George Boyd just joined the ranks of Mutiny‘s pro team. Here’s a welcome edit he fired out in an afternoon. Congrats George!

After more than a year of ride testing and development the Tomahawk Stem is finally available at shops worldwide.

The Tomahawk is based around a list of front-load features that Chase Hawk requested and it is the first front-load stem to use convergent bolt axes for the front cap. This allows the stem to have the separate adjustability and “look” of a traditional four bolt front-loader, but with a smoother overall shape. It also eliminates the stresses associated with letting the bolt holes break through the outer face of the stem body. As a bonus, this means that the stem still looks “normal” when it is flipped to raise the handlebars.

You’ll also notice that the Tomahawk makes use of the steerer tube clamping design that is found in the Elementary stem. With this unique configuration the locking bolt for the fork’s steerer tube remains straight during tightening (rather than bending as the wedges rotate around the steerer). The stem’s fully internal clamp design also means that the back of the body can be bolt-free, and knee-friendly.

For the Tomahawk, we invested in full forging tools for the stem’s cap and body in order to maximize the strength of the material used. This stem was designed as a forging (rather than simply machining it) because forging improves a part’s strength by forming the ideal grain structure that is needed for a given shape. As a benefit, this process also means that we can offer the stem at a reasonable selling price.

• Front-load design
• Chase Hawk approved
• Converging front bolt axes eliminate typical through-hole stresses and improve the stem’s look when flipped
• Easily accessible internal clamping system
• Forged 6061-T6 aluminum maximizes strength and minimizes waste
• 53mm reach
• 9.5mm rise or 22.5mm when flipped
• 9.4 oz (266g)

Chase Hawk Bike Check (View Parts List, Photos by Devon Hutchins)

Watch Hoang Tran and a couple buddies session a park in Rancho Penasquitos. Video from Vital BMX

Defgrip re-upped their Chase Hawk / Oakley promo from last year. Watch it now if you haven’t done so already.

Eastern Bikes just put up this video of Adam Banton killing it on street, park and dirt. He does so many good tricks in this that you don’t see many (if any) people doing.

Click play, then add him on Facebook and Twitter.

Check out Matthias Dandois riding a mix of flatland and street in the Canary Islands with the rest of the Vans crew.

Broc Raiford’s a Louisiana youngin’ that’s sure to make some big moves in 2012. After meeting him at Texas Toast last year, his great attitude and natural talent earned him a spot on the team. This ODSY Vision marks Broc’s inaugural video part with us and he definitely delivered. Watch it above and then give him a quick shout on twitter @brocafloka.

Special thanks to Jon Rogers, Andrew Sanford, Chase Frickey and Brandon Gauthreaux for helping push the record button and hanging out!

ESPN has a new video up of Matthias Dandois and Alex Jumelin sessioning a spot in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Gary Young and the rest of the Van’s team seek out some spots in the Canary Islands.

It was a tough task but we gathered up all of our favorite clips from every ODSY Vision this year and mixed it all into one action packed edit. As an added bonus, we even threw in a few fresh clips we had been saving.

Thanks to all of our riders and guest filmers/editors for helping make this video series one of the best. It’s been a great year and if this recap wasn’t enough, hit up ODSYVISION.com to get full platter.

We are dedicated to improving our cable’s technical features, so we recently began selling all of our Linear Slic Kable® with our new K-Shield™ housing. This new design greatly improves the housing’s compression strength. To illustrate the difference we performed a test. As you can see, all “linear” cables are not created equal. The Odyssey Linear Slic Kable® with K-Shield™ has a compression strength that is nearly 70% greater than its nearest competitor. What this means for you is longer cable life and improved reliability.

When it comes to cables, don’t fall for the same old sales pitch. They’re not all the same. We know that you’ll appreciate the long life of these cables as much as we do. K-Shield™ is included on every Linear Slic Kable® that we make.

Linear Slic Kable® housing with K-Shield™

Our long history with brake cable innovation can be traced back to the launch of our first Slic Kables® and Gyro® Cables in 1986. Over the years we have continued to make improvements to size, fit and performance. We’ve gone on to release products like the BrakeLine Slic Kable® in 1998 with a special Teflon® coated inner-wire to greatly reduce cable friction. We also released the original Linear Slic Kable® in 2003, which went on to change the way that riders look at detanglers. This design used the first derailleur-based housing with a BMX-style inner wire, allowing riders to do a barspin or tailwhip without having to worry about the cable binding up. Since that time nearly every brand has followed in our footsteps, releasing their own “linear” cables, which in most cases are a design that is simply rebranded straight out of cable manufacturer’s catalog.

