mysticnegro.com Kranky v3.0

Found this on KrtSchmidt.com

Anyone who knows me knows that I have an extreme hatred for all things Volkswagen, but I also think that Danny Mac is the most interesting street rider out there (that he’s on a trials bike is even better as people then ignore that he’s doing insanely progressive stuff and, instead, focus on the size of his wheels making Danny Macaskill kind of a litmus test for those who appreciate riding and those who are interested in fashion).  So, I’m posting this, because DM is awesome.  But I still wouldn’t buy one of the products being hawked here.

BMXers tend to be broke, especially teenage ones.  so, when $30 is put up for you to do a trick that you’re not at all comfortable on on a ramp you’ve ridden for all of 90 minutes, you step right up.  Then, 20 minutes later in a fit of cockiness you “one more time it” and end up with a positively Smillian cankle as a result.  Oh well.

Russel Summerville, conquering fear. Last Sunday at Clay’s.

This post started out when I checked out the new Odyssey catalog and noticed that they seem to have given up on metal pedals all together. This got me to thinking about how when I was a kid, getting rid of the cheap, plastic pedals that came with most completes was of high priority.  Shimano DX pedals where a huge status symbol.  If you were the man you’d convince your parents to upgrade your cranks to three piece ones at the same time (three piece cranks and one piece cranks used different spindle sizes.  Of course, Stu Thomsen rode $12 one piece cranks and could beat everyone, so…).  But these days kids throw away perfectly good metal pedals to replace them with plastic ones and higher end completes come with plastic pedals.

Then I started thinking about how many parts on a modern BMX bike are disposable.  I mean, I’m not just talking about plastic pedals and plastic pegs but also any peg labeled “park only/light street.” All of the plastic one piece seat/post combos, super thin grips and constant forays into plastic bottom brackets.  Not to mention that there seems to be a race on to see how much material can be removed from every metal part of a bike until someone actually dies from product failure.

Somehow or other we’ve gotten to a point in BMX where marketers have turned weakness into strength, “Plegs are cheap and easy to replace!” Yeah, but a couple of weeks ago I was talking to Dave at the skatepark (and I don’t know Dave’s last name, he’s just Dave, there’s also Mrs. Dave and Baby Dave) and he was talking about how he’s had the same set of Kink OG pegs for either five or nine years and he’s almost ground through them, finally.  I’m not against plastic pegs (I actually run two sets of Dumbchucks, I do like that they’re less destructive, although I have to call “marketing hyperbole” on George French’s original claims that plegs do no harm to the environment) but I just think it’s crazy that kids will now replace the cheap Wellgo pedals that came on their bikes – that will likely outlast their frames – for equally cheap plastic pedals that will likely need to be replaced due to general riding.

Say what you will, the BMX industry has giant balls for pulling this one off.  But not as big a set as the good folks of Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Anyone who knows me knows about this

View from my deck 8:31 am 09/21/2009

I’d gone to let the dogs out an hour earlier and water had actually gotten up to the top step.  At this point the water started to recede and by 1:00 it was all gone.  By 7:00PM the water was back up to the top step again.  We had experienced a “500 year flood” two times in one day. In the shed were, among other things, my paint gun, some two stage auto paints, my table saw, my random orbital sander and my lawnmower.  All but the paint gun were submerged, twice.

So, for the last couple of weeks we’ve been looking for a new lawnmower and we found that most Sears stores carry a collection of used mowers, some of which had what seemed to be really good prices.  But you had to get them when they were “priced to sell.”  Last week a salesman even straight up told us not to waste our time and come back this week.  So, this week we came back and we saw a few used mowers that seemed to be good deals, but The Mrs. said “let’s go inside and see if these are actually good deals compared to new ones.”

No, they weren’t.

The Sears at Gwinnett Place Mall (and I don’t know if this is true for all of them) was selling used mowers for exactly the same price as new mowers.

We couldn’t believe this was true, so we went out and checked and, yup.  So, a guy who answered the phone “manager on duty” while talking to us was like, “If it were me, I’d buy a new mower, the used ones are usually people who really don’t understand lawn mowers who bring them back and they may not have treated them the best.”  But the price of a new one and the price of a used one are EXACTLY THE SAME, “Yeah, I can’t really change the price.  I’d just buy a new one.” But, seriously, why would you price a used one the same as a new one? “Yeah, I’m not in control of that.”

