SPRFLS

Mystery Science Theater

2010-10-22T13:33:00.003-04:00

Inspired by a topic on good ol' BMXboard, I'd like to address the mystery that is Cinema Wheel Co. Here is the sum total of what I know about them:

• They have a website.
• They have a killer team.
• Their rims are 36-hole only, welded at the seams, extruded from 6061, feature a concave profile (hey, sort of like these!), and available in all the cool colors.
• Their hubs are sealed, have 3/8" front and hollow 14mm rear axles, and come with a 9t driver.
• They sell t-shirts (or "apparel").

And that's more or less it. A company from nowhere, selling nothing that isn't available already elsewhere, who markets their product by pretty much saying "they're good enough for our awesome team, so they're obviously good enough for you." Nothing on who started the company, who's responsible for product development -- er, picking designs from a Taiwanese catalog -- or even on the origins of the decidedly odd name. Nevermind the fact that guys like DeHart and Martinez would still be killing it if they had to ride these. But, ooh, isn't the packaging neat? And look at all the pretty colors! (Incidentally, this is the same sort of thing that led me to buy white "Mike Buff" Z-Rims in 1985 or so.)

Shouldn't we expect more by now? Don't we deserve more? Hell, I can find out more about the tilapia for sale at my local supermarket than I can about these wheels. If your only reason I should buy your wheels is because of who runs them -- people you PAY to run them -- maybe it's time to re-think your marketing strategy.

Or just stick to "apparel."

How Much Is Enough?

2010-10-20T13:23:00.003-04:00

Anonymous 10:55 made a good point on the 10/15 post: Frame companies aren't offering many differences these days other than image. Basic geometry is set, materials are (for the most part) the same, and (other than Sunday) so is the shape/diameter of tubing. After decades of experimentation, frame design is more or less set. You don't pick an FBM over an S&M because of your style of riding, you pick that way because you're from the East Coast and not the West. Or because you support fire, beer and mayhem. In a way, BMX has finally moved closer to skateboarding, where the main difference between one company and another is the graphics.

Which, if you think about it, doesn't seem like a terribly sustainable model. In skateboarding it is. Decks are disposable -- one might last you a week or a day or at MOST a month or two before you break it. Ideally, even the lightest BMX frame should last six months to a year to a decade, provided you're not hucking yourself down triple sets. And then there's the matter of the lifetime warranty, where every kid -- or at least his mother -- thinks they should only have to buy one frame ever, and that any damage at all is clearly due to manufacturer's defects. ("I was just grinding along and...") Regardless, even the most dedicated BMXer will buy fewer frames in a lifetime than a skater will buy decks in a year.

The answer? I don't know. It's the nature of companies to want to grow, and the nature of riders to start companies. The easiest way to growth is to offer everything, so you can be a one-stop shop and don't lose customers to another company when they want something you don't make. Or expand the product lineup to make up for revenue lost when your big sellers aren't so big anymore, or when other companies infringe on "your" turf. So you get ridiculous overlap, where everyone offers pretty much the same things these days -- plastic pedals, big two-piece bars, one-piece seat/post combos, sprockets, completes. And rather than innovate, (nearly) everyone just follows along, slapping their logo on whatever the next hot craze is, in hopes of shifting units.

I guess it works, or else everyone wouldn't be doing it. But for how much longer?

The Descent of Man

2010-10-19T14:46:00.003-04:00

Another thing I missed during my time away was the introduction of the S&M "Perfect 10" bar -- 30" width and 10" of rise, guaranteed to make your boring old Slams look like a pair of Kink Red Wings. They already sold out at Empire, which means either Tom only ordered three pairs or that they were wildly popular amongst the bigger-is-better set.

Considering the trend towards bars getting taller and wider, and frames getting lower, I can only conclude that the average street rider of the future will look something like this.

Splinter Cell

2010-10-15T15:05:00.004-04:00

One of the things I missed during my long, self-imposed hiatus was the formation of Cult (or Fit II: The New Beginning). Best I can tell, after a decade or so of quiet growth, Fit abruptly divided in two, leaving both the original Fit, mostly unchanged, and Cult. For those of you with a science background (as in, you didn't sleep through ALL of middle school biology), you would recognize this as simple binary fission, as illustrated below:

(Feel free to ignore the complicated words, and please don't try and figure out which of those weird tangled spaghetti-like strands is Robbie Morales.)

Now, just because it took a decade or so for Fit to divide doesn't mean it will be another decade before it divides again. And remember that the newly produced cell divides as well, so the expansion is geometric -- 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and so on. Before you know it, there will be more frame companies than there are people on Earth, and eventually BMX frame companies will be the most plentiful element in the universe.

Only you can prevent forest fires.

Getting Back In Gear

2010-10-13T14:08:00.002-04:00

Well, good to see I'm still an idiot.

As if the name ("Iron Man") and the lack of a steel insert for the splines and the weight and THE FACT THAT IT SAYS 4130 RIGHT IN THE DESCRIPTION weren't enough, somehow I still assumed the S&M Iron Man sprocket was made of aluminum. And we all know what happens when you assume. So, apologies for that. Still not sure how I feel about the individually drilled teeth (and the fact that they're 3/32"), but I'd be totally down to run a chromoly sprocket. I can't at the moment since I run Twombolts, but I suppose we'll see how this all works out. (For the record, I'm totally in favor of eliminating the sprocket bolt -- not for weight savings, but in the interests of spreading stress evenly and cleaner design.)

•••••••

I just looked up "BMX" on Google Image Search and this was the first result. Maybe next time I should turn "Safe Search" on?

Driller Killer

2010-10-12T14:42:00.005-04:00

Sorry y'all, took yesterday off to recognize Columbus Day. Not sure why they get a day while True Temper doesn't, but I'm not gonna make waves. Also, not sure why I'm apologizing about missing a day when I took over a year off with no explanation at all. Nevermind.

To get back in the swing of things, I decided to just go to the Dans Comp website and scroll through the "new arrivals." Made it almost all the way through the parts with only mild amuzement (which is a combination of amazement and amusement, of course) -- what the heck is an Alius and a Mission? -- before landing on this:

Now, I know S&M ain't afraid of no hoax. But it's not April, and it's hard to believe that Dan's would help perpetrate. And with the direction the average CNCed aluminum snowflake has been going, drilled teeth (they should have called this sprocket the Shane MacGowan) were probably inevitable.

As usual, of course, BMX is roughly 50 years late to the party. Roadies drilled out their chainrings back in the '70s, a practice that was (mostly) abandoned in the modern era. But even they never drilled out the actual teeth, as far as I know. Mostly because they weren't (completely) insane. Meanwhile, BMXers fell in love with things like the "CD sprocket" which, thankfully, will NEVER come back.

Fuck.

EDIT: As DBZ pointed out, somehow I overlooked that the Iron Man was made of 4130. I'm frightened.

Clamp Down

2010-10-08T13:59:00.005-04:00

I'm sure lots of things happened while I was away -- lots of "innovation" and "progression" and all sorts of other neat stuff. Happily, I ignored much of it. And whilst my own new steed may be equipped with folding tires and giant handlebars, it's still (mostly) all black and those giant handlebars are four-piece.

To be honest, I prefer to focus on the things that didn't change. Heck, it's 2010 -- I figured street would have been taken over by a bunch of waiflike Garrett Reynolds clones throwing 720 whips down double sets on pegless, aluminum-framed "street" bikes with 28-spoke wheels and those aluminum Answer bars with the bolt-on crossbars. Basically, 13 Experts Gone Wild. But no, steel is still real, and most wheels are still 36-spoke. And I have yet to see a 22"-wheeled bike in the wild. Phew.

There is something that concerns me, though, and that is the continued effort to eradicate the seatpost clamp. Said campaign appears to be spearheaded by Animal pro riders, which is funny since Animal appears to still make/sell these. Now, though, appears to be the Era of the Wedge Post. It started over a year ago with the WTP Mike Brennan/Max Gaertig signature frame. That was only the beginning.

First -- well, maybe not first, but whatever -- we have the Wormz frame from FBM:

(Admittedly, the circumcised seattube is more than made up for by the coolest headbadge in BMX history.)

Then there's Skavenger. Long a rumor, now true, NYC's streetiest have come out with a full line of hardgoods including signature frames for both Edwin DeLaRosa and Vinnie Sammon. Neither is SPC-friendly. Needless to say, don't expect a Skavenger seatpost clamp anytime soon.

Hey, I get it. They're signature frames. And if Ed and Vinnie and Wormz and Mike and Max (UNDRCRWN x Animal collab?) are committed to the wedge post, they can design their frames any way they see fit. And I hope they sell. As for me? I'll be sticking to these.

•••••••••

Oh man, awesome, S&M is manufacturing some of United's Grande Bars. Sweet! And they're...only available in the UK? Uh, right.

Tailwhip Appeal

2010-10-07T13:46:00.003-04:00

Holy hell, I'm still here. Not only am I still here, I seem to still be signed into Blogspot, which is something of a miracle (and, a good thing, since there's no way I'd remember my password).

Got a new bike since I was here last, a 2010 T1 Barcode. Somehow it's the first Terrible One I've ever ridden -- not the first one I've owned, but the first one I've ridden. There's still a Maas Barcode stashed in the attic (in the unopened box, no less), along with a Garrettcode that I always meant to build but never did.

As it turned out, I was in Austin over New Years before my frame got shipped, so I was able to stop by T1 HQ and receive my frame from the Ultimate Male himself. (I left it there and had it shipped back to NY, but that's not important here.) Eventually I got it built up, and it looks like this:

Well, it looked like that until I got rid of the skinwall tire. But you get the gist. The Barcode is still a classic BMX frame -- no tapered stays, no lightening holes, requires the use of an actual seatpost clamp -- but there's still something off. Compare the current Barcode above to the classic Barcode below:

Yes, that bike could beat up my bike. No, I don't want to go back to the days of dinnerplate sprockets and couch enema seats. However, I do hate the fact that front triangles have become so acute. What was wrong with standover height? The new-ish Barcode isn't exactly a Killorado, but come on, people. Are we that desperate to drop weight? It's bad enough that I need to hear I'm riding a little kid's bike, do I have to have people think I'm riding a little GIRL'S bike?

Sigh.

Interdyke

2009-09-24T02:54:00.005-04:00

I don't even know what that header means, I just didn't want to be left out in the cold.

No, I'm not in Las Vegas. I keep saying I'm going to go to Interbike, and then I realize that there are roughly 674,904,783 places I'd rather go than Las Vegas. And if I wanted to hang out with BMXers, I'd ride my bike.

To keep this vaguely relevant, I'd just like to say that Macneil's going back to the 22.2mm seatpost standard because frame tubing is smaller now makes about as much sense as going back to 1" headtubes. Your move, Jay. (Or was that Silent Bob's idea?) Smaller-diameter seatposts aren't any lighter, but they're definitely weaker. So, on behalf of those of us who insist upon running more than .000005" of exposed seatpost, thank you for reducing the number of frame companies we'd consider by one.

(The bike in the photo above is what we presume will be shown at Interbike in 2012. The 3/8" axles in the front and rear save weight, as does the 1" headtube and the 22.2mm seatpost. The radical curve in said seatpost allows one to run a shorter frame, yet still keep one's weight centered further back. You'll also note the liberal use of chrome.)

Savage Seduction

2009-09-01T13:13:00.006-04:00

That's the problem with redecorating in white—you never want to put that first smudge on it. Of course, once you do, it only gets easier. Can't live your life with a layer of clear plastic over it. That's not living, unless you're a tray chicken parts. In which case you're not alive anyway. Um, yeah.

(In a similar vein, can anyone explain to me why people drive with "bras" on their cars? Yes, you're keeping the front end from getting chipped. I understand that. But for what? You never take the damn thing off anyway! OK, sorry.)

Sometimes a product comes out that I don't even have to write about. Just posting an image seems like enough, words would just be redundant. Like these:

Animal's new MK3 pegs are the "1st color chromoly peg in the market. This is a new special paint process which does not affect grinding performance." Do I even need to say anything?

(OK, I will say this. Is it reaching a point where there needs to be a new Animal? By that I mean, is there room for a new "street" oriented company that just makes basic no-frills parts in black and black only? Isn't there still a market for that sort of thing? Seems to me that BMX is reaching that same oversaturation point it did in the late '80s, where everything was available in every conceivable color and everything was great until half the companies went broke. Doing all sorts of colors is awesome, except for when kids change their mind about which colors are cool. We'll see, I guess. At least the chrome Bobs are cool.)

•••••••••••

Best Interbike preview ever?

The Devil's Hellion Child

2009-08-20T13:55:00.004-04:00

Undoubtedly, when it passes, the year 2009 will have meant a lot of things to a lot of people. Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President. Kobe Bryant finally won a ring without Shaq. It was the International Year of Natural Fibres. And ya boy Askar Aitamov turned 50.

But for those of us who live, breathe and compulsively weigh BMX, perhaps nothing was bigger than Volume Bikes turning 10. And to celebrate such a momentous anniversary, they're re-releasing the Hellion.

Well, not exactly re-releasing as such.

The original Hellion was a monster, what with its massive gussett and proprietary detachable headtube. Among its many, many advantages was that it was cheaper than a Kink or a Standard. Not just any frame could get that endorsement, especially Kinks or Standards.

Now, you may be looking at this new Hellion and wondering what exactly makes it a Hellion. Hater. All you have to do is read the fine print:

"The new Hellion features similar design features as the first: brake bosses on the CS med height ST (no scooters here!) and a double diamond rear end."

Hm. Interesting. Yes, chainstay brakes do seem to be going the way of the massive headtube gussett and toptubes are sinking faster than a mastodon in a tar pit. But much like the Kink Empire Revision C, the new Hellion has virtually nothing in common with its namesake besides the name. Well, OK, and it's a BMX frame. It's like Chevy putting out a front-wheel-drive econobox called the "Chevelle" and stating that it has similar design features as the first: four wheels and an engine.

I suppose the "outtie" headtube badge (as opposed to the "innie" on Rob's Zombie) is there as a reminder of those carefree days when frames were needlessly heavy, rims were triplewall and bikes were ridden until the wheels (or headtubes) fell off.

Oh well. At least Blackie Lawless is psyched.

Yes, Again

2009-08-17T12:46:00.004-04:00

Twits

2009-08-10T21:53:00.003-04:00

Yeah, I'm on Twitter. So is everyone else, or so it seems. Whiling our lives away 140 characters at a time. I sometimes amuse myself by trying to use exactly 140 characters without resorting to typing like a teenage girl. I'm sure Hemingway used to do the same exact thing.

Anyway, I don't talk about BMX all the time on Twitter. In fact, I barely talk about BMX at all. Just today some site that "tracks influence across the social web" decreed me the bronze medal influencer about baseball over the past seven days. Even considering that this only takes into account those silly enough to register their accounts in the first place, this is ludicrous. Do I tweet about baseball? Sure, but mostly to bitch about how much the Mets suck and suggest new and creative ways to get rid of manager Jerry Manuel. I highly doubt I'm influencing anyone.

But there are those who do Tweet about BMX, and many of them post photos. Like Brian Kachinsky, who posted these ultra-exciting prototype plastic DK pedals (innovation: they're made by DK and 'soooo light' with four 'o's), and BMXer and cigar aficionado Nick Wiegand whose multiple-butted Macneil bars fell apart like a poorly rolled Dominican. And there's Rich Hirsch, who posted the new Lotek jeans tags. Because you need to know these things.

All in all, I think Twitter is a good thing. It's like an ever-ongoing AIM conversation where people enter and leave randomly. I've talked shit about the Celtics with Ryan Sher and read too many corny jokes to count from Ed Koenning's dog. Also, I posted a picture of my bike leaning against a curb.

Dig Dug

2009-08-07T21:23:00.002-04:00

Writing rarely comes easy for me. Which sucks, since it's my job and all. Not one I clock in and out of, mind you, but one that takes up a good portion of my days. And whether it's something I'm getting paid for or something I'm doing for free, you can bet that I agonize over each and every word. (Even -------> this <------- one.) It's not ideal, but it's my life. Whether it's a living or not is yet to be determined.

Getting started is usually the hardest part. Once I get going, I'm good. I don't break deadlines, although I do show up to a lot of them out of breath and carrying a bouquet. If a piece is due on a Friday, I generally spend all week long stressing, then bang it out on Thursday night into Friday morning. That's just how I roll. I don't like it much—and it can't be good for me—but it seems unlikely to change.

There are times, however, when writing comes easier. Like, say, when I have inspiration. For example, when a prominent BMX magazine intros a new product by taking shots at me. Not that anything like that would ever happen.

Look, feel free to take shots. I can handle it. When I started this blog, I realized that would probably happen. Although I'm surprised they'd come from DIG. And I'm even more surprised that they failed to do any basic fact checking. To wit:

a) I still ride bikes. Rode today, in fact. And yesterday.

b) I don't have a television in my bedroom.

c) My parents' garage doesn't have a room over it.

Quite frankly, after all those egregious errors, I find it hard to believe anything they wrote, even the stuff about whatever generic squashed and steep frame it is they're pushing now. (Since it's for the "technical street rider," I assume it's either the new Standard Bullitt, or a signature frame for Trent Reznor.)

As for the living at home thing, yep. One hundred percent true. I'm looking at it as a vacation of sorts, only one where I have to mow the lawn and occasionally go to the grocery store. The suburbs are actually a nice break after spending the last 10 years living in midtown Manhattan. Don't know what I'm talking about, DIG guys? That's fine. More likely than not—especially if the media biz keeps heading in the direction it is now—you'll find out for yourselves soon enough.

•••••••••

Steven Hamilton is.

Shawn Bradley

2009-08-05T14:02:00.001-04:00

If there's anything you can count on in the world of BMX, it's that everyone's striving to make their frames lighter and their bars taller. Lighter and taller, taller and lighter. Hence the title.

(It's funny, because back when heavy bikes were the thing, taller and wider bars would have been a big help, no? Weight didn't matter, and it would have been a lot easier to get your 45-pound monstrosity off the ground with uncut 8x28s than it was using Castillo bars cut down so narrow that the grips touched the crossbar. Ah, the folly of youth. And stupidity. And Freddy Chulo. I fear the legacy of late-'90s BMX will eventually just be Van Homan and back problems.)

