:::WE HAVE MOVED:::
Empire Cycle Supply is now located at the following address.
Unit 11, Henwood Park, 48 Henwood Road, New Germany, KZN
Tel: 031 7057666 / Fax: 031 7057666

Colin Loudon bike Check:

Odyssey team rider Colin Loudon just got back from his UK trip and decided to build up a new ride. He has custom painted a bunch of his parts and his bike is looking dialled to say the least. We have a few pics for you here, but to get a full rundown on what he is running check out his profile on the team page...

Posted by: Admin [July 27, 2006]

Matt McLeod Update:

Matt Mcleod called us to let us know how his trip is going... He says that the masters was a lot of fun and that the jumps were awesome. He also said that he came 7th not 8th as we previously mentioned. Apparently the duplicated 2nd place and the results which pushed him down to 8th. Matt is now resting up and is getting ready to head back to germany for the Rebel Jam in a few weeks time. Here is a pic of Matt taken off the FAT BMX web page. Head on over there and check out all the news from the masters. They have some really good news and pics up there.

Posted by: Admin [July 25, 2006]

Tyrone Bradley Update 2:

Tyrone just came through with some pics and news about the event. Here is what he had to say...

"This past weekend myself and Christine hired a car to drive to Liverpool for the Hub Youth Festival BMX Dirt & Park Contest. The contest was put on by Team Extreme and was part of an annual youth festival. This was an awesome weekend and winning both the Park and Dirt events left me so stoked and £1000 richer."

"This year was the first year dirt jumping was included and trail legends James Brooks, Jon Robinson and the newly transformed South African transplant, Warren Atkinson made sure the jumps were top class.The Roll-In was scary to say the least. Just look at the little launch (photos) you had to hit to get into the section. This obstacle saw a lot of people getting hurled over their bars, often resulting in some scorpion action. The jumps themselves were really fun though and a great contest ensued. The format was somewhat different to what I'm used to. We had 5 runs of which your highest and lowest scores were dropped and points were deducted if you pedaled between jumps. All came together in my runs and I ended up taking 1st Place in front of James Brookes and Warren Atkinson."

"Park was another story all together. There were so many unknown riders who just live at skateparks and have every trick so dialled. I didn't think I could compete and just cruised around flowing doing stuff as it came to me. So when prize giving came around and I was announced the winner I was stunned to say the least. All in all between partying in Manchester and riding the trails and meeting everyone this weekend turned out to be one of the best in my life."

"Thanks to all of you have made this trip possible. It's been awesome so far. So now it's time to ride some more during the week and prepare for forthcoming events... Rock On"

Well there you have it, a very modest report for someone who just kicked ass in a contest! Well done Tyrone!!!!

Posted by: Admin [July 24, 2006]

Tyrone Bradley Wins in Liverpool:

We just heard that Federal team rider Tyrone Bradley won the Pro Park and Pro Dirt comp held in Liverpool this past weekend! We are super stoked for Tyrone, and we hope that the prize money helps put some food in his belly for the remainder of his trip. We will have more news on Tyrone's weekend, and hopefully some pics as well in the coming days.

We also heard that Matt McLeod finished in 8th place in the dirt comp at the BMX Masters in Germany. Congratulations to Matt!

Posted by: Admin [July 24, 2006]

Bling Bling:

Odyssey just released their latest limited edition part. This time they are doing chrome monolevers! These are not polished alloy like other levers, these are 100% chrome plated. The levers will be available in short and medium lengths, and will be in stores by early August. Once again, this is a once off limited run, so you better grab them while you can!

Posted by: Admin [July 20, 2006]

The End of an Era:

Today is a very sad day for BMX in SA. Yesterday was the last BMX session at the Canal Walk skate park before it is torn down this week. The park was in many ways a hub for the Cape Town scene, and some of CT's best riders came up through this park. Apparently the mall are using the space to build new shops, so the park had to go. There are plans for a new park to be built in the mall at a later stage, but as yet there are no concrete plans. Its a real shame that a city as big as Cape Town now doesn't even have a skate park for the locals to ride!

Here is a pic that we dug out of the archives of Buddy Chellan doing a turn down fakie on the parks mini ramp. We hope that the riders of cape Town get a new park soon...

Posted by: Admin [July 17, 2006]

Bike Check:

We thought we would end off the week with a bit of a bike check for all of you. Today we have Toby Gronewalds FBM Bitchen Camaro, and this is one sweet ride. Toby recently rawed his bike and put a few new parts on it, so we thought we would let you all see what he is running.

