One thing we know about BMX is that if you're not good at riding, you should at least look good and have the most expensive bike at the skatepark. Just because you can't tailwhip does not mean you won't be the one walking away with a girl on each side. Let's talk fashion...

When it comes to kicks, it's good to support the BMX-specific companies. Lotek has actually been around for a while now and their shoes are better than ever. The Dakota Roche sigs in synthetic blue. $70



Tight jeans are a must for a fashionable BMX look. Levi's 510s are always in favor in whatever color you choose. $40-70



To hold those jeans up, you need something impractical, like a high quality shoe lace. $1



If it's a more chilly day and you need a secnod layer top, look at Animal's Mystic shirt in blue. $40



Even colder? That's okay. Nike makes a wide variety of fitting hoodies. Check the ANGLE. $60



As far as tee shirts. There's so much on the market. But here are what I consider five MUST HAVES... $18-24
click on the links to visit dan's comp and snag ones you like. spring for the STAY STRONG tee for Stephen.
STAY STRONG CLASSIC tee
STAY FIT MIKEY tee
THE COME UP STATE OF MIND tee
SUBROSA SUICIDAL tee
ODYSSEY 85 tee

As far as headwear, a nice fitted hat is a BMX must. The Animal Farm in blue will complete this look. $33



I'm really hoping that you know by now you need blacked out wayfarer glasses to ride a bike. Seriously. $3



Don't forget to get some light, simple earbuds to ride with listening to hip hop. SkullCandy Riots (in white?) $20

LOTEK recently dropped some new shirts and the BMX community is always stoked to see the latest from Rich and the guys.

Here is the Stamp tee shirt. Unsure of who designed it but it reminds me of a T Shorts sharpie shirt.
Visit danscomp.com to view the new Lotek shirts and purchase one for yourself...



Vital BMX video of Lotek at Interbike. Peepgame...

Lotek - More BMX Videos

Let's go from the start...

About half an hour ago Vital posted an article about Trey Jones leaving the Fit team. This was right after posting about him leaving Nike 6.0 so I was like what is Trey doing, quitting BMX?

Thennn, it got big. I saw the article posted EARLIER (I missed it?) that Robbie Morales left Fit. ALONG with Chase Hawk and Dakota Roche. In case you didn't know, Robbie Morales pretty much runs Fit. Chris Moeller who owns S&M owns Fit. You knew that. S&M is like the parent company. So, apparently Robbie wanted to created a new company (within the same family of S&M) for just the younger Fit riders to move to. I suppose this was to separate the market of hardcore OG riders such as Van Homan and Brian Foster from the new breed of Dakota Roche and Chase Dehart. Apparently, this idea went sour at this point...

THEN... Chase Dehart is said to have left JUST NOW. (from Vital aka BMXTMZ!!!)



Chris Moeller released this statement: "From day one Robbie helped build an amazing team for FIT. I had
known Mike, Van and BF for a long time but I actually never imagined
they'd ride for us...Robbie did-and he made it happen. He also
introduced us all to Edwin, one of the most innovative and influential
riders ever. Robbie definitely has a gift for spotting the best and
most stylish riders around.

I called Robbie yesterday to ask him
about some more shady rumors I heard at Interbike and he got frustrated
and abruptly quit his job. I immediately got a call from Hawk and Dak
who also quit the team. Months ago I had been approached by Robbie to
start a new brand with only the younger team riders so this didn't
surprise me but I was bummed to lose these two because I like them both
a lot. I have no hard feelings toward any of the guys and I think
everyone should do what makes them happy. So good luck boys, and new
frame sponsors be aware if you need some Dak or Hawk frame gussets we
have some for sale!"


So, what happens to Fit now? I assume Chris Moeller has to take over Fit for now if they decide to continue it. Will Eddie Cleveland leave Fit as he did when friends of his left MOSH a few years back? Now it's like a who will go and who will stay game... and considering who's left, what will happen to FIT? (LOL, I hope Jim over at Sunday has some spots on the team open, even after he just added Gary Young!!!)

