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Sunday, March 25, 2007

Get a grip

Universal is rolling out all sorts of radical new gear for 2007 and the Pistol Grip is no exception.

This piece comes in white, gum rubber or black and 2 different compounds: Ultra Soft and Medium/Hard for your riding pleasure.

The MX version of the Pistol Grip will be available for sale in the US in early May.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

An update from UMX FMX-er Busty Wolter

Hello. Finally I am back home after two weeks on the road. After a couple of days in Spain with André Villa and Rino Holm (thanks for the hospitality and especially thanks for letting me help you with all these incountable cubes of foam... ;-) ) I rode at the Masters of Dirt in Innsbruck / Austria. I did my first big gap flips onto a mobile landing succesfully and finished in 6 th place in the finals. I also won the whip contest. Yes!

Straight after the show Tobi Immler and me headed direction northwest to Rotterdam / Netherlands for the next show on sunday. As you can imagine, we had to drive pretty much the whole night and did not get much sleep. The good part of it: we were not alone since Jimmy Verburgh and his crew had to do the same. In Rotterdam we did a great show at the Red Bull Fuel event in spite of a little bit tricky landing since the angel was pretty steep and difficult to time.

The following week I spend with a little bit easy-going time. I went freeriding on my famous German „Secret Spot“ with my buddy and editor in chief of „Mountainbike Rider Magazine“ Lippe on Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday I went snowboarding with my Upforce buddy Marc Fischer and rode in Tobi Immler's FMX park in Munich on thursday (he broke his collarbone that day. Get well!!!) before visiting the Austrian part of my family on Thursday evening and Friday.

On the weekend it was time for the next Masters of Dirt event in Vienna / Austria. We had a great track with good dirt and so the show was great. Especially the crossover idea with a BMX/MTB dirtjumop show was very cool and the bicycle guys pushed it really hard. Imressionante! For some reason I did not make it to the finals on both days (ok, the reason for not making it on the 2nd night could have to do something with the aftershowparty...), but got respect from the other riders and BMX guys for some of my tricks (and that counts much more to me than what the judges are saying). Somehow the judges liked my whips on sunday and I won the whipcontest again. I seem to be on a roll with the whipcontest right now, having won three in the past month!

Now it is time for some practice at home to get in shape for the IFMXF Night of the Jumps in my hometown Berlin. And of course I wanna ride to impress all my homies on March 31st and April 1st. That‘s it for now!

Cheers,

Busty

Next events:
31.3. / 1.4.2007 IFMXF Night of the Jumps, Berlin / Germany www.ifmxf.com
07./08.04.2007 IFMXF Worldchampionships, Graz / Austria www.ifmxf.com
22.-28.04.2007 BAUMA 2007, Munich / Germany

Open Dutch Outdoor national round 1

Both Erwin Robins and Jarno Verhorevoort qualified for the main event at the first round of the Open Dutch championships which looked more like the first Grand Prix of the season with all the factory riders present. On the rough sandy track it was hard for both riders to come back from mediocre starts so we don't have podium finishes to brag about this week. The coffee was good though.

Orlando Supercross with Mike Alessi

Friday, March 16, 2007

Busty sprays some more champagne

UMX FMX pilot Sebastian "Busty" Wolter did a show contest in Rotterdam, The Netherlands at a car show over the weekend. The judges (a.o. GP rider Marc de Reuver) gave the win to a backflipper but Busty (on that yellow Suzuki) managed to grab some champagne to spray the trophy girls and everyone who was within reach.

Here's a link to a little movie of the show.

Team MX Jarno is rolling in new colours

It's always a hassle getting things done in time for the season. Co-sponsors need to be contacted, products need to be picked up, sponsors need to get their spot on the letterhead, -the website and -the jersey and then there is always that big project left; the vehicle. MXJarno Verhorevoort pulled it off in time for the season that basically starts this Sunday in Gemert with the Open Dutch Championships series. The vehicle received a new paint job and the co-sponsors got a spot on the back. If you look close you can find the Universal MX logo in the left column, third from the top but we're more concerned about the coffee machine.... see you Sunday Jarno!

Monday, March 12, 2007

The Weekly Alessi update

Some fine tuning for Jarno and Erwin

Friday, March 09, 2007

Busty Wolter update

Hello, it‘s been a while since the last news. BUT: I was busy! In the end of January I went to New Zealand. I had a great time there and thanks to Nick Franklin and his family for taking care of me. A short summary of the trip: awesome! A little more info: two days of sick freeriding at Brad Lextons farm, a really bad sunburn on the second day (NZ sun is agressive!), a cool MTB ride in a fun MTB park, a great time with Nick, Daice Suzuki, Libor Podmol and all the NZ riders (props to Joe, Tim, Paul and the NO FRIENDS crew), and finally a cool contest: the X-AIR.

