Rockabilly Jay from West Coast Choppers recently sent in this great photo of his S&M Dirt Bike cruiser .
What a great combination of mid-school looks with modern parts and geometry! (That sticker on the forks is nice too.)
He says he’s been racing cruiser every week with a crew of five guys and having a blast doing it.
To see another one of Jay’s builds, check out this sweet custom SE Quadangle cruiser (featured last year on Cruiser Revolution).
Although he isn’t the editor anymore, I will probably always think of John Ker as the face of BMX Plus! magazine. And now because of his magazine’s seemingly hot and cold treatment of cruisers in recent months I feel compelled to write him this (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) “Dear John” letter.
John Ker: no love for the 24?
Dear John,
I thought we really had something. After not reading your magazine in what seemed like forever, I picked up your magazine at the local store and noticed you had changed over the years. No longer were you associating with Radical Rick or doing “who’s radder” features….you were actually showing some honest to goodness riding once in a while. More importantly, you showed some love for the cruiser with a couple of 24″ bike tests in 2009.
Your advertisers seemed to have noticed this too. One of them rewarded you with not one, but two 2-page ads for their cruisers.
But your self-destructive nature got the best of you, didn’t it? Out of nowhere in your April issue, you featured an article called Cruising into Oblivion: The Death of the 24.
How could you do this? Both to our fledgling relationship and to your advertisers? For the love of God, there’s a 2-page ad for Redline‘s top-of-the-line Flight 24 in the very same issue that you say 24s are cruising into oblivion!
It makes me so mad…and I imagine Redline isn’t any happier. I wrote a post about it, hoping to salvage things, to help you see the error of your ways and to let you know that 24s are not dead yet. After that I didn’t hear from you for a month.
Now all of sudden, in the June issue it seems that the ‘love’ is back with a 10-page race cruiser shootout. While it’s a grand gesture, after declaring our relationship essentially over, to try to win me back with a 10-page article, it seems just a little to late. I guess you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, right?
I know what you’re going to say, that you’ve changed.
But I’m not sure if I can bury the hatchet just yet. I think you’ll have to prove to me that you want this relationship to work.
How you ask?
A full-on 24″ freestyle cruiser shootout.
I think that’s what it will take to win me back.
So John, what do you say?
*Warning- Borderline hippy post*
I hit the trails after work today and had a good session with a couple of MTBers that were there. Between runs we were chatting and it struck me that despite all the media hype about caring for the planet, the green movement, etc. I couldn’t have been more aware of and in tune with nature then I was right then.
We were talking about which trees were leaning more than usual, which ones had fallen and how it felt good to be back out in the dirt after a long winter. We took a few more runs. Afterward we could hear someone aways off ripping through the trails on one of those obnoxiously loud motorized mini-bikes. One of the MTBers started yelling at him to get off the trails because he was wrecking them.
Looking around you could see why it bothered him so much…all around groomed jumps, pump lines…hours of collective sweat and effort…and this guy is chewing up trails that so many people rode and put in so much time to maintain.
In a roundabout way, what I’m trying to say is a day at the trails is perfect way to get in touch with what I think was the original intent of Earth Day. You can’t ride trails and not be aware of the environment.
Whether it’s keeping the place clear of garbage and debris, working together to fix a section, trimming tree branches or just yelling at guy for not being respectful of the trails…it’s all about showing love for the dirt (earth) and all it gives to us.
My friend Glen has been riding and building trails for as long as I’ve known him (which is a very long time). Nice tuck at the Glenridge trails in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Remember that post a while back where I asked whether Vert was the final frontier for cruisers? It looks like people are starting to cross that frontier.
The evidence?
One Ben Snowden killing it on the vert ramp on Jon Faure’s Model-C at the Old School BMX reunion.
(Special thanks to Jon for forwarding the pic)
Liquid Bikes has a new site up that looks great! It includes a blog and an online store to make it easy to pick up a Liquid frame or bars.
