Reviews: Cream #16 march 2002, www.4130.com, www.bmx-test.com.
Our first video - featuring Jamie Bestwick, Ali Whitton, Craig Stevens, Stoney, Markus Wilke and the entire Ride/Hard Dad Roadtrip, a ton of other riders, all filmed at Radlands, Southsea, London, Köln, Huddersfield, Weymouth, Bognor Regis, and Woodward. It's stereo, it's widescreen, and it's 40 minutes long! TRUE. £15.95
kyle4130 , www.bmx-test.com, march 2002: This is the first effort from the english version of Ride. As soon as I put this video in I noticed a similarity to the Ride BMX USA videos, which to some may be good and some it maybe bad. I liked it. The quality of this video is superb, and thankfully so is the riding. The opening section goes to Macneil/Sobe team member, Ali Whitton who does rad things like handplant transfers, tech and burly lines and finishes his section with a 360 downside whip, what the fuck! There is now a bunch of mediocre random riding, which unless you live in the UK, isnt going to mean much to you. Another video standout is the Hard Dad team. They road trip all over the UK with some funny antics with some pretty amazing riding on street and ramps. Some of these funny guys include Nothern John (Volume) and Will Jackson (WTP) who are seriously Bad ass.
Any of you who are into flowing vert style and tech park lines will love Jamie Bestwicks section, He is all over the vert ramp with opposte carving corkscrews at height (the entire width of the ramp!) and 'nuff variations. The variety alone makes this video worth buying and I gaurantee that you would not of heard of some of these guys. There are some big names mixed in as well making this a much needed purchase whether you live in the UK or the USA. You can get this now on 4130's website. 8.5 out of 10.
ALISTAIR WHITTON PART 2001 (Ride Magazine's True)
Produit par 4130 Publishing LTD (Ride BMX UK) et réalisé par Alex Rankin (Chilly VDO).
Durée: 1 heure et une petite poignée de minutes.
Distribution: BMX Groupement ou www.4130.tv
Eric, www.23mag.com: Comme leur homologue américain Ride BMX US, les éditions 4130 et le magazine Ride BMX UK proposent en parallèle de leur version papier des videos. La dernière s'appelle "Cassette", dure 62 minutes et est partagée en une vingtaine de sections d'intérêts inégaux.
On commence ainsi doucement avec Northern John et Will Jackson qui nous offrent quand même du 180 to handrail to 180 out ou bus to icepick to bus sur une sub mais les temps étant ce qu'ils sont, je deviens difficile.
La suite est probablement la meilleure partie de la vidéo. En effet cette séquence regroupe les trois Backyard jams de l'année 2002. Tout ce que j'avais lu, toutes les photos incompréhensibles que j'avais vues prennent enfin du sens (enfin façon de parler) Le Ruben gap à Telford, le tailwhip de Taj à Derby, le whip to fufanu d'Osato à Hasting au milieu de beaucoups d'autres barbaries comme le whip enchaîné avec opposite whip de Marvin Loetterle.
Le temps de se remettre de nos émotions, on accompagne Ryan, Shea Nyquist, OBG et Josh Harrington dans le Haro UK Tour mitonné par Bart de Jong. Démos, autographes, cascades. Normal. Kye Forte et ses copains anglais prennent la suite avec quelques sessions de champ de bosses et de park sympatiques mais là aussi sans surprise.
C'est alors l'heure des Worlds 2002 à Cologne. Même si on en voit moins que ce que j'aurais souhaité, on trouve quand même ici les deux énormes chutes de Sandy Carson et Ruben Alcantara ainsi que pour la première fois dans ma télé un whip to bus rentré de Colin MacKay. Pas le temps de souffler et on retourne en Angleterre sur deux contests pour voir Bestwick tête en bas en turndown to x-up dans le premier et un Josh Harrington en bus to icepick over sur une barrière dans le deuxième.
La moitié de la vidéo s'est maintenant écoulée et ma vigilance commence à baisser. Un peu de champ de bosses, un jeune homme vieux de 10 ans qui sera probablement meilleur que toi bientôt, un petit road trip qui passe à Dusseldorf, en Belgique et en France et encore une démo Haro. Seul le vieux Rob Ridge a réussi à m 'enthousiasmer dans cette deuxième moitié de vidéo grâce à une excellente exploration du monde particulier de Rick Moliterno. Dérapages, rockwalks, dérapages, nosepick tailwhips en tous genres et encore dérapages. J'adore.
