Over My Head

I spotted this Harry Main KHE complete on the Pijin blog last night, then traced the image URL (wow, am I interwebz savvy) to this Nike 6.0 "insider" blog post. Not sure where the 3.1 pound frame weight came from, unless Mark spoke to someone directly, because I couldn't find much about the bike on the horrifically designed KHE website (would a news link up top be too much to ask?). Harry does mention it in his Ride UK 20 questions interview, but only that the complete is going to weigh under 21 pounds (and that his first riding memory is from 2002—ouch). Anyway, yeah, photo:

Harry's a 17-year old, and this bike looks like is was designed for one. Light, bright, steep, low-slung, with big bars (I presume they're KHE's Centaur bar/stem combo), the new one-piece seat/post (the pedal looks almost bigger than the seat) and, of course, KHE tires. Basically it's every current trend in one easy-to-buy package that you should be able to find at Tailwhips 'R' Us. Blech.

I know the kid can do 720s and 900s and stuff (only because I looked at the 6.0 and KHE sites, since before last night I'd never even heard of him), but I still find it funny that a 17-year-old is getting a signature complete. Wouldn't it be best to wait just in case he decides to quit riding and take up autocrossing or Wii golf or heavy drinking? He is really good for being 17, though—does young Harry have a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead?

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Simple is putting out a production frame with that shaved-headtube thing that Sunday's been testing on prototypes. Hmm.

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Gonna do something new for a while. Every day I'm going to post one Youtube video of a video/live performance of a song that was used in a BMX video. Guess which video (and which rider's part) and you win the right to be proud of yourself for the day.

Some will be easy, some won't be. We'll start with...well, you tell me.

Port of Austin

I was really psyched a couple of years ago when Sunday came out with the Vinnie Sammon frame. Not just because I'd known Vinnie for a long time, and he deserved a frame as much as anyone, but because Sunday chose to go a different route than most companies—while Vinnie's frame had a signature paint job and sticker set, underneath it was just another Sunday Wave.

When word came out that Sunday was doing another signature frame, this time for the everfluorescent Aaron Ross, I figured it would be more of the same, only brighter. But the spy photo posted on Sunday (check out the stamped caps!) and the fact that the frame is in for "testing" makes me wonder:


What could be changed for the better? It always seemed ridiculous to me that, in the interest of having multiple 'signature' frames, companies would offer a line of four or five "different" frames that differed so slightly that you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference. Hell, the welders could probably barely tell the difference. And if one frame wound up being more popular than another, well, there went the profits. Sunday, I thought, they had it right. It was like skateboarding. Just change the graphics, keep the basic product the same.

Then they released the Ian frame, with the built-in post, and OK, I sort of understood that. If you were just going to run your seat slammed anyway, there was no need for a separate post and clamp. I guess. And the rest of the geometry was the same, so it was more or less still just a Sunday—kind of like the signature T1 Barcodes from a ways back (there's still a new 21" Garrett under my bed).

But this, I'm not sure. What could they change? I'm pretty sure Ross's FBMs were 74.5 degrees with conventional rear end lengths and whatnot. Maybe a lower toptube? GPS? Built-in ice-cream scoop?

Let the rampant speculation begin!

EDIT: Added the second photo. Apparently the frame will be called the "Funday", which is totally awesome.