So, in case you don't understand what each of those things in this blog title have in common let me explain. Garrett Reynolds is a teenage professional BMX rider from New Jersey. His talent on a bicycle is beyond measure and he has the hardware to prove it. Seven gold medals in X Games BMX Street. Dew Tour BMX Park standings leader as of now. Winner of this year's NORA CUP Street Rider of the Year award. MTV2 star in the show "Five Months to Freedom." And he's only 19; nowhere near stopping.

Oh my bad, he ALSO won video part of the year for his part in Nike 6.0's 'WRITING ON THE WALL.' He's this super modest and nice kid just riding his bicycle and loving every moment of it, but he is to BMX what Kanye West is to rap music right now. Just without the "jackass" attitude. (yeah, I used an Obama quote)



Thumbs up, Garrett! I give him full credit (surprising considering my usual negative attitude towards anybody and anything) because he really earned everything he got. He is taking a street style of riding and applying it to a park course like nobody ever has before and beating out the top park names such as Daniel Dhers, Scotty Cranmer, and Dave Mirra.

That is an extremely hard task when the park pros are doing 360 backflips, and triple tailwhips, and frontflip whips. But none of that amounts to anything without style and grace, something Garrett defines in his riding. Just look at that thumbs up air!!!

So congratulations to Garrett Reynolds and here's to more good things to come. He's gaining ground on the Dew Tour, has the X Games on lock, is an MTV star, considered the best rider by the fans and by other professional riders... he's becoming the biggest name in BMX and he did it without an AXE BODY SPRAY commercial. Without a RIGHT GUARD SPORT commercial. Without a BURGER KING WHOPPER BACKFLIP type commercial. No GILETTE EXTREME SPORTS SHAVE type commercial. He did it through his love of BMX riding that led to such skill.

What a year dude...

Here's a local Utah news feature with Mike Aitken where he talks about his tremendous story throughout the last year of winning the local Dew Tour contest, to the injury, to the recovery, to winning the NORA CUP award for dirt, and being where he is now...

He is one of the most influential riders to me. Always putting riding with style and skill and control before doing whips and flips and sh!t...

Also you can laugh at the reporter sounding like an idiot. Can't the news channel hire someone who knows what they're talking about? ...

These interbike things... I say no more...

the S&M and Shadow Conspiracy rail jam went off pretty hot. Hoder was there! All kinds of spins and whips and grinds and I believe I saw a 180 fakie tire ride down the rail... or something... WTF? Peep Jake Seeley's LUC-E too...

This year we got what we damn well though we would... LIGHTER, CUT OUTS, CNC'd, SHAVED DOWN, TAPERED, LESS, TRIMMED, HOLES, STRIPPED, PLASTIC, and of course MORE COLORS.

ODI grips was there with their new colorful grips. Colorful grips. The one cool thing they did do was plastic bar plugs with the ODI logo that runs through the entire bar plug so the ODI logo never scratches away. Cool idea.

Sunday Bikes (moving to Texas in the next month I believe) is also doing some moves on their products. The third wave frame is going to feature some cool things like the all wave tube. Not just the downtube anymore. The brake guide channel in the wave tubing. And the removable brake mounts on the new Sunday frames will be a flush design so you don't have those knobs sticking out when you're brakeless. I like that. They also jumped into complete bikes this year. Wait for those hot nuggets...

Odyssey BMX, always known to blow minds at interbike, does it again. First of all the tall bike is always a fun feature. The fire engine red show bike displays the latest colorway from them. Straight red. Their new seatpost is a pivotal/railed post where you can use both and have a little pitch or tilt or whatever to your pivotal seat, and it can also change your Ian Schwartz frame into a railed post if you made a mistake of a purchase! They also have Aitken pivotal seats and some new sprockets flying around for flatland. Their flatland company FLATWARE has a frame going out alongside their twombolt driven sprocket...

WeThePeople's new welds and dropouts scare me. That's okay though. They should be team tested and proven,etc. Eclat has so many colors for every part my eyes started to hurt looking at their cool hubs. KHE released one of those all in one seat and post jobbies for Daniel Dhers called the Pluma that doesn't look half bad. I bet it feels real bad though. Maybe.

Cinema wheel company finally came out alongside companies Verde and Duo. Verde has got the complete bikes and parts rolling as usual, as does Duo.

