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.

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.

Sadly, Duncan Creek was full of trash two feet away from the trash cans, which are located about every 5 feet.  I think teenagers are why we can’t have nice things.  There was also the first spot of graffiti on a low ledge.  Classy those Gwinnett kids, I tell you…

On a completely different note.

You know, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the half a bike’s worth  of parts in my garage for a while now.  I wanted to do a throwback 80′s GT homage build.  Then I thought about doing a completely unhip build (you know using strictly parts from companies that aren’t in fashion in BMX.  I mean, I ride an Eastern, but, besides the forks, every other after market part on it is from a company that people like like Animal or Federal or, good Lord I have a lot of Odyssey). But, you know now that Subrosa has layback seatposts, you can find chrome frames and there are Generra Hypercolor Odyssey Chameleon parts, the throwback, non-GT, bike might be the way to go…