The August edition of BMX Plus! has an interesting column written by Mike Day about his new prototype Speed Series bike.
In the article, Mike talks about his desire to put together “the biggest-wheeled bike that was allowed to race” in the 20- inch class.
(Note: the bike in the video is not the prototype Speed Series…the video just highlights how smooth Mike is)
According to the UCI rule book that meant the diameter of the wheels, including the inflated tires, could not exceed 22 1/2 inches (57 cm).
Once he determined the parameters, Mike worked with GT and Tioga, to design a bike that featured a larger-diameter rim and low profile tire.
The result? A combined diameter just a 1/8 inch smaller than the maximum size allowed by USA BMX and UCI.
Pretty interesting stuff….especially given USA BMX stance that 22″ bikes belong in the cruiser class.
Wonder if this will prompt USA BMX or the UCI to make an announcement about this sort of thing…especially if the rumors are true regarding other companies working on their own versions of this.
Check out the BMX Plus article for more details.
cruiser revolution 
Very cool.
. . . Although, I’m not clear on his reasoning with the 11.5″ bb. With 20″ wheels, that’s 1.5″ above axle level. With 22″ wheels, it’s only 0.5″ above axles. The bike will not handle the same. FACTION already did this with the Zeitgeist and then fixed it with the Amero frame.
I’m also not clear whey they had to use a low profile tire. The available 22″ tires (Innova, Meghna, Faction F22, etc.) are not low profile.
I believe the low profile tires were used to keep it within the max wheel size rules of the sanctions.
So where can I get some Tioga Power blocks to try out on my 22″?
So cool to see not just Freesytle BMX start moving towards 22s, but now the racers will catch on! That is the start of the evolution of the sport! In 5 years, we will see a lot of people switch over. Odyssey is iffy since they took a big leap on the Sunday 24″ stuff and they reported a huge loss on that project, hence why Sunday 24″ now come with all Sunday parts now and no more Odyssey parts. They said they will wait for more people and companies to lead the way this time with the 22s!
Now freestyle and racing have 22s, it will be harder to ignore the 22s at this point!
Just to clarify Faction Bike Co have been racing 22″ wheels in 20″ and 24″ regional and national BMX races in the UK since Oct 2008. Visit http://www.factionbikeco.com for race video of first 22″ win. The FactionBikeCo 22″ wheel bikes Face Book page shows race reports and testing continuously for 5 years before Mike Day wrote his BMX Plus article.
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