Little Things

• Animal is releasing a butted version of their Light pegs (Lighters?), which shaves 0.7 ounces per peg. It'll also mean they'll wear out faster, but hey, that's your problem. When companies like Animal are starting to put weight first, the Apocalypse must be right around the corner. I've actually been thinking about throwing on four OG pegs in defiance. (Oh noes, then my bike might weigh all of 27 pounds!)

Also, didn't MacNeil make butted steel pegs years ago and call them "Park Pegs"? With Animal making butted pegs and Kink making aluminum ones, I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Vic Ayala and Troy McMurray need to come back and start a parts company with Sean Burns and call it FUCK YOU.


• Apparently the new S&M Dirt Bike, which I've written about twice already, will retail for $370. While that's $30 cheaper than the flagship LTF (and the Fit S3.5), it's still more expensive than the Sunday Second Wave or the FBM Maneater. Which is a bit of a disappointment. I thought the new Dirt Bike would fill the low-budget void left by frames like the Standard Cashius, the FBM Outsider, and yes, the original Dirt Bike. Although I suppose I should have known different when I saw "SuperTherm" and "five pounds". It's a bit like Honda producing a new $40,000 two-seater and calling it the CRX (which wouldn't surprise me either, actually). Unconfirmed word is that the Dirt Bike will replace the Black Bike in the S&M lineup, which means it's more of a name change than anything. Oh well, some things are just too good to be true.

(Then again, given the horrorshow that is the US economy, it's amazing that BMX frame prices have stayed the same for so damn long. I just picked up a 2001 Dan's catalog that was next to my couch—don't ask—and an S&M Call Girl frame was $370 way back then. How much was gas in 2001? Then again, the Dirt Bike Classic was $200.)

• I only became recently aware of the ever-sinking toptube of the Terrible One Barcode (which, by the way, is also cheaper than the Dirt Bike). Tragic. Jack! Rose! If only weight could have been trimmed in a different manner—say, by decreasing the diameter of said toptube. Or not worrying about weight at all. Which manufacturer will be so bold as to no longer list frame weight? (I'd also entirely forgotten that Taj was riding for Giant until I saw this bike check. I know it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but it's still sort of like Fugazi signing with Universal.)

• This has been bothering me for a while: Spanish or Mid, people. Pick one. Is it really necessary to maintain two near-identical, yet incompatible, bottom bracket standards? If one is truly superior, pick that one. And if it doesn't matter, flip a coin.

• Stop the madness! WWJSD?

This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse

Sometimes it's hard to tell what's a joke and what isn't these days.

Take the Super Rat Machine Works pedals.

It's not the Super Rat Machine Works shop that's a joke. They're what appears to be an awesome machine shop based in Kansas City run by fellow rider and FBM Hall of Famer Phil Wasson who makes parts for FBM, Solid and is working on a stem for Terrible One. And it's not even the pedals themselves, which are American-made CNCed artwork.

Nope, in this case it's the pins, of all things. The pedals come with both steel and plastic pins, 16 of each, which get the weigh-in treatment:


As they say on the site:

"that saves you 6.94 grams per pair of pedals! which in reality is probably as much as the mud on your front tire weighs… or 2 pre-1982 pennies, since after 1982 they started skimping on the copper content of pennies. if you’ve got post 1982 pennies, you’re saving the weight of 3 of those."

The weight part is a joke, I guess (it's kind of funny they list them to 1/100th of a gram). But plastic pins in aluminum pedals? For real? I must be getting old.

P.S. You know what else is old? Oh, nothing.

This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse

It's hard work being this late to the streetwear party. What's next? An all-over print hoodie? Collaboration tees with The Shadow Conspiracy and Hell On Earth? Poverty selvage denim?

And I absolutely detest the term 'limited edition.' The only two things that aren't limited, to the best of my knowledge, are space and time. Although in this case, Dan's and New Era should have made these hats really, really limited. A half-dozen or so would have done the trick.