Supercross BMX Launches Site Redesign

The giant, Dr. Frankenstein-esque lever has been thrown on the latest redesign of supercrossbmx.com. Smilin Bill Ryan and the boys have been puttin’ in some serious tech geek time lately, working to come up with just the right mix of “bring-ya-back” entertainment, hard product info, and spendish seduction in the company store.

The site hits it right, with a big set of “choose your riding style” links beckoning from the instant the page loads. Already, it wants to get to know us, and what we’re all about. We like. BMX Freestyle, BMX Race and 4X/Downhill are your choices, and there is something tasty for everyone inside.

In the site body, you’ll find commentary on current events, and “media” snippets that bring you right in to the mix of what’s happening around the Supercross compound.

And at the bottom, you’ve got a site map/quick-link section that any Googler would love…all organized and wired tight. Need to know the top tube length on that new Envy Expert you’re ordering up? Pow! One click away. Want to see profiles of the factory stars? Bam! Gotcha covered there too.

Zooming back up the browser to top-of-page, you’ve got the “Store” link that will solve all your problems when the LBS is OOS. We’re kinda diggin that “Shine” 26″ that we saw Shannon build up a few weeks back (though we’re partial to the Eddie Van Halen style red-anno in the website photo).

And what would any modern, self-respecting site be without full smartphone compatibility, and a bevvy of social networking links? Be one of the 12,000+ likers on Facebook, or twack the Twitter tweets. There’s even MySpace, for when your BFF says “OMG, my LBS is OOS!!!”

Check it now: supercrossbmx.com

NBL Flips the Switch on New Website

BMXNEWS got a glimpse of it last week, but today marked the day when the NBL officially flipped the switch on their new website. With eyes toward providing a reasonable alternative to their now-defunct print publication, BMX Today, the new site has a few solid “Web 2.0″ bells and whistles which will hopefully bring info-seeking members and prospective members to the site a time or two each month.

The “BMX Today” section was jumped on, in fairly short order, by Vintage members. But we think the site deserves some runway before the serious criticism is leveled. One aspect we find interesting, however, is the fact that stories served up online should probably not be as long as the ones that used to be published in the print version of the BT. The Christmas Classic story was fairly tedious to get through, reading at times more like prescription drug instructions than entertainment copy. That is the nature of the beast in the online setting. The story is probably better told in photo/caption form (but, we also noticed that the photos in the gallery were devoid of captions, so that may be tricky).

All in all, we commend the NBL on their efforts to polish up their online offerings. The old technology maxim “ship, then iterate” will undoubtedly be applied here as we start to see some of the other features NBL touted in their lead-up to the new site launch. We especially like the “Rider News” section this week, where you can find links to BMXNEWS Announcers Tower Podcast episodes featuring Arielle Martin and Donny Robinson.

Check out the new site at NBL.ORG