Anyway, just two things:

1) How can I not love Proper? First the "lighter than a roadbike hub" front hub, and now "taller than tall bars because we're making a frontload stem and we want our riders to run them (the stems, that is) even though we actually decided to do a topload too, so this idea is wholly unnecessary." BMX: Making things overly complicated since 1974.

2) Not exactly sure how I wound up on Derek Betcher's site (searching for "shimano dxr" I think) and I definitely had never heard of him before, but I found it funny that his prototype aluminum race frame weighs more than his prototype chromoly trails frame. Now I think the new Garrett's a bad idea because it's obviously far too heavy.

••••••••

You've probably seen it already (it was posted on Hypebeast, for God's sake), but the new Mutiny video looks terrific:

Mutiny Bikes "Let's Get Mystical" Trailer! from Mutiny Bikes on Vimeo.

The Homan Empire

2009-08-03T19:20:00.001-04:00

I feel like I'm really late with this—it's probably already been posted on multiple sites and been the top link on BMXfeed—but how can I not post it here?

As you may or may not know, Van placed third in X Games street this weekend, beaten out by two kids who probably grew up with his RIDE covers hanging on their walls and his Little Devil parts playing on their TVs. Van's amongst that last generation of riders who threw down monster bangers on 44/16-equipped tanks and, yes, learned how to bunnyhop before they learned how to tailwhip. Unlike most of his peers, who are either running bike companies or frontloaders these days, he's still beating the little whippersnappers who learned by watching him. Kind of like LL Cool J and Canibus.

Van used to have a signature frame through Fit, but it got discontinued because it was far too awesome for mere mortals to comprehend. Plus, it weighed like six pounds.

Defenders of the Faith

2009-07-31T14:40:00.003-04:00

Generally, I'm not one to do blog posts as responses to a post on a different website that was a response to one of my own earlier posts. It seems silly—like having what should be a private argument while yelling over a speakerphone on a crowded street: "LOOK, I KNOW YOU'RE THE ONE WHO GAVE ME THE GODDAMN HERPES! DO I LOOK LIKE THE KIND OF PERSON WHO GETS LAID ALL THE TIME?" OK, maybe it's just me.

Anyway, I was surfing the interwebs Wednesday night when I came across this In the Gnar post bemoaning my apparent hatchet job on the new T1 Garrett frame. I actually had to go back and read my initial post again to see whether I killed it that badly. Nope, didn't think so. However, I thought I'd expand on my feelings. For what it's worth.

First, a few seemingly disjointed facts:

1) Complete bikes are starting to get awesome. (More on that next week.)

2) Most American-made "street" frames are now made from SuperTherm (or some other heat-treated and butted) tubing, weigh less than five pounds, and cost around $400.

3) The economy is fucked.

4) The average rider doesn't need a 22-pound bike.

Where am I going with all this? Good question! Let's start at the beginning.

Roughly 10 years ago, when the average BMX bike weighed 35 pounds, Waterford started making frames for Standard from heat-treated True Temper tubing. Standard called these frames "R-Models," and sold them for considerably more than their "normal" chromoly counterparts. Same frames, different weights. Waterford, having done high-end road and mountain bikes for a long time, had access to tubing that other companies may not have even been aware of. Standard took advantage.

If you remember (or even if you don't), S&M responded by releasing the "PBR Model," a conventional 4130 frame with extra mockery. Now When news dropped that S&M were gonna do a new Dirt Bike, I was excited. A new, affordable S&M frame? Nope. They went back to uncapped stays, but kept the high-zoot tubing and the $360 pricetag.

Look, I understand that SuperTherm allows you to build a lighter frame that's still strong. From the S&M website:

SuperTherm is highly temper-resistant, resulting in an 11% increase in fatigue life and a 20% increase in impact strength over heat-treated 4130.

Fantastic. It's also however-many-percent more expensive. One would think (or at least I would) that there'd still be a market for a heavier 4130 frame (that still made use of innovations like smaller dropouts and larger vent holes) that was available at a lower price point than all of the SuperTherm and 4Q Baked frames out there. It's hard to believe that EVERY rider out there is so weight-obsessed that a five-and-a-half-pound frame (or even six—mercy!) wouldn't be viable.

Which comes back to T1 thusly: Seems to me that damn near every American frame manufacturer—S&M, Standard, FBM, T1, Fit, Metal—is targeting the same demographic, namely, the one that needs to know whether a frame weight is with or without paint. You've got a bunch of companies who at least used to have somewhat unique identities offering very similar products at very similar prices to the same batch of consumers. An who will the average kid go with? The one who sponsors Eddie Cleveland and Dakota Roche, the one who sponsors Cameron Wood and Randy Brown, or the one who sponsors Garrett Byrnes? I can't help but feel that T1 is setting themselves up to fail.

I suppose the greater question is this: Where's the modern equivalent of the Standard Cashius or the Dirtbike Classic? Given the current state of the economy (and the basic advances in framebuilding), wouldn't it be a no-brainer?

••••••

If you'd rather just read a killer interview with Joe Rich, go here. Good stuff, Brian.

Ghetto Fabulous

2009-07-29T13:10:00.001-04:00

For as long as I've known about them, I've been a fan of BSD. You couldn't really get their products over here—what products there were—and I always fondly thought of them as sort of a Scottish FBM: a bunch of genial BMX drunks who spent their spare time riding trails and setting things on fire.

Well, like FBM, they've had to innovate or die. First there was the Forever frame, and now there are the "Ghetto Forks":

Here's part of the description:

"The Ghetto fork is full heat-treated, with tapered legs, integrated race, 7075 top cap, 35mm offset and a weight of 1.88lb."

Ghetto?

Huh. When I think of "ghetto forks," I think of a pair of messily spraypainted S&M Ditchforks with the 990 mounts hacksawed off. But maybe that's just me. Admittedly, though, we've reached the magical point in human history where sincerity and irony have met in a messy head-on collision. Face it, you have no idea whether that guy over there in the Slipknot t-shirt is wearing it because he likes Slipknot or because he doesn't like Slipknot. And you're not about to go over and ask him because, you know, he's wearing a Slipknot t-shirt.

Then again, ain't no one buying true "ghetto forks" these days anyway. If it's over two pounds, forget it.

•••••••••••

Hey Macneil, if you're going to do a "bike check," can you please list ALL the parts, not just the Macneil ones? Thanks.

Scottish Football Association

2009-07-27T14:02:00.004-04:00

I've left the page open in my browser for over a week now, and I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about the new T1 SFA.

The way I see it, there are two options.

1) It's awful.

2) It's great.

I suppose one could argue that there's a middle ground between those two, but I've never been much for compromise. Grey doesn't interest me. And compelling arguments can be made for either side:

1) It's awful. T1 has gone from making recognizable, niche-filling frames to joining the masses in the sub-five-pound, Supertherm, skinny-tubed dune buggy category. The new GB has a lot in common with the new FBM Howler, which is all well and good, except why not just get a Howler? Also, someone at Solid forgot to remove the mockup chainstays and put in the capped ones. Those things are so—wait, those are real? Um, not to nitpick, but it seems odd when a pegless pedal grinder's signature frame has a sketchier chainstay/dropout junction than an old Skyway T/A. And the uncapped/capped style, blech. It just looks unfinished.

2) It's great. About time T1 joined the party. Making unique frames that are worshipped by old kooks is a cool concept and all, but it's not a sound business plan, especially when the BMX pie is getting smaller and smaller and being sliced into more and more pieces every day. Romanticize T1 all you want—long live the Barcode!—but the reality is that if you don't offer a sub-five frame these days, fond memories are all you'll have left. And hey, at least it has chainstay brakes and takes a seatpost clamp. Small victories. Plus, if Garrett likes it, who the fuck are you to hate on it?

I suppose if I'm gonna be realistic, I have to lean towards the latter. I want T1 to survive, and if doing a four-pound, five-ounce frame helps them do it, more power to 'em. (Putting out the goddamn stem someday would help, too.) But I still hate those chainstays.

Proper, Fucked

2009-07-22T17:01:00.006-04:00

Because I said I was going to write about Proper today, I guess I'll be saving this for tomorrow.

Not that I really have a ton to write about Proper anyway. It's just that I saw their post on the Microlite parts, specifically the part about the front hub:

"It is tiny for a BMX hub with female axle (the current standard for front BMX hubs) and weighs less than many road bike hubs (at less than 200g). With colours to each every taste, it's no wonder that Proper has become synonymous with hub technology around the globe."

Aw, how cute! An eensy-weensy Marmoset. Look, contrary to popular belief, I have no problems with bicycle weight savings in general. I understand that 2001 has passed, and that new materials and new manufacturing processes have allowed companies to produce lighter products without sacrificing strength. I have no wish to go back to the days of Alex triplewalls and Eastern Herculi and Profile SS cranks, when bikes were bricks and men were broken.

But aren't we going far too far? This to this, yes, I get it. But we're going all the way to this, and everyone but Harrison Ford knows that's a terrible idea. Skipping seconds is fine. Not eating on days that end in "y" isn't. Which is basically where we're at now. The fat's long gone, now we're losing bone and muscle. Skeletons don't weigh much, but they're not very healthy, either.

And for a two-sentence blurb, that release is pretty fantastic. First, we have the assertion that the Proper front hub weighs less than many road bike hubs. OK. All well and good. But is that really desirable? I ride a road bike, and I wouldn't dream of running pegs on my front hub, even if you got rid of the quick release and the carbon fork. Then there's the implication that offering hubs in a wide variety of colors is the way to become a worldwide hub power. I'm sure that's not what they meant to say, but sadly, it's probably close to the truth.

Vacation

2009-07-21T16:53:00.007-04:00

(photo blatantly swiped from Pinkbike.com)

For some reason I never seem to realize I'm taking a hiatus until I'm already hiatusing. Then I glance at bmxfeed and see "14d" under "last update" and think, "holy hell, it's been that long?" Once again, I'm not entirely sure how it happened. There was a short hop to the Left Coast in there somewhere, but that doesn't begin to explain how I missed nearly a week beforehand (and a couple of days afterfoot). Fortunately, I didn't even have to use my AK. So, regular reader, I apologize. Again.

As it is, I'd rather come back with something of a proper (foreshadow conspiracy?) update tomorrow. So consider this notice that I'll be taking two weeks off, effective two weeks ago.

Down The Tubes

2009-07-06T18:08:00.004-04:00

• So that's what the cross-section of a Wave downtube looks like! Always wondered about that, but not enough to cut a friend's frame in half. In other Sunday news, someone is still running one of the original shaved headtube prototypes. It's still running strong after a year and a half, and it still looks stupid, in my humble opinion. Until someone starts making stainless headset bearings, I'll take the extra couple of grams, Pat.

• Um, OK.

• Remember these bars? They were an August Fools joke perpetrated by Mr. Chris Moeller back in 2008. Today I open an e-mail from Cambria Bicycle Outfitters featuring this frame—a 2.75 pound, latticework carbon, hardtail MTB that costs $5,000. And they actually have the gall to say "IF YOUR [sic] LOOKING TO GET ONE YOU HAD BETTER HURRY, ONLY 200 ARE GOING TO BE PRODUCED IN 2009 AND CAMBRIA BIKE IS ONE OF THE FEW LUCKY RETAILERS THAT WILL BE CARRYING THEM" Oh my God, I'd better order one right away, then! Because I wouldn't want them to sell out and have to buy something inferior like this (um, for $1,000 less). I'm sure people are just going to be lining up to buy $5,000 MTB frames in 2009.

I also like that "the Delta 7 Arantix is truly revolutionary and could possibly change the way people ride bikes." Uhhhh, are we going to start pedalling with our hands and steering with our feet? Because otherwise, it's just a frame. An incredibly light, incredibly expensive frame that no one in their right mind would ever buy. Just because you can make something doesn't mean you should. And it certainly doesn't mean you can sell it. Shockingly, Delta 7 does seem to be a real company. Hopefully they start making BMX frames before they inevitably go under.

Epic Failures

2009-07-03T15:29:00.003-04:00

Wow. Did you'd ever think you'd see the day where a company released two pairs of bars and the 8.1 x 28s were the small pair? You can then fit them with some bright-ass Aaron Ross grips which will one day hopefully be wired up to a tiny horizontal screen in your crossbar so you can actually blog (or at least Twitter) and ride at the same time:

"Oh shit I hope I make this gap!"

"Didn't make it. Somebody please call ambulance."

Twitterjacks with Defgrips?

(Unrelated thought, why were Sushi Bars available in colors other than raw?)

Sorry. Seeing that it's about to be a holiday—and not just a holiday, but a holiday you typically celebrate by drinking to excess, blowing stuff up and cooking meat over open flames—focusing is not my strong point.

Until Monday. Happy Fourth.

Prototypecast

2009-07-02T15:33:00.005-04:00

If you want to stay relevant in today's fast-moving world, you have to keep changing. Gone are the days where a company could keep pumping out the same exact frame year after year after year and keep selling. (Wait, did those days ever exist?) Today it's all about lighter and lower, brighter and...dammit, nothing rhymes with 'lower.' Well, this paragraph is going great.

Anyway, it's prototype week in the good ol' US of A. First we have the revised FBM Howler, shown here in all its nekkid Supertherm glory:

Posed here on a peg that weighs roughly a quarter what the frame does, the new Howler has smaller dropouts, removable mounts and guides (well, the production version will anyway), and an added toptube/headtube gusset. If you compare the vital stats to those of the original version, the new Howler is lighter and slightly longer. They've also eliminated the Gyro tab threading for whatever reason. The fact that they have to say "before paint" regarding the weight sort of makes me embarassed for BMX as a whole.

Then there's Standard, who've been pumping out prototypes like it's their job. Which I suppose it is. First up is a new Bullitt, which may or may not still be for the refined rider. Whoever that is. These are full-on custom frames, which means giving the dimensions is pointless:

Both frames seen here have integrated headsets and Euro bottom brackets, which is sort of like having a Prius with an eight-track player. But to each his own. Weight is right around four pounds (gulp), and the classic Standard gusset is optional. The pierced toptube appears to have been left intact, however.

But Standard hasn't stopped there. Continuing on their mission to re-introduce every one of their old frames, a photo appeared on their Twitter feed of a new Trail Boss prototype propped next to the original Trail Boss prototype:

No specifics are available as of yet, but it looks promising (i.e. not squashed). As with the Bullitt, you should be able to order one of these any way you want, so I'm not sure if there's much point in posting specs even if I had them. Put me down for a sea camo 21".

Side note: With all the custom work these days, what's the point of getting someone else's signature frame when you can get your own? Finally, I can get that 20.90210" toptube and 74.20 degree headtube angle I've always dreamed of.

EDIT: For more on Standard, check the interview with Rick Moliterno here.

Just Because

2009-06-30T14:30:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I can't help but wonder what Bill Hicks would make of the past 15 years. In hindsight, maybe he's better off dead.

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Sat It On Them Twenty-Twos

2009-06-29T15:22:00.004-04:00

So for argument's sake, let's say you're a big dude who rides BMX. Like, a really big dude. Really, really big. You make Gary Ellis look like Catfish (on the left, the one who's shorter than Ryan Sheckler). You run two Macneil 330s glued together. You order 200mm cranks. You ride uncut 30" bars. Your feet hit your front and rear pegs at the same time. What kind of frame do you run?

Well, cruisers are out. Because it's 20" or die. And custom frames are expensive. Which pretty much leaves you with the Macneil Deuce Deuce or...the Macneil Deuce Deuce. There's the Fit Lurch too, I suppose, but that maxes out at a relatively pedestrian 21.5". Nope, if you're a big dude who wants a long frame, it's the Deuce Deuce for you. Ain't nothing else out there like it.

So can someone out there explain to me why a 22" frame with a 14.25" rear weighs just 4.9 pounds? I mean, this frame is for big guys, right? And a longer toptube is going to produce more stress and strain on the front triangle, no? Instead of going to a smaller diameter top and downtube, shouldn't a "huge frame for huge motherfuckers" be, you know, burly? Or at the very least weigh more than a Deathtrap? I'm no physicist, but this just seems wrong on so many levels.

Guess not.

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Smells Like Team Spirit

2009-06-24T12:28:00.002-04:00

This post is inspired by these, but has nothing to do with them. (One Team Grip story, though: I'm one of those people who always stretches new grips before putting them on. Not sure when this started—probably back in the Jive Handles days—but it's something of a ritual now. So I get these Team Grips, start stretching one, pull a little too hard, and it just pops in half like a cracker. No prize, though. I've since eased back on the grip stretching.)

But anyway, I had no intention of discussing exploding grips. What I wanted to talk about was "team" product. Why isn't there more of it? I understand (I think) that by creating "signature" product, a company can hook a specific rider up with some extra loot. And in some cases a rider really does need or want something unique. But most of the time it seems like it's just a matter of a quarter inch here, or half a degree there, or a rider-specific gusset or brace. I understand that each team rider wants something special. Really, I do. If I were sponsored, I'd want a signature frame, too. Just for the ego boost. But if I were a retailer, why would I want to stock this and this and this? And that's just from one company! When it comes right down to it, what's the big difference between this and this? Wouldn't one of the above suffice? Factor in multiple sizes and multiple colors and I have no idea how shops choose what to stock.

I remain firm in my beliefs that, the more choices you have to choose from, the more you think you need different choices. But this is BMX, not the Tour de France. A quarter inch, half an ounce or degree here or there isn't going to change anything. Is it?

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Never Will He Boost Loose Phillies With The Barcode

2009-06-23T14:48:00.003-04:00

I agree with Mark Westlake over at the Pijin blog that, as a rule, flipbooks suck. Part of the allure of the web is that it doesn't have to adhere to the same rules that books and magazines do. A web page that you have to flip through page by page is like a motorcycle you have to pedal. But as with all rules, there is the occasional exception.

The history of the T1 Barcode is one of these exceptions.

