Yeah, MacNeil. I’m not sure who’s idea it was to go back to the 22.2mm seat post/tube, but stop it already.  “Lighter and stronger” my ass, you’re talking grams of weight savings and if it’s lighter it’s weaker (that’s the way tubes work, if you decrease the diameter of a tube, you have to increase the wall thickness to keep the same strength, unless they’re using higher grade steel for the seat tube).  But, let’s call a spade a spade.  Unless other frame makers jump onto this idiocy, the only people selling 22.2mm posts will be MacNeil.  It’s not a lot of money, but times is hard, a few extra dollars per frame might add up to real money in the short term.

Maybe it’s not a naked money grab, maybe it’s just another case of a BMX company hoping that metallugical science will make up for the fact that modern BMX bike design is about aesthetics and scales above all (I’d like to head off anyone who says that the modern BMX bike evolved to a double diamond design because the triangle is nature’s most stable shape.  The triangle IS geometrically stable, but I’d like you to compare the front end of a bike from 5 years ago to the front end of a bike from today,  smaller tubing has resulted in a front quadrangle).

Who am I kidding, it’s probably both.

Jay Miron still remains my second all time favorite rider (behind Fiola, above Bestwick).  I hate to see that his latest trick is shark jumping.

When I saw the initial, prototype images I was a little concerned.  I should have been a lot more terrified.  You see, for all its faults, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for the DD, being as how I’m 6’3″ and have arms like a great ape, it always struck me as something I should own, even as I balked at its price (that’s not a knock against the Deuce, I just find it hard to justify the money I spend on BMX given how casual a hobby it is for me).  So, what’s wrong with Deuce Deuce revision 2?

Well, let me tell ya.

Geometry:

Top Tube – 22” (good)
Rear Triangle – 14.25″ (excellent)
Head-tube angle – 74.5° (right)
Seat-tube angle – 71° (ok)
BB height – 11.7″ (sure)
Stand over height – 8.4” (the hell?!?!?!?)
Weight – 4.9 lbs (the fuck?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!)

The Deuce Deuce is built for taller riders, and while “taller” doesn’t mean “heavier” you can generally assume that a guy who needs a 22″ top tube is going to be a little bit more beefy than a guy who needs a 20.5 inch frame.  I’m not even talking about morbidly obese, like myself, I’m talking about guys like Matt Stahl, who are in shape (with the exception of thinking that nicotine is a food group).  I guess Chris Robinson could be riding this, though.  Which would explain why this thing weighs roughly the same as an Eastern Tramp, which at its longest is a good 1.5 – 2 inches shorter than the Deuce (and if Dan’s keeps with what seems to be the standard for published bike weights, they weighed the 20.5″ frame, not the 21).  WTF?

It’s not just that somehow MacNeil made a bike crazy long and yet kept the weight down in the area of frames made for smaller riders, it’s that, once you ignore the length, it’s not really, uhm, tall.  Just a quick look around Dan’s shows that it has a bottom bracket and standover height not much different than your typical S3 based S&M/Fit contraption.  In contrast, I just went out to my garage with a tape measure and checked my K2.  It’s standover height was almost 10″, on a 20.5″ frame.  But, that was back in the old days when people still used seats.

At least they kept the wishbone.

I don’t know, it just seems to me that the Deuce Deuce is such a niche product anyway – either you want a 22″ top tube or you don’t – that trying to mainstream it is a bit pointless.  As it sits, the Deuce is now, for me is like that girl you had a crush on in high school, who didn’t age well.  Thanks for the memories, though.