Murray Loubser: Wethepeople ARC Frame

Murray is one of those riders who makes you rewind clips because the first watch is not enough. His front-wheel control, spot use and ability to link difficult ideas together are ridiculous. More importantly, the riding still has style instead of looking like a checklist of hard tricks. Flatland can look like a completely different language if you have never spent time around it. The bike is moving through tiny balance points, the rider is changing position constantly and a small mistake can end a combination that took ages to build. What makes the best riding stand out is that it does not look like a maths problem once it is rolling. There is speed, rhythm and a real sense of personality in the way the bike is handled. That control carries into street too, especially around the front end. It is a reminder that BMX is much wider than one kind of obstacle and that technical riding does not have to mean slow or robotic. That is the bit we wanted to celebrate with Murray Loubser. The riding has a clear point of view and you can recognise it without needing a name slapped across the screen. Plenty of people can copy an individual trick. Copying the way somebody sees a spot, carries speed or puts a line together is a completely different job.

Wethepeople ARC Frame. Short, steep and properly responsive, with a 12.75 to 13.1-inch rear end and a 76.1-degree head angle. More of the setup: Wethepeople ARC Fork. A frame is the part that sets the basic mood of the whole bike. A few millimetres at the rear end, a slightly different head angle or a bit more room up front can completely change how it behaves. Short and steep can feel lively. Longer and calmer can feel far better once the speed comes up. Neither direction is automatically right. The point of a signature frame is that the choices should make sense for the rider behind it. That does not mean everybody needs to copy the exact setup. It means the product has a reason to exist beyond a colourway and a name on the sticker. The smart way to look at this range is as a group of options, not a costume. Pick the piece that makes sense for your bike and ignore the rest if it does not. Murray Loubser arrived at this setup through years of riding. You are allowed to arrive somewhere different. Watch: Murray Loubser - Welcome to WTP Hero image: Wethepeople.