While the store appears to be set up for US shipping only right now, you can email for details and get sorted for international orders.
I like checking it out for the great trails clips that Jeremy posts from time to time.
Like this one:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Maybe Al Pacino’s character said it best On Any Sunday: “Life is a game of inches“.
This quote keeps coming to mind when I think about FACTION‘s 22 inch wheel bike.
It’s definitely an interesting concept. A sized up BMX bike, bigger than a standard 20 inch, smaller than a 24 inch cruiser.
Is it the future?
Hard to say…but my guess is probably not.
Is 22" the new black? Faction Zeitgeist bike
Some big-name riders have been quoted lending support to the concept. Guys like Eddie Fiola and Mat Hoffman have said they think it’s a cool, progressive concept. However, it’s interesting to note that Hoffman, despite owning a bike company, has never produced a 22 inch bike himself.
Does it make sense to come out with a new “standard” when there’s currently so much choice in 20 and 24 inch bikes? What happens if you break the forks or wreck a wheel? Seems like it would be a pain to get replacements.
What do you think?
Is a 22″ wheel the answer for bigger guys? Is it a good compromise between the 20 and 24 worlds? Can the BMX industry support a new wheel size?
I guess France’s Cream BMX magazine is getting wider distribution these days because I finally saw a copy in a local bookstore.
The magazine is pretty cool with a bit more of an artsy vibe to it than a standard BMX magazine. Great photos and a mix of French and English copy…so you’re not stuck just looking at the pictures…although the article/pictorial on Eva Gabrielle is probably reason enough to check out the latest issue.
Eva Gabrielle adds a little je ne sais quoi to this super rare Skyway TA cruiser.
(Sorry for the small pics…these were the biggest I could find).
As if you need any more incentive to head to Ray’s MTB…now Sunday Bikes has a Model-C DEMO bike for you to try while you’re there.
A great idea on Sunday’s part and one I hope they extend to Joyride 150 as well.
In other Sunday news, their second shipment of Sunday completes has come in. If you missed your chance to pick up the Model-C complete last time, better get to your local shop pronto.
Vince Smith can-can on Model-C DEMO bike at Ray’s MTB (Korey Kryder pic from the Sunday site).
I smile every time I watch this….really what’s not to like?
Jam packed with 80s freestyle legends, Jon Faure shredding on his cruiser, a weird close-up of Wade Nelson and a quirky soundtrack.
The soundtrack alone takes me right back to my teenage years when I used to read BMX Action and Freestylin’ cover to cover.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
If being the boss of a BMX company isn’t cool enough, Mike Wong over at Dialled Bikes ups the coolness quotient just a bit more by designing a sweet looking custom cruiser for his own personal ride.
I spotted this on Fastlane BMX magazine’s website recently and was pretty stoked on it. Not only does it have a nice old school Mongoose-style zinc plated finish but there’s a bunch of other things going on with this bike that make it unique and customized to Mike’s tastes.
It’s made with 853 Reynolds Cro-Moly, extra thin tubing and a slacker than “normal” head angle.
Why did he go with a slacker head angle?
According to Mike (in his Fastlane interview) it’s because today’s geometry is getting too twitchy:
…with tracks getting faster, jumps getting steeper and berms getting slicker, I actually think they are taking geometry in the wrong direction.
Therefore, on my frame, I’ve made the head angle one degree slacker than the production cruisers (71 degrees instead of 72), which actually makes it feel more stable over jumps and in turns. I may even go another degree slacker for the next iteration. *
While there are no plans to incorporate this slacker head angle into Dialed Bikes production models, Mike is going to continue to ride/race it to see how it performs. This is pretty big departure from current geometry, so it’s interesting to see Mike stepping up and experimenting with something new.
For more on Dialed Bikes, check out their website. To learn more about Fastlane BMX magazine (which, if you’re into racing, is a must) click here.
*(italics mine)
cruiser revolution 
