Sure looks like a finished product, doesn't it? And except for the fact that it doesn't allow for much height adjustment—um, or angle adjustment, or front-to-back adjustment—it looks normal enough. It's clearly a bike seat and not just a placeholder.
That said, it's still not quite finished. Or it wasn't, anyway. Through testing, Fly recently discovered that the composite post was too pliant. Tightening the seatpost clamp just squished it. So, back to the drawing board, where they came up with this:
Ingenious! A slim aluminum core to stiffen everything up. Uno Cialis. In their words, "this tube increases the strength and also prevents the post from ovalizing when you tighten the seat clamp. It only ads 20 grs / 0.7 oz. to the seat but makes it much stronger."
Which makes one wonder, will further changes and refinements happen before release? Because I was just thinking, if you separated the seat from the post, and developed some sort of splined interface, you could actually make it possible to adjust the seat's angle. And it wouldn't add much weight at all—you could just thread that aluminum insert and use a hollow bolt to tighten everything down.
Whoa, I think I'm onto something. I'm going to go try and sketch this out. Anyone got the number to the patent office?
Let's go to the mailbag for today's topic. I've been meaning to run this e-mail for a while now, and better late than never:
"You seem to have not noticed..
There are VERY few BMX hubs in 48h anymore..
On top of that, if they do, they either suck, or don't come in LHD, or 9t..
Now, all three are pretty wide areas of the market I would think.. yet nobody is making this shit anymore?
Damn all these companies that are using strong ass bushing, or Q-Lite systems to allow larger driver bearings, because it still doesn't mean shit to me untill I can get A. 48h (SERIOUSLY, NO 48H?!) 9t (A must so I can run my RNC fullguard sprocket..) and LHD would be a fucking nice touch too..
Christ, I can't believe with companies coming out with two hubs a month they can't drill some extra holes in the flanges, reverse thread the ratchet rings and screw em in so the damn driver goes on the left side, and order 9t drivers..."
It's true that I did not notice this, perhaps because I don't run 48s or a 9t driver. But it's a somewhat reasonable point (remember when G-Sport was totally against 36-hole rear wheels?) despite the fact that it adds even more options to an already crowded market (and one would presume that the 48/LHD/9t segment is a fairly small one). That said, 48-hole, LHD cassettes are a more legit option than yet another recovered Velo. I'm just saying.
I skimmed through the product offerings of Wal*Mart BMX, and found just three cassette hubs that are offered in LHD and 48: the Demolition Anorexia, the Odyssey V3 and the Shadow Rant V2. Two of those, the Anorexia and the Rant, have a 9t option. And one could question whether the Anorexia and the Rant will even remain in production, seeing that both companies offer a more recent model (although the new Shadow cassette will still be available in 48/LHD/9t).
That said, I see where our e-mailer is coming from. Profile no longer offers a 48-hole cassette hub, nor does Primo. And whilst the majority of BMXers are indeed skinny waifs in Krews, there are still those who either are big or just ride that way who could use the 12 extra spokes.
Oh well. Best appreciate the options you DO have before those go away, too.
Remember UnKnown Bike Co.? We last talked about them three months ago when they introduced the three-and-a-half pound Revolution frame. Well, they're ba-ack!
This time they're introducing their two-piece cranks, which you can see on messageboards in Germany and the UK but not their own website.
Rather than attach the spindle to one arm or the other, they chose to split their (19mm) spindle right down the middle. Just like Campagnolo did with their road cranks in '06. Then again, Campy's design uses a lot more teeth, something known as a Hirth joint, which looks a lot more stable and sturdy than the UK's connection point. Let your cranks get just a little loose with these babies and you'll be banging your knee into something or throwing yourself over your bars. Fun! Well, unless they fit super-tight, in which case good luck putting them together in the first place.
The arms look conventional enough, although I'm sure they use UK's super-secret heat-treating process. Some kind of bolt will lock the whole thing together. Of course this means if you break EITHER arm, the replacement cost will be fairly high. They weigh 736 grams, which must be light. (Who weighs their cranks in grams? Oh. These guys, apparently.) No mention of price, either.
According to the info provided, they have developed an even lighter set of cranks at 712 grams that either haven't been or can't be photographed. Perhaps they're adversely affected by light?