Much like the web flipbook, the T1 Barcode itself was a bit of a throwback, a beefy (at least in appearance—although I suppose a five-and-a-half pound frame qualifies as heavy these days) fuck you to all the cookie-cutter frames that followed. And while it's temporarily out of production, all signs point to a return sooner rather than later. Please, no matter what happens, don't change that toptube/seatstay junction. Let the spirit of the original live on. And keep it over five pounds, please. Over five and a half, even. We're not ALL trying to get down to the 15-pound UCI weight limit.

(In semi-, not-really-related news, this is awesome.)

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Laid Back (With My Mind On My Money and My Money On My Mind)

2009-06-22T15:06:00.002-04:00

There was a time, back in the distant past when rims were plastic and pedals were metal, that a layback seatpost was more or less a necessity. Even the longest "pro XL" frames weren't very long, and so-called freestyle frames all had 18" or so toptubes. If you were taller than Eddie Fiola—heck even if you WERE Eddie Fiola—you needed a layback post to make your bike rideable. Some more than others.

By the time Macneil developed the Pivotal seat and post setup, things had changed a lot. Now you could get a frame in virtually any toptube size, from 18" all the way up to 22". And long gone were the days when seats were for sitting. Seatposts themselves were becoming mere vestigal remains of their former selves*, just a way to anchor your seat to your frame without resorting to the indignities of hose clamps or duct tape.

Still, there are those of us out there who run our seats high(er) and proud. Who follow the one- (or even two-) fist rule. Who have more in common with Brian Foster than Randy Taylor. And if your seat is more than just a padded seat tube plug, you might want to adjust the positioning fore and aft. A Pivotal setup does not allow for this. So the good people at Subrosa developed this—a laid-back Pivotal post. Hm. That's one option. The other answer is clear as brake pads: A railed seat and a conventional post. Yuck, but who would ever run that?

••••••••••••

* Looking up "Primo Rod" in Google image search with 'safe search' off while in a public place was one of the most daring things I've done in a while. Somehow all of the results were quite tame. Disappointed isn't even the word.

••••••••••••

Was fortunate enough to catch the NYC premiere of "I Love My Bicycle" (the story of FBM) at the Bicycle Film Fest this weekend. Great flick. Joe Stakun did a terrific job putting together vintage footage and current interviews (with everyone from Cranpa and Gilly to Dave Mirra and Jamie Bestwick), and the premiere was a traditionally rowdy FBM affair (although nothing got blown up or set on fire, at least that I know of). Also, I finally got to meet Kelly Baker, which was everything I expected. Check the trailer out here, and go see it as soon as you can. Thanks, Steve.

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Times Is Changed And Life Is Strange

2009-06-19T14:08:00.003-04:00

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.)

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The College Dropout

2009-06-18T12:19:00.006-04:00

It's becoming increasingly hard to innovate in the world of bicycling. The double-diamond frame has been around for well over a century, and the spoked wheel has been around even longer. With the basics long since established, you can either fiddle with minutia or make tremendous mistakes.

Or, if you try really hard, you can do both.

Which brings us to the new Stolen dropout design:

Now, BMX dropouts have come a long way in the past 30 or so years, from this to this to this. Then, of course, some companies had to go and get all carried away. I'm pretty sure this Taper Lock dropout falls into the latter category.

You read the interview, right? Looked at the photos? If you didn't, go back and check it out.

OK?

So, best as I can tell, here's how the Taper Lock dropout is supposed to work. First of all, the taper on the dropout looks to be even from front to back:

The similarly tapered washer sits in that groove:

And as you tighten it, the axle slides back in the dropout. As Dave from Stolen said in the interview, "we only hand-tightened the axle in the dropout and the wheel still wouldn’t move forward when hit with force." Very good. That's one problem solved. Not that it couldn't be solved using a current dropout and a big socket wrench, but still.

However, a few questions:

1) Seeing that the taper is consistent from front to back, won't the wheel keep getting pulled backwards with every turn of the wrench? Well, until the washer bottoms out on your hub, at least. It makes sense that it seats perfectly when hand tightened. But if you really torque down on your axle nuts—like to, say, hold your pegs on—won't your chain end up way too tight? I suppose you could grind down the back of the tapered washer so it stops at the perfect point every time, but that would seemingly lock you into one gear ratio. Which brings us to the second question.

2) What happens when your wheel is hit with force the OTHER way? If you catch a peg on an upright, won't your wheel slip backwards and loosen up? Unless, that is, you torque it down super-hard or run your chain super-tight, in which case why not just do the same thing with normal dropouts?

So yeah. Neat idea. Would probably work fine for a singlespeed city or mountain bike, or maybe a fixed gear. BMX? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Please.

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Don't Stop Believing

2009-06-17T20:14:00.005-04:00

Lots of new frames popping up this week. Had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn't Interbike time. It's not. Still, it seems like nearly every company introduced a new frame, including Eastern:

At a glance, it looks relatively normal, by which I mean it doesn't have all sorts of slots and holes drilled in it. Perhaps Eastern has moved beyond NASCAR technology. But look closer and you'll find a few, um, eccentricities. Like a proprietary (and seemingly arbitrary) bottom bracket width, and an offset-butted headtube.

Start with the wider bottom bracket. Eastern went from the 'standard' 68mm width to 82mm. Which makes some degree of sense, for the reasons they give:

"The BB is 82mm wide verses [sic] the standard BB that is 68mm wide. This spreads the bearings out to increase the strength on the spindle and bearings by putting the load closer to the bearing. The wider BB also allows the stays to be welded further apart to increase the strength and to allow for straighter chain stays and clearance for a 2.3 tire."

The traditional 68mm width always made more sense for road bikes with their skinnier tires, and even they went wider with outboard bearings (although the BB30 system represents an attempt to bring it back to 68mm—and you thought BMX was confusing). Meanwhile quite a few downhill bikes already use 83mm bottom bracket shells.

That said, there's a couple other things to take into consideration. Number one, you're gonna need a whole new (presumably Eastern) bottom bracket setup. Not the bearings themselves—those'll be of the standard mid variety—but a new, wider tube spacer and some thinner washers to go in between the arms and the bearings. And even with all that (consideration number two) I wonder what this'll do to your chainline? I'm sure it's been tested—after all, Josh Perry pulled a 720 tailwhip on one!—and it's only 7.5mm per side, but my drive side washer is pretty thin as it is.

The offset headtube shouldn't provide any problems. It could if you still had to hammer cups into it, but those days are long gone, and companies are doing far worse things to headtubes these days. If Eastern wants to save a few grams by making a simple headtube more complicated, that's their problem. Besides, it sort of goes with the similarly offset-butted Lightning Rod downtube.

Everything else is pretty normal for a late-'00s frame: Japanese (presumably Sanko) tubing, removable mounts and guides, machined dropouts, built-in chain tensioners. But I'm most excited about a holdover from the late '90s: an ovalized (at the bottom bracket juncture) seat tube. Again, this should make the frame somewhat stiffer, but it's also a homage of sorts to this. Which is never a bad thing.

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Ain't No Future in Yo' Frontload

2009-06-16T14:51:00.005-04:00

So I noticed a tweet from @SubrosaBrand today mentioning a Hoang Tran bike check on RIDE that featured some prototype Subrosa products. Word? Curiosity killed the cat, but there's too many of the damn things around anyway. I clicked, and somewhere a tabby exploded.

Well, the only prototype Subrosa stuff I saw were the stem and the grips, and seeing that new grips are a dime a dozen these days, I figured we should check out the stem:

Or not. Hm. A milled-out, split-cap frontload stem. Where have I seen that before? It's more or less the skeleton of a Shadow stem. And here I thought toploads were making a comeback. This is what happens when 4-foot-11 12-year-old kids (or 25-year-old adults) insist on running eight-plus inch rise bars, I suppose. Not that I expected Subrosa to re-invent the, um, stem.

That said, let's see some thinking outside the box! How about a pair of 17-inch rise two-piece bars and a stem that goes in between the fork crown and the lower bearing race? Sure, you'll need some sort of extra piece to hold your forks on, and you won't be able to do barspins or tailwhips anymore, but won't that be a relief more than anything else?

That, or everyone could chill on buying super-high rise bars unless they really need them so there'd be no need for stems like this—but what am I talking about? That would just be crazy.

Mutually Assured Destruction

2009-06-15T15:30:00.006-04:00

How do you destroy a modern BMX bike in five seconds or less? Try the Austin Church gap, of course:

SOLIDSTEEL Johno & the Church Gap from Clint on Vimeo.

I know Jimmy Levan, sir, and you're no Jimmy Levan. That said, ridiculous props for even attempting it. Solid Steel for sure.

If nothing else, this should serve as a public service message in support of straight-gauge spokes, 48-spoke wheels and (gulp—check 1:46) bars with fewer butts than a Sir Mix-A-Lot video. Not that a stronger rear wheel wouldn't have self-destructed too, but man. Dude's lucky his bike was the only thing that got destroyed. And cracks or no, I'd retire every part on it with full honors.

Obviously I have no intentions of jumping TACG™, but my new/old bike is ready for it on the off chance I lose my freaking mind:

In semi-unrelated news, there has been a Troy McMurray sighting on the East Coast. Hide the women and children.

Still Tippin' On Four:Fours

2009-06-10T20:11:00.005-04:00

• Odyssey's got some tall-ass four-piece bars dropping that look sort of like Redline Forklifters without the number-plate tabs (or just the more recent versions) or Fred'z Bars without Fred. I'd embed the code so you didn't have to click the link, but the last time I did that it messed up the whole column aspect of the blog. I'm not blaming Odyssey—there must be a way I could adjust the width or the scale—I just don't know what I'm doing. I'd think these are what would have been the Lumb4rjacks (or was it Lumberj4cks?), and whilst I'm inclined to sigh at yet another pair of bars thrown into the mix, it's hard to not love 'em after seeing this photo:

That said, I'll stick with my Bobs.

• Whilst yesterday's post drew plenty of comments, nothing was really cleared up one way or the other. Meanwhile, Fit themselves took the Flavor Flav route. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

• I want to believe. But correct me if I'm wrong, isn't that a 'new' Lengthy? And wasn't the Domination bike a regular STA? (As for actually buying it, who do you think you are, Rick Moliterno???) UPDATE: 'Tis apparently 100 percent legit. Must... fight... impulses...

• It could be worse, I suppose. We could all be riding road bikes, where equipment failure costs a lot more.

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Eff It

2009-06-09T15:08:00.005-04:00

There's nothing I hate more than looking at BMXfeed and a) not seeing one of my posts in the top four, and b) seeing that I haven't updated in three days. Embarassing! I'm not the last site on the front page to update, but that's only because the Metal blog operates differently from the rest of the universe. Even Stephen Hawking doesn't get it.

Strangely, there's seemingly a lot going on, but not much to report. Rumors are flying around the internets about various companies—well, one company in particular—but details are few and far between. OK, there are no details.

I know what you're saying: "Russ! Aren't you supposed to be some kind of journalist? Man the phones! Dig some dirt! Rake some muck!" And you know what? You're right. It's about damn time this site actually broke some news. But it's not happening. You know why? First of all, I'm so far removed from the BMX epicenter that I can't even feel the vibrations. Here's a handy diagram to show you what I mean:

As for making phone calls, it seems like that would be an exercise in futility. Even if something big were happening, I'm not gonna get it out of them by placing a phone call or sending an e-mail. It's never quite that easy. And while rampant speculation is fun—"CHRIS MOELLER IS SELLING FIT TO PACIFIC SO YOU'LL BE ABLE TO BUY THEM AT TARGET!!!!"—it doesn't really do anyone any good. All we can do is wait. And, um, hope some disgruntled employee/rider/relative goes off anonymously in the comments section.

••••••••••

In the meantime, you can check out some of the 2010 Fit completes on Alan's BMX, the site for a British retailer. It appears that Fit is actually expanding their line of completes for 2010, which seems utterly insane to me. But maybe putting the line in departme—oops.

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No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

2009-06-05T13:02:00.004-04:00

Well, I said I wasn't gonna talk about Spanish bottom brackets anymore—and I probably won't. Much. But I couldn't resist using that post title:

Anyway, Darcy talked some more about Macneil's choice of the Spanish BB standard here, and the discussion got interesting in the comments section of the original post, with Taj talking about blowing up bearings and JPR coming up with his own modest proposal. If that discussion were to continue—either in this comment section or that one—it wouldn't be a bad thing. Personally, I still feel like it would be nice if we could decide on one bottom bracket bearing standard. After all, we're pretty settled on 1 1/8" integrated headsets and 25.4mm seatposts, and no one complains about either of those infringing on their rights to free design. (Obviously any company could feel free to make frames that took, say, 27.0mm seatposts and—what's that? Standard already tried that? Yes, and we all saw how that turned out.)

••••••••••

Rob Wise has a new frame from Volume that doesn't have any holes drilled in the seattube. Whew. I actually saw it a month or so back when Rob was in NYC, but thought shooting photos of his bike would be a little presumptious. Plus, I didn't have my camera with me.

The funny thing is, it's actually three ounces lighter that the First Blood, his first signature frame, even without the "silencer" holes. Eat it, Rambo.

••••••••••

So yeah, new Eastern forks. Terrific. Just a few questions/comments:

• What exactly are "heaven drops"?
• Please put the CNC controls down.
• I understand that a capped tube with a hole cut in the cap is stronger than an uncapped one, but I still don't get it.
• That 'original' "Hangfree" dropout design? Yeah, Sunday sort of did that first.
• I'm still not entirely sure why you'd buy a fork not made by S&M or Odyssey, especially one that weighs less than two pounds.
• When does the titanium version come out?

••••••••••

One for the weekend. I feel like I posted this before, but what the hell.

••••••••••

Almost forgot! Either Gary Ellis or Jody Donnelly is selling his bike on eBay. Tragic.

Checks Bounce

2009-06-04T10:27:00.007-04:00

If you look at BMXfeed with any regularity, you start to notice bike checks all the time. They're like the chips in a Chips Ahoy! or the green clovers in a box of Lucky Charms or the terrible analogies on this site. Anyway, today I thought I'd just pull all the bike check photos I could find, and run them all with no rhyme nor reason. A bike check shuffle, if you will. Then I can go back to compulsively listening to "Maybach Music 2", which has plenty more rhyme but about as much reason.

(That last one is a bit of a cheat in both date and content, and I probably should have hyperlinked each photo back to the respective sites, but eff it.)

(And oh yes, the Eastern Hawkeye forks. Tomorrow. One of these days I should really look into using RSS.)

iPod Shuffle?

2009-06-03T15:45:00.004-04:00

You know what, it's a rainy Wednesday, and I don't really feel like talking about Spanish bottom brackets anymore, so inspired by Steve Crandall's iPod shuffle over on Defgrip, I'm gonna give you 10 tracks off my own freshly re-filled Nano:

• Public Enemy, "Welcome to the Terrordome"
• Judas Priest, "Winter-Deep-Retreat-Cheater"
• Rick Ross f. Foxy Brown, "Murda Mami"
• Motörhead, "Dirty Love"
• Radiohead, "Treefingers"
• Judas Priest, "Between the Hammer & the Anvil"
• Alice in Chains, "Confusion"
• Queensrÿche, "Operation: Mindcrime"
• Slayer, "Disciple"
• Radiohead, "Videotape"

Keep in mind that this list is entirely irrelevant since all I've been listening to the past couple of days is "Maybach Music 2." If anyone can figure out what the heck Lil Wayne is talking about, let me know.

•••••••••

Oh yeah, and I guess I should run a picture of me as a little kid, just to stay with the format.

Christmas day, 198-. A new Schwinn Predator and a new Oakland Raiders hoodie. Been downhill ever since.

Forking Crazy

2009-06-02T13:16:00.002-04:00

Before I even get into this, I'll admit to still being somewhat perplexed by Odyssey Director forks. While I know they feel the same as normal forks, and I know they have the same rake, and I know they're supposed to be both lighter and stronger than conventional, leading-dropout forks, I can't help but think—because the legs are raked out the way they are—that they'd be more prone to bending. I mean, I know better, but something about it just bothers me.

That said, I really don't understand the new Fly forks. I didn't understand the "integrated dropouts" when they showed them on their frames, and I still don't understand them now. Dig just ran this:
As you know, we´ve been testing the new frames dropouts over the last year and since they are so strong, we thought that it will work on the forks as well. We have been testing these forks for some months now and everything is going great. The procedure is the same as on the frames. One piece casting dropout witch creates a really solid dropout-blades conjuction. Blades are triple butted and feature integrated cone race as our current forks. We´ll start production in a couple of weeks so they will be available around September.

And the Fly site didn't have much more. OK, the Fly site didn't have anything more. And while I understand that English isn't their first language, and they don't want to give away whatever manufacturing secrets they have, the text and the photos really don't tell you much of anything. Are the legs and the dropouts cast as one? Is it possible to create dropouts and triple-butted tubing at the same time? Can someone explain this better?

(Also, it seems weird that you'd come up with this revolutionary new process and just make the same leading-dropout forks as everybody else. It's as if Ford developed unibody construction but just used it to keep pumping out Model Ts.)

Jon Byers Wants To Punch Me In The Face

2009-06-01T15:29:00.002-04:00

Well, not me specifically, I guess. But ESPN posted the second part of their interview with Eastern's Jon Byers, and it included a question about people who aren't too receptive to Eastern's "innovations." This was his answer:

Well there is no shortage of hate or s**t-talking. Some kids just don't want change and progression and anything new to them is 'dumb.' If BMX didn't change and progress, all the bikes might still be 40lbs. You have to be open-minded to new technologies, processes, materials and ideas. It doesn't bother me, and if I have the pleasure of meeting one of these 'Internet' kids face to face, I'm going to teach him the proper way to eat a knuckle sandwich.

This, I totally agree with. Obviously anyone who dislikes your product is "hating," and the proper way to deal with said "hating," as a mature business owner, is to threaten people with violence. Henry Ford used to do the same thing. Heck, maybe if Rick Wagoner had punched some people in tha face, GM wouldn't have gone bankrupt: "Just shut up and buy the fucking Escalade, asshole!"

Anyway, there's a lot more to it, and it's worth reading in its entirety. One of the other things he says is this: "Ill-informed kids are buying stuff because it weighs five ounces lighter when they should put more weight into what they plan to do with it when making their purchasing decision." Now that's worth remembering, no matter what brand you buy. Thinking: It's better than a punch in the face.

