Friday, June 19, 2009

Times Is Changed And Life Is Strange

There are times when all this BMX on the internet can be a bit much. When things like KC Badger hating on seatpost clamps and Ben Hucke posting carbon fiber Pivotal posts on Twitter and a fluorescent pink comeback make me fear for the future. The easiest thing to do at times like this would be to get on the bike. But sometimes monsoon season (which we appear to be getting a break from today, thank God) and other responsibilities keep me chained to the computer.

That's when I have to go to my happy place. Everybody has their distractions, whether they be in their head or on their screens. Power animals, fantasy sports, fantasy...other things. Me? I go here.

Amidst the raging storm of BMX changes, this is the calm eye where nothing ever changes. Where a stem is a Redneck, seats have rails, headsets need presses, and seatpost clamps have their very own section. (Take that, Badger!) Click on any of the categories, of course, and the illusion is shattered. Dan's has the same selection of candy-colored, drilled-out nonsense as anyone else, if not even more of it. But for that one moment, on that one page...peace and tranquility. Ommmmmmmm.

Can it be that it was all so simple then?

Enjoy the weekend. (And, if you're in the NYC area, don't miss the FBM premiere.)

••••••••••


29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woot first!!! and probably last given how dull this is...

Russ said...

I never promised you a rose garden. Or anything else, for that matter.

Anonymous said...

I'm doing it for albert street!

And russ is doing it for streetlevel (part of the asylum network)!

Cringe.

Anonymous said...

The irony of who you are willing to take money from and your arrogant stance on BMX is fucking hilarious. The amount of credibility you lack is astonishing.

Russ said...

Considering a good number of my posts on there criticize (or ridicule) the same sorts of things I criticize (or ridicule) on here, I'm comfortable with my credibility.

Also, I still don't make a dime from BMX—I haven't even put Google ads on this blog. Feel free to stop reading at any time. Or even better, post under an actual name.

Russ said...

Does the fact that Bikesnob NYC writes for Bicycling make him less credible? How about the fact that Adam from The Come Up takes money from (among many others) Dan's Comp? I didn't realize that making money from writing invalidated anything I had to say.

Russ said...

Anyway, carry on, Anonymice.

Russ said...

See, that's better!

nate said...

Seriously, flourescent blue and pink?? I mean, I love Odyssey parts, but not enough to run pink hubs or pink brakes, much less pink rims. . .
But really, what's next? The return of teal spandex?

Anonymous said...

You gotta pay the bills somehow. I'd rather write than a lot of other jobs.

Anonymous said...

I can see when this gay ass trend of fluorescent gay ass colors dies, ebay will be littered with these things.

I've seen a lot of Odyssey 'limited colors' edition parts in Ebay that no one wants to buy, from pedals to wombolt cranks to 1st gen director forks.

Either Odyssey has too much money and time, or plain naive.

Seriosuly I'm dissapointed in George. He rather put forth ridiculous crap like fluorescent colored parts than 48 holed Ratchet. I thought George said he despises those colors in Ride UK?

"Times Is Changed And Life Is Strange" indeed. Word: Sculas

ryan said...

I really doubt that George has anything to do with the colors of the already existing stuff that "comes out."
Or that he has anything to do with the color of anything. Do you know what a Homer hub is?

It may seem gay now, and most likely will for the next twelve years, but the people that hold onto the stuff will end up selling it for 30x as much as long as america doesn't completely collapse.

PS- your mother was a whore

gsport george said...

The amount of limited edition stuff that ends up remaindered is actually pretty low.

I did lots fo different colours of hubs, bars and barends etc way back in the mid 90's when I was first getting started, but stopped doing them because I wanted to also be able to offer left and right hand drive and 3/8" and 14mm bolted versions AND Vandal (thick flange) and Homer versions. Adding colours would have meant that from a batch of 200 hubs 2 would be say green left hand drive Vandals and as soon as someone bought the front I couldnt sell the rear (or whatever), so on such small batch sizes I just couldnt make it work. As I have said many many times, colours are a pain for manufacturers, distributors and shops, but customers DO buy them and sad though it is if you dont offer them people WILL buy an inferior product JUST to get the colour they want.

If you want to call me a sell out then that is fine, I literally sold out so I cant complain. However I "sold out" in order to be able to do what I originally set out to do, which is design and develop better BMX parts for every part of the bike. There is no way I could have worked on any of the stuff I have done with Odyssey in the last 5 years on my own.

I love the colours, sometimes the particular shade isnt to my taste, but when we get samples of hard anodised colours or the chameleon plastics etc it is hard not to want to do all of them right away so to keep things simpler we do one or two at a time as limited editions. But we ALWAYS keep offering the "normal" colours like black and so if you dont like it, it really isnt any hardship at all to avoid the new ones..

Mr B said...

Damn i want me one of those carbon pivotals, seriously i do.

gsport george said...

Forgot to add that the 48s should be out any day now...

Unknown said...

Is that other blog real? People actually pay for those shoes and wear them on their feet? Russ, how could you call anything in bmx "superfluous" and go write about limited runs of leopard/gold/pink LA gear re-issues? FOR SHAME! I don't want to believe!

vw-foxittor

Anonymous said...

speaking of other blogs, what about that bmx-tec blog?

G.S.GUCCILIFE said...

"It may seem gay now, and most likely will for the next twelve years, but the people that hold onto the stuff will end up selling it for 30x as much as long as america doesn't completely collapse."

TRUE

VW:wrato

G.S.GUCCILIFE said...

NO!I just missed "MITURDIS" as vw!

Curtis said...

48H Ratchets dropping soon? Quick, tell bluemeate over at BG.

I would, if I could.

- Maca(fuckin)roni Sandwich

commi

Anonymous said...

Yay George is posting at BikeGuide again!!!!

VW: disto

Pete Yeung said...

Mr French,

'48's will be dropping soon' relates to the ratchet correct?

Also Russ mate, although i do enjoy slipping into your delightfully crusty and luddite world on occasion, don't you think writing for some sort of urban-style magasine contradicts everything you push about the frivolities of today? Just a thought..

FedTom said...

I like to touch little boys...

Anonymous said...

""It may seem gay now, and most likely will for the next twelve years, but the people that hold onto the stuff will end up selling it for 30x as much as long as america doesn't completely collapse."

TRUE"

False. These parts are mass manufactured on a scale greater than any before, and bearing in mind it's just the millionth in a line of crap limited edition paint-jobs, it's not going to have the same appeal as someone's ancient, mint condition Hutch or whatever...

Anonymous said...

^^^ But a mint Hutch is now worth a frigging fortune ,if the limited edition parts are even up just 10% or 20% in value they will have performed better than any pension right now...

G.S.GUCCILIFE said...

Anon at 6:45

I agree with you,but at the same time,keep in mind how many will survive of these parts.No need to tell you how the market works...

Gsg

Anonymous said...

hey russ, im not going to read any of the comments before i post mine, because my comment is so original i know nobody else will write what i'm about to say...
well, here it goes
how can you make fun of bmx when you write for that one ridiculous blog?? how dare you

Anonymous said...

haha look at all you kids hating Russ because he's getting paid to post pictures of shoes on some blog. turn that down. you won't.

Anonymous said...

Getting paid or not he's still a bitter old man.