Fox Pro Am / New Arrivals:

Well the Fox Pro Am has come and gone and what an awesome event it turned out to be! The weather looked like it was going to turn bad so we got the event kicked off early and managed to run the whole thing before the rain came down. This year saw the biggest pro turn out ever, with a lot of the previous years ams finally making their way up to the Pro class. The level of riding was super good from both the Pro's and the Am's and a lot of people were blown away by the level of riding that went down.

David Boyter was back in action for this years event and was going big all over the park. He was trying to do a huge 360 wall ride on the new hip but unfortunately stopped after a few attempts to try some other stuff. I wish he had pushed on with this move because he came super close after 3 attempts and I'm sure he would have pulled it if he had kept going. Here he is with a big superman seat grab over the box.

Park local and Odyssey team rider Colin Loudon was shredding the park and also put the new hip section to good use. He was trying to gap into the wall ride an then pull back into the tyranny all the way across the deck. Colin also came super close to doing this, but decided to make the most of his runs and headed off to shred the rest of the park in his remaining time. Colin put together his usual mix of big tricks and smooth style for the 4th place spot. Here he is with a whip in the quarter.

Brad Illingworth made a quick stop in Durban for the event before heading on down the coast right after prize giving. He mad good use of his time in the park by firing out some good lines and big tricks. here he is with a flip transfer.

Am ripper Ray Malinga was destroying the park with clicked tricks and crazy good style. Here he is with a stretched turn down on the 6 foot. Ray rode to a well deserved 2nd place in the am class.

Fly bikes team rider buddy Chellan was fresh from his trip to Dubai and was flowing the park with his usual smooth style. Buddy was finding creative lines all over the park and scored himself the 5th spot for his smooth stylish runs. Here he is with a turndown over the hip.

Malcolm Peters came all the way from Summerset West to ride the comp and absolutely destroyed the park. 360 whips, double whips on the 8 foot, flips, and a bunch of smooth lines got him the first place spot in the comp. here he is with a massive air on the 8 foot.

DK team rider Matt McLeod also rode amazingly well scoring himself the 2nd spot in the comp. Due to the bad weather heading in all of the riders rode really hard right from the start, and Matt made his intentions clear when he kicked off his run with a super smooth flip whip. Matt mixed up a number of street tricks and huge airs to put himself in the top 3.

A big thanks must go out to all the sponsors for making this event a huge success. Fox, DK bicycles, Wavehouse, and Swatch all made great contributions to what was another great event. Here are the final results.

Am winners: 3rd - Kyle Crafford, 2nd - Ray Malinga, 1st- Ian Whittaker

Pro Winners: 3rd - Chris Barnes, 1st - Malcolm Peters, 2nd - Matt McLeod

Thanks to all the riders who came through from all across the country to attend the event. We hope you guys had a good time and look forward to seeing you at the next one! We would also like to thank Tyrone Bradley and Lloyd Ramsay for taking the pics of the event for us.

On the product news front all the new Odyssey and Sunday goods have arrived and are shipping to stores as we speak. We posted these up in the "Just Arrived" a little while back but here are some close ups of the some of the new items.

First up we have the new Odyssey evo 2 brakes in limited edition "Raw" colour.

We also have 3 new grips in stock. Matt Beringer signature grips, and Adam Banton Signature grips in Lava and Marble.

Lumberjack bars and limited edition lumberjack junior seats have also arrived. Another new item are the Sunday Triumph bars in white and black.

We also have senior seats in black vinyl.

The long awaited Odyssey Vandero 2 hubs are finally here and these look super good. They use a G-sport style axle and are super light but tough enough for park and street.

Trailmix peddles are also available in sealed / polished, and unsealed / blood colours.

All of these new items will be in store this week so make sure you head on down to your local bike store and get a look at all the new items!

Posted by: Admin [December 18, 2007]

Fox Pro Am this Friday:

This Friday is the Fox Pro Am and by the sounds of it there are already tons of riders arriving in town. Most of the Cape Town guys are already there and the JHB posse are heading down tomorrow. The guys at Wavehouse have been hard at work changing up the park for this years event, and they have built some dope new obstacles.