Primo bit a bullet of some kind and released things in colors. Their crakns in colors! And their new hub, flangeless! I dunno guys. Cardinal released their frame and some bars by BOY I suppose. Pretty cool I suppose.

Subrosa released the new double top tube Pandora frame and their Hold On stem. As well as their amazing line of complete bikes. Shadow released a freecoaster for Karl Poynter. Should be cool!

Eastern released their new Journey frame and their new high end complete bike, THE BOSS. Tree Bicycle Co is doing a LOT with wheels and designed some amazing new straight pull hubs with straight pull spokes.

S&M is really jumping on the trendy train with the WTF ("wave of the future") complete bicycle. It's so shaved down looking it scares me. New hub by S&M on it and all kinds of design alterations that would make any street riding trendster proud. Check out their flatland bars and their shorter link chain that looks dialed, strong. They also had their funny BIG BARS there. Check the gallery. The new Fit Eddie frame with the F-IT brace is looking hot, and chrome.

Mutiny released the LUCKY STRIKE frame. And blah blah blah... Animal and Metal had their "MOBILE BOOTHS" and Sean Burns is the funniest, greatest man in BMX. Animal has white wall tires (for Tom White) and new wheels and an all-in-one tool you want in your tool bag. FlyBikes has dropouts similar to WeThePeople and the seat and post combos similar to many other people. But not really. Their's is different so make sure to check it out. Kinda better I think.

Demolition takes a page out of Tree's books with the spline drive sprocket, F1 style.

Go to RIDEBMX.com or VITALBMX.com to view videos and photos of everything.

Hawthorne Skatepark is pretty much my local park. Recently it has become full pads enforced and it has cleaned up the park a bit. I intend to buy pads (yes I've never had any) and start riding there again...

This video, John Hicks did of all the local shredders including the nicest dude on earth AKA Barney AKA Eric Cuiper, showcases the "new" Hawthorne Skatepark where you are not dodging little kids on skateboards everywhere and you don't smell weed in the small bowl...

Well. Let's start off with Jamie Bestwick. As much as we all sort of KNOW he is going to win, everybody was riding really well this event. I do not know who Vince Byron is or where he is from... but he probably should have scored higher for what he was doing. What I love about vert riding is, due to its lack of documentation that street and park and dirt have, riders seem to pop up out of nowhere and they are good!

Jamie Bestwick really dominated this event like any other, however. His run was just continuous skill, wall after wall, no hesitation, way too high. If only the other riders could trick as many walls in a row as Jamie there would be a competition. I see the other riders do a lot of great tricks, but often they have one or two blank hits in between creating a less fluid, or less impressive, run. Either way, I think Vince did better than sixth. Also, Tim Wood almost over rotated a 900... 'nuff said.

Dirt. This is going to get a bit controversial. A bit rude. But it's clear as day and everybody was saying it, even myself. I don't know what this obsession with having Ryan Nyquist win is, but he did not deserve this one. BY FAR. I feel like I should pull a Kanye West at this moment... "Ryan, I am happy for you and I'm going to let you finish, but TJ Ellis had the best dirt run of ALL TIME!"

It's so crazy how triple whips are being thrown on the first set and sh!t. Diogo's first run looked a bit better than ninth. Dennis Enarson needs that shirt "please stop the tailwhips." Rob Darden needs a new shirt called stop the 720s... and 360s... Chris Gerber's off-axis backflips and double whip flip were nuts. Cam White is such a pure dirt rider. Brandon Dosch as well. So many different tricks.

TJ ELLIS. Back and front flip variations, 360 variations, opposite 3 variations, higher than anyone, smoother than anyone... a frontflip whip? And he got second to a guy who does 360s with barspins and one-handed x-ups all night. I won't go any further... just watch and see...




There we go Dhers... we were wondering where you were on the Dew Tour. Dave Mirra and Mark Webb definitely killed it, but took 6th and 5th respectively. It was cool, however, to see little Brett get third place. He's so young and he so kills it and he so deserved it. How do you have that much style at his age? So, Garrett Reynolds got second in this event. Again, I should mention that his riding is more suitable to street courses but he has changed it up a bit to adhere to park judges better. It's insane how talented this kid is. No brakes, no problem. Don't forget to check him out in Five Months to Freedom on MTV2, graduating high school...