La fin de la vidéo aussi est bien à mon goût. C'est la séquence slam avec la musique drôle dont je croyais qu 'elle avait complètement disparu de nos vidéo modernes.
Bref, pour conclure, la bande son n'est pas à mon goût mais étant donné que ce que j'aime c'est radio nostalgie, il y a des chances que ce rock rap underground te plaise plus qu'à moi. Le montage est lui sans surprise mais bien efficace. Même si une heure c'est un peu trop long pour mon esprit usé, au moins tu en auras pour ton argent.
Cette vidéo n'a donc pas su me séduire par la forme mais plutôt par son contenu qui m'a largement satisfait avec la découverte de moulte acrobaties jadis inimaginables. Sur ce beau paquet de jolis mots, à bientôt. Eric.
Paul de Jong, www.fatbmx.com: The new 4130 Publishing/ Ride BMX UK vdo is a bloody good one. I never heard of Alex Rankin before, I first thought it was Alex Reinke in disguise but I guess he is not. He did a great job with this VDO CASSETTE and you won't be disappointed after buying one in your favourite bikeshop. The intro is a nice one and Northern John and Will Jackson take you to a full hour of hardcore riding, the UK riders were real daredevils in the past but now they are tech riders as well, seeing Northern John doing 360 tiretaps to icepick and fakie walls to 540 rollback it says enough.
The Backyardjams are well covered and not in the regular way: one by one. No Alex mixed everything up so you see the best of the Telford BYJ, Hastings BYJ and Derby.
Seeing the MacNeil team, Taj, Murray brothers, Forte, Brownie, Berringer, Wessel, Osato, Baz, Byrnes, Boyley, Ruben and Marvins Hasting Tailwhips is a tread for the BMX eyes. I like the mix a lot cause its not so boring like a normal contestreport. Mahony shows his doubleflipcrash and Kye Forte takes you to the trails, worlds, BYJ,Urban games and rocks the house, watch that guy in 2003.
The HARO UK tour organised by Bart de Jong was the first one in a long time and it sure paid off, Seeing Ryan and Sean Nyquist in your local skatepark (Blackpool,the Boneyard,Darwin, Stockport, Liverpool, Derby and Birmingham) is not a thing that happens every day. (The rest of team Haro were keeping the H.DT in full effect, the first one who knows what H.DT means will get a free t-shirt.). Graig Stevens and Pete Marseille shows 2 totally different styles: Graig Newschool with tailwhips, techstuff and Pete rocks the oldschool house with table airs and a lot of 80's stuff, I would say that Pete won the battle....
James Brooks is a hard worker, digging at the trails for hours and riding them for minutes but its worth the afford, riding with buddies Scott Edgeworth, Dylan Clayton, Rick Gunner and others. Rob Ridge has his own section too, I would call him the English Rick Moliterno, not saying something about his personnality but his riding skills. Louis Monks is of a different generation, only 10 years old and riding like a pro. Paul Russel is filmed with nice effects, you can call him the barspin kid.
I like the photosection with black and white shots, very good picts. The 2&8 crew went on Eurotour and hitted spots like Dusseldorf Univerity, Cologne and St Niklaas Belgium with riders like Forte and Edgeworth it can't go wrong... Eddie Tongue has a long section, being a good rider I think it was a still a bit long but that will have something to do with the hip hop music. Baz is the man, John Taylor still rips and Ali, Ben, Pill, Murray brothers, Benson, Hitchcox, Ferret, Leo, Stu, and others have some good coverage, CASSETTE is approved by Tim March so go and Buy it!!
NZrider, www.bmx-test.com, september 2003: I picked up this DVD from the local bike mechanic at the shop I work at, he races BMX and has connections in weird and wonderful places, and his mate had passed him on this DVD. Not being interested in freestyle, he threw it at me for a reasonable price and I happily took it home and put it in.
The difference with a lot of stuff that comes out of the UK then America, is that sometimes the video that they make, can have a sort of darker feel then other stuff produced by the USA or Australia, and this DVD was no exception. Also I'd like to note the difference between DVD and video (this being my first BMX DVD), the quality is beautiful and crisp, and the music and sound actually draws you in.
The video starts off with a funny little introduction thing with flashes of clips between a guy riding down the street and clips from the video. Then the first part begins, its an interesting coalition with Northen John and Will jackson. Will puts in some interesting brakeless tricks with clean simple barspins all over the place. Northen John is a bit of a slower rider but still comes up with some interesting lines.
