Through Orange-Colored Pegs

To paraphrase my man Big L (1:52), Snafu done done it again.


Yep. See-through pegs. Apparently these "turned heads" at Interbike, despite the fact that I don't remember seeing them amongst the hundreds of product photos taken by guys at Ride, Dig and Fat. Oh well, could have been an oversight.

Or maybe it wasn't.

Unlike the Odyssey/G-Sport Plegs, which took forever to produce properly, went through multiple compounds, and didn't reach the market until over a year after they were first shown at Interbike (in '06) and more like two years since they were first developed, Snafu chose to use "injection-molded bulletproof polycarbonate plastic". Which sounds a lot to me like what was used to make Atomlab's much-maligned and short-lived Ballistic pedals (which were great except for when it came to, um, impacts) or Standard's Masterguard.

Were they tested? Of course! Apparently "SNAFU pros Matt Bischoff and Jeremiah Smith conducted a little stress test with our new pegs using a 10-ton tour bus, and the peg won." Which is great if you plan on getting run over by a 10-ton bus, but I'm not sure how it's supposed to show you how they'll hold up to, say, grinding concrete ledges or hitting rail uprights. Oh, and McGoo posted this creepy video where he submits them to the ever-important "deep throat" and "throw them in a parking lot" tests. I'm sure this is how most products are evaluated in the real world:

"Hey Tim, did you test that aileron?"
"Yes sir. Bill sucked on it, then we threw it around the parking lot for a while. Afterwards, I ran it over with my truck. Twice! It's still perfect."
"Fantastic. Bolt in on, will you? This bird's gotta be off the ground in an hour."

I'd be curious to know whether Snafu is using their own proprietary mix of polycarbonate, and how long it took for them to get it right. Or whether they just used something developed previously by someone else, like what Odyssey used for their clear pedals. Because if you read about polycarbonate, as tough at it is, it doesn't hold up well to abrasion. And once plastic gets abraded enough, it breaks. Think of how plastic pedals fail—and how quickly, if you grind them on rough surfaces. And pedals are both thicker and have chromoly spindles supporting them all the way through. (What's doubly weird is, unless I'm mistaken, Snafu doesn't even offer plastic pedals yet—these pegs will be their first polycarbonate product.)


Even Plegs haven't been the miracle product some hoped they'd be. They're slower than steel on some surfaces, wear down awfully fast on others, and occasionally fail catastrophically. If you land at an angle on something rough, you could carve a substantial groove after just one grind. I know about that through personal experience. And despite mention of it a long while back, Odyssey/G-Sport has yet to produce Plegs in any color other than black. You'd think if translucent pegs were a good idea, Odyssey would already be making them.

Look, you don't have to like Odyssey. You don't have to run their parts. But even if you're not a fan, you have to admit that they generally provide detailed and educated explanations of everything they do, whether it be a weird fork or sammich pedals (more on those later). New products get announced, and then aren't released for months, if not years—not until they're right. And their team rides them first. (Sometimes they still need tweaking even after that. See: Wombolts.)

Does that sound like Snafu's M.O.? I'll give you a hint: NO. These pegs are supposed to be out by the middle of November, and I don't recall ever seeing them (or even hearing word one about them) before Interbike. Nor do I recall seeing them on any Snafu pro's bike checks. (Not sure who would run them anyway. Would Brad Simms ride polycarbonate pegs? Morgan Wade? Dave Mirra?) That's not to say these pegs haven't been real-world tested. Maybe they have. But the testing hasn't been very—excuse the pun—transparent.

Show me some video of someone riding them. Let me hear what team guys think after riding them for a while. Heck, send a set to this guy. Until then they're just another gimmick, the BMX equivalent of this. Or this. Or these. Or maybe they're just another hoax.

(You know it's bad when The Come Up and I more or less agree on something.)

••••••••••••••••

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas

Let's run through some Interbike photos, shall we? Thanks again to Jacob for sending them—his comments will appear first in quotes.


