Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Odds and Endos

Who was it that called a section Odds and Endos? Was it the original BMX Action? I think it was, but I'm too lazy to walk 20 feet to my box of old BMX mags and check. Good name, though. And in BMX, even those who learn their history are eager to repeat it.

Take Subrosa. Despite the fact that they've only been around for—well, not very long—they posted something rather interesting under History 101 (August 29th): what appears to be a prototype bashguard frame:



I e-mailed Subrosa and have yet to hear back. It's probably just another hoax, who knows? But still, the image triggered something in my leaky memory. And a quick Google search revealed this:


Hm. Subrosa straight-up copied Bully's bashguard design. Hopefully that's all they borrowed from Bully, seeing that they had a nasty habit of breaking at the downtube/headtube junction the second the warranty expired. (Although, come to think of it, some new Marc McKee graphics would do Subrosa good.)

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Quick! Who makes this bike?


If you said "Deluxe," you'd be wrong. They're not offering complete bikes...yet.

Nope, this is a United (link here), just with the model name more prominent than the brand name. Which wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that the model name is also a brand name. Ah, confusion at its finest.

(What makes it even funnier is that it comes with a straight cable and a front dirt tire, and is thus something of a trail bike, while Deluxe is a trails-only company. Coincidence?)

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Mirraco is not content to sit idly by while other companies put out countless disgusting-looking seats. Although they chose to use earth tones instead of letting Rainbow Brite shit on them, they're still pretty fugly.


Available soon at Banana Republic right next to the khakis. Love the utterly superfluous stitching. Jay Miron must be laughing all the way to the bank.

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The best under-a-minute BMX video posted on the web this week, or possibly ever? That's easy. Paul Buchanan's T1 Props commercial from 1999:



How many 10-year-old edits stand up today? Feeble to sprocket is so freaking good. Hm, maybe that explains the Subrosa frame.

(For the record, Taj's blog in general should be required reading. 2010 Giant prototypes? Of course, Brooklyn Machine Works already does an elevated drivetrain, but not on a BMX bike.)

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29 comments:

Stephen said...

Good post today, Russ.

I feel like that is from an S&M video. I am probably wrong.

I will never run a pivotal seat out of sheer principal at this point. I have enough railed seats available to me to make sure this is a possibility.

The Paul B. commercial is...amazing. I remember the first time I saw it, I had the same reaction to the curved wall ride that Joe had...shit was nuts.

BMX has enough awesome equity in the bank to overcome some of the suckbrosa shit that gets made...

Anonymous said...

zero video, cover of slf song... in the bar is closed?

Anonymous said...

stricker's part-forward. alternative ulster was in albert street.

Never Met The Gooch said...

Albert Street.

Anonymous said...

wilbur section in thebarisclosed?

Anonymous said...

rail seats look better.

wade said...

Back in 1990, I lived in Vancouver and rode with a guy named Alan Brand. Miron moved out back then to live with him. Ron Mercer may have done this first, then Alan, and I would then be third, but we took broken Bully bashguard frames and had the bashguard part welded to our own frames. My Mongoose Decade Pro thus had a beautiful, heavy bashguard. I didn't like the neon green plastic, so I mail-ordered a black one from Albe's. Alan's Hutch Trickstar with Bully bashguard survives to this day and should still be at Ride On in Vancouver. Miron didn't jump on board, but he was riding a futuristic black trickstar with graphite tuff wheels at the time. There is a sequence of him doing a 900 on that bike in Go.
As for Paul, he started doing the footjam stuff in the late 1990s when he still had front brakes, and my memory of it was that it was a dork trick. Until the footjam tailwhip nosepicks, anyways.

Anonymous said...

I have to say, I've always dug bash frames, and Kore guards. It's a different feel than a sprocket grind. When I saw that Subrosa on thecomeup, I thought it was just a Bully they'd painted...but I guess that looks like a mid BB, huh? Fuck it...I'd probably be the aged dork who'd buy one.

Patrick said...

I've been looking for a new frame...

subrosa said...

Russ, try ryan@subrosabrand.com, the info one gets weeded through by another employee and it could take me a few days to get it. Ryan

Anonymous said...

haro made a bashguard frame also

Anonymous said...

there era saw most companies doing bash models. at one time you could find GT, Dyno (2 models), Haro (2 models), Mongoose and Bully at our shop and there were a few others that we didn't sell like Morales. and if your bike didn't have one you could buy one after market from GT or Kore. i think we may be just a few weeks away from the triumphant return of the Bad Boy Club and Oakley "Blades"

Anonymous said...

also the bully looks like it has a integrated seatpost clamp.

waaay ahead of its time.

Anonymous said...

There were two versions of that Bully frame, one that broke and one that was fine. I don't think the integrated clamp was the way to tell the difference between them, but mine didn't have it, and it didn't break. It was one of the first few. They cheaped out on the rest, I guess; I've heard they weren't even chromoly. Don't know. But mine survived many horrors. Most just fell apart.

Anonymous said...

whats more funny is that deluxe(the bmx web site-no products yet is also a skate shop in sf) is owned by some one who has never ridden trails and is an old flat lander.

Anonymous said...

RL reprazent.

Russ said...

I always wanted a Hooligan.

And I'm pretty sure I had both Bullys—one with the integrated clamp and one without. They both broke. One of them, I forget which, came with a piece of welding rod sticking off the seattube. Quality control!

Anonymous said...

FAO Jack:

mark digs and rides trails. not sure how you would know otherwise.

also lets see a picture of this skate shop called 'deluxe bmx' as it sounds quite amusing and I doubt I'll ever get to sanfran to ever see it.

Brett Rohlfing said...

Funny thing with that deluxe/united thing, but did you already report on Volume's name rip off? They made a fixie bike named "credence", also the name of the FBM built company owned by Clint Reynolds.

Anonymous said...

i heard clint reyonolds has aids.

Russ said...

At least the Volume is a fixed gear. If it were a trails bike, it would be a different story. They should have named their fixed gear the Iro.

Anonymous said...

Oh my god, thank you so much Russ! I've been waiting to see that commercial forever now. That made my day! But as far as frames go, I can't wait for the standing platform to become popularized again! Wishful thinking. . .

Anonymous said...

Some company made an 87 GT Performer inspired after market cruiser frame already, so the framestand platform dreams arent too far off. Heres a link:
http://bmxroots.com/?p=231

Anonymous said...

jay miron sold the pivotal copyrights to keep macneil going. or at least thats what i heard from a somewhat reputable source. no offense russ. this sites amazing.

G.S.GUCCILIFE said...

@BOBBY P

You tried to correct TFA,but you you have "THEIR" spelled worng too,you must be from boondocks,or some shit.

TFA,i got BLADES,and i tried to subscribe to HOMEBOY club!My friend sent the money,but never got shit!I must blame A.JENKINS i guess...

Anonymous said...

@anonymous: "mark digs and rides trails." Pics, or it didn't happen. (it didn't , he's a flatlander)

Anonymous said...

funny about getting my form of "their/they're/there" corrected when in fact i used the wrong word completely. sentence was meant to start with "that"

Anonymous said...

props for someone that actually remembers that marc mckee had something to do with bmx, although i think linking to a picture of him doing a mccircle would have been better.

what the fuck do i know.

i do know i want one of those bash bikes though. sheeeeit.

BLAM!! said...

yea russ. for the record the band is Naked Raygun doing a great cover of suspect device and Stricker rides to it in Forward, the Paul B. link is actually to a Dig cover of Joe "The Butcher" Kowalski. Suckbrosa, Lowtech and Fleamont can all sleep with the fishes.