••••••••••••••••••
Mike Aitken took it hard the other day at Posh, and is in the hospital recovering. Like many riders in the wonderful US of A, he doesn't have health insurance. You can donate—or just leave a message for him—on the 50/50 site.
Here's a sequence of him I took at the Banks during the Fox tour a while back:
Have you heard the one about the frozen frames? Saw this on Fat today—the new Quamen LoCal frame, which is "the first frame in the BMX industry to use Cryogenic Engineering."
Apparently it's a process that can be used in tandem with heat treating, although it also works as a stand-alone process.
The frame itself isn't anything to write home about—low top tube, standard angles and dimensions (74.5/13.75/11.5), even a more or less standard weight, four and a quarter pounds. No word of how much it's gonna cost.
Looks like they should have taken the frame off the lawn before initiating the cryogenic process, huh? Hey man, if it's good enough for Walt Disney and Ted Williams's head, I suppose it could be good enough for a street frame. It's a tried and tested process in other disciplines. Heat treat first, then rather than just cool to room temp, cool it WAY down. To below -200 degrees Fahrenheit.
(Of course, if this catches on, companies will start having to come up with cool (haha, get it?) names for their own freezing processes: "Iced Out." "Mr. Frosty." "Otter Pop Tubing." You know, that sort of thing.)
But hey, if you get to actually observe the process, just one word of advice: No matter how good your frame looks, for God's sake don't lick it.
I'm not sure whether you've heard, but the American economy is in pretty bad shape right now. We're down to like three national banks, a sandwich in London would cost you roughly $47, and even Canadians are laughing at our currency. Our bills are green because they're jealous.
We had it coming, I guess. But I'm not gonna get into all the politics here, because a) that's not the point of this blog, and b) I'd just be doing a lot of re-hashing of things that were written by the media elite. And by golly, the elite have no place telling normal people like you and me what we can and cannot do! Why can't we have a normal person in the White House who does normal things—like carrying out personal vendettas while serving in a public office, marrying off their pregnant teenagers while fighting comprehensive sex ed, and shooting moose from helicopters? Drill baby, drill!
(Wait, did Sarah Palin design the Rob Wise frame?)
Anyway, the real question is, for me—or, rather, us—is how will this financial crunch affect BMX? Well, a lot of us are gonna have less money to play with. And the costs of everything, from raw materials to shipping, are rising. Ouch. It's hard to justify spending $400-plus on a frame when you're spending $60 a week to fill your gas tank. I found it very interesting (and cool) that Ryan Sher said at Interbike that Subrosa will be offering an aftermarket frame for right around $200 that just skips all the neat (but expensive) little details. Assuming there's any profit to be made at that price point at all, every company would be smart to offer a bare-bones frame. If I had a frame company, mine would be called "The Bailout".
But there's another side to this sordid story, and that's on the other side of the Atlantic. With the Euro kicking the dollar's ass from sea to shining sea, it's a lot cheaper for our Old World brethren to order parts from the US of A, even with international shipping factored in. Gone are the days when a French guy would have to pay $800 or whatever for a Terrible One frame. Crossing the ocean the other way, it's sort of surprising that Eurocompanies like Federal, United, Simple, Mankind, We The People, KHE, etc., even bother selling their products in America. I suppose volume (not Volume) makes up for the lousy dollar and the overcrowded market. For now. So we get things like $410 United frames, while the exchange rate renders other products too expensive for American mailorders to carry. Thank God G-Sport stuff isn't actually made in the UK anymore or a Marmoset/Ribcage front wheel would cost $27,000.
What next? Who knows? Maybe the focus switches back from weight to strength. Imagine that. With money tight, would you rather have a 35-ounce pair of bars that'll last you six years, or a 25-ounce pair that'll last you six months? Maybe 48-spoke wheels will make a comeback. And titanium might disappear from BMX entirely. (Which reminds me, what the hell is KHE thinking making titanium cranks NOW? Oh that's right, the Euro is still worth something.) It's gonna be interesting—and frightening—to watch.
I suppose I could have just e-mailed someone at Fly and asked them what the deal was, but it's more fun to see whether someone who knows reads this and either comments or e-mails. If an answer is forthcoming, I'll post it in here.
