Billy Griggs Nominated for ABA BMX Hall

News courtesy of Bike Retailer

LAGUNA HILLS, CA (BRAIN)—One of the most stylish racers of the '80s, Billy Griggs, has been nominated for the 2008 American Bicycle Association (ABA) BMX "Hall of Fame."

"Mr. Bill," as he's known, rode for CW, Mongoose, Redline, Schwinn and Iron Horse, as a top-ranked amateur. He's well-known in BMX for his style and speed.

Griggs is credited with bringing intense BMX frames to life and currently works in research and development for Razor USA. Griggs exercises his knack for custom frame building in the new products he develops for Razor.

Riding for Redline, Griggs turned pro in 1988. He was part of the second generation of the "Terrible Ten" in BMX Action magazine's Top 10 Amateurs list. During his pro career, Griggs held an average ranking of 12.7 with three top three rankings.

The article is located here

Latvian captures BMX men's gold

News courtesy of the International Herald Tribune

BEIJING: World champion Maris Strombergs of Latvia won the men's BMX gold Friday, sweeping to the front at the start of the winner-take-all final and never losing control in the sport's first-ever Olympic finals.

The French duo of Anne-Caroline Chausson and Laetitia Le Corguille took gold and silver, respectively, in the women's title race.

"It wasn't easy," said Chausson. "All the mistakes I've made in the last few races, in the last few years, I tried to show nothing of them in these games."

"It's really the work of two years to end up here. It's an immense satisfaction to get to here," said Chausson, 30, after what she has said will be her last competitive BMX race.

BMX racing was born in the United States four decades ago, so perhaps it was fitting that on the sport's biggest day, American racers collected the biggest medal haul.

More here: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/22/sports/OLYBMX.php

Virtually nothing about Olympic BMX in our local press

I checked the TODAY newspaper as well as The Straits Times but there was hardly any mention of this new BMX sport that made its maiden Olympic debut yesterday. There was a picture of BMX racers in the TODAY newspaper but it was flanked by an advertisement by Nikon. I wonder by now if people know the difference between BMX racing and freestyle. The press can do a bit more to help to promote it, considering the fact that the Youth Olympics are going to be hosted in Singapore in two years time. Come on guys! Up the ante! Publish something about BMX in your newspapers!

Reade crashes into tomorrow's BMX showdown

News courtesy of The Independant

By Paul Newman in Beijing

When Shanaze Reade crashed and recorded the slowest time in her first seeding race in the women's BMX event today it seemed that the 19-year-old from Crewe might struggle to live up to her status as the favourite.

By the time she had finished her second run the twice world champion was looking more like the rider who has taken the sport by storm in recent years. The semi-finals taking place at 2am (BST) tomorrow, followed by the final 90 minutes later.

More on the article here

Olympics BMX 2008

20th August 2008. This marks the day of the start of the BMX in the Olympics. I did not get a chance to see it on television as I was at work but I am sure some videos will crop up in YouTube soon. In any case, the seeding runs have finished, as well as the quarter-finals. Results are located here

Time to break out that bike and get to work

With prices rising and ERP charges also rising, may people are taking the bus to work. While I applaud that move, what I do not applaud is the fact that SBS Transit has not increased the frequency of buses on the road. So once again, people get to work late because buses are packed. Maybe it is better to cycle to work. You get healthier and it is good for the cardiovascular system. On a BMX, being a singlespeed, it is even better. Try to find some showering facilities near your work if you can. I know I will start to do it more.

ex-BMX'er takes the gold

To all those naysayers who think that BMX is only for kids. Take a look at the picture at the guy on the left. That is Jamie Staff, an ex-BMXer who took part in track cycling and won gold! His foundation? BMX! So all those nay-sayers and non-believers (you know who you are) who think that BMX does not amount to anything, put that in your pipe and smoke it. You guys cannot see the wood from the trees!

The article can be found here and comes courtesy of the British Cycling Federation, as well as the the picture. Oh and by the way, Chris Hoy, the guy in the middle, is an ex-BMX'er too! Two out of three ain't bad you know...