Unfortunately the weather was not so nice on the contest days, so we had only one qualifier, then it started to rain. The rain postponed the final day by one day. But on Sunday it was superwindy and after postponing the finals two times on that day it finally got cancelled.
Bummer! So in the end the qualification results counted, so Robbi Adelberg from Australia won
with a sick run and really biiiiig grab-tricks. Daice finished in 2nd, Libor in 3rd (on a stock bike, since all his parts got lost) and me in 4th position (shouldn‘t have taken that easy in the very first qualifier...). But everybody was really close in the points and we did a great show for the crowd. So everything was cool. Hope to come back next year!

When I came home I could go riding in the German winter (which wasn‘t quite that bad this year) to do some more practice for the first IFMXF worldchampionship round in Liberec / CZ. I learned some new tricks and felt prepared. Liberec was not bad to me. I finished in 4th place in the qualification, won the whip contest together with Remi Bizouard and finally finished in a safe 5th position. That was totally fine, since the top 4 guys were on their own level, busting out much more flipcombos than I am able to do. But Martin Koren in 6th place was a couple of points behind me, so I think I did my homeworks during winter. Now I think I have to learn more flipcombos...

The event in Liberec was on a thursday, so I had to head down to Graz / Austria really quick because on the weekend it was time for the first round of the new Masters of Dirt series. The track was a little bit technical, since the area behind the landings was pretty tight. But technical seems to be good for me since I could finish in 3rd position on saturday night behind Mike Mason and Remi Bizouard (and in front of guys as Dustin Miller, Derek Burlew, Libor Podmol and IFMXF winner Romain Izzo). Regarding to the other riders I won the discodancer award at the aftershow-party and only hurt me knee a little bit while dancing... ;-) Anyway, on the second night I finished 4th in the qualification and 6th in the final (don‘t ask me why...).

Now I am sitting in Spain and trying to hide away from the April-style rainy weather in Germany. But since it is pretty windy today, I think I have to stop writing this newsletter and jump into the ocean to take a swim and cool down...

The rest of the month will be filled with the Masters of Dirt events in Innsbruck and Vienna and the next IFMXF event in my hometown Berlin. Stay tuned...

Busty
Next events: 10.03.2007 Masters of Dirt, Innsbruck / Austria www.mastersofdirt.com 17./18.03.2007 Masters of Dirt, Vienna / Austria www.mastersofdirt.com 31.03./01.4.2007 IFMXF Night of the Jumps, Berlin / Germany www.ifmxf.com

MX Jarno trains in Spain

When it's too cold and too wet to ride at home and the season is about to begin there are a couple of options. The Swedes like Magnus Lindfors (Carla Pro Shop/UMX) move down to Holland where the Dutch are looking for the sun and go seek for dry tracks over in Spain.

Universal rider Jarno Verhorevoort spent a couple of weeks riding on hard pack terrain but at least he was riding. The Suzuki held up fine and spending time on the bike just feels good, especially if yo think about the competition back home who are trying to make a couple of laps in the mud until they get stuck.

Erwin Robins struggles at first race

The season has started for Erwin Robins. The undefeated 2006 champion of the MON MX1 class entered his first race in Boekel, The Netherlands and claimed a 4th and a 12th place finish for 8th overall on his 2-stroke Pro Circuit tuned 250cc Yamaha.

In the first moto he almost hit the gate which messed up his start. He did his laps and made it to 4th place. The start of the second moto was a lot better but he bumped into a couple of riders in the first turn and had to catch up from there. He passed riders one by one until he got stuck in the mud and several riders passed the 2006 champ. Once free he continued the race to finish 12th which meant 8th place overall.

Erwin has received a wildcard to enter the first round of the Open Dutch Nationals. He will meet up with riders like Josh Coppins, Kevin Strijbos, Steve Ramon, Marc de Reuver, Tanel Leok and many more Grand Prix riders. We'll see how his 2 stroke will hold up against all the 4 stroke factory power that will show up on the gate. Universal rider Jarno Verhorevoort will enter the same race. We'll be there for the action. Stay tuned (Race: Sunday 18 March).

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

FOR SALE

After four years of faithful service, we're putting our Universal trade show booth out to pasture.

The UMX bar booth can be configured in one of several designs:

• 20 x 20 peninsula

• 20 x 10 standard isle

The booth includes one backdrop, one freestanding bar, six high-back bar stools, and three custom-built crates for easy storage and transport.

The freestanding back wall features three replaceable backlit photo boxes. Each photo box includes its own florescent lighting. These photo boxes can be updated with transparent photo or logo panels to make the booth your own.

The boomerang-shaped freestanding bar is an excellent selling tool, as it puts your customers on once side and your sales team on the other. There is plenty of storage beneath the bar for catalogs, product samples, coolers, etc.

This booth has suffered virtually no structural damage in four years of faithful service, and only very minor cosmetic damage (chipped formica laminates, scratches on the bottom of the booth structure from normal setup and wear.)

This booth would make a great first booth for a growing parts company, or even a small apparel brand.

Interested parties should contact miked@universalmotocross.com

We can arrange freight via common carrier for the final buyer.

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