1. Kink Pivotal posts.


Here we have Kink's two varieties of seatpost—slammable, and absolutely have to be slammed. I'm sure that extra inch of aluminum is all that's keeping you from triple whips. (More importantly, note the seatpost clamps in the background. Keep hope alive!)



2. Kink ceramic headset.


Ceramic bearings are all the rage in road and mountain (and industrial applications, I'm sure). They're smoother, faster, and—of course—more expensive. This Kink version is supposed to retail for somewhere in the neighborhood of $100. Let's hope they remembered to make them correctly this time. Think this is a case of killing a fly with a grenade—does anyone's headset not spin smoothly enough? Will this help someone pull a sextuple whip or 37 barspins? Is it worth spending quadruple what a "regular" headset costs? Let me think...no.


3. KHE Centaur bar/stem combo.



Uh, the handlebar is actually a three-piece bar? Color me frightened.


“At first glance this you would think this would be a seat post clamp. but you would be wrong. It's the clamp inside the one piece bar and stem combo. Looks like a seat post clamp from 10 years ago.”

Yes it does. Words cannot express my disappointment.


4. KHE freecoaster.




"Coaster hub that you can adjust with only a allen key through the middle of the axle, allowing you to adjust on the fly for how much play you want without have take anything off the bike. Pretty sweet, but I dont ride a freecoaster hub.”

Neither do I, but having dealt with a Geisha Street for a while (two washers or three?), I can see where this would be a desireable development. Look for every other freecoaster maker out there to quickly license it if it works.


5. T-1 Cyclops stem.


Ain't gonna lie, I'm pretty happy to see an honest-to-God new T1 product. And I can appreciate stems with no bolts on the back, but a traditional four-bolt cap. Not really psyched on split caps, but oh well. At least it's not carved up all to hell and back.


6. Sunday Model D


I was going to call this Sunday's long-awaited trails frame, but I'm not sure whether people were really waiting for them. I know it has "normal" 5mm dropouts and a regular non-wave downtube. I do not know whether it has longer stays. The graphics are pretty rad, though. And you can't go wrong with olive and silver. Please make padsets.


7. Odyssey sidehack


I never understood sidehacks, even in the BMX Action days. Cool-looking bike, though. Are those...Cyclecraft bars?


8. Fly grips...er, grip?

Interesting. One grip that you can cut yourself to custom lengths. Or, if you ride a fixed with drops, buy two and cut the flanges off. I'm sure there are other uses for it, too, but this isn't that kind of website.



9. 2-Hip Groove...whatever.


“quite possibly the worst eye sore at interbike... I cant really say much more...”

And I already said enough.



10. Fit forks.

“kind of hard to see but the forks get crazy tapered down near the drop outs. dakota has been riding them and that have held up. hmmmm.”

They were displayed on the Dakota Roche frame, which I don't know anything about except that it has gussets on the top and bottom at the headtube. I'd like to see the Dakota, Eddie and DeHart frames side-by-side.


11. DK Random Wrench V2


“spoke wrench built into the top, sleeker one-peice design. with a little socket nub on the side. much nicer looking. not a bike part but something to make fixing it much easier.”

I've never had a Random Wrench—if I was carrying a camera bag anyway I didn't mind loading individual tools—but it makes sense, at least. Seems inevitable that I'll wind up with one.


12. Premium 3.3 pound frame


“sooo you make a 3.3 lbs frame and you build it up and bolt it to a stand, yet have no stand- alone frame to pick up... premium you are intelligent! so the tubes are double butted and drawn in a special way. then heat treated for 3.5 times longer than normal frames. haro guy said it would shatter before it bent... so you have that to look forward to!”

I'm not sure whether I need to add anything to that, other than the low standover is disgusting and the "Strawberry" toptube integrated seatclamp may be worse.


13. Stolen Pivotal post.


“more plastic! excuse me thermalite...”

I'm genuinely torn. On the one hand, if you're going to just slam your post anyway, there's no reason it shouldn't be made of plastic or wood or cardboard or whatever. On the other hand, is it really necessary? I vote HELL no. How heavy can one of those stubby little aluminum bits be? Now, if it was a plastique post, that would be a different story. I could get behind that.