Yeah, BMX industry, you may have perfected openly selling planned obsolescence to adolescents, but your cojones need to grow about 50 sizes to match this crap.

Also, don’t buy used lawn mowers from Sears.

Bast posted this on Facebook.

Georgia Ninja Crew Summer Edit – More BMX Videos

Dear Odyssey,

We’ve had a long relationship.  Way back when you sold gear that was cheaper than the OEMs but better than Pyramid Accessories I was a fan. These words I say, I say out of love.

Please stop lying.

My story begins a couple of years ago when, fed up with the lack of braking power (or lack there of) of the K2 I decided to replace the painted Sun rims with some Duralectra Hazard Lites that you had on closeout.  While I was doing that I was also going to replace my rear hub and sprocket with the then new standard 25/9.  I think everyone knows the end of that story, I ended up getting a new bike, which also had painted rims, so I put the Hazards on it.

Now, the word on the Duralectra rims and the Hard Anodized rims that replaced them was that they “brake as well as chrome.”  This is a lie.  I mean, they brake much, MUCH better than painter rims, but saying they brake as well as chrome is like saying I’m as fit as Usain Bolt because I’m in better shape than this guy.  But, I’d talked myself into thinking that the braking performance I had was as good as it got, primarily since I’m about twice the size of the average BMXer and I haven’t ridden a bike with chrome wheels in like 12 years (it was a Huffy Half-Ton if you’re wondering, I could lock up the rear brakes at will on that thing). Even after swapping out the stock Tektros for a full on Odyssey setup, my brakes were mostly “alright.”  That was as good as it could get thanks to physics I thought.

Then I rode a bike with pretty much the exact same brake setup as mine (Evo2s front and rear, gyro, the biggest difference is he has Colony levers instead of my Monolever/M2 setup) but with chrome rims and, by jove, I could lock up the rears, the hell?  The problem, I figured, was the rims, “brakes as well as chrome,” was just not true, and it was time for me to just give up on the black wheels and admit defeat.

Then I spoke to Devon on a completely unrelated note.  He wanted to sell his red, HA wheels.  I’m kinda over the black/white thing and am thinking about adding some color to my bike but I’d resigned myself to chrome wheels.  Devon said, “dude, try the clear pads, their made for painted wheels!” I said, “why should I trust you, you ride brakeless!” and he said “I rode brakes a couple of weeks ago!” And there was much exclaiming.

Still, I decided to drop the twenty bucks on a couple of pair of them last week and last night I put them on my bike (as an aside, Dear Brian Scura – I know that you’ve probably made all of the money you need by licensing the original gyro design, then providing Orygs to every bike manufacturer ever, but can you please turn your mad genius to making a quick release lever for U-Brakes so that changing my pads didn’t need to be a PROCESS.  Kthxbai).  In between buying them I noticed something on the Odyssey website, “clear pads are best for painted rims, hard anodized rims work best with black or red pads.”

LIES!

I used black pads with HA rims and they were a joke!

But

I’m hear to tell you that the clear pads with my rims is a revelation.  This morning I went to Bay Creek and I was able to lock up my brakes at will.  Maybe now I’ll learn fufanus and abubacas!  Probably not, but I was able to pull off an endo without my front wheel washing out from under me.  I now have very, very good brakes and its all because I’m doing something that the manufacturer said is not recommended.  I’m here to tell you, if you’re a little big around the middle, but still like having all the fancy colors on your bike, clear + HA rims is super awesome, regardless of what Odyssey says.

Odyssey, stop denying it, clear pads are the way of the future.

Hello,

My name is George and I don’t like Fit Bike Co.  I know I’ve hinted around at my dislike of them before, but I figure now is time for me to go into the how’s and whyfors.  Y’see, it’s not like I hate their products, which I think are of the exact same quality as every other product at whatever price point they’re competing in.  Let’s be honest, the most innovative thing Fit’s done is name a product line after closeted gay sex, other than that all of their stuff is pretty much just like everybody else’s stuff.

