Well, this was quite the surprise to see myself on the cover of Dig. To be on the cover of any magazine is amazing, but to be on a Dig cover is nothing more than an honor. The first time I saw Dig, I borrowed it from a friend along with a copy of Baco 6. At the time, riders were few and far between, the connections provided by the internet were still years away, bikes were twice the weight of today, but Dig provided me with a view on riding that was exactly at my level. They were able to connect people from all around the world who viewed the world on two wheels. It was like there was a BMX movement again, but it was there all along and Dig was the voice. Needless to say, I'm pretty damn stoked right now!
This photo was shot while I was on a trip to Berlin to film for the Odyssey Electronical video. It ended up being the last trick I did on the trip and it was somewhere in southwestern part of Berlin. Oh and Ricky Adam shot the photo and coincidently the first ever flash I broke just happened to be Ricky's!
You live and learn, but good stuff will always comes out of bad. Enjoy this frame review....
I happened to stumble into Revolution Cycles in Seattle a few months ago looking to put my old setup on consignment for a new frame and some parts. The owner told me he had a Sunday complete he was building up for a floor model in the shop. Well, not really looking for a complete I reluctantly said " sure, I'll take a look at it." I walked in the back and saw a wave 2 model in GRAY!! Rad color! I was pretty shocked since the Wave 2 wasn't even available yet. So he said "pick it up!" I did and to my amazement it was light, really light. 22.5lbs with no TI and no ridiculous, mega machined parts, holes or slots in the frame. I was really impressed! So much so that I told the owner of the shop that I would trade my other complete (a built up Stricker... $1500.00 worth) and give him the difference in cash. Needless to say he went for it. On to the review, the frame as I stated earlier is light. Its got all the bells and whistles that one would expect in a frame of this calliber. The built-in tensioners were an added suprise as well. The fit and finish of this bike is IMMACULATE!! Perfect welds, paint, and decals. The decals are super simplistic which is right up my alley! Great choice of color! I have had absolutely no problems with it. The minor adjustments Sunday did to this frame are a perfect example of how bike companies such as Sunday are pushing the envelope for our sport. EXCELLENT JOB JIM!! Wouldn't change ANYTHING on this frame... tight all around. I've been riding for 8 or 9 years now and have always had the mindset that I would NEVER buy the same frame twice. I've had a frame from almost everyone, but I think i'll stick with SUNDAY for a while. Well until someone makes a frame out of diamonds and leather anyway! HA HA. When this frame comes out.... EAT IT UP KIDS!! You won't be sorry! Gaurenteed! Thanks again Jim for continuing to contribute great things to our sport.
Here's a few photos that Risto from Simpel Session sent me the other day. Aaron Ross 180 whipping over the handicap rail and myself gap to jump over crankslide. The contest is always fun and the course is always a treat!
These photos are the ones that appeared on the screen as we were announced to the crowd! Jim C, Karl P and Aaron R
Check this out, here are a few sneak photos from overseas of the Black Magic version of Ian Schwartz's frame. It is Sunday's rustproof coating that we used on all of our frames from the very beginning just with white versions of Ian's own unique "going fishing' stickers design.
Ian's currently helping lead our Flow team trip throughout the southwest. The latest news on the frame delivery is mid-April, so it won't be long. Look for Second Waves a month later.
Last year, we ran a contest where you had to guess the number of frames in a photo provided. Kelvin from Spring, Texas guessed the correct number which was 800 and he received a brand new latte Wave frame. Its been over a year now and it is still perfect. He wrote me the other day and let me know what's going on with him.......
Hey Jim, This is Kelvin (the guy that won the contest you held last year for a free frame). I just wanted to write in and give you a bit of an update on things. The frame is still as solid as ever, and I have been enjoying it greatly since its arrival. I recently purchased a few new parts with my financial aid money ($500 worth to be exact), and have been riding as much as possible. Since I am attending college full time this semester, school takes up a fair amount of my time, but hopefully things will settle, and I will be able to ride more in the coming months. I hope things are going well for you and your company. Again, the frame and your generosity are greatly appreciated. Warm regards, Kelvin
P.S. I've attached a few pictures my brother snapped yesterday.
