Ride the lightning

31 03 2023

Is your ride missing a little zip? Or maybe what it really needs is a little more zap.

Oh zap!

Indeed, BMX today, in general, needs more zap.

What in God’s green earth am I talking about, you say? Well, I’m talking about the veritable lightning in a bottle that the iconic Zap Pads brought to an 80s-era BMX bike.

If you were a kid in the golden years of BMX and tore out pages of the mighty BMX Action magazine to hang on your wall….well, you probably had one or two Zap Pad ads featuring a steely-eyed, all business Greg Hill staring back at you with his Zap Pad adorned GT (and later years a GHP).

Yes, you too young grommet. You could be like “The Businessman” Greg Hill and be as fast as lightning out on the track.

Or least look good trying.

Some of that Zap Pad magic…that lightning in a bottle, or should I say pad set, recently starting re-aappearing on retro-fab completes like the SE OM Flyer.

Later, the Fit CR-29, would also sport that familiar Zap Pad-esque lighting bolt as well.

Pretty flashy, huh?

So flashy you would think they would be offered as an after market padset, right?

Surprisingly, they were only sold as part of the bike…not separately.

What a letdown!

But like a bolt of lightning…..

One day I came across a post with a picture of the City Grounds X SE Bikes Collab Big Ripper.

Like the OM Flyer and Fit CR29, it too sported a Zap Pad-like pad set.

When I posted a comment saying to the effect, “Sigh, I wish these pads were offered separately”….I was shocked to see a reply moments later, saying yes, yes, these pads are actually available separately.

Hot damn!

It didn’t take long for more my order for the SE Bikes SE X CG Padset to go in!

Couldn’t be more stoked to get ahold of these.

I’ll finally be able to ride the lightning!