Category Archives: Exclusives

Review: Moto Bicycles Pedal

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Review: Effraim.

Like you reading this review, I was curious about the Moto Bicycles pedal. Made out of wood? Totally flat? Grip tape, would the wood last? What would a totally flat pedal feel like? Up until now, interms of a flatland pedal, I don’t think a great deal of thought has been put into the design, certainly in terms of thinking outside the box.

Ali B over at Moto Bicycles asked me if I would like to review the pedal, of course due to my curiosity I was down to test the pedal. Like everything I test, I wanted to give it a few months so I could write as accurate review as possible for you the rider reading Flatmatters.

So I am the first to admit I was sceptical over the design, my first impressions were good when the pedals arrived, the packaging and attention to detail to begin with were way and beyond what I have seen from a pedal before, even down to small details like having the allen key with the pedal + spare grip tape. Sometimes the little things make such a big difference. Not to mention the weight of the pedal, 150g for a pair.

I used an Odyssey pedal before using the Moto pedal, right away the feeling on the pedals was like being on a skateboard but on your bike obviously. Due to the grip tape, moving around and adjusting your foot on pedal was easier and what I didn’t consider at all, was safety and trick options opening up. The pedal is the flattest pedal on the market, at a total profile of 15mm. You can lean on the pedal and not cut your leg open, plus it opened up moves I haven’t done for years as well. (two footed dump truck ala Pete Brandt springs to mind immediately) as well as thinking of new ideas that I could do using the leaning on pedal/shin trick concept.

I am three months into testing the pedal, and so far the wood has held up perfectly (see photos above). I am still on my first sheet of grip tape, honestly right now couldn’t be more happier with the performance of the pedal. The design of the pedal like everything designed and made in Germany is genius and so stylish and even more so now they are available in colours as well, and like all things simple it makes me wonder how has this not been done before. I guess from a consumer standout it’s only negative is the price, if Ali and Moto Bicycles can find a way to cut the price down (maybe a plastic pedal?) this will be universally on every riders flatland bikes.

Contact: http://www.motobicycles.com/home-en.html

Scott O’Brien – Voodoo 10 Interview

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Intro/Interview: Effraim
Photography: Fat Tony.

August 2nd and 10 years of the Voodoo Jam is fast approaching, what better time to catch up with MC Scott O’Brien to talk to history, personal highlights, judging, formats, after parties and all things that make the roof blow off at the Generations Hall!

10 years of Voodoo Jam is coming up, firstly congratulations on this milestone.Anyone who organised a contest knows the amount of work it takes. I know you are looking to raise the bar with your events, what are your plans for blowing the roof off Generation Halls in 2014?
We will let the riders blow that roof off this year as we always do. I will do my best to create the atmosphere for the riders to go off. New DJ for the finals, he’s got an amazing reputation and we will also have a few new things to restructure the way I run the contest. Most of all the after party will be a great time. Pretty excited about the Baco premier on Friday night and the pre jam will be amazing. Possibly going to add a pre pre jam on Thursday as well. Working out some details for that now.

I know it takes a hell of a lot of work behind the scenes to make an event the size of Voodoo jam happen, who is helping you Scott? What sponsors have stepped up this year?
Terry Adams as always is my partner in this. Hector Garcia helping out with the website. Mike Meza designed our shirt. Matt St Gelais is doing the sticker design.
Flatark is our newest sponsor. Ucchie had hooked this sponsorship up and its amazing that he helped to support Voodoo jam like this. Red Bull, FlatlandFuel, Freegun, Dans Comp, Purple Monkey, Monolithic, Reklamation Bikes, Atl Clothing, G-Shock, Neue Creative, Bike Project, Tiger Balm, Canes, Sequence Fab, Deco, The Terradome, TDA, and St Martin.

More than any other event I can think of, you embrace the culture of where you are from with the vibe of the event. Do you feel thats an important part of contest organisation?
I do, its always important for people to experience culture at any event. I’m a New Orleans guy, just grew up with so much culture and feeling for life living here. I love to have the riders experience that.
A lot of contests can be about riding too much and we miss out on important life experiences. To understand culture and live life thats the best thing, no matter what place you get at Voodoo Jam you still have fun with your experience. It’s a positive great vibe and I love that.
For my experience and outlook on Flatland its always been about culture. I’ve always enjoyed meeting riders, checking out their styles and how it comes out in their riding. I’m literally watching who and what kind of person you are when I watch you ride. It’s kinda crazy the way I look at flatland. I can tell you so much about a person 10 min after I watch them ride hahaha.

