: Quamen Pops
Pedals: Ares
Seat: KHE watanabe
Seatpost: Thomson
Seatclamp: Intergrated with frame
Freecoaster: KHE Geisha 36h, 9t
Rear Rim: Sun Big City lite
Weight: 9.5kg (21lbs)

Modifications: Ti stub axles in both the hubs, alloy axle nuts, ti bolts and barrels for the cut Thomson post, ti bolt in the seat clamp, 3/4" high carbon spacer under the stem, ti bolts in the tensioners, chopped the brake mounts, Ti prepped and greased freecoaster and I'm soon to trim the dropouts. There's not really much else to do to it... It really is a nice reliable ride. I just have to keep the maintenance and tyres up to it! haha...

Any last words or thanks?
I'd like to thank you Shane Badman for giving me this interview, the peeps currently reading my babble...All the good friends I've met through riding flat and basically everyone out there busting their arse on a 'stupid kid's bike'.. for hours at a time... just for the hell of it.

Four pegs and a funeral bitches!!!!