Half Links

2009-05-29T12:24:00.003-04:00

• You might not be able to marry another dude in California, but you can sure buy a complete Killorado from Dan's Comp.

• Not sure what's more amazing—that Davey Watson has a new signature frame with a "$" in it when Enns already had this, or that ESPN thinks Federal sponsors a guy named "Dave Watts." (I'm sure it's just some inside joke that I don't get. Like the Shadow chain.)

• It's simply not possible to link to a Jason Levy section too many times.

• FBM has made their best custom frame yet.

• Brad McDonald's—I mean Brad Simms's—signature Hoffman frame, the B-RAD, is available now. Mid BB, removeable gyro tabs, cable guides and brake mounts (but an irremovable seatpost clamp. Jerks.).

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Eff a new video, why ain't this at two million views yet? *makes bird noise*

A Well-Trodden iPath

2009-05-28T15:33:00.002-04:00

So apparently IPATH, hippie purveyors of footwear both hemp and fur-lined (and of course, both at the same time—and Rasta), is entering the BMX shoe market. They've built their instant team—a rather good one, actually (not that other skate shoe companies haven't had killer teams before)—and one presumes they'll be churning out BMX-specific shoes soon enough.

“Adding a BMX team into the mix is a natural extension for IPATH,” said IPATH team manager Dave Smith, apparently unaware that BMX has been around for nearly 40 years, and they could have jumped in any time. Forgive me for being cynical. Obviously IPATH hasn't been around quite that long, but they've been making shoes for at least a decade. Why only get involved with BMX now?

Two thoughts: 1) Will IPATH dump BMX the second it's not profitable? And 2) How will their reception be? Now that companies like Lotek and Orchid are somewhat established, is there really any need to have yet another skate shoe company taking their own small piece of an ever-shrinking pie? I know they're green and all, but how do the people at IPATH feel about bikes in skateparks? Will IPATH actually get involved with BMX on a level deeper than giving Mike Ardelean some cash and making a BMX-specific shoe? Will they do more than, say, Nike?

We'll see, I guess.

No Habla Español.

2009-05-27T12:39:00.003-04:00

Today, Darcy Saccucci posted an impassioned defense of the Spanish bottom bracket over at Macneil that boils down to just two points:

• It's lighter.
• It looks better.

No mention of performance, no mention of longevity, no mention of bearing loads or anything like that. Just a series of photos of bearings on digital scales that prove—well, would you look at that—that the smaller Spanish bearings are lighter.

Well I'll be.

Only sometimes smaller isn't better, is it? Despite the apparent epidemic of shrinking frame tubes, you don't see anyone clamoring for the return of 1/4" dropouts and 1" headtubes. Why not? They'd be lighter, right? You're telling me a company couldn't produce a viable 1" internal headset, or a viable 1" threadless fork in 2009? Why not?

You know what I want to do with my bottom bracket? I want to install it and forget about it. And if that extra 100 grams means I don't ever have to look at the thing, then that's 100 grams I don't mind carrying around.

Besides, who still uses Spanish anyway? There's Macneil, of course, and Fly, and T1, and...

Hm.

Hey, what if I told you that there was another bearing system that's even SMALLER and LIGHTER that's been in use forever where you actually screw cups into your frame, thus avoiding the use of hammers and mallets and scavenged pieces of 2x4? Would you be interested in that at all? What's that? Durability? Haven't you been listening at all? It's lighter and sleeker! What more could you want?

Byers Market

2009-05-26T15:37:00.003-04:00

So ESPN/EXPN posted the first part of an interview they did with Jon Byers, one of the founders of Eastern Bikes and a one-time vert shredder. There's some interesting tidbits in there (Eastern was started with $3,000) and it's worth reading—but personally, I'm more interested in Part II, where Byers (and Leigh Ramsdell?) will discuss "where Eastern is going next, about slicing slots in seattubes, making mountainbikes, and pushing the boundaries of BMX technology in good directions."

Whoops, just threw up a little bit.

I hope Byers also explains why NASCAR engineers are qualified to design BMX frames that do more than go fast and turn left. And maybe he could also comment on Project Tank, which goes fast and doesn't really turn at all.

Word To James Shepherd

2009-05-22T11:43:00.002-04:00

When I saw the news that S&M was re-releasing a limited run of OG Holmes frames (in 1", apparently, judging from the plans to make a "matching" fork/stem/headset), the first thing I thought of was an old "Sheep Bites" editorial from RIDE (or Ride UK?) that Austin legend James Shepherd wrote back in '96. (I thought of the same piece when I saw the double-toptube Subrosa Pandora, a tribute to a frame style that few kids these days ever rode—or even saw.)

Well, it just so happened that I typed the whole thing into Word a while back—probably when I was outraged over something on Vintage BMX. I'm pretty sure I e-mailed it to a few people, but never posted it anywhere. The second-to-last paragraph pretty much sums up what I think of things like the Holmes re-issue and the Subrosa RL-20II (somewhere, a kid who's stoked on that frame has no idea what I'm talking about).

Here's the piece in its entirety:

"Remember your roots." Old guys with real DX pedals and a closet full of magazines love the roots. Hey, I'm down with the roots just like the next guy, but you can't go overboard. Sure, looking back a lot of really cool stuff happened. In general, though, the sport was pretty gay. Mostly because the average rider had no clue. I had no clue. Jimmy'Z shorts. Fold-out-motorcycle-style-bitch pegs, mags and no f***ing clue.

Today, with rider-owned magazines and bike companies, people know what's up. John Q. Rider wouldn't stand for the crap that used to be shoveled out. It wasn't anyone's fault, really, the sport was new and just blew up. One day you were some pin-headed kid, and the next you're a high-paid pin head pro riding for a company run by an old man. It's really pretty funny. I won't go over everything, we'll just wade through a few of the more idiotic parts of the sea that was BMX AND FREESTYLE.

First of all, let's talk bikes. I hear people whining about how some new frame sucks, or that forks bend too easily. You want to talk about crappy bikes, bikes used to SUCK. I mean really SUCK. Try getting a Spin Master to work with caliper brakes on mags at the age of thirteen. It just doesn't happen, my friends. Clueless companies made stupid frames with standing platforms that extended as far back as the rear axle. Great for carrying luggage, not so good for schralping on down at the spot. If you want to show your roots, ride an old MCS Styler, but you won't be retro, you'll be retarded.

Now let's talk pros. Ex-superstar Mike Dominguez took his bike out of its box a total of six times one year. Those six times were to ride contests, which were part of his contract. No longer wanting to ride, but still wanting to draw a check, he rode as little as he possibly could, and people loved it. It was a little before the whole "ride to live, live to ride" thing.

Then there was the rollerskating retard, Fred Blood, who crossed over into the pro freestyle ranks. This fruitcake had about as much skill as an I-hopping 10-year old, but put him in an ad with a chick, two minitrucks, a complete bike, and you've got yourself a pro. That couldn't happen today, unless Jess Dyrenforth makes a comeback.

Then there were magazines. There is no doubt that almost everybody with roots considers BMX Action and Freestylin' to be the riders bibles, but even they were not without flaws.

Bob Osborn, who owned BMXA and Freestylin', had a son named RL. RL happened to be a great bike rider. He was so great, in fact, that during his pro career he got (I'm guessing) over thirty covers of his father's magazines. Ask Woody Itson (one of RL's main competitors at one time) how many covers he got. I'll bet he could count them on one hand.

Bob also had a daughter named Windy who shot photos for the magazines. Windy had a boyfriend named Eddie Fiola. Maybe you've heard of him? When your girlfriend works at a coffee house, chances are you can get free coffee. When your girlfriend shoots for a bike magazine, you're the king of coverage. Actually, the real king of coverage was Mike Loveridge, because he lived down the freeway from BMX Plus. Whooaaa!

Location didn't hurt Chris Moeller, either. In 1987, when Chris was still Mad Dog, he made the cover of BMXA four times. In case you don't know, getting four covers of the same mag in one year is ridiculous. Chris is definitely bad ass, but come on. If Ride's overlord, B Rad, pulled that crap you guys would have his ass tarred and feathered faster than the autowind on his Nikon.

Honestly, I don't think the sport was entirely gay, I'm just trying to make a point. Some people miss the past so much, they don't enjoy the present. It's not that bikes were so great, it's that you were young. Everything was great. No rent, no bills, just riding and trying to get laid. That's what people really miss, and hell yeah, I miss it too. If you're young and just got into bikes, this time in your life is the shit, so live it up. 'Cause one day you might grow up to be some fruitcake burnout with a beat-up old Dirt Bike that rambles on for hours about how great growing up riding was. If you are some fruitcake burnout with an old beat-up RL20II, sorry, but "F*** 'em if they can't take a joke."

Remember your roots, just don't let them keep you from where you're going. (That last line makes me look like a fruit.)

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Well I Otter...

2009-05-21T12:51:00.005-04:00

I think I've finally figured it out.

Not life or anything. Lord no. No clue what that's all about. The way I figure it, you probably do get total consciousness when you die (everyone, not just Carl Spackler), but, um, then you're dead. A lot of good it does you then. Thanks, Lama.

No, I'm talking about figuring out why normally sane companies like Odyssey insist on making their products in more and more ridiculous colors. (Although those pink rims will come in handy when I decide to turn my bike into a Woody Itson signature replica.)

It's all about turning your bike into a giant Otter Pop. What the hell, right? After all, it is summer. Almost.

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As an old guy in BMX myself (well, around the corner from BMX, at least), I like to keep up with the other old guys when I can. You know, support the other Geritol chuggers. So here's two things that you probably already know about:

• Scott Towne is one of those "vintage BMX guys" who happens to also still shred. He might have an affinity for old bikes, but he's not one of those lunatics who thinks an '88 Haro Sport was the pinnacle of BMX technology. He's got a rather long interview on In The Gnar.

• Back in the day when kids were mack daddies, FREESTYLIN' mag was the only place to go to get your BMX fix. No, really, it was. There was no Props, no Vital BMX, hell, no internet. A couple years back, some of the bigger names from FREESTYLIN' got together with some people from Nike SB (sigh) to put out a commemorative book about those days. Right now most of them are either on eBay or buried in some sneaker boutique owner's closet. (Luckily, the entire thing is online here.) Well, one of the smaller names from those days, Steve "White Bear" Emig, didn't get invited to the party. So he started a blog to tell his own side of the FREESTYLIN' story, where he's already offended Andy Jenkins and written an entire entry about Windy Osborn's gigantic tits. If you were raised on FREESTYLIN' (as I was), this is a must-bookmark: FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales.

Get Fixed

2009-05-20T14:17:00.001-04:00

My new goal is to try not to think too much when I post here. Because when I do that, I tend to get all preachy and condescending and stuff. I'm probably better off just letting half-formed thoughts slither out like afterbirth out of Octomom and see what happens. At least that way I won't be taking a month off between posts.

So let's talk about fixed gears for a moment. I've got one. I've got two, actually—an old Bianchi Pista that looks like it got trampled by a herd of angry wildebeest, and a new-ish Mercier Kilo TT that I bought off of Bikesdirect when I realized it was a cheaper option than buying a new fork and wheelset for the Pista. Of course I hadn't counted on the inevitable desire to upgrade, but c'est la vie.

BMX companies have been dipping their beaks into the fixed-gear market for a while now—FBM makes the Sword, Volume sells the Cutter and the Creedence, Profile makes parts and SNAFU picks them out of a catalog. In fact, Volume, FBM and Profile all have separate sites for their fixed clientele. Guess the fixed-gear guys don't want to even acidentally look at some stupid kid's bike.

Well, now Subrosa has seen fit to enter the fray with their own fixed gear, the Malum Fixed, due out in July:

And then there's SE Racing, already churning out as many no-budget Drafts as the market can bear (or that you can stuff into a shipping container), aiming more upscale with a super-limited DC Shoes collabo PK Ripper Fixed (self promotion, holla).

To be honest, the Malum looks really cool. Can't say I'd want all that Shadow stuff—I'd get rid of that chain before I even bolted the front wheel on—but all in all, it looks like a nice bike. The SE is aimed more at the sneaker-obsessed downtown crowd, so of the 2,500 they're making, roughly a dozen will actually be ridden. Still curious to see a real photo. It might kill Perry Kramer, though. Unless he's getting royalties.

I suppose as long as "fixed-gear freestyle" keeps going, BMX companies will try to get a piece of that market. And who can blame them? Price points start higher, and the labor and material costs are more or less the same (insert JPR correction here). Make that money. Although I might think differently when someone orders a 700c STA.

Cooke Ones

2009-05-19T13:51:00.004-04:00

Maybe this will satisfy (at least temporarily) all you content-cravers out there. Well, for 15 minutes at least.

I've had this "Allan Cooke Named BMX Brand Manager at Haro" tab open on my browser for God knows how long. (No earlier than May 15th, I suppose.) It's a pretty pointless "article," because it's just the press release. In other words, EXPN doesn't even tell you whether all of Haro's riders will have to learn Cookebacks in order to stay on the team, or whether Allan will have to start dressing like an adult at some point. But I did greatly enjoy the following paragraph:

"I am very excited about the addition of this bright young talent to our BMX group" said Joe Hawk, Haro's Chief Operating Officer. "Allan brings a fresh new approach and a unique collection of skillsets; when combined with the talents of the current Product Development team, it will ensure that Haro maintains its edge as the leader in BMX for years to come."

Now, I don't know who Joe Hawk is, although that sounds like a hell of a porn name. What I do know is, in order to maintain your edge as the leader in BMX, you have to be the leader to begin with. And, unless I woke up in 1986 today, I have my doubts.

Death to False Metal!

2009-05-19T11:01:00.001-04:00

WTF?

Cardinal, Official?

2009-05-02T15:57:00.000-04:00

So apparently Nate Moroshan has started his own bike company (featuring basically everyone who used to ride for Volume up until recently), and designed his own frame, which has one major difference from your typical BMX frame: Vertical dropouts.

The reasons given for the change are solid—your wheel can't move up (or back) in the dropout, and you can run your chain as tight as you can get it and still get the wheel out. Yet, as always, whenever there's a change that seems too obvious, I wonder why it's never been done before. Vertical dropouts have been around for an awfully long time now. They've even been used in BMX before (I can't remember who it was, but a company used Campy road dropouts way back in the '70s). Someone's had to have thought of this before, right? The only real drawbacks I can think of off the top of my head are a) you can't run really weird gear ratios, and b) you'll probably have to replace your chain more often, because if it stretches, you're fucked. Otherwise, I'm as curious as anyone to see how they work out.

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If you've spent the last couple years dreaming of a frame you could never have—like, say, an FBM Angel of Death with an internal headset, Euro BB, uncapped stays, an angle-cut seattube, and 16" chainstays with room for a 2.3" tire—WAKE THE FUCK UP. All you need is a dollar and a dream—well, or $450 and the patience to wait a couple months—and FBM will make you more or less anything you want. Cool beans. (If you prefer to get your bespoke BMX from the Left Coast, Aaron Huff and Solid got you covered—I'd like to know what the "outlandish weight requirements" are.)

Hey, can you guys do vertical dropouts?

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EDIT: Just felt like bumping this up now that the comments are more open.

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Light Street

2009-05-01T15:39:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty stoked (on being pumped) about the new bmxfeed layout, and not just because this blog somehow occupied two of the four "most popular" spots last week. So thanks to whomever of you keeps reading despite the sporadic updates—I promise I haven't been clicking on my own links over and over and over again. Figure I should save that particular tactic until I really need it.

Anyway, out in the real world, which is being overrun by pollen and swine flu as we speak, the weight savings beat goes on. Take Odyssey, for example. They might not be able to re-invent the wheel, but they sure can keep messing around with parts of it. This time it's the spokes, allowing you to save a whopping ounce per wheel.

(I can hear you already, so don't even say it. OK, go ahead. I'll even say it with you: "BUT IT'S ROTATING WEIGHT!!!" Hallelujah!)

What confuses me more than anything is the admonition that these spokes are intended for racing and "light street." I Googled "light street" and got this, none of which seems to apply. What is "light street," exactly? No grinding? What about 360s? Or tailwhips? Is it a weight thing? I suppose the best way to figure it out is to build a wheelset with these spokes. If you don't break them, congratulations, you're riding light street. Which means you're a pussy.

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Somehow I find it hard to believe that any Snafu product would be forced to return by 'popular demand'. Also, McGoo himself is on Twitter. Follow at your own risk.

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I think I'm going to risk it and unrestrict the comments again. Enjoy your weekend.

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A Shot In the Dark

2009-04-27T16:29:00.002-04:00

Jenny Craig ain't got shit on BMX. Around here it's all weight loss, all the time.

Lighter forks.

Lighter cranks.

Like my man Charles Oakley once said, "if it ain't broke, break it." Or at least triple-butt and flute it and drill it out. (What caliber are those cranks, anyway?)

At least the crank update makes sense. Profile cranks have been more or less the same since Eric Rupe was running a JESUS LIVES number plate, and people have been running hollow spindles for years. But the forks? Ain't gonna lie, they scare me. Sub two-pound forks and sub four-pound frames strike me as taking unnecessary risks for minimal gain. I guess that's an arbitrary number, and maybe these forks will be as safe as houses. Maybe two years from now one-pound forks will be the norm, and these will seem laughably heavy.

But somehow I doubt it.

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Incientally, if you're looking for the ultimate modern BMX bike, Raleigh's got you covered. Fat tires, tiny seat, no drivetrain, full aluminum construction. All for under $200!

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Dah Shop 1 Year Anniversary

2009-04-22T17:07:00.003-04:00

SUNDAY! Surviving one year in NYC is like surviving 100 years anywhere else. Congrats to Dah Shop—come out and celebrate with 'em. Details below.

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The Nose Knows

2009-04-20T22:24:00.005-04:00

My mind (not to mention stomach) are destroyed following the down-to-the-wire Bulls loss to the Celtics tonight (fuck you, Sher!), so I'm just going to go ahead and re-post this mind-blowing video of the most ridiculous nosewheelie ever. From Woozy (appropriately enough). I couldn't nosewheelie this far if I was on the moon and someone was holding up my rear wheel.