14. Haro Freestyler


My friend Ian sent me this one. While the double top tube and graphics look spot-on, and the black mags are appropriate enough, I always hate the generic three-piece cranks and padded seats that appear on these throwback bikes. Not to mention the pseudo Gower Power sprocket and all-black tires. Bikes like this just end up looking like a mish-mash of styles from different eras and aren't particularly good for anything, except preying on the nostalgia-blinded. Why not do it right?

•••••••••••••••••

Pivotal Discussion

"Hey, didn't Odyssey say they'd never make a Pivotal seat?"
"I don't know whether they said never. Seemed pretty unlikely, though."
"Man, that's so weak."
"But wait, it's a totally new base. And they offer a pre-stripped version. Kids'll be psyched on that."
"Yeah, whatever. Sellouts!"
"Still, the plastic ones look better than any Macneil or Animal with the padding ripped off."
"Yeah, whatever. Why are you rationalizing so much? You're a sellout, too."
"Look, I just can't hate on any seat with a lightning bolt on it."
"SEEEEELLLLLLOOOUUUUT. How much are they paying you to say this?"
"Man, it's just a Pivotal version of one of their existing designs. At least it's not another fashionably re-covered Velo. And at least they're not offering yet another re-branded stump post."
"Yet."
"Yeah, I'd assume they'll do a post eventually. Wouldn't want the team riders to be running another company's product."
"Why do you do that all the time?"
"What?"
"Assume. You're wrong half the time, ya fuckin' moron."
"I don't know. Old habits die hard, I guess."
"You're still a moron. Well, let's see you defend the Odyssey Pivotal post. What are they gonna do to make it different from the 25 of them already out there?"
"No idea. Maybe they'll put a pump in it or something."
"Right. Like Odyssey would ever do something like that."
"Oh well. Guess we'll just have to wait and see."

••••••••••••••••••••••

Just in case you're wondering whether the concept for the new Fit Hawk x Empire was a new one in BMX, the answer is an emphatic no:


Hutch did it 20-odd years ago.

Still pretty cool, though.

••••••••••••••••••••••

When I saw the photo of Joe Simon's new Cosmotron, it reminded me of something. Maybe it's just me?

••••••••••••••••••••••

I've always loved this song.

••••••••••••••••••••••

EDIT: Thanks to Jim Bauer for coming through with the Aerator image.

Did You Ever Have One Of Those Days?

I'm having one.

Again.

Anyway, just some quick hits:


1. Brian Castillo's new bike is up on the Volume site:


Mighty sturdy seatstay brace ya got there. Seeing that Volume reps Cali, I'm guessing it's a UCLA Bruins B rather than the Bosox or the Brooklyn Dodgers (all of whom use a similar typeface), but I'm probably wrong. (I know his name starts with a B.)

EDIT: I just noticed that, in the little news thing where he talks about his new ride, Castillo linked to the photo of my old STA that I posted a few days ago. Silliness.

EDIT 2: Since I finally DID read said news item, now I know it's a Biz signature frame. Which means that B is for Boston, bitches.



2. MirraCo crossbar pads, as seen on Dig:


Pads are cool, but these look like they belong on a 12". Someone get the rights to Play and put out some triceratops joints. Or resurrect Zap Pads. Chrome with lightning bolts, how can you go wrong?


3. Animal LM-R rim:
Yeah, yeah, I've been sitting on this forever. The best joke I could come up with was "wow, look at all the potential lacing patterns!" Lame? You bet!



4. Odyssey iPedals:


Obviously their next sprocket should be called the Zip Drive. (And hell, putting the "i" prefix on anything damn near assures it'll sell like Arizona 99-cent cans.)


Told you it was one of those days. I can't even summon the energy to put in all the proper links. Go read something good.