You helped bring the 3 man final battle to flatland at the Voodoo Jam. What format are you rolling with this year?
As of now we gonna go with the original Voodoo Jam format from 2004 with the 3 man battle at the end. Riders seem to enjoy having a traditional run rather than head to head battles. The 3 man battle at the end is the best of both worlds I guess. I am considering a few other options like the progression session we are doing in Cologne. I am going to see how that goes before I make a decision.
I always stay in touch with riders and see what they like. I want to be progressive and always work in a proper direction for flatland.

For all of those who want to be involved but can’t make the trip to New Orleans, will there be a live feed this year?
Yes we will. Bobby Carter will be taking care of that once again with Diversion Media. It was a big hit last year. We are going to make some adjustments and hopefully make it even better this year.

Over the ten years, if you had to pick your top 5 memories, what would what they be?
WOW, Um so many I will try to recall one from each year.
2004 – 3 man battle with Alex, Justin and Terry. French guys came Alex and Raph.
2006 – Dickie Sanders progression. Tyler Gilliard winning AM. Mickey G proposal to his now wife Nicole. York Uno and Hiro came to open the door for the Japan riders.
2007 – Matthias just killed it! He arrived!
2008 – Ucchie’s win and his riding was just next level that year. Swamp tour with the japanese riders.
2009 – The Matthias vs Ucchie battle was insane!
2012 – Dom killed it. Terry and Wilhelm made the podium that was dope.
2013 – The Tsutomu vs Hiro battle was just crazy stuff. The look on Tsutomu’s face when he won, priceless! Every year the after party has been amazing, great times with awesome people!

Who is judging Voodoo, and what are the judges looking for this year?
As of now its for sure Chad Degroot, Todd Carter and Claude Hickman. I have a lot of confidence in these guys and their experience. We can put the contest in their hands and trust them to make the right call.
As to what they will be looking for I will of course rely on their professionalism and experiences in Flatland to make the proper calls. We will reward riders for taking risks and originality, while sticking to the normal things that make up judging a contest. I do however communicate with the riders through email before the contest to let them know what to expect. It’s not a simple process thats why we always do our best in choosing judges that we can depend on with their experiences and knowledge of tricks.

There’s a young kids class this year right Scott?, I know yourself & Alex Jumelin have been doing a lot of work with kids & the development of grassroots flatland in the schools in NOLA. Can you tell us something more about it, & what this might bring to Voodoo 10?
Actually thats all Alex, I was just honoured he asked me to be a guest at his school. But that motivated me to start a Novice class. No age restrictions just an entry level class. I’m hoping younger riders are in this. If theres enough of them that show up we will have a break down with maybe a youth group.
I’m very concerned with the state of flatland and the age of the average rider. I really want to move some focus towards youth groups and getting younger riders involved.
Terry, Alex and I are discussing ways to make things happen.
Voodoo Jam is a bit limited and maybe not the best platform for this. It’s certainly great to expose them to flatland, but then they will need a platform for progression and ways to be with a group of kids to push each other. I love what York Uno is doing in Japan, and it didn’t happen over night. He worked at it for years. I’m thinking I may move into this direction, maybe flatland youth schools a few times a year. Alex and Terry can be instructors. I’m not totally sure but its going on in my head right now and I will have to sort it all out! Grow Flatland!

Where can be people find out more information on the event?
http://www.voodoojam.com
FB – Flatland Voodoo Jam
Twitter – @thevoodoojam.com
Insta – Voodoojam

