BMX Weekly

Next up on the Pod, we've got George Costa from Rennen Design Group. George gives a little background on Rennen from its inception right up to current times with products, sponsorships, and winning team titles.

We also talk about the current landscape on the team's front on the National circuit and that of the race industry, the R/T Podcast George hosts with Tangent's Rich Pelton, the future for Rennen and even a little F1 talk.

Check it out on BMX Weekly Apple and Spotify. Links below.

Cheers

Dr. Jason Richardson and I sat down this week and recorded a Podcast with Erik Simmons (The AQUAMAN) out here in San Diego.

We talk to Erik, now 54, about his BMX career from New Jersey in 1979 as a kid, moving out West and eventually making his home in San Diego and getting to ride with the likes of Eddy and Mike King, Shaun Texas, Doug Davis, Kiyomi Waller just to name a few during those early SD years.

Erik talks about turning Pro in the 90s and making his way to AA and turning quite a few heads during his time in Pro alongside some of the ups and downs of AA.

We talk about Erik coming back to BMX with his children during the Covid times hitting the Nationals, some of the riders he races with in a very competitive 50-54 x class and Cruiser these days.

Of course we hit that well-known and documented 1993 Reno A Pro Main with Chis Moeller with crashes, moonwalks, a heated team manager jumping on Moeller at the finish line and so much more.

Cheers to Erik and Jason. I really enjoyed this one. Check it out.

This week we are catching-up with Toby Henderson at Box who gives us a little insight on everything Box, from its history to what's new and why he decided to introduce Oversized Technology to BMX Race and what Box has in the pipeline.

Toby also talks about the state of the BMX industry due to the pandemic, the after effects, how the industry is looking now with everyone sitting on stock and the outlook from his perspective moving forward.

Toby also talks about some of his own history from Raleigh, Hutch, SE, moving into mountain bikes and everything he's learned from his experiences as a racer and how he uses it today in business.

We also talk about Frogtown, Dirty Fest, Race Inc, BMX Action, Racing at Slagharen 83 Worlds, Bercy France, Pro Elite Racing these days and more.

Next up, we're catching up with Robert de Wilde (Afro Bob), starting when Robert came onto the international scene - winning 16x at the 1993 UCI World Championships in Holland, beating top Americans In-Hee Lee and Alexis Vergara in the process.

Robert talks about getting on GT Europe, racing Junior, then Elite in Europe, and easing into some racing in the US; winning the European, World Cup and UCI Worlds in a dominating 1999 in Vallet, France, memorably passing Christophe Leveque in the last turn

We talk about Robert's full move to the US traveling with the GT US team, racing the Vans Triple Crown winning the Mt. High round, racing UCI downhill races at Woodward and also X-Games and feeling comfortable on the new downhill format at the time.

We talk about the mid 2000s, Robert moving into the Olympic era winning World Cups, injuries, racing the Beijing Games, making a run for London, retiring and what he's up to these days coaching and training riders and everything he does at the Bellflower track.

Of course we touch on the 02 ABA Grands main and the 2nd turn drama with Warwick Stevenson, his thoughts on it and so much more. Check it out.

Catching-up with Warwick Stevenson (Coming to America).

Nice to catch-up with Warwick and talk about his journey to the US to race BMX at the young age of 18.

Warwick talks about racing AA, riding for Standard, Diamond Back, before getting on Haro and later Kuwahara.

We talk about Warwick's title runs and number 1 plates, winning the 04 UCI World in Holland, winning the Nora Cup, and getting the chance to be on the "MTV Made" show followed by "MTB Cribs".

We talk about his relationship and battles with Bubba Harris, Christophe Leveque, Danny Nelson, Robert deWide and close friend, Kyle Bennett.

Warwick talks about how one former teammate treated him, the internet drama days, injuries, moving back to Australia, family and work life these days and so much more...

It was good to talk to Warwick and I hope we can do it again at some point.

New Podcast with both the Wildman Todd Lyons and Paul Roberts we just recorded this week.

Lots covered in this hour from Wildman talking about his knee surgery, little SE and Big Bike talk.

We ask, are Wildman's European and World Championships win in KOD legit titles to add to his resume? Thoughts on Pros and GoFund me pages, industry talk, and the saturation on bikes and excess warehouse storage.

We talk about the 90s Pros Private Group Chat and why did Pete D leave it, our thoughts on the Pros that could be winning the major titles in the next few years, and can the current World Champion, Simon Marquart, get back to his winning ways? We hit on electric bikes and BMX, Dirty Knobs Podcast, energy drinks sponsoring fewer races these days and much more.

After years of trying to get him to do one, Geth Shooter finally caved in and we just recorded a Podcast whilst I'm over in the UK.