•••••••••••

Also, Standard Byke Co would like you to know that whatever those other companies can do for you custom-wise, they've been doing it longer. I'll take a translucent green OG STA, please.

And Now For Something Completely Not Different

2009-04-16T15:53:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I think BMX is stuck in a rut. And it's times like that when I take a look at BMXfeed and realize that, yep, I'm totally right.

1) Hey, another new frontload stem. Ramp up the yawn. I'm a little disappointed that the first question wasn't "So how does it feel to be the 347th company to 'design' a frontload stem?" or "Did you consider just producing stickers to stick on someone else's frontload stem?" or "When can we expect the check for this blatant advertorial?"

2) Hey, another bike check. I'm way more excited by the helmet.

3) Hey, new SNAFU products. If color is an innovation, McGoo is a genius.

4) Hey, some old guy bitching about nothing. What a loser.

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Steve Crandall Has A Pos(seatpost)

2009-04-15T13:44:00.000-04:00

As a fellow old guy, I can definitely identify with Steve Crandall's freshly built Exodus. There's the brake (which I haven't adopted yet), the super-fat front tire, and the exposed seatpost. (Just out of curiosity, I wonder what the average age of the Macneil 330 buyer is?) I was going to say the big bars too, but while big bars do seem to be favored by the over-30 set, they're also the bar of choice for 60-pound 12-year olds. Actually, the younger/smaller the rider, the BIGGER the bars, if anything. I'm still waiting for a company to produce a small run of 10x35" bars and immediately sell out of them.

In totally unrelated news, I've been unloading a mess of my vintage BMX goods, and I was sort of worried—what with the economy collapsing and all—that prices would start to drop. A year or two back, I sold a near-perfect Hutch Pro stem for somewhere around $300. Sold another one in an auction that ended yesterday. I guess I had nothing to worry about.

••••••••••••

Best short video ever? A warning against running 36s? Fifteen seconds of wheel-destroying wonderfulness from Dave Young circa '96-97, as found on Metal.

Can You Dig It?

2009-04-14T10:32:00.005-04:00

So it appears that the new Max Gaertig/Mike Brennan signature We The People frame is, if not out, at least in the enormous paws of Herr Gaertig himself:

(Just how big is Max's bike? That small blur you see just to the back of his front pedal is actually a Volkswagen Tiguan.)

If you'll look carefully, you'll see one major difference in the production model from the CAD drawings (or whatever they were) that WTP posted way back in September:

Yes, ladies and germs, The Warrior (not to be confused with The Ultimate Warrior) appears to have an actual seatpost clamp. And while it's of the integrated variety, at least it does allow those riders not swayed by the idea of a wedge post to run Max and Mike's frame. One small step for man, one huge leap for seatpost kind.

(And if Max's bike isn't big enough for you, there's always the redesigned Macneil Deuce Deuce. I keep hoping for an Ice Cube-endorsed Deuce Trey, but I guess it's not happening.)

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Please Stand By

2009-04-13T16:18:00.003-04:00

Whoops. I won't get into the whole lengthy absence thing again—you can just refer to the last post for that.

I will say this, though: my trusty old iBook G4 flamed out for good last week (logic board failure, or so they say), so I'm on a brand-new computer—a basic aluminum Macbook—for the first time in forever. Seeing that I hadn't had to buy a computer since 1989 or so, I figured I got off somewhat easy. Of course I hadn't backed anything up in forever either, so I'm in limbo as to whether ANY of my data can be saved. It wasn't the hard drive itself that burned out, thankfully, but from what the Geniuses at the Apple Store had to say, transferring everything off won't be an easy task. So I'm holding my breath.

What else? The economy still sucks. And nobody's safe. Not sure whether you saw it or not, but Rick Moliterno is selling off a bunch of his stuff on eBay, including his original RAD script, a shitload of original Shimano DX pedals and a grab bag of half-finished Standard prototype stuff. At least they're not selling the disco records they used to put together the Style Cats soundtrack. Or Kerry Gatt himself.

Not yet, anyway.

Meanwhile, it's business as usual, and I have every intention of throwing myself back in the mix before I get kicked off of BMXfeed due to inactivity. The new computer will help, because, the old one? Sixty percent of the time it worked, every time.

In the meantime, ESPN's got this BMX thing on lock anyway.

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Death Gap

2009-03-24T19:55:00.003-04:00

For a while there I was starting to think I got laid off. Then I realized that a) I don't work for anyone, and b) I don't get paid anyway. So, uh, sorry.

Actually, the real truth of the matter was that I got bummed out one day when I looked at BMXfeed and realized five different sites were reporting that Morgan Wade had left Mutiny. I guess there are hundreds of news sites—if not thousands—that report the same exact thing every day, but this somehow seems different. It shouldn't have affected me at all, because it's not like I really care about sponsor changes. But, for whatever reason, it did.

Then there's the little matter of my being an epic procrastinator and the kind of person who just lets things snowball. Like with e-mail—if I respond to something right away, I'm fine. But if I put it off, each day that passes makes it harder and harder for me to respond at all. Then all of a sudden a week (or month) has passed and I'm totally fucked. So this, um, lag in updates is probably due to a combination of things. My bad. I've been away so long that Steve Crandall and Chris Berman are now technically co-workers.

Unfortunately, my absence had nothing to do with working on some sort of tremendously clever post that required weeks of research (or even thinking). Even after two weeks, I'm just winging it. Making it up as I go along. You'd think that after being a professional writer for damn near two decades now that I'd have a more effective and established process. And you'd be wrong.

Now pardon me while I clear out some tabs that have been open in my browser forever.

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Let's say you really want an Eastern Grim Reaper, but you can't afford one. There are plenty of things you could do, ranging from having someone talk you out of it, to seeking professional help. One option you should NOT consider is grabbing a router or a Dremel and making your own. Of course someone did just that.

•••••••••••••••••

I'm sorry, but unless you're Brian Foster circa 1997, these bars look really silly. Yes, I know I shouldn't really be judging aesthetics—that they're a matter of personal preference—but if you want giant bars, why would you ever get four-piece ones?

•••••••••••••••••

I'm not sure what company is responsible for this (it was on the Snafu blog), but the entirely seatless BMX bike can't be far behind. I hope the complete bike is called The Vestigal.

•••••••••••••••••

When WTP started éclat, I figured it marked the end of aftermarket WTP-labeled parts. I figured wrong.

No sir, I don't get it.

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Motomag

2009-03-10T23:43:00.003-04:00

Welding is hard. You know why? Because Snafu says so. See? It's right here. And I'll admit, those charts don't make a lick of sense to me, either. Then again, the internets are full of charts I don't understand—mainly because once you get past the Periodic Table of the Elements I'm totally lost. I was never much for science. Or math, for that matter. Somehow I tested into calculus as a college freshman despite having never taken pre-calc, and I only passed due to the, um, unwitting help of others. The only science courses I took in college were a couple of archaeology courses and a rocks for jocks earth science class that I used to catch up on sleep (and passed easily because I took a near-identical course in high school).

One thing I do know, though, is magazines. I was an editor at one for something like 10 years—and editor-in-chief for four. (I even wrote snarky responses to letters for a while, so me and McGoo are like brothers from another mother and stuff.) I still contribute to several, and know a lot of people in the industry. Well, some of them are still in the industry. There's a reason I haven't had full-time work in years, and it's not just because of my beard or the compromising photos on my Facebook page (I totally thought that llama was 18, I swear) or my overreliance on parentheticals. No, the ol' magazine industry just isn't doing so well these days. Ad pages are down, freelance rates are dropping (presuming you can even get work to begin with), even the big names are battening down the hatches and cutting pages to try and stay in the black. TIME is short, so to speak.

So while I'm sure I'm totally overreacting like usual, the line about "when Chris's story breaks, we'll scan it and feature it right here" in that Snafu entry pissed me off no end. Because McGoo of all people should know better. Look, I hope the article IS great. I hope it is indispensable. And I hope, if you want to read it, you go out and buy the magazine. Because if you don't, it won't be long before there's no magazine to buy. That, I understand.

•••••••••••

Colors

2009-03-09T16:43:00.005-04:00

Not dead yet!

However, I am going to disable anonymous comments for a while and see how that works out. I'm sure there'll be fewer comments, but that's OK. It's not like comment count is the be-all and end-all. I don't even care what anyone says. It's not about censorship, just accountability. Obviously everyone knows (or think they know) who I am. That should go both ways.

(I'm writing this at a Borders, by the way. I tried to post from my G1 on Friday whilst headed to Madison Square Garden, but while I could get to the "compose" screen and even type in a title, I couldn't figure out how to get a cursor in the main text box. Curses! Stupid technology.)

In something resembling BMX news, Standard is still living like it's 1999—or maybe even 1989. Check those stem colors:

Powdercoated, anodized, even polished if you ask nicely. Personally, I think they're insane, but hey, what do I know. I've never even worked in the industry!

(If you'd have asked me when colored tires would be making a comeback, I'd have said "never—and thank God!" I'd have been wrong. Here's hoping they've made tremendous strides in rubber composition in the past couple years. At least the Crips and the Bloods are happy.)

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Perfect Fit

2009-03-03T20:56:00.003-05:00

I just haven't been managing my time well this week at all. Apologies.

Honestly, I've been looking at this for half the day and trying to figure out what the heck to say about it. Fit is looking to hire a new designer, and it...could...be...you! Well, assuming you can use Solidworks, which counts me out. (I like that it's posted on the RIDE UK site but not on the Fit site. Are a lot of would-be BMX designers located overseas? Would it be worth posting this on Monster.com? Craigslist? It's also pretty funny that the contact person is Moeller and not Robbie.)

There's a lot to pick apart. Like "college degree or comparable education." What does that even mean? That you got within a couple of credits of your engineering degree and dropped out to support your ill hamster? School of hard knocks? I also love the "just in case you are currently working for another company," which implies all kinds of potential for espionage and treachery. I suppose if the next generation of Fits have all kinds of holes mitered in them we'll know they snatched someone from Eastern. Or Volume. Maybe the new guy will want to do track frames! I can hardly wait!

(Overall, it does make you—or at least me—wonder what sort of qualifications most designers at BMX companies have. Are they all engineers? If not, did they all at least study engineering at some point? Or is the closest some of them have come to engineering is the time they watched Thomas the Tank Engine by mistake?)

••••••••••••

It's the Feds!

2009-03-02T21:16:00.003-05:00

It's late, and I've still not managed to procure a digital scale, so I shall neither provide anything lengthy nor complicated today.

Instead, a simple link, where Mark Noble of ESPN (and Deluxe, and formerly of Ride UK) asks several questions of Federal's Chris Harrison. The subject matter is appropriate for this blog. To wit:

"The consumer is to blame in a sense, as they are ultimately demanding lighter parts, and then companies obviously answer this demand and end up producing three and a half pound frames that are not fit for purpose. I think as an industry we have a responsibility by the rider to educate them and to make sure they are aware of the limitations of frame design."

Well, shiver me timbers! Responsibility!

It's well worth reading the interview in its entirety, if you haven't already. Thank you Mark, and thank you Chris. (I thought about quoting more, but I just read this story today.)

•••••••••••

Don't mind the bollocks (or my previous posts, apparently), it's Taj's bike check. Maybe the Hanson photo (no, not this) didn't make me a hypocrite, but this does. Still feels weird to me that he's not riding a Barcode.

Obviously I just linked to this because Odyssey pays me $39,967,003 a year. Don't even ask.

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The Drop

2009-02-27T20:51:00.005-05:00

Hi. My name is Russ Bengtson and I'm a hypocrite. I admit this of my own free will—proudly, no less. I'm sure I couldn't even begin to count the number of times I've said one thing, then gone and done the exact opposite. That said:

THIS IS NOT A BIKE CHECK.

Hanson Little promised long ago that he'd send a flick of his chrome Mutiny Mystic, and this week he came through. Devon Hutchins took the photo, and—to reinforce that this is no bike check—I have no information regarding any of the parts on the bike. It sure looks purty, though, don't it?

Also, Hanson scored the cover of the new Dig. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

••••••••••••

To be fair, the new Snafu Splitter stem is certainly distinctive-looking:

And it sure is minimalist. We seem to be reaching the limit of how much material you can remove from a six-bolt stem (counting the ones on the back) and have it still function as a stem. It kind of looks like a Redneck's skeleton, if Rednecks were Terminators (and I'm not entirely sure they aren't).

I don't think I could run this stem, and it has nothing to do with the fact that it's made by Snafu (well, not entirely, at least). Looking at those slim plates in the front and the narrow tubes that house the bolts makes me feel nervous, and the stem is a part I don't like to feel nervous about. (running a close second to forks). I'd rather run an 11-ounce stem and feel safe. Well, safer, anyway.

I'm totally psyched on the fact that there's a "drop date," although I'm bummed there's no mention of colorways. Maybe I'll camp out overnight so I can be the first to post my new Splitter on the internets. Hm, I've always meant to get back to Austin. Hey Hanson, save me a good spot out front—and have a list of your parts ready when I get there. You'd better know what kind of chain that is.

••••••••••••

You Will Miss All That Heavenly Glory

2009-02-26T13:28:00.005-05:00

Sometimes, when I'm not busy hating, I like to contemplate how certain ideas in BMX came about. And one day recently, sitting at my desk, I realized I was looking right at the source of many recent "innovations."

The Flick Trix finger bike:

How could I have been so blind? You know every designer and editor has at least one of these things, whether they use it to do Luc-E's across the top of their laptop screen or nosewheelies across the space bar or just stare at it when the day goes too long. And despite the Fatboy seattube interrupted and the Jay Miron handlebar angle, there were a lot of design cues to pilfer. Check out these detail shots:

One piece bar/stem combo? Check. Fork with built-in race? Check. Bonded seat/post combo? Check. Plastic pedals? Check. Two-piece cranks? Check. Plastic bottom bracket? Check. Massive tires front and rear? Check. Even ideas that have already come and gone—like the beer can headtube and plastic sprocket—were first seen on these little bike-shaped crystal balls.

So when belt drive and plastic frames finally become a reality, don't blame the "designers." Blame their inspiration.

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One Thing Leads to Another

2009-02-25T14:27:00.005-05:00

Apparently "the big topic in BMX" is fixed-gear freestyle. Had no idea. That being the case, I suppose I should weigh in:

It's fucking stupid.

Call me closed-minded, call me old-fashioned, call me a Fascist. I don't care. But first check out the ad that accompanies that Volume post:

Notice anything? That's right, the bike broke. And sure, anyone can break a chain. But if you're doing stuff like that on a regular basis on a 700c wheeled bike, parts are going to break all the time. Wheels will bend, chainstays will die, forks will—I don't want to even think what will happen to forks.

I guess what I don't understand is taking a bike obviously intended for one thing and using it for something it's in no way intended for. I know, I know, I can hear the responses already: "But that's how BMX and mountain biking started!!!!" Sure, fine. Absolutely correct.

However.

At this point, in 2009, there are plenty of bikes out there designed expressly for trick riding. You have your regular BMX bikes, obviously, as well as cruisers and mountain bikes. All shapes and sizes. Fixed-gears are built to go fast in a circle. Fixed-gear freestyle—to me, obviously—is just a stubborn case of "I'll show YOU what I can or can't do!" Which is all well and good, but there's such a thing as going too far. Doing "freestyle" on a fixed is like drag racing in a Prius or trimming your toenails with a paring knife or climbing Everest in flip-flops and a Speedo. Or, for that matter, entering the Tour de France on a GT Fueler. Can you do it? Sure, maybe. But why make things complicated when there are already tools designed specifically for that purpose?

Honestly, I'm just amazed that no one's snapped the stock fork off his or her [SPECIFIC PRODUCT NAME REDACTED] trying something stupid, gotten badly hurt, and tried to sue the shit out of the company. I'm sure that'll work out well.

By the way, I typed this whole post on a cell phone with no keyboard just because I could.*

••••••••••••

ATTENTION ALL WOULD-BE BIKE CHECKERS: No one cares about your setup. You know why? Either you're riding the same shit as everyone else ("A big front tire? NO WAY!") or you're just running what your sponsor sends you. ("This new Primo fork is the best fork I've ever run in my LIFE. Well, until the next one comes out.") We don't care that you cut your bars and your seatpost, or that you've been running the same seatpost clamp since 1937. Saying "I don't know, the usual one" for what kind of chain you run does not make you look cool (do you have a mechanic who handles that stuff, or did you just never learn to read?). The fact that you can match colors without the use of a Pantone chart does not make you a designer. Listing the weight of your bike to the nearest hundreth of an ounce means you're insane and probably weigh your bowel movements.

All that said, this is awesome, and I can't imagine how it got on ESPN. Good job, Tunney.

••••••••••••

*Total lie.

Feeling Special

2009-02-24T13:03:00.007-05:00

Today, we play a little bit of catchup, going through the ol' e-mail inbox and whatnot:

Flatland parts have always been weird. Well, maybe not always, but ever since everything went all micro. That said, this sprocket is possibly the weirdest flatland part ever. Skip-tooth sprockets are nothing new, but making a skip-tooth sprocket this small just seems to be asking for it. Considering the durability issues, they should probably sell these in six-packs.

Wonder Woman, your seat is ready. No word whether it stimulates the Wonder Clitoris, but all signs point to yes.

If you ever wondered whether you could run 22/8 with chainstay brakes, you can. And if you're not getting T1's Freaky Friday e-mails, you're really missing out:

If you want to get in on it, just send your email address to terrible.dude@yahoo.com with 'Freaky Friday' as the subject header.

Profile done gone lost their minds. Checkerboard cranks? Who are those targeting, these guys?

Oh, and expect several companies who pick their parts from the ol' Taiwanese catalog to be unveiling their No Class™ rims soon. I can hardly wait!
Just think of the options! A Full House rim to match your Blackjack sprocket! Or perhaps a Lucky Charms rim. Consider yourselves warned.

••••••••••••••

I find it hard to write this, but I need to pick up a digital scale soon. It should go up to, say, 10 pounds or so and be fairly accurate to a tenth of an ounce or so. I have a bunch of grips laying around and I want to figure out which set is the lightest before I build a new bike. Recommendations? Anyone ever buy one off eBay?