Old-school BMX gathering at Bukit Batok on 16th August

Our monthly old-school gathering at the Bukit Batok Skate Park was a success as usual. This time it was a little different. Ismail and myself got interviewed by some students from Temasek Polytechnic. They got to know about BMX and I got to know how resourceful these students are when it comes to conducting interviews. Hopefully, they got a better understanding of BMX and how it functions, how it interests us and how it can appeal to the youth in Singapore. We had some skateboarders there to add to the scene and I must say that it was one of the few times that I got to see the Bukit Batok skatepark so full of activity. I always have a great time at these gatherings. Oh and the postings can be found at the forums here

The photo of my bike with the new one-piece cranks is courtesy of Freddy Foo. The photos on the link that I posted above are also to be credited to Freddy. Thanks Fred!

An old-school Diamond Back BMX site

I came across this site fairly recently. It is a website dedicated to the old-school Diamond Backs. According to the site:

This site is aimed towards reference of 'old school Diamond Back' BMX between the period 1977 to 1986 and dedicated to the great Sandy Finkelman. Though Sandy sadly passed away in 2005, his memory and vision live on in what I consider the most iconic name in BMX. Over time I hope to add reviews of Diamond Back history from the very people associated with them, moreso the 'riders' that inspired that generation and beyond.

I think he has it pretty much all figured out. Check out the site here

Another Temasek Polytechnic student sends me an email

I received this in the mail the other day.

Good Day,

We are a bunch of Temasek Design School students, currently working on our year 2 Project which is to design a website for the Youth Olympic Games. So, we have decided to focus on the new sports that will be featured in the Olympics and one of it is BMX Racing.

It would be great if you could provide us the information on the apparels, equipments and the rules & regulation for BMX Racing. And maybe your opinion on the future prospects of BMX in terms of an event in the Olympics, since there are the different genres of BMX. And is it possible for us to hold a meet up so that we conduct an interview with you?

To the one that wrote this, you are more than welcome to interview me and I will do all I can for the promotion of BMX in Singapore. Well, he said he might come down for the old-school BMX gathering on the 16th of August. We hope to see him there.

Happy National Day Singapore!

Singapore is 43 years old this year. May she continue to thrive! Singapore BMX wishes one and all a happy National Day!

Its on the 16th og August, not the 18th

Made a bit of a mistake there. In an earlier post, I said that the next old-school BMX gathering in Singapore would be on the 18th. That is wrong and I apologise for that. Next meeting of the old-schoolers is on the 16th of August at Bukit Batok Skatepark. I hope to see a big turnout and we will have some new faces there. Bring your bikes out and reminisce!

We could have had our own training facility in Singapore for BMX

I got this from Gene's BMX site. Imagine. If the Singapore Sports Council and MCYS had actually LISTENED to us back then, we would have had a great BMX track for these guys to come and train on. Given Singapore's relatively close proximity to China, it would have been perfect. These guys had to go to Australia to train because their BMX scene is much better than us. Instead, the powers that be at SSC and MCYS chose to ignore us and now? They are rushing like MAD to get things up and running for the Youth Olympics in 2010! We could have been prepared close to 8 years ago!

The Argentina BMX Team leaves Tuesday at 1850 hrs. bound for Australia on first step of it`s trip to the 2008 Olympic Games. In Australia, they will be able to train in a similar manner to Beijing and the team will be able to adjust to the hourly time change.

Team members travelling from Argentina include riders Gabriela Diaz, Maria Dutto and Ramiro Marino. Accompanying them will be National Coach, Flavio Vacarezza. Coming from the United States will be Men's racer, Cristian Becerine who will meet the rest of the team in Australia. Men's Alternate, Javier Colombo (2006 UCI World Champion) will remain and train at his home in California. - www.bmxargentina.com

THE "SPEEDY REEDY" MACHINE -- HEADING FOR BEIJING

This just came in from Gork at Redline Bicycles

UK/Redline’s SHANAZE READE is all set to be a part of BMX Racing’s big long-awaited Olympic debut, after British Cycling finished assembly her custom-painted Redline Flight bike. So, here are your first peaks at what all of Great Britain, and everyone at Redline, hopes will be the GOLD MEDAL winning Redline in Elite Women – on August 21^st.