In 2008 we began to include volcano ferrules with every Linear Slic Kable that we sold. These specialty ferrules helped to prevent the housing from blowing out unexpectedly. In response, we would often hear from riders that they didn’t know why our cables were better, but for some reason they always seemed to last longer. Part of the reason, of course, was the use of volcano ferrules.

As time moved on we also saw a desire for a lighter cable, so we released our Race Linear Slic Kable® earlier this year. This design uses a special mix of aluminum compression wires to lighten the housing. We also heard a call for us to bring back the friction-free BrakeLine cable around the same time, so we launched the Linear SLS® Slic Kable® in 2011 as well.

Simplifying braking performance has been a priority for us from the beginning, so we recently created the Linear Quik Slic Kable® with an integrated cable hanger. The Quik Slic is available now as an OEM part on Sunday complete bikes and it will be offered for sale separately in early 2012.

• Odyssey Linear Slic Kable® (Diagram)
  The original BMX linear cable.
• Odyssey Race Linear Slic Kable® (Diagram)
  The original BMX linear cable with a housing that is approximately 37% lighter.
• Linear Slic Kable® (Diagram)
  The original BMX linear cable with a specially coated inner wire for ultra low friction.
• Odyssey Quik Slic Kable®
  The original BMX linear cable with an integrated cable, hanger and straddle unit for a tool-free configuration that also allows for better brake modulation. Patent pending.

The Ride UK Reader Awards happened this past weekend and Aaron Ross took home the win for the Worldwide Rider of the Year. Congrats!!!

Gary Young‘s featured in the latest Van’s Video Vault and not only is he beyond clicked in a bunch of these clips, he also does multiple ET’s in one 360. Brought to you by Vital BMX.

The San Diego crew, including Gary Young, Hoang Tran, Kyle Hart and the artist formerly known as “Dirt Ron,” drove out to Slab City to catch a sunrise session before the weirdos woke up. Come to find out, we were the fist-bumping weirdos.

– Justin Kosman

Come watch what it’s like to live a day in Eric’s shoes.
Video from Sunday Bikes.

Aaron Ross, Gary Young, Eric Lichtenberger, Jim Cielencki and the rest of the Sunday crew spent a week at Woodward West this summer and it looks like they had a bunch of fun. Watch it above!

One of our favorite dudes on the planet has this sweet new video profile up from The Last People.

Click the photo to download and save the wallpaper

Here’s the Baltic Triangle video Sunday premiered earlier this week on their Facebook page. For added radness, they put together a wallpaper of Gary Young tire sliding a roof!

The 2011 Vans RebelJam has come and gone. In the end, Matthias Dandois took home the win in flatland for every single category they had (style, creativity and hardest trick). Congrats Matthias!

Video from RideBMX.com

Here’s some new fire from Broc. It’s pretty impressive that he banged all this out in just 3 days. Wow.
Via RideBMX.com

Tom Perry found some bonus clips inside his computer and put together this edit for us. It’s short and sweet but if you want more Tom in your life, make sure to hit up his Vimeo page.

We have an extra special ODSY Vision for you guys this month. Mike Aitken and Tom Dugan hop into the Trans AM and travel through Idaho and Montana to hit up some concrete treasures.

Filmed and Edited by Joe Rich.

The story of Kurt Yaeger and his courage to get back on a BMX bike following a horrific motorcycle accident in 2006 is a story we’ve [ESPN] featured previously in this very blog. Following the accident, Yaeger’s left leg was amputated below the calf. But Kurt defied all odds and returned to riding, relearning tricks, working on new technologies to facilitate his riding and riding in the X Games.

- ESPN BMX

Click the photo to watch the video.

FLAT & STREET
THE FRENCH CONNECTION

It was inevitable, using the same environment, flat and street would connect one day and create a new evolution (a revolution ?) of bmx riding. After legends like Dave Voelker, Paul Osicka, Chad De Groot, Akira Okamura or even Steve Hamilton for his nosemanual, the world best flatlander Matthias Dandois wanted to explore new horizons and transfer his incredible skills to the streets, creating a new style of riding. Close witness of this, we (soulbmxmag) wanted to associate the other french bmx genius Florent Soulas, and Guillaume Le Goff (aka libellule) a super tech back wheel street rider from paris to make an article in soul #72 where the guys explain this new thing and also in this beautiful (i think) video from our unique Hadrien Picard who is showing the hard working and talented french connection in some incredible and never seen moves.

- soulbmxmag.com

The Etnies King of the Skatepark contest happened this weekend and we are very psyched to announce that Broc Raiford took home the win for Street Open and Tom Dugan blasted over everyone in the High Air portion. Watch the video above from Ride BMX for all the action.