Any final shoutouts Scott?
It’s impossible for me to thank all the people through these 10 years.
All the riders that have ever come to Voodoo Jam, thank you guys its your contest and I’m so stoked you do your best to get here. You know who you are!
Mickey Gaidos, Hector Garcia, Pat Schoolen, Texas Flatlanders, Fat Tony, Japanese Flatlanders, Erik Otto, Matthias Dandois, Brian Mattle, Green G, Hiroshi 430. Sorry if I forgot your name you know I love you haha.
Generations Hall for the venue and helping us make flatland history.
Every company that has ever sponsored Voodoo Jam at some point thanks so much for your support.
Red Bull and everything you have done to help create and stand behind us is amazing. I love this company and all that it has done for BMX.
Alex Jumelin and his belief in me as an MC. His drive for flatland and being an artist on his bike is amazing.
My wonderful family and their love for Voodoo Jam is one of the driving factors for many years. Kristi, Mia, Brooke and Cam. Mom and Dad!
Terry Adams my partner in this whole deal, its impossible without him. He is the man that deals with sponsorships and gathering funds to run this event. This guy does so much for Flatland in many ways and not many people know that. Love this guy!

Thank you Scott! That was great to catch up! August 2nd, Generation Hall, New Orelans! Get there if you can!

Sietse van Berkel: The Flatmatters Interview!

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Intro/Interview: Effraim
Photos: Maxime Cassagne.

Over the past two years Sietse Van Berkel has become one of my favourite riders to watch! Energetic flow and just that lil’ something extra I can’t quite put my finger on, at a push maybe its the way he appears to float around the bike.
Running FM and watching so many edits on a daily basis, when I see riders like Sietse come through the ranks and standout. It is a great feeling, I was curious as a result to know more about Sietse. It has been a while since a full FM interview, so why not squash that! Here is the Sietse Van Berkel Flatmatters Interview + Amazing Edit! Watch it right below!

Sietse van Berkel – The Flatmatters Interview Edit from Act BMX on Vimeo.

Sietse let’s kick this off with some background information about yourself. How old are you, how long have you been riding, and where exactly are you from? many might not know…
Hi Effraim! 25 years old, started riding BMX since the age of 15, since the age of 16 flatland specific. Originally from a small village named Nieuwendijk, in the south of Holland. A few years ago I moved to Utrecht, an old beautiful city in the centre of Holland.

How did you get into flatland? I’d imagine in Holland, the Flatground was highly influential for you and your scene?
YES! Back in the days, I was in a local skate crew (total of 2 skateboarders and me…) There was no skatepark in our village, so we build our own wooden skateramp. However, my BMX destroyed the ramp, so I couldn’t ride it for a long time. After seeing some flatland video’s on the internet, I knew I wanted to ride a bike like that. I got my first flatland BMX for my 16th birthday; a WeThePeople pony. Hooked on riding since then!

Braun Flatground 2005 was the first contest I visited as a spectator. I was so overwhelmed seeing real life flatland for the first time ever in my life, deeply impressed by all the riders / styles / tricks! The vibe of the finals was amazing; Viki Gomez vs. York Uno and Scott O’ Brien on the mic. Epic!

Around that time there was a pretty big scene in Holland, good riders (Bram, Sytse Winkel, James Alberto) a lot of jams with a lot of people, Renato van Bloemenhuis with FlatTV flatland video magazine. Good times!!

It seems to me that you have really found your way in riding, have you always rode brakeless?
For now I like the idea to have a bike that is as simple as possible. I did make the classic mistake to take of my back brake right after I got my first flatland BMX, I thought it was ‘oldskool’ of not cool to have a back brake. After a few months I took off my front brake, because I could do all the tricks I learned brakeless, and tricks I wanted to learn also were rolling tricks.

A few weeks ago I was curious about some brake tricks, so I put on a front brake again. But it didn’t felt good / natural for me at all, and I got some new ideas for other brakeless tricks. After two hours I took the brake off. So yes, I think I have found my way in riding brakeless. We will see what future brings.

More recently I have been asking interviewees to produce an edit to showcase their riding, whats your concept for your edit?
Well, not really a concept, just riding from the last 2 months. The video I made is a selection of mobile phone clips, some new, some older, different styles and different weather conditions. I try to be original, as well you can see tricks which I think there just cool or fun to do. Some of the clips are pulled first try on cam. I think it’s time to buy a good camera.
​

How’s the Dutch scene going? Many new riders/faces?
The Dutch scene used to be much bigger. The scene nowadays is based on a small group of dedicated riders. At the moment there are in a few cities small groups of riders, like Groningen, Amsterdam, Haarlem and Eindhoven. There not really many new faces. I hope there a lot more riders in smaller villages who just ride by themselves.

