cruiser revolution

The change in venue from the Sands to the Mandalay Bay wasn’t the only change afoot this year in regards to the annual Interbike tradeshow in Las Vegas.

This year brought out a new assortment of big wheel BMX bikes from companies that usually don’t put out a cruiser model.

First one that we’ll look at is the 26″ Fairdale Taj. Wrapped up in all its old school charm is a cro-mo bike that is meant for hopping curbs and popping wheelies. Despite being the name-sake of a big name freestyle legend, this bike is built for laid back fun and cruising the streets in style.

Ride Magazine also has a video of Taj explaining the features of the 26″ Taj with Journey playing in the background to add a touch of class to the proceedings. Check that out on the Ride site.

Another notable is The Simpsons/Cult Duffman 24. We got the heads up about the Duffman 24 right before leaving for Interbike and it looked very nice up close. According to the Cult rep that I spoke to, these bikes are available right now…so if you’re interested, I suggest contacting your Cult dealer asap.

And in surprise move that I don’t think a lot of people saw coming…Felt debuted their 22″ wheel Catch 22 bike for 2014.

After looking at their 24″ Brink model and contemplating whether a redesign was in order, they opted to drop the Brink 24 from their lineup and put together a sub-$500 (US) complete 22″ bike.

Featuring a main-frame Cro-mo frame with a 22″ top tube (check out complete specs on the Felt site), it’s designed to let someone interested in trying out a 22″ bike to so without dropping the big bucks to build up a 22″ bike from another manufacturer (which tend to be more high-end offerings like the kits available from S&M).

Again, a bold move by Felt and one that adds further momentum to the growing 22″ wheel movement.

Coming up:

Updates on Stolen Bikes, DK Bicycles, and a whole lot more.