Here's a review of the Vinnie Bars from the only other person that has been riding them. No idea who the mystery tester is because he walked off with them during Interbike last fall. Not that I condone stealing from the Sunday booth, but this was just too funny to pass up. The bars are available NOW.......
Anonymous said... Here we go last summer at interbike i took the vinnie sunday bars and it was pretty easy to take them, pretty much every body there was busy doing something or talking to other pros and there were tons of people all over the place and everybody at sunday was busy showing them all there new products so there was a big group of people at that time and then i just walked off with them but im pretty sure tons of stuff got stolen by others. well heres the review.
First i was riding the sunday triumphs and my bar spins were on and off but when i put on the vinne bars they really got a lot better, the one thing that i really like about them is that they feel just like your riding triumphs but at the same time your the bars feel smaller because of the box size, it really makes i difference,the rise also makes them feel like a big bar to,i like them better than the standard 8" rise . Second they are still very strong as like every other sunday product, the bars has been pretty banged up and still are perfect, not bent at all and the paint on them is harder to chip it seems like. all in all any one who is planning on getting these bars i say do so, they are great and feel very nice and look even better and are very strong plus you got a life time warranty you really cant go wrong. Jim i also love my brakeless wave frame you really have some of the best products out there in bmx. thanks Sunday bikes and Jim Cielencki.
QBP held there annual Frostbike trade show over the weekend. I flew out after the Odyssey premier and visited Minneapolis for the first time. I cannot say enough great things about QBP. There warehouse is so impressive and their commitment to the environment is so inspiring. It was really eye opening especially since they used Spudware for the meals they served. If you want to read more about their values, check out their site here.
Brian Osborne and the Beloe booth were right next to me which allowed me to constantly check out and scrutinize my new shoe from them. The shoe was the first time I saw my show in person and I couldn't be more stoked. It was funny cause I could be seen shooting random photos of it through out the weekend. So you can say I'm stoked on it.
You know you're in Minnesota when the baby carriages have skis on them! Just kidding, it was really neat to see all the ski trails, bike paths and even a ski jump in the city. I was completely impressed with the city. Even though the subway seemed really slow!
Minneapolis has a huge road bike scene, we went to this shop called One on One Saturday night for a party. There was a basement full of bikes probably numbering in the 100s. We spent a good amount of time peering through the endless piles for random bikes. There was all these awesome old road bike race even posters like the one above. And there was a Hutch GPV hanging from the ceiling. If you thought the tight jeans trend was bad now, you should google Hutch GPV and see what it was like in the 80's!
Here we are sampling some of the local culture. Unfortunately I couldn't get much of the local culture down. Not sure if this was Grain Belt beer or Premium beer, either way it reminded me of Miller High Life and that brought back a lot of rough memories. Those memories included flying barbecues, a Honda Prelude and snowboarding off 2nd floor porches.
QBP gave everyone at the show these sleeves to keep you warm. They were just sleeves, no shirt which at first we thought was really lame. But after trying them on and getting rid of the feeling that I was Scott Borne, but with blue arms. They were actually pretty good, I will definitely be wearing them at the Fridge.
The show ended early on Sunday which gave me some extra time to kill while everyone else left for the airport. My flight was until Monday afternoon, so what to do? Decided to drive the 3.5 hours to Fargo because I'd never been to North Dakota. This was my last state I had to visit in the continental US. I made it up there in 4 hours, hit the Starbucks and headed back.
road the whole time. At times the wind slowed, I'd over steer and head towards the side of the road,This was not one of my brighter moves, luckily the weather held out until I got back to Minneapolis. Thirty mile per hour winds blew against me the whole ride up. There was clear skies, but snow blew across the so you had to be on your guard. The road home was great, the tail wind got me up to 95mph at times and I made it back in just over 3 hours. It was 1 degree in Fargo, just check out the photo of me while I pumped gas.