Do you ride on your own, or have a crew to ride with?
99% of the time I ride on my own, which I like. Sometimes I go to another city to ride with other people.

What are your plans this year, contest wise, travelling etc?
I like to go with other riders to jams or contests, because a road trip is always fun! At the end of may I go to Berlin to chill at the 55DSL jam in Mellowpark. In July I go to BMX Cologne, every year good party! After BMX Cologne I’m going to chill with my girlfriend somewhere in Europe for some weeks. Hopefully we will cross some jams.

After summer I hope to go to FlatArk or Toronto, but depends on the money and holiday time…

In June (weekend of 28th – 29th, same weekend as Barcelona Xtreme) I’m organising a jam as part of Fusion Jam, a funsport-festival in Tilburg, Holland. This is part of Festival Mundial, a really big music festival. Got some camping arranged for the riders, a good floor, for some good chilling and riding together! If you want to come, please contact me!

As part of the new generation of pros coming through, how do you feel the internet has effected your riding, is it a daily motivation for you?
Yes. Internet is an easy way to showcase my own riding. In September 2012 I dropped a small video online of a daily session. I got some goodfeedback about my riding, which motivated me to showcase my riding more.

Sometimes it is a good motivation to watch other riders video’s. Just so nice to see so many good riders from all over the world!!

You have a really unique style, really light footed, almost like Chase Gouin would say “floatland” is this something you worked on, or natural style?

Haha, thanks! I used to work on riding smooth. A friend of me said, when I showed her a link on video, that I got the same movement in normal life, without the bike. So I also I think it’s natural style evolving.

Whats your view of contests? Do you train for them, or are you much more concerned with progression?
I don’t really have priority to train hard for contests. It stops progression for me. Everybody knows the feeling of pulling a new trick, it’s such a good feeling! This feeling is the main motivation for me to ride. But it’s always fun to go to a contest and meet all the riders. That’s a good motivation too for me, I for other riders as well. Contests and demo’s seems a good way to show people what BMX is, so I think it’s a good aspect of riding.

When I know I go to a contest I check in some days before the contest, which tricks I have dialled. So I know on which hopefully kind of unique tricks I have a chance to pull in my run.

Most of the contest floors feel difficult for me to ride, because I’m used to a grippy asphalt floor instead of a slippery wooden or concrete floor. Sometimes I’m lucky when the contest floor is also grippy, like at the ABC flatland contest. I felt way more confident so I was able to pull some links in the contest.
I think it’s just a good thing to see company’s sponsor riders who are just cool or nice riders with own styles, not only contest machines. It’s stimulates young guns to do their own thing riding wise!

How do you think flatland has changed since you began riding?
Really difficult question. Don’t know the changes has been positive or negative.
I feel like I started riding during the beginning of ‘newschool’ period. I’ve seen trends, some contra-trends, and so on, and I still feel like a rookie in BMX-world. How people deal with internet has definitely a big influence on all the trends.

What sticks in my mind is the steamroller-based period as a trend (a trick I still use a lot), now you see people go more and more for diverse tricks and unique styles. It’s way more fun to see people doing their own thing. I think it’s a good ‘trend’ again. We all just have to follow our ownpath.
For myself, flatland hasn’t change much. It’s still my sport and creative outlet from my daily activity, which I like to do a lot.

What is your vision for the future with regard to your personal riding?
I hope I can ride as long as possible with fun. It’s so good to see older guys still being a teenager while riding, no matter the level of riding. I hope I will never get ‘old’ in a bitter way. In another way, I hope I can still continue to progress. This is for me the main motivation to ride BMX. Maybe when I’m older progression won’t be my main motivation to ride, I don’t know.
I got some short term goals riding wise. I hope to learn some techniques I haven’t mastered yet and evolve my own style and tricks more and more.

On a personal note: do you just ride, or do you hold down a job, college, university or something like that?
I have a job for 3,5 days a week. The rest of the week I ride my bike, and try ride some BMX shows with the ActBMX team.
My job is counsellor in a middle school, try to help teenagers with social-emotional problems. I work as well in a innovate school program in Holland, based on personal education and giving kids the chance to evolve their own talents. I’ve got enough time to totally focus on my job, go for it with fun and passion, and also have enough time to ride, have a social life and doing other stuff I like

I noticed on your Facebook that you kill bikes, what are you riding now and how is that bike holding up?
Haha, I try my best to keep the bike safe when I bail.
I only want to change a part when it’s broken, try to care a bit about the environment.
The hardware on my bike is holding up pretty good so far. I want strong parts, which will not break after some months of riding. I think it’s also important to support the small amount of companies that support flatland.