New Crank Technology

Simple. Lightweight. Chrome. Odyssey's new One-Piece™ crank design provides for foolproof installation. No splines, no wedges, no extra bolts. No need to spend valuable time trying to get the arms to line up properly.

What else could you possibly want?*



*Not Euro compatible.

Odyssey Homer

As my good friend 'anonymous' has noted countless times in the comments section of various posts, I like Odyssey. Not in the explicit way that has often been suggested, but in a "wow, they're a company that does things the right way" sort of way. I've never met any of the guys in person, but I've e-mailed with Chris Cotsonas and Nuno Oliveira and Ben Ward (and, to a lesser extent, Jim Bauer) for years. A bunch of us have New York roots. And while I've never met any of them, I consider them friends.

It's strange, because when the company first appeared, Odyssey was...different. Yes, there was the revolutionary Gyro. But there were also Flying Wedge bars, drilled-out brake calipers and levers (ahead of their time!) and the notorious Barefeet tires. Later, there was the Xtro hub, and the tinfoil fork that went with it. If there were riders designing the products, they must not have ridden much.

But early this decade, things started to change. It started at the tail end of the "overbuilt is better" era. Hazard rims. Milk Bars. The Richard Gear. Then the floodgates opened. An affordable cassette hub, Hazard Lites, Civilian Bars, Race Forks, Jim C and Twisted PC pedals. Items that quickly became BMX staples. And when G-Sport's George French joined forces with the in-house guys, things got even more fun. The Elementary stem. The Director fork. Wombolt cranks. Plegs. The Elementary was absurdly light, yes, but it also addressed an old problem (how to hold your handlebars to your forks) in an entirely new way. Rather than just drilling and machining an old design and calling it new, Odyssey innovated. Leading is much harder than following, especially in a trend-driven market like BMX.

There were problems, of course. First-generation Wombolts broke, cassettes ghost-pedaled, Elementaries slipped. But the same problems were immediately addressed. Odyssey has a huge online presence, as well as one of the best warranty 'divisions' in the business. If you have a question or a concern, an e-mail or post on any BMX messageboard will usually be met with a quick (and helpful) response.

All that said, I have to call them as I see them. And their new CFL frontload stem, while pretty with all its laser engraving and color options, seems to be a little, dare I say, superfluous? Late to the party. For a company that's built its reputation on innovation to introduce a 53mm reach, 11.something ounce frontloader now just doesn't set right.



It's not that I have a problem with the product itself—it doesn't appear to be machined to death or anything—it's more that, with so many similar products already on the market (including the welcome return of the original Solid stem), I thought Odyssey would go in a different direction. Bring something new to the table. Say, a longer Elementary, or one with rise (if that's even possible). The CFL is fine, it just seems unnecessary. Kind of like its namesake.

Bike Check (By Request)

Seeing that there has been some wonder in the comments section about my own ride, here it is:



FRAME: 21" Fit Edwin 2007 prototype
FORKS: Odyssey Race
BARS: Animal Bob Lite
STEM: Animal Jumpoff
CRANKS: Odyssey Wombolt, LHD, 175mm
PEDALS: Odyssey Jim C Mag (unsealed)*
SPROCKET: Terrible One American Flyer, 28t
FRONT WHEEL: Odyssey Hazard Lite/Vandero 2
REAR WHEEL: Odyssey Hazard Lite/LHD cassette, 10t
TIRES: Odyssey Plyte 2.1
PEGS: Odyssey Pleg (4)**
SEAT: Animal Cush
POST: Macneil
GRIPS: Animal Edwin
BAR ENDS: Odyssey Par Ends
HEADSET: FSA Impact
CHAIN: KMC 510hx

* Actually, the pedals are currently black Twisted PCs (I know)...
** ...mostly because I'm running Plegs. Seemed silly to have plastic pegs and metal pedals. Still not used to grinding quietly.

MODS: Not much—I'm no Chase Gouin. Cut the seatpost, cut the steerer, that's it.

(I realize that the one photo is something of a cop-out—I meant to do a shot-for-shot match of the Fit S3.5 preview, but it just never happened.)