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Dead Presidents

2009-02-23T11:30:00.004-05:00

Whoops.

To be honest, I only intended to take Monday off. You know, President's Day and all. I usually leave guys like Washington and Lincoln to the amateurs and celebrate the lesser-known ones, like William Howard Taft, Chester A. Arthur and Rutherford B. Hayes (Rutherford also B. awesome!). You know, the guys who instead of getting their faces on money got their names on elementary schools in exciting places like Marion, OH and Riverside, CA. Said celebration generally involves eating and drinking a lot and growing a luxurious mat of facial hair. Sometimes I get a little carried away and the celebration lasts even longer than the term of William Henry Harrison. (Him I remember by going outside without a coat or hat no matter how cold and blustery it is. I draw the line at dying, though.)

Anyway, I hope you were able to find other things to do in my absence, like reading Enns's blog or trying to figure out why a guy with a signature railed seat would get a signature frame with a built-in Pivotal post or trying to decipher the wildly entertaining (and entertainingly wild) interview with prodigal BMXer Chris Duncan over on EXPN. And I've been recharged by my week off, so I'm ready to get right back into it with my invaluable opinions on fixed-gear freestyling, and a big-time shootout between two products that only differ in weight (or do they?????). I also think I discovered the true source of many recent "innovations," and I'm willing to divulge it at risk to my own safety. There are videos to watch, new products to ponder, and movies to mine for labels (speaking of which, fuck the Oscars—Mickey Rourke should have punched Sean Penn in the face).

But that will all start tomorrow. In the meantime I gotta get those Woodrows.

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Guilty of Being Wide

2009-02-13T18:19:00.006-05:00

Eastern, the company that brought you the ventilated frame, has joined the list of companies (Solid and, uh...Solid) who offer nine-inch rise, 30-inch wide bars. What we have here is the Wonder Years Nineties Bar, which makes absolutely no sense seeing that The Wonder Years actually took place in the '70s. Or was it the 60s? (It was actually the '60s AND the '70s. Oh.)

Anyway, this guy is stoked to finally have a choice when it comes to bars.

Hey, look, if you want to run huge bars, that's your business. If you're sitting there looking at your Grand Slams and saying, "man, these would be PERFECT if they were only wider and taller," you're stoked. Or if you're one of those guys running a flipped-over Fit DLD stem with 12 spacers under it and grips that stretch past your barends because you fucking hate Solid and you'd rather give your money to al Qaeda, you finally have another choice. If you like your barspins to sound (and look) like the blades of a Huey, cool. (You could run white barends to really get that helicopter vibe going.) Now it's easier than ever to have your grips a full foot higher than your seat. And what I really want to see is a set of these on a flatland bike—the idea of bars wider than wheelbase just gets me all sorts of excited.

No, what bugs me is the name. Wonder Years Nineties Bars? What does that even mean? A long time ago I did a post where I listed all the bar names I could remember. Many of them were terribly clever-sounding, others were, well, not so clever. And you'd think the second-ever set of super-giant bars would get a clever one.

Apparently not.

I understand that the name "Sasquatch" has already been taken. I understand that type-of-bar name—strip, gay, crow, dive—has been beaten to death, resurrected, then beaten to death again. But within two minutes of seeing these Eastern bars, I came up with what I think would have been the perfect name:

The 9:30 Bar.

It's short. It's simple. It makes sense. And it references an actual club* in DC where Minor Threat and Fugazi more or less lived.

Oh well, whoever comes out with the next set of super-giant bars can use it and thank me later.

* that has a bar in it

••••••••••••

Company Flow

2009-02-12T21:10:00.004-05:00

So I was just minding my own business clicking around the internet the other day when I came across this new Madera stem:

(Is the animated GIF working?)

And it got me to thinking—why did Madera decide to manufacture a combination stem/seatpost clamp? Are they getting into the tandem business? OK, no, seriously though. It actually did get me thinking, and what it made me think about was this: Why are so many companies starting secondary companies? Profile has Madera. WTP has éclat (and Salt). FBM has Nice. There are probably others I can't think of right now, too. (S&M and Fit is a whole different animal.)

I thought I knew why—either it was to manufacture non-generic generic parts for completes (Nice, Salt) or to offer more economical version of things they already manufactured (Madera, Nice) or to separate the frame/complete business from the parts business (éclat). But I'll admit the Madera stem threw me. From what I can tell, it's a rather intricately designed—and rather light—USA-made, CNCed product. It's hard to believe that it'll be any cheaper (if at all) than the frontload stem that, um, Profile already sells. How much more sprfls can you get?

(I was also pretty surprised when I found out the Nice stem was $63, which means it's more expensive than—among others—the Animal Jumpoff and the Redneck XLT. For just $2 more you could get a Race XLT. It's just confusing.)

So, what's the point of having different companies under one roof if they're not producing anything significantly different? Is it just to have bigger teams? To come up with different names? No sir, I don't get it.

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Flipper

2009-02-11T21:16:00.004-05:00

Thank you for all the input on the t-shirts. It's good to know that—whichever one gets made first—I probably won't be left sitting on 50 of them. Hopefully I'll be sending something off to Supes in the next week or two. Obviously I'll keep everyone posted on the progress. Or lack thereof. (I know me all too well.)

•••••••••••

What's out there today? Well, there's this bike, which has now been e-mailed me twice, once by a reader, and today by its owner. Said owner mentioned that "Moeller said you'd abuse me for this," which is patently untrue. Just because you ride a bike that looks like it was birthed by a Holmes on Thalidomide doesn't mean you should be abused. Isn't the self-abuse of riding such a traveshamockery enough? Apparently not.

I can sort of see how something like this could happen. If you ride mostly transition, and maybe a little trails, your drivetrain is more or less unnecessary. In fact, it becomes a hassle. Taking the whole mess off makes your bike both lighter and simpler. In a way, this should be the kind of thing I approve of.

However.

The beauty of a bicycle, for me, lies within the drivetrain. The coolest thing about riding a bike—again, for me—is being able to crank really hard and go really fast. See: Stricker, Josh. It's not even about gapping over rivers or clearing a 40-foot double or anything, it's about going fast for the sake of going fast. I can't comprehend the thought process that would eliminate that entire aspect of riding. I mean, if you cut your legs off you wouldn't have to worry about athlete's foot or sprained ankles or deciding what shoes to wear, and you'd be a lot lighter, but it seems to me the negatives would outweigh the positives. Would you ride something that looked like this?

Me neither.

•••••••••••

Another reader sent me what has to be the eBay auction of the year, if not the decade.

Not sure whether you realize it or not, but over the past couple of years, the price of vintage BMX stuff has gone through the roof. Hutch parts are more or less worth their weight in gold, and I recently sold a clean set of early Skyway Graphite Tuff Wheels for over $1,200. Since there's no BMX Blue Book or anything, you have to rely on other eBay auctions to inform you of what current values are.

Lately, even mid-school parts (or, to some, new school) have been getting more and more expensive. And maybe it was because of their recent 20th anniversary, but it seems like S&M frames and parts have been going up most of all.

All that said, the person who listed this is obviously insane. And, judging from the seat position, possibly a velociraptor. (In case you were wondering, they do, in fact, ride bicycles.)

••••••••••

Living After Midnight

2009-02-10T00:23:00.005-05:00

Don't even get me started.

This might wind up being the post for today (today meaning Monday) AND tomorrow, as I'm going to a Nets game at the Izod Center. You used to be able to just hop a bus at Port Authority—now you have to catch a train at Penn Station, then connect to a bus in Secaucus. Matter of fact, I should probably just leave now just in case something goes wrong. Regardless, I suppose I should leave you with several things (including the long-awaited t-shirt poll so I can give Supes some work).

My Monday got off to a somewhat pleasant start when I saw Brian Foster's bike check on RIDE. It's good to see that some people still ride BMX bikes that look like BMX bikes. (And BF still kills it, so it's not like his long chainstays and...well, whatever that white pole is between his seat and toptube seem to be hurting him any.) I also appreciate the venerable 2.1 Dirt Monster/1.95 V-Monster combo, which it seems like everyone in NYC ran before Walls came out. And I agree with the one commenter's sentiment that he should keep the Tech 77. Like my man Charles Oakley says, if it ain't broke, break it.

Then things took a turn for the worse when I read the depressingly embarassing Gatorade advertorial over on EXPN. It made me think, though, just how DID athletes rehydrate before Gatorade? Was it even possible? Or did guys just compete until they died of thirst? Oh yeah, that's right, there was that stuff called water. Worked pretty good, too, even without electrolytes and sugar and stuff. Is water still around? It is? Man, they need to hire a better marketing team—maybe change the name to "W" or something. I hear the kids like those short, punchy names. In the meantime, if a guy wins the X-Games and then gets a Gatorade cooler emptied over his head, I'm throwing a brick through my TV.

Finally, leave it to the roadies to make all the BMX lightweight "innovations" seem sensible. Thanks to Neil Browne's ROAD magazine Twitter feed I found out about this 10.1 pound Cannondale (without pedals—which is a fairly normal way to weigh road bikes but seems like cheating to me, since it would presumably ride better with them) that costs a mere $15,000. It's also five pounds under the UCI legal minimum weight, which means you can't even race the thing without hanging a cinderblock on it somewhere. Basically the only reason you buy a bike like this is to brag that you have a 10-pound bike with no pedals. (I'm starting to like the idea of eliminating parts from the bike before weighing it, though—check out the crazy four-pound FBM I just built up.)

Anyway, let's get to this t-shirt thing. I want to get a small run (say, 50) printed up of one of the original designs I came up with a long time ago. Nothing fancy, just one color on white (or black). So here's three possibilities. Pick one:

Just name one. (Or feel free to say "don't bother, they all fuckin' suck.") Thanks.

•••••••••••••••

Inflation

2009-02-06T15:21:00.003-05:00

Well, yet another Knick game tonight has me scrambling to post just about anything so I can get out the door. I don't manage my time well. So, one thought:

As bikes get lower and lighter and tires get fatter and fatter, is the ultimate goal to simply create a bike that can stand on its own?

Enjoy the weekend.

••••••••••

Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck

2009-02-05T20:24:00.003-05:00

Had no idea I passed 200 posts this week. That's the longest I've ever kept a blog alive. Not sure whether it's awesome or pathetic. Thanks to all of you who's stuck with it/me. I promise I'm gonna actually do shirts soon. Poll tomorrow on which ones..

Anyway, someone shot me this link the other day. It's a 6.9 ounce, six-bolt frontload stem:

The company is from Portugal, which explains some of the unnerving typos and misspellings. But it's hard to believe that some no-name company could produce a stem a full third lighter than the lightest frontload stems available and expect people to think "oh yeah, they obviously know better than [S&M, Solid, Premium, Animal, etc.], who needs a nine-ounce stem?" It's machined to within an inch of your life. (The way I see it, there are places where you can shave ounces with little or no consequence, and there are places where you can't. The stem is one of the latter.)

••••••••••••

If you want to piss off George French, compare one of his products to a Bullseye product from the '80s. I triple-dog dare you. Sixty percent of the time, it works every time.

That said, this "new" WTP hub innovation is more or less exactly like something Bullseye (and maybe Phil Wood, too) came up with in the '80s. Instead of an axle, you have a through-bolt with a nut on one end. How this makes more sense than a standard axle (or a massive central axle with bolts on either end) is beyond me.

••••••••••••

Yeah, it should be Prong. It isn't.

Neverender

2009-02-04T14:51:00.003-05:00

If it's any consolation, I hate when I miss days. Not sure what happened yesterday—other than when I finished writing roughly 3,500 words on Kobe Bryant scoring 61 points against the Knicks I was sort of burned out. And it was snowing. Tonight I head back to the Garden to witness LeBron. And I'm sure I'll be writing something on that. The fun never stops.

It seems like winter never stops either. And while I'm not sure what Punxsutawney Phil said regarding the next couple of weeks, I'm guessing it wasn't good (and surprise, it wasn't). So here we are. Stuck in winter. Sometimes I feel like I should just climb into a Tauntaun until spring. It's reached the point where I have to make a point to look at my bike every so often just to make sure it hasn't crumbled to rust.

It's not exactly prime time for new product releases, either. Other than seats. Seats, seats and more seats. (Can someone explain to me what a "Lo-Bolt" is? Is it seriously just a shorter bolt?) See enough of this stuff, and you start to feel like you're just re-living the same day over and over again.

•••••••••••••••

Futurama

2009-02-02T15:16:00.003-05:00

Just gonna link to something today and ask an open-ended question. Nothing too exciting. Hopefully I'll get something more substantial posted tomorrow. As it is. I've got about 20 minutes before I have to get out of here.

Anyway, Taj posted a great blog update today, tongue firmly in cheek, about the BMX bike of the future. (Which made me think of Disney's "Tomorrowland" for some reason.) Things won't ever get that bad. Will they? (Not that I haven't seen—and even photographed—roving packs of Razor Scooterers at the Brooklyn Banks. I remember even seeing one equipped with a King headset, which cost more than the actual scooter, I believe. But hey, if you're gonna be doing triplewhips, you need to cut down that friction.)

I guess the question is, where is this all going? And what's the priority of the average rider? For me, personally, I want a bike I can ride around on. Transportation is key—and I don't mean commuting, just being able to get from spot to spot. I'd like a bike I can sit down and pedal when I'm carrying a camera bag, but still ride once I get to wherever I'm going. Weight is a secondary concern. I think my bike now weighs around 27 pounds with four steel pegs. That's plenty light for my purposes.

Thing is though, weight appears to have become a primary concern now, even at the expense of practicality and rideability. Lowered toptubes and shortened rear triangles are simple ways to achieve substantial weight savings without further butting and fluting and whatever else gets done these days. So you wind up with a bike that loops out at the slightest provocation (especially when you factor in eight-inch bars and a topload with spacers), but hey, the frame weighs less than five pounds! Where we're headed is flatland bikes with longer toptubes and (much) lower seats. Bikes you need to drive to wherever you're going to ride. Tailwhip machines that you wouldn't want to ride more than a block.

So where ARE we headed? Will toptubes continue to drop, rear ends continue to shrink, until we reach the Segwaypocalypse? Or will things swing back the other way towards ridability and sanity? I'm just asking.

Dah Shinin'

2009-01-30T20:25:00.004-05:00

I'm pretty late to the game on this, but it's pretty awesome that Profile has been posting those "How This Is Made" entries. The newest is on the Gas pedals, which might confuse some people since they're not poured into a mold. ("Wait, you can make pedals out of METAL?") It at least gives you some idea why they're so expensive.

It's good to see how bikes and bike parts are made. FBM has been particularly great at posting photos of the production process. They're proud of what they do, and rightly so. And it just feels better when you can see a frame before its been painted and stickered. Even if you can't see anything specific.

I'd give almost anything for several other brands to post similar blog entries: "Here we are poring over the latest Taiwanese catalog. Here we are picking our next line. Here we are calling the factory to finalize our choices. Here we are vociferously discussing the new hot 'colorways'."

•••••••••••••

What is this, the '90s? The '80s?

A couple days ago I saw this Nigel Sylvester bike check. Chrome rims, bars, forks. OK. Taking that whole "shinin'" thing a bit too literally, but hey. Why not? After all, Hanson Little already had the full-chrome Mystic setup—which he told me he'd send a photo of a long time ago. Lies!

Then today I saw this:

Yep, that's a fully chromed Kink Farside, complete with skinwall tires.

A long time ago, a chrome bike was as pro as it got. I'm talking back in the mid-'80s. Then after a while it was all a bit too much—for department-store bikes only. Then you couldn't even GET chrome. It was bad for the environment, bad for the metal, bad for the eyes.

Guess we've come full circle.

Again.

•••••••••••••

Potassium Helium

2009-01-29T16:41:00.005-05:00

Depending on how you look at it, the bar has been either raised or lowered yet again. (We can guess which way the toptube went.) KHE is proud to introduce The Spectre, a 3.814 pound frame that's being ridden by Daniel Dhers. It's got a 20.43" toptube presumably because no one else has made that size yet. Either that, or it's a really subtle tribute to Mat Hoffman. 43!

Judging from the one photo on Fat, KHE was able to save weight by using removable brake mounts and cable guides, and by eliminating the headtube entirely. I'm shocked they left the top of the seat tube that tall—they could have easily shaved off that excess .014 pound there. I'd also like to see a properly angled photo of the bottom bracket—it looks like it's just hanging off the bottom of the seat tube. Elevated chainstays?

••••••••••

Snafu, once again rationalizing their very existence and doing a so-so job of it. Look, just say you're putting out sprockets that look like every other sprocket so no one has to deal with the stigma of running a Snafu product in 2009. Honesty is the best policy.

••••••••••

I don't know if the eBay thing will become any sort of regular occurrence, but I will draw attention to auctions now and then if I feel they're in any way interesting or amusing. Like these forks, which have been on eBay as long as eBay has existed. I'm half-tempted to buy a set just out of pity.

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(Disg)Race

2009-01-28T10:59:00.004-05:00

I love looking at BMX stuff on eBay. New or old, it doesn't matter.

A simple search for the term "BMX" brought up 8,397 items today. Of course that includes lots of barely BMX stuff like this and this, but there's never any shortage of awesome.

Like this:

ATTN: Tall, weight-weenie, old schoolers.

Ignore the "race" designation (a race frame with a standing platform?) and just think of it as a 4.5 pound Standard Lengthier. For $100, how can you go wrong?

••••••••••

Honestly? It doesn't get more SPRFLS than this. Amazing.

••••••••••

Bring the Ruckus

2009-01-27T19:38:00.005-05:00

Breaking news? Rob from WTP/éclat e-mailed to let me know that the yet-to-be-named stem is unnamed no more: it's called the Hannibal. There is apparently good reasoning behind this, but I can't figure it out. Feel free to guess, win nothing.

But yes, there's also the seat, the aptly named Gonzo Seat. The nose is a bit pre-dropped (although not as much as that of its namesake), and the base is a totally new design, not yet another gaudily re-appropriated Velo. It's light as hell (6.3 ounces naked, 8.8 clothed), but it also looks pretty little.