This is a good piece of editting as they put the more simple and placid parts in the beginning of the video and build up to some incredible parts from Baz Keep and Kye Forte.
There are also parts from the UK Haro tour with Shea Nyquist, Josh Harrington and the one and only Ryan "trick monkey" Nyquist (I swear this guy is on speed). This is a good taste of what actually happens with the shows at skateparks around the UK, Josh has some interesting lines, and Shea has some funny nonriding interludes. Up after this, is the not so long ago Backyard Jam, I warn some of the footage maybe a bit old but still worth watching. Baz Keep treats a quarter to wall ride like a vert ramp with a massively sick tuck-no hander out of it, and Ruben doesnt disappoint you with lines that defy the laws of physics (and I know, I study physics).
After all the comp footage, is a good trails section from Kye Forte and other locals. All I can say about Kye is that hes been one of my favorite UK riders after seeing him in some of the old Dirt, and RideUK magazines. Kye treats his bike like a feather and not only pulls some cool trick combos, but does it smoother than a baby's ass.
I won't continue giving you a blow-by-blow with the rest of the DVD but all and all its a great video from the boys at RideUK. Unfortunately, there are a couple of downsides. One being that this video is a marathon 62 minutes, so you may end up skipping parts to see your favorite sections. Another one, that people might find is the darker feel this video has- Me being a night rider, that I am, enjoy this grayer shadow on the video, but may make the colors seem a bit monotone.
All and all it was well worth the buy and I'd give it a good wholesome deserved 8/10.
cancan20, www.bmx-test.com, march 2004: This review is for you Americans out there, who have not even heard of this video, let alone seen it. This video (Cassette) is very, very good and features a lot of amazing English riders. It is old now, about 7 months old, but is well worth the watching if you can get hold of it.
It features lots of ramps, lots of street and lots of trails and hardly any flat. It has riding from Will Jackson, Jon Taylor, Kye Forte, Whiton, Northan Jon, Edgeworth, Brooks, Baz Keep, and many more. The editing is snappy and the music is good, with plenty of punk rock. Its running time is 50 minutes so you get plenty of video for your money.
For me the highlight was the trail riding from Kye Forte and James Brookes, great tricks and flowing sections. The Will Jackson and Northan Jon parts were fantastic with plenty of street riding and ramp. Barspin to sub peg stall to barspin in!!!
Also the Haro tour was good as was the 2&8 road trip to Europe.
The video has so many locations, from all over England's' streets and parks, Europe, to Woodward and the worlds in Germany, all of the Back Yard Jams and because of all the riders and locations I never got bored because there are so many different styles it keeps it interesting.
Overall I would give this video an 8 out of ten for great riding and good value for money. While not show casing the most up to date riding, it has some amazing tricks so it is well worth the money as it is cheap now, so go get it.
Rob Ridge.
Riders featured include Ashley Charles, Luke Marchant, Benson, Kye & Leo Forte, Joe Fox, Phil Dolan and Fraggle.
Events and locations featured include Backyard Bournemouth '04, DC Trails tour, Backyard Jams '03 and the Seventies warehouse.
DVD extras include; TJ Lavin's place, Urban Games, Bike 2003 and the UGP-Shadow Team.
Running time: 56 minutes + 20 mins extra
andybmxerhellraiser, www.bmx-test.com, october 2004: The long awaited RIDE produced DVD is finally out, and it is great. It has every aspect of riding you can think of (not much vert) and I don't think one bmx rider will turn there nose up at this. It lasts over an hour (including extras) and you don't get bored.
Some of the best British hardcore riders are included in this flick such as Kye and Leo Forte, their ghetto park, Luke Merchant, Ashley Charles, and many more. They visit places such as Seventies park, DC trails, TJ Lavin's place in Las Vegas and a ton of jams including two or three Backyard Jams.
There is a crash section in the DVD, which sometimes makes you feel sick. The DVD is amazing and is also packed with ghetto, street, random skate parks, and some idiots playing with fire works and a water pistol (hilarious). Any beginner or hardcore rider has to get it.
If I were to rate it, I would give it a 10 out of 10. I haven't seen many videos, but I still think it is excellent. Arguably the best bmx flick ever made?
Mark Noble, deluxebmx.com, march 2009: From Alex Rankin’s classic (and some would say timeless) film No Front Teeth. This is from 2004, but it would stand up for the rest of time… Scott Edgworth at Alliano’s. Sit back and enjoy. Actually, if you own this video, dig it out and enjoy it properly on the TV. Nice.