Hot Wheels Supercharger Junior Series

This video of Hot Wheels Supercharger Junior Series highlights JUST dropped, less than an hour ago.  I don't know who got Hot Wheels to start backing BMX (and skateboarding), but more power to you, that's a great match.  These kids re tearing it up on all the parks and pools and stuff they have to ride in today's world.  Here's a look at the future...

Block Bikes Online BMX Store

20 Weird and Unusual Bike designs

While most people like to just ride their bikes.  The bike world is full of people who like to experiment, tinker with new ideas, and sometimes just get crazy building new concept bikes.  Here are 20 weird and unusual bike ideas from recent years. 

As you know, if the classic double diamond hardtail BMX bike is your thing, we've got those ready to ship at...

Block Bikes Online BMX Store

Don't forget, the new I'm Jumpin' It T-shirt is available right now at the link above...

 

Skeletons and Muscles?  Is that what S&M stands for now?  That poor dominatrix is out of work, I guess.  Anyhow, pretty cool video, the editing gets a tiny bit annoying, but not too bad.  Dude, the guy who picks up the marble sphere then collapses, that made me cringe. 

Anyhow, we're planning to shoot some original footage today, so that is something to look forward to.

Block Bikes Online BMX Store

The Shredaholics: 2017 visit Wetlands Trails in Huntington Beach with Brandon Semenuk and more

Digging through the video treasure trove/trash bin that is YouTube yesterday, I came across this video.  I was looking to see if anyone had built up the old Bolsa Chica trails by the Slater ditch in Huntington Beach.  In the search, I found that this freakin' amazing place is nearby, though not at the two places the mediocre trails were in my days in H.B..  But there were some small jumps in this area, and BMXers had been riding here since the late 1970's, on and off, and MTBers since mountain biking started spreading in the 1980's.  I know this area well, I've ridden here from about 1987 to 2003, I've wandered all the Jeep and foot trails, and shot a lot of wildlife video in this area.  I once sat and shot video of two coyotes wandering around the wetlands for about 45 minutes, until my battery went dead, 100 yards from these jumps.  So it was really cool to see an amazing trails area has sprung up in this weird little part of Huntington Beach that has so much history with bikes.

In fact, the quick Slater Ditch section (aka Cancer Ditch), in my 1990 video, The Ultimate Weekend, which you can see at 9:53, was shot at the pump house on the canal, a little over 400 yards away, as a snowy egret flies (lots of them in this area).  That's Randy Lawrence in the white tank top, and Keith Treanor in the black T-shirt, flatlander Andy Mulcahy with the fisheye mug shot, and Sean Johnson talking, and Alan Valek in the background.

There were BMX photo shoots in this area with riders like Greg Hill and Harry Leary (so I've been told) in the late 1970's or early 1980's, Chris Moeller and crew jumped here a bit in the 80's, the quick section I shot in 1990, Paul "Flush" Fernandez jumped off a U-Haul truck, and another guy flipped a beach cruiser at the old jumps in the background in The Offspring Video around 1994.  Then came Victor Salazar's amazing "Promised Land" edit in 2013.  "Promised Land" is one of the best videos I've seen in a really long time, both in riding and in video editing and production..  Do you want to make amazing bike videos?  Study, "Promised Land."

Two years ago, 35 or 40 years after the first BMX photo shoot took place in this area, the Shredaholics guys shot Brandon Semenuk, Josh Hult, Kris Fox, Anthony Napp, and Drew Bezanson here.  I guarantee you none of the guys at the session in this video had any clue of the history of BMX and MTB in that little area.  That's where my old, fat ass comes in, I add some context and history to videos like this, and remind all you young guys that you're part of a long line of ever-improving shredders.

I just figured out that the jump that Paul Hernandez does off the top of the U-Haul truck is the hill right by where the Wetlands Trails are now.  The last time I road there was in 2003, and I wa sdoing 180's right at the top of that same trails down the hill (less ruts in 2003), and then doing half-Cabs into that hill, dropping a couple feet then riding the rest.  Crazy all that happened right there.