Daniel Dhers went so insane with whips and flairs and those crazy 360 flips or whatever it is he does. Like inverted 720s. Only thing I would take from Daniel is that has uses about 4 ramps the entire run. Give him the win though he went ape-sh!t on that course. And don't forget that wicked inverted 720 tailwhip he did at the end... watch the video...




Check Mike Aitken and his abnormally cute son in the photo gallery... and here are some tour standings updates...

VERT
Jamie Bestwick with 300 points
Steven McCann with 246 points
Chad Kagy with 236 points
Simon Tabron with 214 points
it is just a battle for second here...

PARK
Garrett Reynolds with 280 points
Dave Mirra with 258 points
Daniel Dhers with 238 points
Mark Webb with 216 points
can Garrett hold on to this year's tour win???

DIRT
Ryan Nyquist with 282 points...
Brandon Dosch with 248 points
Dennis Enarson with 226 points
Josh Hult with 200 points
TJ Ellis with 187 points
I give Mike Aitken the win... by default... :D

High school. Those two words side by side send chills down my spine. School every single day from 7-8 to 2-3 (I forget). Some kind of quiz or test EVERY Friday. Lunch at one time so the whole school packs into long lines and crappy cafeterias. I could go on… but in retrospect I had it easy.

Imagine the troubles of everyday school life with being one of the biggest names in professional BMX thrown in as well. Garrett Reynolds and Dennis Enarson are BMX superstars still in their teen years juggling high school with travelling all over the world to film, attend contests, do whatever they need to as professional riders. Garrett was born in the later half of 1990 and Dennis was born in the earlier half of 1991.



Dennis Enarson jumped into the professional competition at the ripe age of 16. Rising out of the San Diego BMX scene, he grew up around the YMCA park and riders like Steve Woodward. He learned trick after trick and soon became known as a park rider, though he would be even more prominent in dirt events. He was already putting his name in the top 10 at big events like X Games and Dew Tours.

He won the BMX Dirt event at the Playstation Pro Dew Tour stop in the 2008-2009 season AND the 2007-2008 Wendy’s Invitational Dew Tour stop in 2007-2008. This season (2009-2010) he took a park 10th place and dirt 5th place at the Nike 6.0 BMX Open and a park 5th place and a dirt 2nd place at the Wendy’s Invitational. This leaves Dennis in 7th overall in the Park standings and 3rd in the Dirt standings.



This is all even more impressive as it is a comeback run for Dennis after he had shoulder surgery earlier this year. Even more recently, he had surgery on his wrist and is said to be recovering well from that. Persistence, ladies and gentlemen… persistence.



His injuries put him out of riding for periods of time, which unfortunately included Nike’s trip to Europe. I can’t imagine it was fun watching Garrett and Nigel get tricks on some unique setups while he sat there, arm in sling, unable to ride.





But make no mistake, as Dennis comes back from injury and starts riding at the top of his game again, as he has already shown during the Dew Tour, you will see plenty of amazing clips from him and hopefully Nike has some more filming trips planned where Dennis will be slingless and ready to go.



But what’s worse is considering how he went through everything I just divulged to you whilst living at home with the parents and having to keep up with the demanding lifestyle of a high school student. They generally give homework out every or every other night in high school, so imagine how work is for him while he’s away weeks at a time for contests, filming trips, etc.





Garrett Reynolds. If you follow BMX park or street, you simply can not say you have not heard this name. Garrett is one of the best competitors on the scene right now. He’s locked down win after win at several X Games and Dew Tours, beating out all the big names and easily securing himself a reputation as “the best street rider right now.” Not second best, not up there with the top dudes… THE best.

Garrett is out of that Jersey riding scene. Lots of good street riding came out of that Jersey and NY scene and Garrett developed a mixture of street and park riding from his adventures on the streets and in his backyard DIY skatepark… Taking barspins and tailwhips heavily to street and mixing in any kind of grind or manual variation, his trick bag goes DEEP.



I don’t want to even get into this since you should already know, but let’s do this. Competition history. Now, he hasn’t been quite as dominant in the Dew Tour, winning only one stop (this season’s Wendy’s stop… a sign of things to come?). but his X Games results easily make up for a lack of podiums on the Dew Tour. He finished 5th last year on the tour, his best tour overall finish, and this year looks like he could go further.

