cruiser revolution

Seemingly right on the heels of our last post on Commonground Bikes (Finding that Commonground), an industry icon has thrown his support behind the Commonground concept.

Who is this industry icon you ask?

(If the headline didn’t give it away…)

It’s none other than Harold “McGoo” McGruther.

In a pair of Instagram posts today (here and here), McGruther talks a bit about his personal history riding/racing cruisers and what impact a trails-oriented 24 like the Commonground could have on the big-wheeled BMX scene.

Here’s a couple of tidbits from his posts:

…Commonground [‘s] 24″ seeks to bridge the gap between a BMX bike’s diminutive scale and an MTB’s complexity and cost to give grown-ass men a bike they can ride like they may have ridden in their teens and 20s, before wives, kids and desk jobs set in

If Pro BMX racing hadn’t become a clipped-in gym rat’s game at the turn of last century, I’d like to believe guys like Chris Moeller, @brianfoster, @ecmtb1 and Travis @commongroundbikes would have pushed race machinery in a bigger, faster, more bulletproof direction.

I secretly pine for what might have been had guys like Mike Day, Robbie Miranda and Brian [Foster]* gotten aboard the big bike train.

IMHO there is another good argument for grown men riding bigger bikes: fewer feckless members of the peanut gallery would look down on our sport’s greatest athletes as merely “old men on kid’s bikes.” I personally despise that opinion and comparison, but sometimes perception IS reality.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEVj_LSMQtk/?taken-by=haroldmcgruther&hl=en

This isn’t the first time that McGruther has commented on “progressive 24s.”

You might recall a post from some years back, An army of giants take over the trails, where McGruther (using a Mirraco 24 as a jumping off point) talked about the number of core companies jumping into the 24 market (this was back in ’09).

At the time, he summed the situation up quite aptly by saying,

All we know for sure is this: 24-inch BMX bikes are fun to ride, and that’s good enough for us.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Postscript:

This just in…Brian Foster has jumped aboard the “big bike train“…to a degree, at least…in a surprise announcement — via Instagram — BF dropped the bomb that he was experimenting with an 22″ S&M ATF…and FIT would be releasing a 22″ Brian Foster complete in the new year.

Yowza!