Yesterday after getting up, there was still 6 hours to do something in Minneapolis, so like any true blooded American I went to the Mall. This isn't any ordinary mall, this was the Mall of America! After fighting for parking, I ventured in to realize that it was President's day and every kid had the day off. All the rides had huge lines, so I didn't get a turn at them. Just shot a few pictures, check out the roll in on the right photo. Crazy! Well after going to the H&M of America, the Starbuck's of America, the Gap of America and Barnes and Noble of America I was off for the airport. Little did I know that I would have my flight canceled in Chicago. If I would've know, I'd just stayed at the mall.
Last Wednesday was the Odyssey premier in Los Angeles, it was a super fun night with so many people coming out to watch. Both myself and Aaron Ross had full parts and Josh Betley shared a part. Just want to say thanks to Chad Shack, Will Stroud and Jim Bauer along with everyone at Odyssey for making such a great night and awesome video. Look for more random photos below!!!
Chad Shack and Will Stroud doing their Fuel TV interviews with the girl from Playboy. Chad looks as if he has more important things to do like figure out which bank to rob.
Kevin MacAvoy, Chad Shack and myself in the VIP section. Which really just amounted to a great place to watch the view and eat Mike Aitken's birthday cake.
Umm cake! This cake was amazing and Matt Berringer could be seen leaving the place with chocolate fingers at the end of the night.
Matt Berringer came out to the premier in prom attire. His chocolate fingerprints could be spotted all the way to the bathroom and out the door by the end of the night. Matt's ender was pretty damn good especially since I was there to watch it happen. Miami rules!
Ah the wonderful Playboy model, too bad Hugh Hefner didn't make it to the show to watch his girl interview BMXers. She brought some BMX props with here, fingerless road bike gloves and a white Protec with Fox stickers on it. We were all debating what they were brought for, but somethings are just better left unanswered.
The premier was held at this art space called the RecCenter in Echo Park. It was a really unique space for a premier, it boasted two 'screens', a bar, VIP section and a place for Jeff Z's art show which benefited Mike Vincent. Here's my name drop for the update, Taj and I put the lights behind the wall here.
A behind the scene photo, Chad Shack had to come out early to help set up. All our names were light up using Christmas lights and those things are very temperamental. I don't know how many times lights were changed in and out of those things. It would have to be about 50 times atleast throughout the whole video. Nothing happened really with mine even though we dragged it out to Mt Baldy in the middle of the night for my intro.
Aaron Ross made it to the premier, he also made some friends and this is their photo with Aaron. I was told I had to put them on the update so here you go guys. Sunday coming through!!!
None of these photos are in any order, here is the signs being rigged up on chains. Leave to Jim Bauer to do something awesome! So the premier is over, the video is being duplicated and we've already talked about Electronical 2! It's more of a joke, but you never know!
Josh Betley is the latest Sunday flow team Introduction. I first met Josh at Interbike and instantly I realized how dynamic of a person he is. He's motivated, energetic, fun and confident while his riding is exactly the same way and you can add really good to that too. So here's Josh.....
Name: Josh Betley, Coach, J-Bone, Betlewski or even Bone Saw Age: old enough to party Hometown: Phoenix Arizona Years riding: 7 almost 8
Okay tell me about the Arizona scene. We didn't have any legal parks or central set of dirt jumps, so for years there was just tons of kids riding with their buddies where they could, be it street or their own trails or even some of the illegal parks if you could sneak session in. Now parks we can legally ride are popping up and people are coming together. Overall it's good, I'm proud to call this place home.
What's your favorite part of it? My favorite part is the fact we can ride basically year round any terrain you want to with the coolest people ever.
What's your favorite park in AZ? Freestone skatepark in Gilbert. It's illegal but its the park I grew up riding, it will always be my favorite
The most obvious Arizona question is...how do you deal with the heat during the summer? Well, you just gotta man up I guess. I love summer because all the parks are empty and we have some awesome near heat stroke sessions. Feels like you're riding with the devil.
I've been to the White Walls a bunch of times, are those things still there? I've heard tons of rumors. As far as I know yes, but don't tell anybody.