X Games street, however, is HIS domain. He won the 2009 and 2008 X Games street event in LA. He won the 2009 and 2008 X Games street event in China. He took second at the 2008 X Games street event in Mexico. He won the 2008 X Games street event in Brazil. He won the 2007 X Games street event in Dubai. So what’s that like… all but one X Games street event since the 2007 Middle Eastern event?



Garrett is 19 years of age and already he has been to Dubai, Brazil, China, Mexico, Europe, and more… and while at each of those locations he has further proven himself as the number one street rider. So, where does he find time to study US History and Mathematics?



Well, I guess the only good answer is in between travelling the globe and becoming the biggest name in BMX. Garrett has released a signature frame with his sponsor, Premium BMX. He has fans all over the world and riders that he’s probably looked up to as a little bike riding grom are probably his best friends now, or worst enemies in competition!



So… you know the riders; you got their stories. Thing is, I can only know so much about them as I pretty much only know what they do in their riding life: contests results, video parts, who they ride for, etc. Now, we ALL get to know what their lives are really like underneath all that BMX stardom. Living at home, making it through high school, and hopefully we’ll see some of their BMX groupies who probably don’t help when it comes to concentrating on school work.

So September 19th (that is tomorrow for those who don’t know that it is tomorrow) at 10 pm EST (that is 7 pm PST for those who don’t know that it is 7 pm PST) tune into MTV2 to see what it’s like in the Nikes of a professional BMX athlete going through high school!

Salt Lake City. Different cities may be more biased as skate fans or BMX fans or FMX. That being said I would consider SLC to be the biggest BMX event on the tour. That area of Utah has always had a big BMX scene, which isn't surprising as legendary rider Tim "Fuzzy" Hall has lived there for years.

First off, I am going to tell you that Jamie Bestwick won vert last year at SLC. He also won vert in the past two Dew Tour Events, Nike & Wendy's, which puts him sitting on his throne in the vert division. Simon Tabron, Chad Kagy, and Steven McCann will simply look up at Jamie and wonder how they will impeach this ruler of the vert world. Seriously, how do you stop him? If he shows up and isn't injured, he is going to win. It's almost that predictable.

At last year's SLC Dew Tour, we had the tear-jerking moment of seeing Mike Aitken in first place, defeating all the whips and spins and flips with his smooth, stylish riding. He was on fire. The local crowd was losing it for him as he linked lines no one has ever seen before. Higher than anybody, smoother than anybody, simply BETTER.

Unfortunately, Aitken went down hard a few months ago and he has only recently gotten back on his bike. Though we won't be seeing him jumping 30 foot sets at this event I am sure he will be there to root for his friends and have fun. That being said, the contest could very well be in the hands of Ryan Nyquist who took the last Dew Tour event after being beaten by two rookies, Josh Hult and Brandon Dosch, at the Nike event. Other big names include Dennis Enarson and Scotty Cranmer who can always come out of nowhere and steal a win. And of course Corey Bohan, one of the more famed names in dirt for his mix of style and trick ability.

BMX Park. I would like to say this is a competition of old versus new, but Dave probably wouldn't respect that. Right now Mirra and Reynolds are tied in first as they swapped first and second places at the first two Dew events. Daniel Dhers is sitting at a disappointing fifth place on the tour but could gain some ground by winning or at least podium-ing this event. Marcus Tooker and Mark Webb are definitely names to look out for, but not as much as Harry Main. Harry broke his leg and took himself out of the first two events but now being back on his bike he is a huge threat to anyone gunning for number one. Harry has more technical, judge-wowing tricks than anybody right now. So let's get to it.

BMX Vert. My bets are on Bestwick. Seriously, what would YOU do!?

BMX Dirt. Ryan Nyquist. Even with Hult and Dosch nipping at his ankles Nyquist always holds strong and is a favorite to win...

BMX Park. This is a tough one. If Main is fully recovered and back on his game for the event I will give him the advantage, but Garrett Reynolds is always down to win his event. Big battle between thsoe two.

Think I'm wrong? My predictions are stupid? Comment this blog and let me know what YOU think!!!