My personal ride now is as followed:
Frame: Junglerider indamix 19.5 frame from Navid.

Bar: Tempered, don’t know which one, swapped it with Sytse Winkel.
Barends: St. Martin
Gripstops: Modified St. Martin barend and Autum barend.

Stem:Flatware with homemade knee protection.

Fork: Flatware 0 degrees.

Headset: United

Front rim: Sun, pinned 48h.

Front hub:Proper 48 holes, no broken spokes since 2 years!

Rear rim: Sun, pinned 36h.

Freecoaster: KHE geisha first version, 36h.

Front tires: Odyssey frequency 1.75 .
Rear tire: Suelo 1.75.

Crank: KHE erlkoenig, modified to fit a 20t sprocket.

BB: Mankind

Sprocket: St. Martin

Chain: KMC

Front pegs:Suelo, old version, with skateboard griptape. Grippy when it´s wet, good enough for pivoting.

Rear pegs: KHE jessup and Sequence plastic.

Seat: MacNeil Travis Collier, modified the back for easier grab.

Seatpost: Primo long one.

Pedals: Odyssey

Grips: Proper, but I want to go back to Odi Longnecks. Does someone knows a something to make sure the grips won’t slip? *Editors note: You could try Tennis grip.

With that talk of bike breaking, I know just got a JR frame. I guess if you could talk to a manufacturer what would your advise be into frame design to last?
Haha, I did a social study. Really don’t know much about the technical aspects of BMX-manufacturing. Although, I would like to help a company out and try how long their BMX parts will last my riding

Something we don’t discuss is surfaces whilst riding, whats your preferred surface to ride flatland Sietse?
With A LOT of grip. My homespots are always made of asphalt. I don’t like it when a floor is slippery, and I get the feeling I don’t have control.

We talked about your style evolving a lil’ bit, what riders are inspiring you?
Every rider with own style or tricks!
I really enjoy when I see a photo or video of a rider where you rarely see a thing from.
You’re doing a fantastic job give those riders attention on flatmatters with interviews of Naoki Watanabe, Shuichi Osada, Eiji Kataoka, Peter Olsen, Sebastian Grubinger. Felt the same with all the Ground Tactics entries and older DVD’s. So good to see so many difference.
On big contests like BMX Masters / worlds / cologne I like to watch qualification of riders I rarely see, even if they don’t pull full links. I just need to travel more and visit more places and riders.
​
Thanks Sietse, dope to hear that! What kind of music are you into?
Depends on my mood or daytime.
For now mostly classic music for waking up, soul / funk / punk in mycar, to see live; every kind of music.
Love to go to music festivals sometimes.

For riding everything: from singer-songwriter (Jose Gonzales, Emil Landman) beats (L’Orange, Perquisite), easy D’nB (High Contrast), band (The Mars Volta, The Bronx, Buena Vista Social Club, Jamiroquai, Happy Camper). Besides that I like to ride without music. Just silence.

You do a lot of shows Sietse right? Tell me something about this?
Together with Bram Verhallen I have a show agency named ActBMX. This used to be the company from Bram and Sytse Winkel. Sometimes they asked me to ride a show with them. In the last years they almost quit riding, so I continued ActBMX. We still ride shows together. Bram even started riding again, and Navid Saleki is also involved. It’s for us fun to do, and good to catch up again!
I like to perform with or without the bike. From time to time I do a project with friend in a theme band (nineties party or zeroes heroes party) where I sing, and I play the bass guitar with friends in a band.
It’s most fun to do BMX shows of demo’s for kids. They are always impressed, and it’s an good and for my easy way to bring a good message to them.


Photo: Omar.

Any final words to wrap up this interview Sietse, it has been great catching up with you and learning more about you and your story.
You’re welcome! Thank you so much Effraim for this opportunity. Thanks to photographers Maxime Cassagne, and Omar Lammers for the great pics. Thank you reader / rider for taking the time to read this interview, (or just scroll down and only read this sentence)! Ride on!