Makes you wonder why someone doesn't go all the way and just "design" a Pivotal version of the classic GT Dropnose. Anyway, yeah, nothing terribly SPRFLS to see here. But hey, it's only Tuesday.

•••••••••••

If anyone else is looking for a complete, here's a Fit PRK3 for a good cause. I might hold off a little while longer myself, as the weather is showing no signs of getting any better.

•••••••••••

Just in case you didn't click on that GT Dropnose link, remember the Robinson Ruckus?

All black trails bike? Stealth race machine? With one-piece cranks? Nope, I don't remember what the point was either. Looked neat, though.

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Smilin' is Cheesin'

2009-01-24T15:56:00.007-05:00

Hm, I wonder if éclat's still mad at me? I never did hear from Tunney after the Great Cheese Incident (unless he authored the exceptionally petty "comeback" on the éclat site), and we used to e-mail on a semi-regular basis, too. Shame. And to think I was gonna buy his rookie card.

Anyway, éclat—the company with the most iconic logo in BMX—released a couple of new parts last week that are worth taking a closer look at. We'll start with this new biodegradable combination tube sealant and grip installer:

Oh, I'm just kidding. You guys need to relax if you're gonna make it to your first anniversary.

But éclat really did put out a few new products. The first is an unnamed stem. It's crazy, because the plate goes on the FRONT, hence the term "front-load." I know, hard to imagine, right? Maybe you'd get a better idea of what I mean if you looked at a photo:

Does it make more sense now? (Seems sort of strange that éclat would start with a frontload when everything's heading back topload. Frontload stems made a lot more sense when people were running low, narrow bars—anyone who ran Castillos and a DK stem could attest to that. They do have a Sean Burns topload in the works, though.) Note the smaller bolts on the face (is this a better option than hollow 6mm bolts?) and the iconic logo on the side.

The niftiest feature (yes, I'm being serious for a moment) is found on the back, which is cut in an "s" shape:

This allows more threading to catch without having to set the bolt heads a half-inch into the stem. Judging from the text (it's referred to as "the proven snake gap") I take it this has been done before, but I guess I ain't noticed. (Unless "the proven snake gap" is actually just something Jimmy Levan jumped over recently.) As for the pertinent measurements, 49.5 mm, 9.5 ounces. And it's nowhere near as terrifying looking as some sub-10 stems. In fact, it's quite aesthetically pleasing. Of course that's just because they removed material from the bottom instead of the sides. And, in the immortal words of Twisted Sister, "what you don't know sure can hurt you, what you can't see makes you scream."

Meh, the seat can wait 'til tomorrow.

••••••••••••

Hey, Tierra V2. I'm amused that the "long" rear end version is 13.65". Don't hurt yourselves.

••••••••••••

According to James Foster, his new frame (which was discussed earlier) "completely obliterates every other bike in the universe" and "has the best geometry of any bike I’ve ridden." Well, that's that, then. Guess I can close up shop.

•••••••••••••

No Control

2009-01-23T18:29:00.005-05:00

If this were a Friday quiz, which it isn't, I suppose this would be the essay question:

The primary reasoning I've heard behind people running bigger and bigger bars is this: "It gives you more control." Now personally, I think this is true up to a point. Back in the good old days of 19" Castillo Bars, when men were men and those men slid their grips all the way to the crossbar, wider bars were definitely a step in the right direction. The thing is—to me—things have now gone way too far the other way. If you're an 85-pound kid with shoulders the size of the average house sparrow's, a pair of 30" wide bars is probably going to give you less control than a pair of 25" wide ones.

But that's not even my point.

My point is this. If the reasoning for wider bars is "more control," why do many people with super-wide bars also have a) no brakes, b) super-short rear ends, and c) vestigal seats? Brakes give you more control. Longer rear ends (arguably) give you more control. And a seat raised to a reasonable height absolutely gives you more control.

So my question is this:

If you run super-wide bars because they give you "more control," why do you intentionally set up the rest of your bike to give you less?

••••••••••

I picked up the current copy of Road Bike Action this week to accompany me on a train ride, and less than 20 pages in I found the most amazing bike part in the history of history. You know all that stuff I've said about pointless BMX parts? This takes the cake, eats it, then shits it on my head and eats it again.

I present to you the $1,600 carbon/ti brakeset.

Unbelievable. But hey, at least you get free shipping.

••••••••••

•••••••••••

*EDIT* Changed the title to what it should have been in the first place. Sorry, Brett and Greg, it won't happen again. (Why can't I remember what video used this? I remember Hallman riding to Bad Religion in a Standard video, but I think it was a different song. Stupid faulty memory.)

Ti, Die

2009-01-22T19:56:00.006-05:00

There's isn't much that I don't understand about KHE's prototype titanium flatland frame. Honestly, I only have one question:

Why?

Here's KHE's explanation (which can be found by following the link above): "We'll build up a bike with all the lightweight parts we can find in our warehouse to see how far we can push the limits. How light can a serious bike become? You can check out the bike at the next Eurobike for sure."

Interesting. Stupid, but interesting. Look, titanium is a great material to make bike frames from. According to roadies and hardtail MTB types, it has a ride quality that can't be duplicated with steel or aluminum or carbon fiber. It's lightweight, corrosion-resistant, and super resilient. Of course it's also difficult to work with (just ask Eastern) and expensive as hell, which is how you wind up with things like a $3,200 road frame and a $9,000 commuter bike. Companies offer cheaper titanium, but you run the risk of getting a frame made from melted-down MIGs and old Chernobyl core rods.

BMX bikes, though? Not so much. Taj had someone fabricate a titanium Barcode and he hated it because it was so flexy (scroll about 2/3 of the way down). And you don't see those ti Grim Reapers advertised in Dan's anymore.

And I love that KHE asks "how far we can push the limits," like they may find some magical parts in their warehouse that will allow them to build a six-pound complete bike. If the ti frame weighs 2.16 pounds, and their top-of-the-line complete flat bike weighs in at 17.2 pounds (and costs $1,900), a complete built with the ti frame should weigh roughly two pounds less than that. That is, unless they decide to drill a bunch of holes in everything just to show off and make it even less rideable than it is already.

Which leads one to ponder, what exactly constitutes a serious bike? Flatland bikes may not have to stand up to 20-stair drops to flat, but they take a lot of abuse that a "regular" BMX bike never will, being pulled and spun and tweaked in multiple directions at once. Don't believe me? Check out this bike I shot at a jam this summer:

So even if you could build a 15-pound flatland bike (that would retail for roughly $3,000, of course), what's the point if it would just twist up like a pretzel the second a serious rider put it through its paces? Why not try and make a lightweight frame out of aluminum (already been done, I know) or some sort of carbon composite? Titanium? We've been down that road before. It's going to be light. It's going to be expensive. And it's going to suck.

•••••••••••••

And now for something completely different.

The Road and The Damned

2009-01-21T14:53:00.003-05:00

Hola, amigos and anonymouses. Been a long time. But I gave Monday to MLK (and roughly 12 hours of NBA basketball) and yesterday to Obama (although I could have done without pretty much everything after his speech. I'm still having trouble believing that Nick freaking Cannon DJed the "Neighborhood Ball." Maybe we're not out of the woods yet.)

Appreciate all the commentary (both good and bad) on Project: Complete. Right now I'm leaning heavily towards the FBM Marauder BL. Basically, I want a complete that's similar to what I'm riding now—brakeless, four pegs, decent standover, black—so I can run it straight out of the box. And the 20.5" frame shouldn't bother me much—I had an old 20.5" Stricker a while back, and other than it's being a tank, I liked it a lot. The only other bike still in the running is the Fit STR-3, but from what I can tell I think the FBM's a little bit taller. As for the other contenders, well:

KINK LIBERTY — Pretty much the same as the Marauder, and when it comes down to it I'd rather try the FBM.

GIANT METHOD TEAM — The original idea was to just get a Giant and make it my main bike. Ride a BMX bike from the biggest manufacturer in the world (it shouldn't make a difference, really—BMX geometry isn't guarded like the KFC secret recipe). But the Method Team comes with so many aftermarket parts that it just didn't seem like it would be that interesting to write about. Plus, I'd have to lose the brake and put on four pegs. Too much like work. I still like the idea of riding a Giant, though. Maybe for the next bike after.

STOLEN SINNER — Too many horror stories from too many people. And I don't have health insurance.

VERDE RADIA — A few things appealed. Like, would a mostly high-tensile steel frame hold up? And would the super-low fixed Pivotal seat drive me completely insane? I figure the answer to the second question was "absolutely," so out went that.

WTP ENVY — Too expensive. And again, too many aftermarket parts. It would more or less be a test of the éclat gruppo, and it seems like all that stuff works just fine. I'm not Sean Burns or Chester Blacksmith.

EASTERN... WHATEVER — I'd rather push a Huffy than ride an Eastern.

KHE — I'm not a 12-year-old girl.

HARO/PREMIUM — Didn't really look into it all that much. Ditto for any other company I'm forgetting.

So that's that. I'll take suggestions for the rest of the week, and maybe the beginning of next week, but then I want to buy something and get this thing off the ground. Hopefully it'll get above freezing.

••••••••••

Hey, wow, Verde's forks have built-in bearing races. Like, um, Odyssey's did a year and a half ago.

•••••••••••

I'm saving this for tomorrow.

•••••••••••

Immodest Proposal?

2009-01-16T12:28:00.001-05:00

So, I've been giving some more thought to this whole Project: Complete I talked about yesterday. And after looking at it in the light of day following a good night's sleep, I'm not sure whether it's even a good idea. For me, at least. And for a number of reasons.

I guess the main one is that I already know the answer to the big question: Of course a complete will be good enough for me. It's like asking whether I could play basketball in a pair of $40 Converse instead of Air Jordans. Of course I could. I'm not a professional. I'm not even a has-been. I'm more like a never-was. I ride for fun. I don't Luc-E kinked ledges, I don't ride Posh, and the next flair I do will be my first. Would it be weird getting used to an entirely new bike? Sure, especially if it was shorter than what I'm used to. But I have no doubt that I would get used to it.

Then again, maybe that's reason enough to do it? It'll be a good way to see—at least for me—how many choices are just made because there are choices, and whether there are any that are truly important. (I'm not talking about things like hardened steel pegs over slidy aluminum ones—I'm talking minute differences in toptube length and handlebar sweep/width and type of grips and tires). If someone replaced your 20.6" or 20.75" frame with a 20.5" tomorrow, would you even notice? And assuming you did, how long would it take you to get used to the change? How many of the choices that you agonize over are entirely insignificant?

Again, I'm pretty sure I know the answer. The average rider—not referring to skill level here—chooses parts primarily by reputation and image. The questions, in no particular order, are "will this hold up?," "how much does this cost?," and "what will people think when they see me running/rocking this?" That last might be the most important, which is why BMX parts are marketed more like limited-edition sneakers or high-end denim than, you know, bike parts. Somehow I think Lance Armstrong worries more about whether his bars fit than whether they're cool or not (although he did almost break Twitter asking whether he should run black or yellow hoods).

Sometimes I think skateboarding got it right. They picked a size and a shape and ran with it. Only the graphics change. Maybe all the BMX companies should get together, decide on a headtube angle, a seattube angle, a bottom bracket standard (!), a pair of chainstay lengths and three toptube sizes. Pick some tubing, and place a huge order with Giant. All individual companies would have to do is come up with names, pick "colorways" and design sticker sets. One massive order would cut prices, and anyone would be able to ride any company's frame. Simple, right?

I realize this runs counter to lots of things I've said before. That's just how I roll.

••••••••••

As for the purveyance of said bicycle, I've done a lot of thinking on that, too. (Helped along by anonymous, no doubt.) And I think I absolutely have to buy it. That way I'm not beholden to anyone, and there's no chance of getting a ringer: "Wait, why does this $500 Kink complete weigh 22 pounds?" Still, I'm not sure what to get, and suggestions are still welcome. (Verde? FBM? WTP? MirraCo? Giant? Kink?) I'd post a poll, but a) I don't have a clue how to do it, and b) I don't have enough of a readership. Not that I'm not thankful for each and every one of you. Well, except anonymous. You're a dick.

••••••••••

A Modest Proposal

2009-01-15T19:56:00.004-05:00

BMXfeed was down for a couple of hours today and I almost lost my mind. I don't do RSS feeds—I don't even know how to do RSS feeds—so BMXfeed is my connection to the rest of the BMX internet universe. The umbilical cord that keeps me fed. Wonderful, amazing, exciting news like this. Yes, Ali Whitton is getting a new signature frame from Macneil. No, I don't know why. (Here's what I really don't get: If the market is truly being driven primarily by kids, how many of them are eager to ride the same frame as Alistair Whitton?)

But there was something else I wanted to talk about today, something that has nothing to do with BMXfeed, or any sort of BMX news.

The weather outside is frightful. My faithful BMX bike has been parked for some time. And, as is usually the case when I'm not riding, thoughts have turned to a new bike. I've considered many possibilities—a Sunday, a Barcode, maybe even an STA. But I think I have a better idea than any of those.

What I want is a complete bike. Preferably something 20.75" or 21", but I think I could handle a 20.5". I'm thinking of an FBM Marauder or a Kink Liberty or a Fit STR Signature or—best of all—a Giant Method Team. I would change nothing (well, unless I got a Giant, in which case I would remove the brakes and add four pegs). I wouldn't cut the bars or the steerer tube, wouldn't change the grips or the pedals or the tires. I'd even leave the reflectors in the spokes and the "THIS BIKE IS ONLY BUILT FOR RIDING SLOWLY ON THE SIDEWALK" sticker on the toptube. I would only replace parts when they broke, and would more or less turn it into a long-term test.

You always read in magazine bike tests that "[Rider X] could do everything on [bike Y] that he could do on his regular bike" or that "[Rider Y] liked the [bike X] just as much as his [bike W]." Well, what if said bike became Rider X's regular bike? How good are these completes really? Can a $500 (or $800) complete compare to a $1,500 custom build? And, if so, what's the point of assembling a bike piece-by-piece?

I admit, I may have to go through hardships. Like wider-than-usual bars, a shorter-than-usual toptube, a skinnier-than-usual rear tire, machine-built wheels and even (gulp) Alienation rims. I am willing to endure all of these things in the name of science.

The big question, however, is which bike? I welcome your suggestions, either via comment or e-mail. The Kink and the FBM are tempting simply because they're legit "street" bikes similar to my own for the low, low cost of $500 (more or less the cost of my frame and fork). On the other hand, I like the idea of the Method Team because it's the top-of-the-line BMX bike from the biggest bike manufacturer in the world. More or less the polar opposite of a frame-up build from a rider-owned company. The Anti-Christ of bikes, as it were. Maybe I'd even leave the brake on. Either way, I'd be down to ride the bike for a year, keeping track of things the whole way through, from assembly to [possible] destruction. (We're talking weekly updates. Possibly with video and the occasional guest tester.)

Which leads to the final part of all this—I'd rather not pay retail if at all possible. I mean, I will if I have to (PayPal is at the ready), but if someone out there from a bike company or distributor or shop/mailorder is reading this and wants to help out, it would be appreciated. Just e-mail me at sprfls@gmail.com. I promise to settle on just one bike.

And look on the bright side. If this works out, I'll have no shortage of material. BMXfeed being down won't leave me high and dry.

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Four Pounds (To) Flat

2009-01-14T20:57:00.002-05:00

You may or may not remember this. A few months ago, James "Triple Whip" Foster shattered his ankle jumping over a house in Germany for some TV show. The details about that can be found here. Obviously the problem was that his frame was too heavy.

So KHE lightened things up on his "Triple Threat" signature frame by butting everything (butted chainstays? Yikes.), milling out everything else, and heat-treating the whole mess. It's now four pounds even, so he should be able to float over houses from here on out. That's a relief.

Only there's this: Didn't FIVE-pound Sanko frames (think the Fit Hawk) have a nasty habit of breaking? What's going to happen to a FOUR-pound Sanko frame? I, for one, don't plan on finding out firsthand.

••••••••••

So much here that I don't understand and/or don't want to accept.

a) Brian Tunney is working for ESPN now? Say what? Along with blogging for Dig, TMing éclat, doing Assblasters, and, you know, riding his bike? How does one fit all this in? I suppose I could e-mail him and ask, but after the last éclat cheap shot, I don't really feel like it. Besides, I don't even look at ESPN anymore since their video-heavy redesign appears to be incompatible with my not-up-to-the-minute operating system. So I doubt I'll be reading much. Especially if it's just going to be re-hashed press releases.

b) Metal is making frames in Taiwan? OK, I knew that. And I even understand it. Got nothing against overseas-made frames. Everyone's doing it anyway. So, yeah. Skip to c.

c) Chris Wilson got a signature frame? From Metal? After his Dead Bang part was more or less universally panned, I thought he'd be on Fit by now. He was the guy who did all the tailwhips, wasn't he?

d) Metal is making a frame that is described with phrases such as "low standover height," has a 75-degree headtube angle, and comes in a two-tone finish that isn't zebra-striped. This is like Slayer coming out with an album that is described with phrases such as "heartfelt and soulful." I find it funny that Metal splits from S&M, THEN puts out a frame, um, fit for Chase DeHart. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole point of there being different companies that companies be different? Guess not.

Fuck, now I'm depressed.

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Mudslinging

2009-01-13T20:04:00.004-05:00

Finally, a new product I can wholeheartedly endorse:

For starters, it's exceedingly practical. This isn't a tiny driver that will save you six grams at the cost of a new chain a month, or a titanium-shelled plastic peg that will serve no purpose whatsoever. This is something that will save you from the embarassments of skunk stripe and wet pants, plus protect the bolts in your seatpost clamp and Primo Rod.

Secondly, it's a product that actually requires a bit of seatpost. You're not going to run that with the Macneil Nub.