I have often been accused of being a hater. Not just in the world of BMX, but in other venues as well. I object to these accusations—not because they're untrue, because they absolutely are—because it's foolish to try and categorize someone so narrowly. Am I a hater? Probably. But I'm also a lot of other things that I won't get into right now. "Hater" is so incomplete.
You see, there are lots of things I love, even in the gram-obsessed world of BMX. And in the interest of offsetting my obviously misguided all-consuming hate, I thought I'd lay out a list of six products (or product categories, I guess) that I really like. Some of them I don't even ride. So there.
• Animal Bob Bars: I'm kind of bummed Animal is producing a butted version. I'd heard a rumor that they weren't going to be released, and that made me happy. Bob Bars are what you think they are—no-nonsense four-piecers that aren't super wide or super tall or super light. They're not gonna make you the belle of the bike-check ball, but they're not gonna bend if you look at 'em funny, either. (They might, however, bend if you throw your bike in frustration after—well, that's not important right now.) They look good, feel right, and are suited (uncut) for anyone who doesn't have a night job as a power forward or light-bulb changer.
• Steel pegs: Brand doesn't matter. I guess it's cool that various companies are experimenting with various materials—plastic, lexan, 7075 aluminum, titanium, depleted uranium. Variety is, as they say, the spice of life. And if having a never-ending supply of plastic pegs allows you to fulfill your lifetime dream of grinding the entire Great Wall of China, well, good for you. But like Floyd Gondolli, I like simple pleasures. Call me a traditionalist. I like my hamburgers made from beef, my magazines printed on paper and my pegs made from hardened steel.
• Seatpost clamps: Brand immaterial, but a 6mm bolt would be nice. I've written enough on this subject for the time being.
• S&M Slam bars: Like the Bob bars, they were a copy (more or less) of an older product. GT bars, Hutch Woody bars, whatever. And at a time when everyone and their uncle was running four-piecers, S&M produced a two-piece tough enough for street or trails or anything else you wanted to throw at them, and big enough for Sasquatch. Pros who weren't on S&M or Standard ran either Slams or Strips anyway. Now there are 37,000 choices when it comes to 8x28" (or bigger) two-piece bars, but why settle for an imitation when you can still get the original? (Oh noes, they're not 13-butted. Sorry. Do a pushup.)
• The KMC Z-510hx: Half-link chains look cool, I guess. But I never really understood the need to run a chain made up of all half-links when all you really ever need is one. Am I wrong? It's like running a chain made up entirely of master links. And why are they so much more expensive than regular chains? The Z-510hx is plenty strong, and costs all of $13. Sure, it doesn't have those sexy drilled-out plates and pins, but it's also less likely to turn your disaster into a complete disaster. Sometimes simple is better, you know?
• Complete bikes for under a G: I saw somewhere recently that you can get a decent complete for $499 from a rider-owned company. That's crazy. It's reached the point now where you can actually buy a complete FBM in a mall* while you're on your way from Hot Topic ("vintage" Stones shirt) to Lidz (custom New Era). Probably 80 percent** of the riders in the world (including yours truly) could get away with riding a $500 complete, no problem. That number would jump even higher if you could buy more completes with 21" toptubes. Which begs the question of why the aftermarket market is so big, and whether it will STAY so big, but that's for another day.
* I know I saw a link about this on the FBM site, but today I couldn't find it. Must be the senile dementia.
** Generous underestimation. I originally had 95 percent, which is probably closer to the truth.
In a world where every new BMX "innovation" is met at best with praise and at worst with a shrug, there needs to be a voice of dissent. SPRFLS is that voice. Make no mistake—we welcome progress, provided it actually IS progress. You are not the width of your handlebars.
Feel free to e-mail suggestions, corrections, tips or death threats to sprfls@gmail.com
Even more pointless (and sometimes entirely un-BMX-related) twittering at http://twitter.com/SPRFLS and http://twitter.com/russbengtson
Sure looks like a finished product, doesn't it? And except for the fact that it doesn't allow for much height adjustment—um, or angle adjustment, or front-to-back adjustment—it looks normal enough. It's clearly a bike seat and not just a placeholder.
