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Phill explains all…

“With the E-C brand regularly associated solely with Freestyle MX, I’ve been trying to relate the brand to other sports such as BMX and Skate, it’s taken a while to put things together as the brand itself still runs on a shoe-string financial budget separated from the freestyle team that carries the same initials of E-C.”

“I’d spent a few years from my late teens into my early 20s riding BMX myself until i decided to return to and concentrate on MX racing again, but during them years i managed to do a lot of traveling, met some great people on the way and came out the other side with  fist full of memories to look back on today, although I’m unable to do much myself anymore due to personal injuries I’d really like to try bridge the gap back in to that lifestyle again for 2012.”

“At this point everything is still quite up in the air as such, ideally at some point i would like to eventually create a fully equipped BMX team to run alongside the FMX guys at our demos- this is something that i will keep working on in the future and work out what the different possibilities are but for the time being, i would like to welcome Shaun Pipe (BMX) and Jamie Dyer (Skate) to the E-C brand, more riders will be announced shortly”….

Shaun Pipe

Jamie Dyer

If you have been following our blog page over the past few months you will already know that one of our riders Jon Ritchie has made the trip over to spain for the winter months with a few of the other uk guys.

We asked him to keep us up to date with the goings on over there, here is his 1st report back to keep you guys in the loop.

Hey everyone,

It’s been a month pretty much to the day since I docked in “sunny” Spain. To tell you the truth, my time here so far has been somewhat up and down. The first week here was warm with perfect conditions to ride but unfortunately we’d yet to get permission to ride the local freestyle park. The following week the weather turned on its head with heavy rain for a few days causing flash floods and pretty much writing off any chance of riding ramps for that week. To help pass time, I joined a local gym as well as spent a few hours one afternoon hiking up a nearby mountain.

BELOW: View of the local town during the guys  hike up the nearby mountain

Fortunately we were able to get out and ride a couple tracks toward the latter part of the week. The local councils own and maintain the tracks out here and the cool thing is that most of them are open 7 days a week and the added bonus, if not as little as £10 to ride they’re usually free.

BELOW: one of the many local tracks in the town they guys visited

The next two weeks put us back on track. The weather was really good at times and allowed us to get out on the ramps for the first time. The first private facility we rode at was a basic ramp to dirt setup where the ramp is set at 22m. There’s no pushing ramps closer here in Spain, you ride it as it is. At times you here the phrase, Go Big or Go Home… there was no better time for that to apply. Jumping 22m isn’t a big deal once you’ve got the first jump out the way but it took a little while to get comfortable enough to start doing any decent tricks.

BELOW: Jon sticks one of his signature “dead bodies” over one of the Spanish ramp to dirt hits

The second facility which we’ve been given permission to ride consists of 5 ramps, 5 landings and a few others interesting obstacles… The first ramp we rode was at 20m which is pretty similar to what I’ve been riding in the UK so I felt comfortable and was able to trick it pretty much right away. The other 2 ramps tell a slightly different tale… the 22.5m (75ft) ramp is kinda tricky to judge, the landing is high and its just a gnarly looking hit. Long story short, I OJ’d the first jump, foot slipped off the peg and ended up crashing. Not good for confidence but the only thing to do was get back up and give it another go right away. Now that I’m comfortable on that ramp, its a really good jump and I can see why the other riders seem to favour it. The next hurdle was the 24m (80ft) ramp. Had someone said to me this time last year, that in a years time you will be lining up to jump an 80ft ramp, I would have never believed them. Just like deja vu from the previous ramp, you guessed it, I went LONG!! Fortunately for me, I got off lightly with only a tweaked right shoulder and pulled muscles in my back and neck.

BELOW: A birds eye view of the second facility

Since that little incident I’ve had a few days off the bike to recuperate and will be back, ready to ride tomorrow. I’ll let you know how I get on in my next blog…Have a good Christmas and New Year, and I’ll catch you all in 2012.

Jon

We’ll keep all you guys informed of Jons latest blog when its posted along with plenty of other news regarding 2012 in the new year

 As you may have already known, us guys at E-C have a real good long standing relationship with the events team at the legendary Ace Cafe in London, we’ve worked with them a fair bit over the last few years performing at various hotrod and custom bike shows over the UK.

Darren from the Ace Cafe contacted us a few weeks ago to ask if we could provide him with details to perform at another 4 large events with them in 2012.

We then provided them with a package that suited both E-C and the Ace Cafe for the future and received this back from Darren via email:

 ”All your hard work and support over the past years have confirmed ECFMX to work with Ace Cafe London on all future events”

We will keep you posted in the near future on the dates and locations where we will be performing along side the Ace Cafe in 2012

Before he leaves us all with the wet and cold winter weather we have to look forward to for the next few months, we caught up with our boy and fellow E-C show rider Jon Ritchie to find out what he has planned for the next few months, here’s what he had to say about the situation:

Hey everyone,

With the 2011 season coming to a close and the inevitable winter just around the corner, I thought I’d drop a quick line to let you all know of my plans for the coming months. As of early November, I will be packing up here in the UK and heading to sunny Spain. This plan has been in the pipeline for some time and it’s great to know things have fallen into place as I’d hoped. This decision involved giving up my job, home comforts and steady income to pursue a dream of mine which in reality started way back in 1999 after having watched the first Freestyle Motocross competition at the X-games. The next few months will be spent practicing, training and doing whatever it takes to improve my level of riding, ready for what I hope will be a successful 2012. 

Check back soon for further updates and photos of my time abroad.

Take care and catch you all soon.

Jon Ritchie.

We all wish him the best of luck and look forward to hearing more from Jon in the near future about his latest adventure.

Watch this space for Bert’s views on life on the road, wearing ridiculously bright clothing and other crazy antics of being the ECFMX demo team’s ‘Master of Ceremonies’.

Hello boys and girls its me, BERT !!!

I am the one that you hear during an EastCoast FMX demo. If you’ve seen us guys before you would know that I am a fan of extremely bright clothes, tight jeans, and of course, sun glasses.

Here in Berts corner you are going to be able to get to know the ‘ins and out’ of the team as next year as I will be doing my very own video blog, so you, the public, can know what its like to be part of the most raddest FMX team in the country. I will be taking you on a non stop ride over the next year as we go all across the country showing the UK what Freestyle MX is all about. From the lows of setting up in the rain to the highs of putting on the show to the public and meeting the fans afterwards, behind the scenes footage with the team and our experiences whilst being on the road.

Ill have the camera at every show so if ya fancy a chance to be part of  the “Berts Corner” video blog then don’t be shy ill be asking you, the audience, what the highlights of the show were who’s your favourite rider and what was your best part of the show.

REMEMBER I CAN HEAR YOU – THE MORE NOISE YOU MAKE THE SICKER THE RIDERS WILL GO !!!!!!!!!!!!

See you guys soon

BERT

(Click on image above to see Bert in all his glory…)