Thirdly, just look at that bike! There's someone who doesn't care much about fashion—or someone who's been in a coma since 2001. Note the giant Kink sprocket, the sprayed DK Iron Cross pedals, the torn Hemmorhoid (ouch), the dinged-up 48-spoke rear wheel. Other than the tires, there's a bike that hasn't been upgraded since Trend was still around. (Although that was a "limited" sprocket when it was new, so obviously our rider wasn't completely immune to the bite of the hypebeast. Well, either that or he really wanted a gold sprocket.) Anyone want to venture a guess as to what kind of frame that is? Metal Kizz? Old Barcode? It's hard to tell without being able to see that seatstay junction.

All I could think of when I first saw this was the end of Taj's section in Forward, when he blasted through that wet drainage ditch and threw that downside whip. If only he had the Matt Wakefield Signature Mud Guard. Of course, if he did, one suspects it wouldn't be a Matt Wakefield signature product.

•••••••••••••

Wait, am I thinking of a different video?

Wreckognize

2009-01-12T20:47:00.006-05:00

I continue to find it difficult to identify with certain BMX bikes these days. Take this Tierra for example:

No, seriously, take it.

Super-steep, super-low, super-short rear end. It's probably the twitchiest, loopy-outiest bike ever (non-Killorado division). I remain somewhat convinced that Fly's entire research library consists of a GT catalog from the late '80s that has the Ricochet Trials in it:

I mean, they even copied the bashguard! Perhaps the layback is next. Or the tall forks/low bars combo. Although that could make footjam whips exceedingly hazardous.

Then again, the trials connection isn't that outlandish a suggestion. Fly is from Spain, and so is Montesa (or Monty), one of the companies that's been doing trials bike for the longest. So maybe Flys will eventually evolve to look something like this:

You'll note the fat tires, the colored (and drilled-out) rims and the plastic pedals. Also the complete lack of seat (the next logical step). Throw a topload and a set of Slams on there, and you're good to go. Well, maybe bump up the gearing a bit unless you like pedalling really, really, really fast. And just think of the things you could do with disc brakes!

I don't like where this is heading. Not one bit.

••••••••••••••

Is trials cooler than fixed-gear freestyling? Only you can decide.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEO CONTAINS A LOT OF VIGNETTING. AND HANS REY.

Photo Finish

2009-01-09T11:29:00.000-05:00

I love this photo that FBM posted the other day:

To some, I'm sure it's just trash (what do you even do with old AODs and Old Boys—melt one down and make two Tierras?), to others it's treasure, but mostly it reminded me of something like this:

Just some vintage American muscle put out to pasture, waiting for the right person to come along. (If anyone from FBM is reading this and wants to send me a 21" AOD, I promise to build it. Doesn't matter how rusty it is.)

Speaking of photos, I was also amused by this one from Kink that shows the contents of Marsellus Wallace's briefcase:

I guess they're just regular ol' Badger Bars, which means they're 27x8 (unless the dimensions have changed), but don't they look really tall? If I remember correctly, GT made 10" rise bars back in the day, so why not? 30x10? Although I still can't think about tall bars and slammed seats without thinking of this photo:

That might possibly be the best photo (non-porn division) in the history of the internet (original is here). Dude's gotta do a Kris Bennett nothing just to hold on. Hit a big enough bump and you'd tear your arms off. I also love that the next exit is the Missouri Department of Transportation District Office. Here's hoping he was on his way to turn himself in for crimes against transportation.

Actually, scratch that first bit. This is the best photo in the history of the internet.

In actual product news, Éclat is making their new brake pads from a proprietary (and tasty) mix of cheddar, mozzarella, and Monterey Jack:

Brake hard enough on a steep downhill and they slow you down and melt simultaneously. And Sean Burns loves nachos.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. Maybe "blech." A 700c fixed BMX bike? Seriously? Brian Castillo done lost his mind. I can't wait until BikesnobNYC gets ahold of this. (For the record, Giselle has much better legs than that.) Then again hopefully he makes millions of dollars from the fixed-gear crowd and uses some of the profits to design a new Hellion that doesn't break.

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Finally, a little shameless self-promotion (what the hell, it's Friday). Nuno from Defgrip kindly asked me to contribute to their "Best of 2008" section, and I just made it into the last part with something that had nothing to do with BMX. Thanks, Nuno! (And Harrison, and everyone else over there.)

And in an epic, wide-ranging interview on BMXUnion, Taj mentioned this blog. Gulp. Thank you, Taj (and Kurt, the hardest-working man in BMX journalism right now). While I'll probably just re-read that quote a couple hundred times, you should read the other 10,000 or so words if you haven't already. A quick excerpt, regarding his much-maligned switch to Giant:

"I feel like BMX is a long way away from the dire state it was in in the early 90's and supporting rider owned companies was so important to me because they were the only companies making decent bikes. Nowadays most BMX bikes are more or less the same, and Giant probably makes half of them anyway. Also, having been in the "industry" for a while I'm sort of disillusioned by the idea of rider owned companies. BMXers can suck just as much as anyone else."

Yowza. It's a great read all the way through.

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Memories of STAs Past

2009-01-08T16:17:00.005-05:00

**WARNING** THIS POST MAY CONTAIN NAME-DROPPING

This is going to be kind of like Taj's blog post about all his old bikes except for the fact that a) these are only my STAs (and not even all of them), and b) I'm not Taj. Other than that, exactly the same. But hey, that new STA got me reminiscing, and I figured I'd give a brief rundown of my STA past.

Oddly enough, I don't have any photos of my first STA. I'm pretty sure it was a '95—it had the dimples in the chainstay for tire and sprocket clearance and only the one gussett up front. When I got it, it was covered in some sort of industrial-strength reflective tape, which, when I pulled it off, took the paint with it. So the frame wound up mostly finished in that odd aqua primer Standard (or Waterford, I guess) used. Eventually the rear end bent (a fairly common problem with those, I think—the first time I met Ralph Sinisi he was riding a badly bent chrome STA), and I sent it back to Standard. They not only welded on a new back end, they re-painted and re-stickered it at no charge. I wound up selling it for $100 or something, as I'd already bought a new one. This was the time when Glenn Milligan was doing their videos, so it was possible to get a new Standard at cost. I jumped on that, and got a navy triple-gussett 21" STA:

This is the oldest photo I have of it, I believe. Note the monstrous Serfas gel seat, the cleverly re-arranged Standard sticker, and the ever-popular Dirt/V-Monster combo. And brakes! Those wouldn't last long.

And the sticker population continues to grow. The Sun-Ringlé ZuZu's Pedals broke and were replaced with an NOS set of Shimano DXs, and somewhere along the line Animal started making sprockets. Note also the Kink double clamp, and the dual chain tensioners. The bars were an old pair of PrimoPros that Grimaldo Duran bent and bent back. I never had a problem with them. (I feel like I've posted this bike before. Oh well.) Hüsker Du, the Misfits AND Sick of It All?

That frame served me well, and is currently residing in my parents basement sans most of the stickers. The only reason I bought a new frame was because the R-Model came out:

The initial build was easy enough—I just transferred everything over (and got a new seatpost). The R was 14mm, though, so I actually used those Kink step-down chain tensioners. It's reasons such as that why I have roughly 10 sets of chain tensioners in my parts box. Apparently I went back to Sun-Ringlé pedals, too—probably because they were black. Sigh.

My first cassette wheels! 36-hole Profiles laced to Hula Hoops...with a 16-tooth 3/16" cog. This is what we called being dragged kicking and screaming into the future. Note the first generation Skavenger sticker on the toptube. It's the one next to the Venom sticker.

Hey, it's almost modern! Apparently Standard/Waterford didn't see fit to primer the R-Models (litewait!), so the paint came off with the stickers. The Profiles broke somewhere along the line, so I went to the indestructible welded/CNCed GT cranks. And the pink DXs were just the right touch. This was probably my favorite Standard setup. (The Pixies and Celtic Frost. Yet another interesting mash-up.)

But then I found out you could get a custom frame built without mounts. So I placed a call to Pat Schoolen at Flatland Fuel and waited:

Hm, this could almost pass for a current bike. Somewhere along the line I'd been contacted by Chris Cotsonas at Odyssey, who'd started to provide me with some parts. (Another STA I have no photographic evidence of was an old black triple-gussett 21" with roughly milled 14mm drops and ground-down stays that was built with more or less the entire original Odyssey "group"—14mm Hazard 48s, a chrome Dirt Fork, Milk Bars, rear brake, Gyro, etc. That thing was a monster.) That's 28/10, NOS gold DXs (I had a pretty decent stash at one time), a Solid stem I bought at Ramp Rats in STL, and Bullitt Bars cut down to 23".

I'm not sure whether this was the last build on that frame before I got my first Edwin, but it's definitely the latest photo I have. This is right when the Jim Cs first came out. The white fork is a Dirt Fork because I wasn't sure whether the Race Fork would be strong enough. ("For what???" you may correctly ask.) That frame's in the basement now too, along with a chrome '96 and a raw '95 that's never been assembled. I didn't include those in the timeline because I never actually rode them—thanks, eBay!

Here's the one shot I have of the chrome one—I had just put the 1.5" wheels on it to roll it home.

At one point I actually had a brand-new chrome one that I bought from Dan's when they were still auctioning off obsolete product, but that's long since sold.

Man, it's gonna be awfully tempting to get a new one.

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Stranger Than All

2009-01-07T20:38:00.005-05:00

The time has finally come to talk of the new Standard STA:

In theory, this is fantastic news—the return of an old favorite that's been tweaked for the modern market. The problem with that concept is you wind up getting a lot of stuff like this.

It's hard to judge whether the new STA works based on just one photo (especially with that navy blue distraction in the background), especially when it's just a bare frame. But after looking at it for a long while over the past several days, I think it does.

At first I couldn't deal with the toptube/seattube junction. It looked way too burly compared to the slim dropouts and chainstays—like the frame was half 2000 and half 2009 (which it is, kind of). But it's growing on me. Then again, it's going to look particularly weird with a tiny little plastic seat sitting right on top of it.

I obviously love the gussett.

I obviously hate the built-in seatpost clamp (and I'm glad to see it's optional).

I absolutely don't understand the idea behind having two different STA frames, a "light" version and a "strong" version. If you want a light Standard, wouldn't you buy a 250L? What's the point of making a 4.5 pound frame with that monster toptube/seattube junction? Isn't that counterproductive? And how the heck can TWO frames be Stronger Than ALL? The STA should be THE strongest frame. And if 4.9 pounds or whatever is too heavy for some, let them ride something else. Think of your roots, Standard!:

(That isn't my bike, but it's a great example of an early STA. I love the way the rear triangle looks tweaked downward (although the whole grinding on the stays thing wasn't much fun), and how they just looked unbreakable. One of my favorite bikes ever was the shit brown one that Rick Moliterno rode for most of "Domination.")

It'll be interesting to see whether the new STA catches on. Back around 2000, damn near every rider in New York had a Standard. Well, everyone everywhere (except for maybe California) had a Standard. Now I couldn't tell you the last time I saw one. In fact, I don't think I've seen an in-house built one yet. Everyone's too caught up in trying to be Chase DeHart (whose frame has also undergone some changes) or Chase Hawk or Chasey Lain these days. It's hard to keep them all straight.

I don't see it happening. I'm sorry. The seattube piercing the toptube is just another gimmick at this point, and just because it's an old one instead of a new one doesn't make it any better. The people checking for the old STA style probably won't be looking for a 4.5 pound frame, and the people looking for 4.5 pound frames probably won't be looking for STAs. All in all, it would have been better to bring back the Trail Boss. Or, given today's economic climate, the Cashius.

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Um, Metal Bikes aren't made by S&M anymore? When did this happen?

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Quick Releases

2009-01-06T23:06:00.007-05:00

OK.

*deep breath*

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be Godawful, so I have no excuse when it comes to posting something of substance. I WILL post something on the new STA tomorrow—heck, I've been thinking about it long enough now. Perhaps I'll also post a retrospective of some of the STAs I've owned and loved (think flagpole seatposts and dinnerplate sprockets and no brakes). Or maybe that can be a follow-up post.

As for tonight, I'd like you to compare and contrast the following:

A) Fly's post about their new integrated dropouts.

B) Odyssey's post about their new G-Sport Rollcage rims.

Notice any differences?

I'll save you the trouble of figuring it out for yourself and just tell you. The Odyssey post tells you virtually everything about the Rollcages, from material, to weight, to the thickness of the damn sidewalls. Read it carefully enough and magnify the photos and you could probably make your own. (Yes Alienation, I'm sure you already are.) As for the Fly "update"? It doesn't tell you ANYTHING. I'm still not entirely sure what an "integrated dropout" is supposed to be and why it's supposed to be better. Maybe the language barrier is part of it, but damn.

In other news, this photo really depressed me:

That's a new FitEdLT built up. Hard to believe it's even an Edwin (I'm actually surprised it didn't spit that seat/post combo out). The s3ification of BMX is nearly complete. Between this and the imminent discontinuation of the Barcode, it's been a tough start to '09.

Oh, and if you run 11-, 13- or 37-butted bars, you might want to check this shot out (borrowed from BMXboard):

Best protect ya neck.

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Free Admission

2009-01-05T21:43:00.004-05:00

Hm. If I keep this up, I can avoid writing about the new STA almost indefinitely. Friday came and went, and I thought it just better to ignore it entirely than come up with another half-baked excuse. Then I had things to do this weekend, and all of a sudden it was Monday again. And here I am at quarter of 10 planning on just posting yet another last-minute, catch-all sort of post. Dammit. I hate it when I do that. So just two quick things today:

• Props to Fly for openly admitting their Spanish BB2 was a failure. One would imagine, given the ease of installation and the cache of yet another new bottom bracket standard, they could have cobbled something together that would have at least sort of worked, then blamed failures on riders. (Most of them would have wound up on/in unridden Bikeguide bikes anyway.) Now, if they'd just admit the whole Spanish BB concept is the equivalent of Betamax or HD DVD, maybe we'd have something.

*Please do not stuff your headset in your bottom bracket shell.*

• When I think "Snafu," I think "cheap." So the idea of an $70 (approximated due to the 4x more expensive than a plastic pedal figure) aluminum pedal just doesn't set right. As it is, there are plenty of options when it comes to expensive pedals, and yet another Wellgo product doesn't seem to be terribly necessary. Not to mention Demolition already ran wild with the "Anorexia" name. Eating disorders are so 2001 anyway.

My favorite part about this release, though, are the smaller versions allegedly designed specifically for track bikes. This is fine, I suppose, if your goal is to die a horrible death. Riding a fixed gear in traffic (or anywhere else, for that matter) with platforms is about as smart as surfing on a 2x4. I could be wrong—there could be provisions for clips and straps—but I doubt it. Good work, fellas.

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I'll get back to the proper song vids when I write a proper post. You should also watch this.

Promises, Shmromises

2008-12-31T20:53:00.002-05:00

I'm taking the rest of '08 off, with plans to expound on the new STA on Friday. I almost t-boned a moron in a Tacoma in an icy Lowe's parking lot today, and that was quite enough excitement for one day.

Oh yeah, the Pornstar got re-listed. It's probably not gonna sell this time, either.

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Happy New Year, peoples.

How about some Fignon v. LeMond in '89?

Liar, Liar

2008-12-30T22:38:00.003-05:00

I lied. Due to a day trip to NYC, a meetup with an old friend (unrelated, and later) and a pressing need to finally sign up for Facebook, there's no way I'm posting anything of substance today. Sorry.

Also, I don't have any photos of my Homeless. It was a 1" Mack, with the "H" cutout in the cap on the back of the toptube. Tan. With an S&M Menstrual fork/stem combo, Profiles, and silver HP-48s. I think I rode it once, then parted it out. The frame went to Tom at Empire, the wheels and the cranks got sold, and I still have the bars/stem/forks. The stem is amazing—it's a Race/Challenger with "MENSTRUAL" engraved in the top cap instead. If it was 1 1/8", I'd have it on my bike right now. Instead it's...well, somewhere.

Anyway, I'll post something more real tomorrow, promise.

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Off-topic again.

Not Ron Jeremy

2008-12-29T22:31:00.003-05:00

I'll resume normality tomorrow. In the meantime, someone please help out this Homeless Pornstar.

(At some point I suppose I should do a post on people who think that just because they spent a lot on a bike 10 or 15 years ago that it still should be worth a lot. I bought a complete Homeless with a similar build kit less than five years ago for like $150. And I'm thinking the "value" hasn't gone up.)

(Oh wait, those are LIMITED EDITION Primo tires. Nevermind.)

In related news, I bought this last week:

30/10, here we come.

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Hm, maybe something different just for today.

Merry Fucking BMXmas

2008-12-24T16:15:00.004-05:00

The photo below is me in front of the folks' house on Christmas 25 or so years ago on my brand-new Schwinn Predator. (If I'm not mistaken, I got the Oakland Raiders hoodie that Christmas as well—score!) I meant to re-create the photo on my current bike, but weather intervened. It would be nice to re-create the feeling, too, although that might be a little tougher.

Anyways, hope you all enjoy your respective holidays, and I'll see you back here on Monday.

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Holidaze

2008-12-23T15:42:00.004-05:00

Hey look, Christmas is coming, there's things to do, and I'm just gonna throw out a quick batch o' news and stuff today. And I might take tomorrow and the next day off. DEAD BLOG.

• I haven't ridden real trails ever, and the one time did go to Port Washington it took me all day just to jump the stepdown that started the line. Nevertheless, I can appreciate what Mark Noble is doing over at Deluxe. And despite the fact that they're releasing a seat/post combo, I still got love for those guys. Nice photo, Mark. I see you!

• JPR over at FBM has some more to say about the coming CPSC rules that should kick the prices of everything in the industry up just when we can all least afford it. 2009 is gonna be a tough year. I got an e-mail with some more specifics, but since I can't readily verify things (especially not now), I'm gonna leave it alone for now. Much more on this later, I'm sure. (Incidentally, you guys should send Take #666 to Nate Wessel. It's the right thing to do.)

• So Solid is releasing some new cranks that won't be listed properly on Dan's. They're not full-wrap on top or bottom, which is causing some consternation amongst the BMX cognoscenti (OK, just on various messageboards, but I really like the word 'cognoscenti'), but the original Solid cranks weren't wrapped either, and I don't recall anyone ever breaking those. I'm just stoked on the idea of a 22mm splined crank.

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