Nope, my problem was always Fit’s image.  In an industry where avoidance of the jock mentality has been fetishized to an almost idiotic point Fit’s image was almost the the very definition of the jock mentality (and, let’s be honest^2, the dirty little secret of BMX is that the “jock mentality” is actually “the average mentality of 16 year old boys” and this sport is lousy with 16 year old boys).  While other brands seemed to sell “ride our stuff and you’ll have fun,” Fit sold “ride our stuff and you’ll be cool.”  If BMX is high school, Fit was the captain of the football team, who was banging the head of the cheerleading squad, and her best friend…and they both knew and didn’t care. Read more…

Ever since JPR dropped word on The Take’s foray into commuter bikes in the comments I’ve been waiting to see what the finished product would look like.  Obviously, they weren’t going to get much coverage in the BMX media, and they don’t seem to be getting much play The Take’s website, either.  But I did spot a picture of them over on FBM’s site.

I give ‘em a seven.

They look fine, and they definitely both look like they could be nice bases for your very own RRB project (although, you could argue that a high quality base defeats the purpose of a rat rod bike).  There’s just something about the handlebars that I’m not feelin’.  I think it’s mostly the bottom one, which desperately needs its bars flipped and a number plate.  Still if they can hit the price point they were aiming for (it was $400, correct?) they definitely look worth it for round town transportation.

2010 GT Bump

Stop

Just.  Stop.

This is a word problem which assumes that everyone has seen the new Deco bars. If you haven’t

Deco FUBars

(Word of warning to anyone who hasn’t been to the Deco site, it is largely concerned with showing she-nipples in all of their glory and horror.  It is almost completely NSFW unless you work on a porn set.)

Chad has described them as having the look and feel of  four piece bars in a  two piece bar.  He’s also admitted that, they’re basically Bob Bars.

So – True or False – IF the new Deco bars look almost exactly like the bars on my 1st gen GT Pro Performer AND they are based on the Animal Bob Bars AND IF Bob Bars are basically GT four piece bars AND IF those GT four piece bars are four piece versions of the two piece bars on my 1st gen GT Pro Performer DOES Rich Long’s head spin around in his grave?

I have OD’d on Interbike footage and I have some words for you.

Pacific – Hey, you let GT put out a frame, welcome to the late 20th century! I won’t take you seriously until you re-release the Pacman fork.

The Take/The Make - You take this shit outside and settle it like gentlemen.  I thought it was a typo when I clicked on that video.  It’s like buying your wife a Prado bag for Christmas.  Also, did the commuter bikes get shown?  If not I am a sad panda.

Haro/Premium - Hey, a new frame that’s as light as a scooter, but isn’t a scooter?  Yeah, that won’t end badly at all.

Eastern - I’ve defended you against all sorts of criticism for all sorts of things.  But, then I saw this and the bleeding from my eyes started.  While I like the Nitrous series (and the branding of which makes me think you might be gearing it up to make it its own brand) nothing makes up for the Dragon/Reaper/Boss.  BMX companies, Killarado clones make the Baby Jesus cry.

Intense - Shaun Palmer is, without a doubt, the single greatest athlete of his generation (which is, of course, my generation), however he has some of the stupidest tattoos of any living human being.  I’m talking about The Palm’s return to your mountain bike team because, let’s be honest, it’s more interesting than your freestyle bikes which are notable only in that they are full of Sinz parts.  Good try, they look nice and all, I’d even buy one, but I don’t think anyone’s going to notice.

Fit - If my calculations are right, everyone on your team now has a signature bike except Van Homan. Wait, I just checked Dans and Van does have a signature complete available for 2010, that’s everyone.

MacNeil – Speaking of signature bikes, it’s a bit weird that I can order the Young III frame from Dan’s and you just dropped Young?  I mean, at first I thought it was older, but then I realized the graphics are all in your new design language.  Does he still get royalties? Ohyeah, the 22.2mm seat tube is stupid.

MirraCo - Mike Spinner rode for you guys for like three years and didn’t get a signature frame, but Harry Main gets one after a week and a half?  Was it the Jew Fro?  Also, can someone explain this to me.  Dave Mirra is sponsored by Snafu.  Dave Mirra co-owns MirraCo.  MirraCo has a parts line that competes directly with Snafu. Jim Ford lets you get away with this shit?  I thought his entire job was to provide adult supervision so that HIS BUSINESS PARTNER WOULDN’T RIDE A COMPETITOR’S PRODUCT.

Hyper - I don’t care that Spinner doesn’t grind, 3/8″ rear axles are stupid.