Thanks to Jason German for correcting me on a couple factual mistakes in the first go.

After the Wetlands Trails session, the Shredaholics head south, and join the locals' session at Agla Norte skatepark, inland of the 5 freeway, between Carlsbad and Encinitas.  Pretty cool video, and I was glad to find this video, and then get the shout out for Salazar's "Promised Land" edit.  OK, you've got a few clips to watch people, enjoy.  Oh, and you know where to look for BMX bikes and components, right?

Block Bikes Online BMX Store

Don't forget, the I'm jumpin' it T-shirts are available now.  Buy one before Ronald McDonald shows up at our office with a baseball bat.  Follow the link above to get one (or 10).

How mountain biking was born

I'd heard bits and pieces of this story over the years.  I even met a bunch of the early hill bombers from Marin county at an early mountain bike race in 1988.  Here's a fairly short video that gives  a really good summary of how today's mountain bikes, even the $6,700 one we just got here in the shop (really!  $6,700!!), came to be.  Like every other action sport, a handful of people getting a little crazy and having fun eventually turned into a worldwide sport, competition circuit, and full blown industry, even though that wasn't the original intention. 

You want that $ 6,700 mountain bike?  IOr maybe one much more in an average rider's price range?  We have a great selection here in the actual shop, in Lancaster, CA (45 minutes north of L.A.).  If you're looking for BMX bikes, we've got the online store...

Block Bikes Online BMX store

I'm jumpin' it T-Shirt

For those who don't know, my name's Steve Emig, and I've been blogging since 1985*.  I'm the guy writing most of this blog, an old, HAS BEEN, BMX industry guy who's just come on board here at Block to get all of you to check out the Block Bikes Online BMX Store, and buy a whole bunch of stuff.  But let's face it, you can go to a local bike shop, you can buy bikes and parts online somewhere else.  Why would you want to check us out?

MY job is to give you a "why."  The best way I can think of to do that is to tell you that my grandma is really sick, and she has a tumor the size of a bowling ball in her skull, and has to have a complete head transplant to save her life.  So buy this T-shirt, and 10 or 12 bikes from us, and you can help save grandma's life.

OK, as most of you have figured out, that's a bunch of crap.  But it's the best way I can think of to get you to buy stuff from Block's online store.  The SECOND BEST way to get you to buy stuff, is to just make something really freakin' cool, that you want to buy, and to be the only place you can get it.  With that in mind, Rich, the Block Bikes owner, and me were brainstorming the day before yesterday.  He thought it would be cool to make a Block Bikes T-shirt, and we got to talking about all the cool "logo bite" T-shirts that small BMX and skateboard companies made back in the 90's.  So I came up with some ideas, and started drawing this one.  Rich took my initial work, funneled into the ol' computer, and this is what popped out.

Yeah, I came up with the design, and I'm the guy blogging to promote this shirt, and trying to make you want one.  So you don't have to believe me.  But every time I look at this T-shirt design, I just start laughing.  Honestly, I don't care if you buy this shirt.  I want to design another one you will buy, and buy a whole bunch of these (Hey, I get an employee discount, right?), so I can wear them for the next ten years.  Not like completely for the next ten years.  I mean, I'd take one off every five or six days, and put another one on, and wash the old one.  I'm not that much of a slob. 

But we're a an online shop (and a real one, too), we sell stuff, that's kind of the idea, so you can buy one right now if you want.  Click the link below, fork over $20 (+shipping), and one of these puppies is yours...

Block Bikes Online BMX Shop

*Congratulations, you're the one person in 100 who thought, "Hey, there wasn't an internet in 1985."  That's when I put out my first zine (pronounced "zeen"), which is a small, self-published booklet.  That's what bloggers did before blogs existed.  You don't get a free shirt or anything, but you can go through the rest of the day knowing you're smarter than most of the clowns who read this crap.

Good Morning America... here's some classic Mike Aitken

Style for miles with some classic Mike Aitken trails and street riding.  If this isn't motivation to pick up your bike and go ride, I don't know what is. 

Block Bikes Online BMX store