What's the most random obstacle you've ridden in Arizona that you haven't seen anywhere else? Over the years I've seen some crazy spots come and go. Giant metal quarterpipes, a sewer pipe that makes a perfect volcano, slanted curved wall ride, curved wall to curved wall in the shape of an "S," No one has pulled it yet but the spot is absolutely unreal, crazy ditches, basically all of Tucson, we really do have some epic spots.
I was watching footage of you from an Odyssey trip out there and you have a large bag of tricks including ramps, parks, street and flatland stuff. Tell me about being able to ride all aspects of riding. Thanks Jim! The flatland stuff comes from getting burnt out on 180’s during front yard sessions. And then having a hand in different sorts of riding is probably because I've always looked up to riders like Van Homan, and Josh Harrington who kill everything and I've always respected that.
Is there an aspect of riding that is more of a favorite to you? Street is the most fun right now. Pillage and Plunder. 3 random people's questions
Have you ever had Absinth in Czech Republic? If so, tell the story. (question by Kyle Carlson) This summer we took a tourist trip to Europe and hit all the hot spots. Prague was a must and a when in Prague you have to try the real legit absinth since its the only place you can get it. Basically the night went something like this, go to the bar in our hostel, drink a few glass, meet some dudes from Scotland, drink a few more, go to a bar made entirely of car parts, sit down at a table, watch Kyle start puking, chill for a minute and realize that Kyle is passed out, carry him out of the club and all the way back to the hostel, show up to the hostel to greet our Australian roommate mid thrust, walk right past them, call him Cameron a few times, his name was Ian, pass out, wake up in my vomit.
If you could bite anyone's style and tricks free from guilt or message board ridicule, and skill not being an issue, who would it be and why?(question by Drew Hosselton) Wow, there's so many good options here, Corey Bohan, Mike Aitken, Danny Hickerson, Sean Sexton, Josh Harrington, Dennis Enarson, Corey Martinez, Gary Young and probably Dave Mirra but I'm going to go with Garret Reynolds. The reason is he's just the dude who can do everything and make it all look good. Plus he's still young so I cant even imagine what he's going to be doing in a few years. Van Homan would be my choice number 2, he's been my favorite rider forever.
Butter side up or butter side down?(question by Rocky Canelas) I like cream cheese
What's your favorite trick you've seen get done recently? Pro or not pro. Jeremy the weed man Sawyer did the most insane rail hop and broke his cranks. That and James Foster's truck to downside whip is magical
What's your favorite youtube video? That would be grape lady.
Who's got the best style you've seen? I guess the obvious answer here is Aitken or Bohan but on street I'd have to say Dakota Roche and Sean Sexton.
What's your favorite thing to ride? Right now I'm really feelin bump jumps. I feel like I'm 12 years old again just riding super fast into a curb and hitting the boost button. Ever since the discovery of the bump jumps I've gone back to old spots and they are like new again. It's the best!
What's your favorite place you've ridden? FDR skatepark in Philly and The Minersville trails are the two places that stand out to me as the best spots ever.
Trick you have trouble doing? I can't do a barspin to footjam if my life depended on it. It makes me so sad.
Words to live by? Keep it real.
Any thanks? The people I ride with, the people I live with, friends, family, the mexican restraunt los favoritos, puns, kitties, hot girls, the internet, Kyle Carlson, Will Stroud, K.C. Badger, Drew Hosselton, Mark Loesy, Nike 6.0, Vital Bmx, Aaron Nardi and Cerbae, Big thanks to Jim Bauer and Odyssey, CarlsonCo., Global Bikes bike shop, Ryan at Kore, Bo-vice, Arizona and Iced Coffee at McDonalds even though McDonalds is the worst.
Here is a some footage of Josh, look for more in the upcoming Odyssey video Electronical and in the new Sunday video tentatively titled 'Footage Party'
Sunday's latest bar inspired by Vinnie Sammon is finally in stock! The bar feels like a Triumph bar, but with a smaller box, 2 degrees of upsweep and a narrower width. Look for them at your local shop in about a week and a half.