Go watch that edit again….

Simon O’Brien in Tokyo by Jason Halayko

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Text/Photos: Jason Halayko

I first met Simon O’Brien back in 2012 at the Red Bull Circle of Balance. As one of the main photographers for the event I was asked to take portraits of all the riders, and I was able to use this time to get to know Simon. As we are both interested in Japan we hit it off right away and had a great time during the competition.

Fast forward to present day, and imaging my surprise (and excitement) when Simon e-mails me and lets me know he is in Tokyo for a bit and looking to get some shots in. Great! Having just quit my day job to be a pro-photog I jumped at the chance to shoot with Simon in Tokyo, and headed up from my home in Kyoto as soon as our schedules matched up. As it turned out we would only have 2 days to meet up and shoot, but this was enough to get some cool shots in the can that we were both happy with.

The first day had us meeting in Tokyo’s Asakusa, an older area of Tokyo that still has the old school flavour from decades ago. With zero spots in mind and no real plan at all we started to wander, but it didn’t really take too long to come across some cool streets with that old school flavour. I was even able to get the new Tokyo Skytree in the background of a shot! After a couple spots and hours of shooting, some foul weather started rolling in, and it started to thunder and rain. Perfect time for lunch!

Finding a local udon shop we sat and chatted while waiting out the rain. Of course actually shooting photos is the best part of these rider sessions, but sitting and enjoying some hot udon with an X-Games gold medalist is a nice was to spend a day too. Simon is really interested in learning more Japanese, and since I have lived here for over 10 years and am pretty fluent, it was fun giving him pointers and teaching a little of what I know.

Once we were done the streets had dried so we were out shooting again. Things pretty much went like this for the rest of the day, ducking the rain, finding random spots, having a quick beer, chatting with locals (who were really enthusiastic with Simon’s riding) and generally having a great time. We even got some great weather in the end to finish off an amazing day.

A couple days later we were able to meet up again and headed into Shibuya, Tokyo’s shopping district for young people, to see what we could find. After getting kicked out of our first spot we decided to head over to Yoyogi Park, and were lucky enough to find some pretty sweet spots there. Although Simon may not have been riding full time this last year as he was in the Navy, he is super professional and was always willing to try for “one more shot.” And even if we had to wait for people to walk by and that it was never a problem.

After shooting a few spots in Yoyogi Park we wandered through Harajuku (TOO MANY POEPLE TO SHOOT!) and ended up at the famous BMX shop Decade Tokyo. This is a mecca for flat land BMX in Japan so it was great to visit and meet the owner. If you ever visit Tokyo you must visit this place and say hi! I know I will be stopping by the next time I’m in the city.

After getting a late lunch with the owner of Decade we decided to change areas and headed over to Kita Senju where Simon was going to be staying with some local BMX riders. After chatting with the riders it sounded like there were a couple local spots where we could get the lit-up Skytree in the background, so we headed out into the night, this time on bikes! My legs were happy we were not walking, that’s for sure.

Our first spot had us shooting on this really wide pedestrian bridge just up river from the Skytree. This was a great spot as the bridge was crazy wide, and pedestrians rather few. Using a slow shutter with my speed lights we were able to capture some really cool shots that I have never really taken before, but as the clouds were coming in and we wanted to try one more location that night we decided to ride on. Through Simon’s friend’s suggestion we actually ended up riding back all the way to Asakusa to try and hit up the temple at night. There are several areas of the temple that would have been great to shoot, but we could only get two spots due to the rain, and the local police finally kicking us out, just after I got my favourite shot from the two days of shooting too!

With the shoot done we decided to try our luck with getting our bikes on the train home (as it was raining pretty good by then), but let me tell you, garbage bags are NOT a replacement for proper BMX bike bags, and there is no way you can get a regular bike on the train. Trust me, we tried, and failed, hahaha.

In the end I am super happy with the two days of shooting, and glad that I was able to get to know Simon even better than when we first met at the Red Bull Circle of Balance. He is a super nice guy and I really hope we can shoot again while he is still in Japan.

Check out more of Jason’s work:

http://www.jason-halayko.com

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/tensairiotphoto