TOBYS BIKE:
FRAME: FBM Bitchen Camaro 21.25TT
FORK: Odyssey Pro Race
BARS: T-1 Medium
STEM: Fly Bikes
GRIPS: Fly Ruben 155mm (Brown)
LEVER: tech 77
CABLE: Odyssey Linear
BRAKES: Fly Brakes
FRONT WHEEL: Profile mini (36),with Alex supra B
REAR WHEEL: Profile mini cassette (36), with Alex supra B
TYRES: Fly Bikes 1.9 (back), Fly Bikes 2.2 (front)
CRANKS: Profile race 180mm
PEDALS: Animal Hamilton pedals
SPROCKET: T-1 American flyer
CHAIN: KMC Drop Buster light
SEAT: Coalition
SEAT POST: Odyssey lntac

Here is a shot of Toby's recently rawed frame and cranks, as well as his new Animal pedals.

Finally we end off with this pic of Toby shredding "Gum Trails" on his nimble steed. Thanks to Wayne for all the pics! Its Friday, the weather looks good, and its time to go ride! Check back next week for more news and updates.

Posted by: Admin [July 14, 2006]

New Public Park:

A brand new park is opening this weekend in Westridge Gardens (Cape Town). The park is a public park which means its free to use and it is also BMX friendly! The grand opening is on the 15th of July and the days festivities kick off at 11:00 in the morning.

If you live in the area then get your friends together and head on down there. The more BMX riders who support these type of events the better. Its also great to see councils finally providing free spots for riders and skaters to do their thing, and the more support BMX riders give to these facilities, the more chance we have of new ones being built around the country.

Directions to the new park are as follows...

Travel along Vanguard Drive
Turn left at the 4 way robot of Morgenster Rd (there's a shopping complex on the left)
Turn right at the forth robot into De Duin Rd
The park is on the right after the Council Depot

Posted by: Admin [July 12, 2006]

Travelers Update:

We have more news from SA riders that are traveling overseas. First up Matt Mcleod sent us a mail saying that he has been having a great time in the UK and that he has been riding a lot of trails. He also sent us this pic of him riding this small park near to where he is staying. I would love to say that his huge no harder blew us away, but to be honest that guy shredding the park in his pyjamas definitely needs to get the credit in this photo!

Matt also sent us this pic of "Team Tailwhip" which he was a part of. The team consisted of himself, Colin, and Dan, and they came second in the train competition at the Urban Games. Matt is now heading to Bristol for a few days and then he is off to the Masters in Germany.

We also heard that Colin Loudon took another nasty bail while riding trails and hurt his hand quite badly. It seems like Colin may be off his bike for the rest of his trip, but we are hoping that he heals up quick.

Finally, Federal team rider Tyrone Bradley has a pic up in the photo gallery on the bmxonline web site. Head on over to www.bmxonline.com and scroll down a few posts the July 8th. There is an awesome pic of him sliding a rail in Salt Lake City during his trip there last year. Thanks to Wayne Reiche for letting us know!

Posted by: Admin [July 11, 2006]

New Products and News:

The new limited edition colour Odyssey Linear Cable has just been released. This time around the colour is "Battle Ship Gray" and they look awesome! These will also match perfectly with the new "Natural Gray" Ribcage or Hazard light rims. We are shipping these out to stores starting today so you should see them in your local bike store by the end of the week. As with all the previous limited edition colours these are a one off production run, and once they are gone they are gone for good. So if you want one you better go grab one today!

We have also made another update to the products page. All the new Sunday products are up there for you to check out. Head on over to the products page and get a look at the new range of Sunday goods.

We also have some news from team riders and friends who are on the road.. Roscoe Siebers sent us a mail from Germany to say that James Plumbridge and himself are having a great time. The two PE locals have spent the last few days riding some indoor trails, and have also learnt some new tricks in the foam pit. Roscoe and James are now heading to Belgium, Holland, and then the Rebel Jam before returning to South Africa.

Federal Team rider Tyrone Bradley also sent us a mail to say that he has arrived in the UK in one piece and is having a good time. Tyrone is staying with legendary videographer Fraser Byrne of STF fame, and has been threatening to get some clips for the upcoming Empire video. Hopefully they can capture a few jems during Tyrone's stay. Tyrone also managed to grab the last spot in registration for the Rebel Jam Pro class. Rebel Jam sounds like its going to be an amazing event this year and we wish Tyrone all the best of luck.

Well that's the news for today. Jimmy is about to draw the 2 winners from last months Sunday / SHOOK competition, so if you entered keep your fingers crossed...

Posted by: Admin [July 10, 2006]

Colin Loudon News:

Colin Just sent us a mail to let us know what he has been up to. Sounds like he has been having a really good time hitting up lots of trails, and getting a lot of riding done. As we mentioned before he crashed pretty hard a few days ago, but he is still riding and making the most of his visit to the UK. He also sent us this photo photo of Baz Keep that he took at the Urban Games. Look how high he is airing out of that ramp! Its more of a bank then a quarter and he still manages to get crazy height.