Bar Dimensions
Height 8 inch Width 26.75 inch Back Sweep 12 degree Up Sweep 2 degree Colors Black Weight 1lb 11.3oz Features Uses multi-butted 41Thermal Heat Treated tubing
Ok, most of you won't know Alex Magallan, but you might have seen his part in the video Nobody Special which covers the Nashville scene. From street to ramps, Alex has a handle on all of it. I can guarantee you will want to see more of Alex in the future. Alex just got on the Sunday flow team and here is his introduction...
Name Alex A. Magallan Age 20 Hometown Cashville, TN.
Click the photo for Alex's mini video filmed by Chad Moore
Okay, so you are new to a lot of people, tell us something funny about your hometown? Every kid in the Nashville area jocks Nathan Williams steez.
What's Nashville like? Is the stereotype that you own cowboy boots and listen to country music all the time? Its pretty chill, southern town. Yet it really has been growing alot over the past couple of years.Pretty much you can find me every thursday night at Silverados, square dancing and mackin on the ratty cow girls! Jk
I only ask that because the last time I was there I was in a serious discussion about country music. Does that happen all the time? (joking) Theres some die hard country music loving people around these parts. I guess it just depends on where you hang out at.
Back to riding, how did you get into riding? And when was that? My pops got me in to racing when I was about 7. Thats about 13 years ago, 1994.
Do you have a preference to type of riding? I prefer street, parks are fun on certain days. Trails are good times too,but there scarces around this area.
What's your highest air on a vert ramp? Not sure
So you have a wild video part in Chris's Mahafee's video Nobody Special, how long did you film for that and do you like filming? Chris and I filmed off and on for a few years. Alot of that footage was really old, long hair skin tight jeans.I like filming ,cause it pushes me to step up and get something done. Was there any trick in there that you were especially excited about pulling or took you awhile that when you pulled it you were more stoked?Probably the first clip, it took a million tries and was siked in the end.There was actually quite of few clips excited about.
I'm really a fan of the feeble up the rail to hard 180 and the overgrind back over down a rail. How long did those take? Thanks, the up rail hard 180 probaly took the longest to film, but it was well worth it. Over grind back over took about 5or6 attempts. I actually had to do it multiple times.
You qualified for the Dew Tour for the Orlando stop. How did that work and did you have fun down there? It was an expierence, the competition was not to fun. I ended up wrecking right off the bat. The highlight was raging with C Moore through the downtown streets of Orlando. I'm pretty sure Chad bought a drink for Ryan Sheklers mom.
Did you drink many Mountain Dews? Not really
Okay let's get away from riding and go in to the myspace interests
Favorite movie Home Alone 1and 2, Trainspotting
Favorite bands/music Tom Petty, WEBBIE
People you'd like to meet Justin Carroll and Ben Williams
Favorite spot you've ever ridden Athens, GA good street
Favorite riding experience Corpus Christi Freedom expierience Demos
Favorite non riding experience Meg and I on are NYC journey.
Now let's say thanks to anyone you want to and anyone who has helped you? Mom for being supportive of my riding and taking care of me through the years. Chris M. for always ready to shred and clock some footy. My dad for getting me in the game. Also my big brother Nathan Magallan that keeps me in line when im stuntin to hard.The hole T.S. crew, Brian Osborne and Jim C. at Sunday bikes.
All riding photos by Andrew White and the others by Nathan Williams!
And this video just in from Cody York'sEXPN blog!!!!
A bunch of us recently went over to Estonia for the Simpel Session. Go over to Twenty's site and see the trailer for the Props section filmed at the contest. Aaron Ross will be easy to spot in the footage, but you can also see Karl and myself.
Speaking of Aaron Ross, he is currently on his way to Ray's MTB to ride in a game of B.I.K.E. This is a team event so he is teaming up with BMX legend Taj Mihelich. Oh did I mention this is on mountain bikes also? I guess some of the other competitors are pretty nervous about them entering. Talk to Aaron yesterday, he was at a bike shop "getting his suspension forks pumped up or something."