Here is a pic taken last week of the new hip they are building. This looks like it will be a lot of fun and should open up a lot of lines in the park.

They have also turned the driveway around which will open up a lot more options as well. All in all it looks like it will be a great setup, and we should see a lot of fresh riding going down this Friday. Registration starts at 10:00AM and the event will kick off at 11:00. See you guys there!

Posted by: Admin [December 12, 2007]

Turbo grips! and Shook:

We have just received the first order for Fly 2008 and there are some awesome new products in this lot. One of these is the new Turbo Grip form Suelo (Fly's flatland co).

These grips come in one long tube and you can cut them down to a size that suits you. You can either cut 2 long grips that slide all the way down your bars if you don't run brakes, or you can cut 3 regular size grips out of these.

Here you can see Dylan Smith with a set on his new bike. Dylan's new signature frame should also be here in the first quarter of next year.

We also got a mail saying that the new Shook is at the duplicators and we should have that on the way in the next few weeks. The new issue is called "Like Totally" and runs for over 50 minutes.

Here is the breakdown of "Like Totally":

After a short sabbatical, Shook has returned with yet another release, packed full of diverse riding from some of today's hottest up and comers!

Features full length parts from:
Dave Thompson
Dan Romeo
Charlie Crumlish
Andrew Hossleton
Greg Tyloski
Troy Merkle
and Garrett Reynolds

Two roadtrips from Orlando, FL's Sputnic Bikes and North Carolina's Mindset apparel and two random montages.

Plus bonus- Tony Neyer cliff diver, Greg Tylosky alt part, Slams, Leftovers, Garrett Reynolds barn session. You can see a preview of the video at www.shookin.com

Colin also sent us a mail to say he has been putting in lots of time on the new Giba jumps, and has been getting tons of riding in on the new setup. Here are 2 more pics he sent us of him killing it over the big set. The whip is nuts!

Finally we have added a bunch of new Christmas products and specials the the arrived page. All of the items up there will be available at your local store this Christmas, and more products will be added over the next few days.

Posted by: Admin [December 07, 2007]

New Arrivals:

Things are absolutely crazy over here. Orders are arriving and going out all day long, and we are all running off our feet here. With all the new items coming in we wanted to keep you guys updated so we have made a "New Arrivals" page. If you click on the banner above it will link you to a page that features a quick run down of all the new items that have arrived at Empire. That way you can keep track of the new products that will be in stores for Christmas and its quick and easy for us to update! We have started off with the new Odyssey products that will be in stores next week, and will continue to update this page as the products roll in and out.

Posted by: Admin [December 05, 2007]

December!

Man this year has flown. Its already that time of year when all the new goods arrive and things get crazy here at the warehouse... Next week we are expecting the new Odyssey shipment to arrive and there are tons of new items in that shipment, and we will keep you posted on that over the next few days. Nuno at Odyssey also hooked us up with a bunch of the new Ride USA mags which features the Odyssey / FOX tour that took place early this year. We will be sending those out to all our dealers when they get here so keep your eyes peeled for those as well.

We also just received a bunch of the new DK shirts and these will be shipping to stores this week. There are 2 different designs, each in 2 colour ways and they are available in sizes small - XL. look for these to be in stores by the end of this weekend.

Colin also sent us a mail saying that the Giba Gorge jumps are now up and running, and he included a few pics from the first session that went down on the new setup. These jumps look super good and Im sure you are going to be seeing a lot more of them in the future!

We also have Colins new bike check up in the team page so head on over there and check it out. Colins bikes are always dialed and this one is no exception. Click HERE to check it out.

Finally a bunch of our team riders are leaving tonight for Dubai. Tyrone Bradley, Brad Illingworth, and Buddy Chellan will be joining Greg Illingworth in Dubai to do Demos for the Dubai X games. Matt McLeod will also be attending but he will be competing in the actual event. We wish all those guys the best of luck and hope the trip goes well for all of them.

That's the news for today. Check back tomorrow for more.

Posted by: Admin [December 03, 2007]