Some of you will also have noticed that the Sunday / SHOOK competition is now closed. We had an amazing response to the competition last month, and we would like to thank all of you who took the time to enter. We will be announcing the winners shortly.

Posted by: Admin [July 05, 2006]

Quick Update:

We just received word that Matt McLeod got 2nd at the Urban Games in the UK this past weekend! We have been helping Matt out with parts for a while now and its awesome to see Matt doing so well in the international events. Matt is going to be hitting up a bunch of comps in Europe in the coming months so we will keep you posted on his progress.

We also heard that Odyssey team rider Colin Loudon had a bad crash in his qualifying runs and ended up not riding in the rest of the event. Colin is also going to remain in the UK for a while so we will keep you posted on what he gets up to.

Posted by: Admin [July 03, 2006]

FOX Pro Am:

Well the FOX Pro-Am went down this weekend and it was an awesome event! Once again riders from all over the country made their way to Wavehouse, and the level of riding was amazing. The guys from FOX put up a ton of product and cash for the winners, and we sponsored the Am event with complete DK bikes for the top 3 Am's. The level of riding in the Am class was so much better then last year, and it was great to see so many young kids ripping it up. The Pro class was some of the best riding we have seen to date, and there was some incredible stuff going down in the park. A big thanks must go out to all the riders who made an effort to get to the event, and a big thanks must go out to all the people behind the scenes who made it possible. Here are the official final results, followed by some pics of the action...

Am Results:
1st: Kyle Oosthuizen
2nd: Stuart Loudon
3rd: Justin Boniface

Pro Results:
1st: Malcolm Peters
2nd: Greg Illingworth
3rd: Tyrone Bradley (Federal)
4th: Paul Soderlund (Fly)
5th -Tie-: Buddy Chellan (Fly)
5th -Tie-: Chris Barnes
7th: Jacques Fourie
8th: Brad Illingworth (FBM)

Blunt Full Throttle Award:
Kyle Oosthuizen

Tyrone Bradley Was killing it this weekend and was finding good lines all over the park. The kicker up to this is so steep, but Tyrone pulled this fuf on the hip super smooth.

Tyrone was also blasting huge airs out of the 8ft quarter. The park was set up a little different to last years event which made flowing around quite difficult. Tyrone didn't have any problems though, and was getting plenty speed to blast these airs.

Greg Illingworth was also riding amazingly well, and had some huge lines around the park. He did two huge whip gaps during his runs, one across the channel and one off the top of the roller and into a flat bank. Here he is with a no-foot-can over the hip.

Greg was also shredding the 8ft, and was nose diving in on these tables.

Malcolm Peters was the winner of this years event and it was clear to see why when he rode. He was firing off huge tricks all over the park (Whips, Flairs, 360 turn downs...) and was going high and smooth all at the same time.

Malcolm also pulled this double whip over the box jump during his final run.

Paul Soderlund was one of my favourite riders of the event. He seriously pulls everything he tries with almost no effort. It is absolutely amazing to watch him ride. Paul pulled some of the most technical tricks of the event, including a Pedal stall to fufanu to opposite 270 out on the sub box!!!! Paul also mixed in some big airs and tailwhips in the quarters which were smooth as butter.

This picture doesn't do justice to what is happening here but Paul is doing a Pedal stall to tyre tap to fakie into the quarter. Paul was absolutely shredding and it was a treat to watch him ride.

Another mention must go to Buddy Chellan who had a killer first run in the finals! He was going huge but after crashing in the beginning of his 2nd run he didn't place as high as he could have. Buddy rode awesome though and was doing some amazing stuff.

Brad Illingworth also made the finals but completely self destructed on his opening tick of his first run in the finals. Brad opened up with a huge gap to rail but hooked up on an upright and was sent straight to the ground. He got up and went for it again and hooked up a second time going over the bars and landing with a bar end in the gut. That pretty much brought Brads riding to an end for the day, but didn't take away from some amazing riding over the weekend.

1st Place Pro rider Malcolm Peters receiving his prize.

2nd Place Pro rider Greg Illingworth.

3rd Place Pro rider Tyrone Bradley.

1st Place Am rider Kyle Oosthuizen. This kid was killing it and took a well deserved win. Huge tricks, and a bunch of style. Kyle also took the Blunt Full Throttle award.

2nd Place Am rider Stuart Loudon collecting his prizes. Stu also rode amazingly well and had tons of tech tricks as well as some bangers.

3rd Place Am Rider Justine Boniface. Justin was going huge during his runs and was also doing tons of tricks. He came all the way from Gauteng to compete and took home a well deserved 3rd place finish.

Well That is pretty much what went down at this weekends event. Thanks to FOX, DK Bicycles, Swatch watches, wavehouse, and everyone who came down to ride. We hope to see all of you at the next one in December.

Posted by: Admin [July 03, 2006]