» Biography / Interview:

What´s your name, how old are you and where do you live?

My name is Dan Margetts, I am 19 and I live in a small city in the UK called Worcester.

How long have you been riding flatland for?

I have been riding around 5 to 6 years, at a guess.

What is the scene and flatland spots like where you live?

There are only a couple of flatland riders where I live. Unfortunately I get kicked off most places where I ride, which I find annoying as I ride in empty carparks! I try and ride in a Unversity carpark and when the weathers bad I have an indoor spot, inside a shopping mall.

What inspires you to ride?

I like to watch flatland Video´s, also martial arts, like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee films. I like listening to music when I ride. Music inspires me so much!

What sort of music styles do you like?

I listen to all sorts of styles, rock, metal,funk, old punk, hip-hop, blues and industrial. I like bands such as Beastie boys, ministry, gravity kills, Primus, Tool
and Dead Kennedy´s.

What is your aim in flatland?

I want to push flatland in my own way, create unusual weird tricks and variations. I would like to get a section on a video, do some traveling abroad, meet people and have a good time riding for as long as possible.

Any flatlanders you espececially like to ride with?

All flatlanders I have riden with have inspired me in some way. Tom Marsh and Ian Earl are two great flat riders who I respekt. Tom travels to comps all over the globe and is totally into his riding. Ian progresses so fast, with some real tough links. Take a turbine cliffhanger to gerator for instance! Jesse Puente has inspired me a lot. He is a highly creative flatlander, with an array of ingenious ideas and concepts for tricks.

What sort of tricks are you working on?

I try and think as original and different as I can. The strange and different fuel flatland. Flatland, to me, is about having a creative idea in your head, then making that idea become reallity. I like to see new tricks being invented, this shows that flatland is still progressing. At the moment I am improvising, substituting parts of the bike for a peg for example. I want to be innovative and different.

Do you think flatland will keep progressing?

There are still plenty of tricks, combo´s and variations out there, some might have been thought of, just not made a reallity yet. It will be harder to find something new, but there are tricks out there waiting to be put into practice. It is just a matter of being creative and thinking laterally.

What is flatland to you?

Flatland seems to be everything to me. It is constantly on my mind, wether I am thinking of a new trick or thinking where flatland could take me if I practice hard enough. I think flatland is more of an artform rather than a sport. It is way of being creative, expressing yourself and having your own indivdual style.

What is your reason for taking off your brakes?

For a few reasons, mainly to push my riding a different direction, more towards rolling tricks. I don´t think brake are nescessary for flatland, it´s just a matter of finding the tricks balancing point.

Last words and thankyou´s?

If you have an idea, no matter how weird, different or strange it may be just stick with it. Flatland thrives on the weird and different.
Thanks to anyone and anything that has inspired me all the flatlanders with something original, especially Lee Musselwhite with all the crazy no-foot stuff.
Big thanks to Jesse Puente for inspiring me and getting me hooked up on KHE bikes.
Thanks to my parents, my girlfriend Kim, worcester Flatlanders, eggy at the ramps for all his help, Xstales,BMXRIDER magazine, Thomas Göring at KHE, I.D., Mycycles at Malvern for all those repairs, Mouse the legend, Fozz, Tom Marsh, Ian Earl, Ian Young, the London flatlanders, Dino and Paul in Ireland, sorry anyone I missed. Now go and ride!