Paul Chamberlain who has recently been added to the Freestyle Now bmx stunt squad, spent a large part of a year living and working in Vietnam recently. Naturally he got involved with the flatland riding scene and found that there are a lot of riders who ride hard and progress well. The one thing he found was the quality of the bikes that they all ride. Somehow they manage with very poor quality bikes. The bikes available to us in Kmart would be a dream ride for a Vietnamese kid. Every session in Ho Chi Minh City there will always be a rider breaking some parts on their bike but despite this the general standard of flatland riding in very high. The riders are extremely positive, dedicated, hard-working and encouraging of each other.
For the riders to get decent parts it is very difficult and costly. The riders can buy really cheap parts from the markets but they don’t last very long. The riders don’t even run bar plugs as their bars only last about one week before they are broken. Paul saw the need to help the riders in Ho Chi Minh City area and started to source used parts form riders in Australia and got them sent over to him to give to the riders. Cranks, forks, handle bars, stems, grips and seats were just some of the parts that were donated to the riders. When Ben Moran went over to visit Paul he just left his complete bike there for the riders to have when he left. A very noble gesture indeed.
One rider that Paul got on well with while living in Vietnam for the year was Tánh Gá or Chicken Boy as he is known in English. He speaks English pretty well and they had good times riding and hanging out. He is one of the more advanced riders in the area and his level of skill is progressing well considering he has a very below par bike to ride. Paul did an interview with him for the rider of the month for global-flat back in December, check it out here for the information.
Freestyle Now wanted to support Tánh Gá and what better way to do this than by giving him a new complete bike and welcoming him to the Freestyle Now bmx stunt squad. We contacted our good friends at Newcircle the online bmx flatland store and got Tánh set up with a brand new Colony Apprentice. This will definitely be an improvement on his previous bike which is detailed below.
Frame – Dragon Fly , Fork – GT , Headset – market , Stem – market , Bars – donated by Australian riders , Grips – DK grip , Brakes – brakeless , Seat post – market , Seat post clamp – market , Seat – market , Cranks – Colony donated by Australian riders , Pedals – market , Bottom bracket – market , Sprocket – market , Chain – donated by Australian riders , Rims – front market – back from Ben Moran , Spokes – market , Hubs – front market – back dead now can’t ride , Pegs – Colony from Ben Moran , Tires – Odyssey from Paul Chamberlain , Tubes – market.
Check out his squad profile page here for more infomation on the first international rider to be added to the Freestyle Now squad. Tánh has just taken delivery of this new ride which you can see in the photo on the left and in a few days time we will have some photos up on line soon of him shredding the new rig. This below video was taken a few months ago so you can see some of his riding along with one of his good riding friends Phước Phù. (Tánh is on the blue bike).
In the words of Paul about Tánh and his crew “He’s a great friend and now a Freestyle Now squad member. With good parts he’ll be able to spend more time freestyling and progressing. I’m proud to call them all my friends and they are an inspiration to me.”
