Meet The Crew: BMXTR - ISTANBUL, TURKEY
"friendship and support is essential"
Meet The Owner: Ediz Tensi
Age: 49
Years riding: 34
Can you give us a brief history of your store?
Our social BMX rider platform BMXTR was founded by three people in 2015 - Ahmet Melih, Yavas-Ediz Tensi and Akman Atilgan, who have been childhood friends and riding since the 80s. There was great interest from Turkish BMX riders in our platform which was publishing interviews, rider profiles and bike checks. Thanks to our efforts, we have increased the community from a few hundred riders to thousands of Turkish riders who are following us. Every year we organize Turkish BMX Day in Istanbul with hundreds of riders competing and we have several sponsors, including the Turkish Cycling Federation and Istanbul Municipality along with the private sector. We also represent the BMX section in the Turkish Cycling Federation aiming to compete in UCI events. In 2016 we also started our commercial entity and acquired exclusive distributorships from Haro, BSD, Flybikes, Demolition, WeThePeople and WeMakeThings Brands such as Eclat, Fuse, Radio, Salt, Saltplus and many other brands. Since 2019 we have also been designing BMX bikes and in 2020 we started our complete bike production, ZoidBikes, along with aftermarket parts for our brand Zoid.
Also being old school riders, we have a small museum of around 30 old school bikes from the 80s and 90s in our shop for the attention of those who appreciate the history of BMX.
What type of riders are part of your community and what makes your community so special?
Our social media attracts many Turkish riders from Turkey or living outside Turkey. We value dedication to riding and friendship in our community, which binds our riders together no matter where they are from and their age groups. We like bringing them together at our events and organizations. There is great support between riders and from our shop for talented riders which makes our community special. Everyone acknowledges in our community that friendship and continuous support are essential for sustainable riding. We also have volunteer doctors on our social media platform who can consult with our riders in case of an injury or whenever necessary which is one of our ways to continually support our riders.
There is always someone in our BMX scene that we can talk about BMX with for long hours, both from new school riders and old school riders. There’s great bonding in our BMX community.
What’s your favourite BMX video?
101 freestyle tricks, RAD Movie. I am an old school rider, why do you think? :)
Who is your favourite BMX filmer?
My favourite BMX filmer is Rich Forne. I think he is just great.
What’s your favourite BMX page on Instagram?
Difficult to name one, but I can tell you my favourites: @digbmx, @bmx.museum, @bmxfreestyling and @fatbmx
Where can we find you on Instagram? @etensi
Meet The Crew: Ismail Emre Dalgıç
Name: İsmail Emre DALGIÇ
Age: 18
Years riding: 9
What’s your favourite BMX video?
Dennis Enarson's Caps Lock video. Every trick in the video is just insane 5.
Who is your favourite BMX filmer?
Dave Sowerby. He makes great videos for BSD.
Tell us what’s good about your local scene:
The big BMX scene is in Istanbul in Turkey. I live in Izmir which has a smaller BMX scene, but it makes us special and we are invited for so many events around Izmir. And there is good friendship between different cities and I travel a lot to Istanbul and Cyprus to ride with friends.
What’s your favourite BMX page on Instagram? @digbmx
What’s your Instagram? @ismail_emredlgc
Meet The Crew: Ahmet Samet Erdem
Age: 26
Years riding: 9
What’s your favourite BMX video?
Federal BMX - Barcelona 2013, was a video I saw when I had just started riding BMX. The selection of music, professionally editing the clips in line with the music, the presence of different riders and their tricks and the vibe of the video still motivate me.
DAN LACEY | BEYÔND – I think this video is a piece of art. The coherence of the music, tricks and set up are just great.
Who is your favourite BMX filmer?
Richard Forne, Will Stroud and John Hicks. I think these GUYS understand what the riders want.
Tell us what’s good about your local scene:
All people are friendly, and helping each other also gives them the motivation to ride. I love riding in a crowded group of riders.
What’s your favourite BMX page on Instagram?
DIG BMX (@digbmx) , OurBmx (@bmx), Vansbmx66 (@vansbmx66)
What’s your Instagram? @bmxcii
Meet The Crew: Bora Altintas
Age: 21
Years riding: 8
What’s your favourite BMX video?
Garret Reynolds’ Deadline motivates me a lot.
Who is your favourite BMX filmer?
Rich Forne. Love his filming style.
Tell us what’s good about your local scene:
All the people are friendly and helping each other also gives the motivation to ride.
What’s your favourite BMX page on Instagram?
DIG BMX (@digbmx) and Our BMX (@bmx)
What’s your Instagram?
Meet The Crew: Daghan Yildiz
Age: 18
Years riding: 6
What’s your favourite BMX video?
Lew is Fiending - Fiend Bmx. Top level riding, the video is full of energy. I think it’s the best edit ever.
Who is your favourite BMX filmer?
Grant Castelluzo
Tell us what’s good about your local scene:
Solidarity
What’s your favourite BMX page on Instagram? @fiendbmx
What’s your Instagram? @daghanyldz
Meet The Crew: Talha Turkaslan
Age: 27
Years riding: 9
What’s your favourite BMX video?
Garrett Reynolds - Unreal BMX Street Riding. Like the name of the video, his riding is unreal!
Who is your favourite BMX filmer?
Rich Forne ‘cause all the videos have a good story.
Tell us what’s good about your local scene:
Everyone in our local scene is helpful to each other, and there’s great support while riding. The new generations are coming fast and learning to pull quickly, and we, the older riders push them to be better all the time.
What’s your favourite BMX page on Instagram? @digbmx
What’s your Instagram? @talhigher
Meet The Filmers: Nuri Yilmazer & Yigit Akbiyik
Nuri Yilmazer
Years riding: 10
What’s your favourite BMX video?
Nowhere Fast. Amazing soundtrack with a brute riding.
Who is your favourite BMX filmer?
Christian Rigal. He is one of the best filmers but also an epic rider. His riding style influenced his filming in a very good way.
Tell us what’s good about your local scene:
The progression curve is very fast in our scene. In spite of economical situations, dedicated people help the community grow.
What’s your favourite BMX page on Instagram? @digbmx
Where can we find you both on Instagram? @gonurigo & @yigitakbiyik
Yigit Akbiyik