We cover a lot. Starting out riding for Two Wheel Service Bike Shop, Bunneys GT, Redline, GT, Titan and Free Agent (distributed by Raleigh) later on down the road in the Masters category while working at Raleigh in the mid 2000s.

We talk about doubling at both the 84 NBMXA National Series and British Championships in his first full year of racing. Racing with Scott Williams, Martin Jose and Charlie Reynolds that same year.

Geth talks turning Pro and maybe missing out on racing in Europe by not racing Superclass first, winning the first round of the Kelloggs against the Americans, his thoughts on Pro racing the first few years, maybe where he might have featured at the Slough 86 Worlds if he had raced.

We talk about Geth's domination in the 87, 88 season before moving back down to Superclass mid 88 season and racing the new era of British riders moving into the 90s.

We talk about some of the riders he raced with from Ruffell, March, Woods, Robinson, Middleton and later Gary Llewellyn, Craig Scofield era to Tony Fleming, Damon Parkinson, Lee Alexander, Tom Lynch, Neal Wood, Anthony Revell, myself later in the 80s and, finally getting to race in Europe, something you were not allowed to do if you were a UK Pro in the mid 80s.

We talk about Geth riding the Ilkeston Brickyard, Nottingham Broadmarsh, Brighouse Trails, Redditch and more, alongside his time working at British Cycling, riding road bikes these days, being inducted into the first ever British BMX Hall of Fame last month and so much more.

Great to catch up with Jorg de Louw during his vacation in California from Holland and record a Podcast, something we had on the cards for some time.

Jorg talks about the early days of BMX in Holland, going to watch the 83 World Championships in Slagharen, Holland which inspired him to progress to one of the top Am riders in Holland and then into Superclass in 1989.

We talk about the depth of the European Superclass in the late 80s and into the 90s, the first University of BMX training camp put on by Gerrit Does in the US in Orlando, and onto the NBL Christmas Classic and what an amazing trip it was for everyone that went (me included).

Jorg chats teams he rode for and being involved again with Gerrit Does and the start of the UCI World Cup which rolled out in Brighton, England in 1995 and some of the first years behind the scenes running the World Cup at that time.

We talk Jorg being hired on as Team Manager for GT Europe in the mid-90s, racing and helping out with the GT team States, and an impressive list of European and World titles Jorg has on his resume (even though he's very humble and does not like to talk about it) and some of the guys he battled with.

We also hit on Jorg coaching after his race/TM days, thoughts on some of the best riders to come out of Holland over the decades, and more.

This postcast has been long in the making with Clive Gosling as we wanted to do it in person, as we prefer with all podcasts. With Clive living in the UK and really wanting Paul Roberts (living in the US) involved – I still managed a solo hour conversation with Clive on this trip to the UK this week but we also saved a little for maybe a Part 2 when we can get Paul and Clive together.

I really enjoyed this one. Clive has 40 plus years in BMX and the industry as a whole with his knowledge, passion and personality it is unequaled.

We chat about the early days in BMX starting with Edwards (family bike shop), his mother Carole Gosling who has 40 plus years of deep involvement behind the scenes in UKBMX, EBA right up to today’s time working on the London Olympics and still in 2022 at the Glasgow UCI World Cup earlier this year.

Clive is always Factory (even today) we talked about some of the teams he rode for, racing Buckmore Park, Outwell, Poole the London scene in the 80s into the 90s.

We talk about Clive winning his first National title, racing Superclass, hanging out with Will Smyth and the Jive guys going to the States in the late 80s, hooking up with Gork and the BMX Action guys at Wizard Publications.

Clive talks about riding everything in BMX not just racing, riding South Banks, hanging out with Simon Tabron, riding street, contributing for the magazines, working for UKBMX writing the Race Zines for the Nationals and getting into Mountain Bikes in the mid 90s.

Clive brings us up-to-speed with what he’s doing these days in the industry working for GT and Cannondale (Director of Marketing at Cycling Sports Group) sponsoring both Kye Whyte (Olympic Silver Medalist, European Champion and World number 2) and Malverns Classic last month and so much more.

New Podcast with Dr. J and lots covered on this one.

Jason talks about getting on Canyon and attending the Gravity Festival at Big Bear last month.

We hit on Cedric Cade’s rainbow jersey, Tyler Brown on Chase, my trip to Kentucky, Pro racing in Kentucky, Alec Bob going back to Am, and Rich Eames and Neil Stewart emceeing the British BMX Hall of Fame on the 5th of November in Birmingham. We then talk about Dr. J possibly hosting the NBL Hall of Fame, The Frogtown Classic, this weekend’s State Finals and HOLESHOT CHALLENGE at San Diego BMX, the ABA Worlds, the new Dvide UK Team, BMX Weekly, electric bikes and more.