Karl Poynter has an interview over at FatBMX, so go check that out. Also, Karl has a pretty good idea for his frame colorway that will be coming out later in the spring or early summer. You'll just have to wait and see!
Joe Cox's follow up to Voices entitled Tomorrow We Work is set to come out soon. Go here and pre-order a copy today, but only if you are in the UK. Otherwise you'll just have to wait for it to show up in the US or wherever you live.
Okay, so near the closing of the last Interbike Ian Schwartz was building up a new frame. People are all around him, watching him put his new frame together. The question comes up about what to do with the old frame when along comes Joey whose bike was recently run over and is left riding a Specialized. Upon hearing this Ian promptly hands over his old frame. Here's some photos of Joey with the original Ian frame and the only other one being ridden in the world!
So exactly how did you end up with Ian Schwartz's prototype frame? I was lucky enough to go to interbike and I saw that Ian was taking his bike apart and I was just jokeing with him when I said "You should give me that frame cause mine just got run over." I thought he was kidding when he handed it to me. I made sure that he signed it to me.
Were you really shocked when he gave it to you? I was extremely shocked when he gave it to me. I thought he was kidding at first. Then I realized he wasn't. Do you know that at that point there was only 4 of those frames in existence and only that one has been ridden? I didn't know this. Now that I know this it makes me even happier that I got the only frame.
How's the frame treating you now? The frame is treating me very good. I haven't ridden a better frame in my life. It makes me proud that I can call it mine. One of the things I like about the frame is that it has a welded piviotal seat mount on it. Has anyone offered to buy it from you? There has been a couple of offers for it. I always say no. I try to be nice about it but some people are really dertimined to get it. Sometimes I am scared that I will get jumped for it, but most of the time it dosen't attract that much attention.
So now that people know all about this frame are you even more worried about being jumped for it? No not really not alot of people know who has it or where it is. Even if they do see it they don't reconize it at first. I don't just go arround bragging that I have the frame.
So once again winter is in full swing, so why not head over to Estonia in the Baltic States for the Simpel Session contest. That is exactly what some of us here at Sunday did. Ian Schwartz, Aaron Ross, Karl Poynter, Chad Shackelford and myself all went to Tallinn a few weeks ago. I've said it before, but if you've never been to Tallinn then you are missing out.
The first photo was from the Barcelona airport right before we left for Tallinn. We flew over the Alps on the way to our first Cophenhagen, I was so stoked. Our first day we had so much extra time that I made it to the Kumu Art Museum and there was this room with all these talking statue-less heads. It was really strange hearing all these voices speaking in another language . It was like a giant argument going on, but between statues. The other photos is from a random artistic moment I had on the way to the museum.
We made it to the contest, the next day. I think Ian was the only person I've ever known to wear shorts in a contest without full pads. The practice was fully chaotic which shut down a lot of unique lines that could've been done. I don't think it really stopped anyone on the team. Ian rode super relaxed, Karl rode tech, I crankslid things and Aaron did everything almost first try.
This was the first time Aaron's Sunday frame was seen in public and by the time the contest was over the word about Aaron on Sunday was out. He still holds the title for the brightest bike in BMX, this time combining his neon red with neon yellow. It definitely stood out. After all the qualifying was done, Karl and Aaron both made it to the finals. I managed to break my chain and Ian got hurt colliding with some one. This is one of the best contests to go to, I have the best time and you can ride the contest without wearing a helmet. Actually the only time you had to where a helmet is during the 180 distance contest. This was actually really crazy and scary. The guys were getting bucked and taking it so hard that I swore I was at a Ghetto Street contest. I think the winning distance by Garret Reynolds was over 8 meters which is about 27 feet. Crazy!
The finals came and went on Sunday. Karl and Aaron both did tricks that no one else duplicated and for that they got 15th and 16th. Aaron was riding with a swelled knee which he is getting drained real soon. Karl had a hurt chest from yesterday's attempt at the trick below. If you can do it, come to Estonia for the next Simpel Session. You won't regret it!
