The dynamic flatland duo of Joe Cicman and Danny Sirkin are back with a followup to the first edition of TwoFourFlat (that we featured here last month).
And holy Martin Aparijo! A grip ride 20 seconds in is just the start of the flatland trickery and antics in this great clip.
Check it out.
After 25 years, Skyway is once again rolling out 24″ Tuff Wheels from their Redding, California factory.
The catch is that it’s a limited run of just 100 sets.
They will be available in black, white, red and blue (25 sets of each color) and feature original NOS alloy flange hubs that have been locked away at Skyway for 25 years.
Personally, I find the black mag/skinwall tire look totally badass. If I had the room in my stable for an old school 24″ cruiser, I’d be all over these. Take a look at this vintage BMX Action pic of Richie Anderson battling Greg Hill…those wheels just look mean.
For more details on these wheels and information on how to order them, contact planetbmx.com.
As a kid working on my bike I leaned heavy on the know-how of my Dad.
At the time, I didn’t think much about the lessons I was learning as he showed me how to fix my bike but they went far beyond simply tuning up my bike.
The stickers tell the story: Dad's bike wrenching goes way back
Thinking back I took away a lot from those times. Here’s some of the things I learned:
Take it easy, don’t force it: Impatience and hasty actions can leave you sorry in the end–be it with a cross-threaded bolt, a stripped axle or a strained friendship. Think before you do things.
Show some respect: Dad had everything in its place, so he could find it when he needed it. Throwing a wrench in the wrong drawer would not only make him mad but also inevitably be the wrench I needed the next time I was in the workshop (and one I couldn’t find because I was so careless before).
Don’t be afraid to get a little help when you need it: As a scrawny kid I sometimes had a tough time budging tight allen bolts. To help me out my dad went to work and got a pipe made up that would neatly fit over an allen key to give me more leverage. He called it “The persuader”. If I had tough bolt to loosen, I called in the persuader.
Sometimes you have to improvise: Grabbing something from the junk drawer to make a shim or creating a make-shift solution out of some old parts was something that Dad was always ready to do. Figuring it out was half the fun, “Wait a minute, this might work…”
It’s not about the bike: All that time we spent in that workshop was about a lot more than just patching tubes or replacing broken parts. We weren’t just building bikes, we were building a shared experience that meant more than I think we both realized at the time. A lot of good times and good memories.
Thanks Dad, for showing me the way.
(For more on my Dad, check out The best coach/mechanic I could ask for)
It appears that Mongoose is taking a page out of the SE bikes marketing handbook.
Not only are they offering bikes for the modern-day rider like the new 24 we featured earlier but also bikes that are more retro-style, befitting its long heritage in BMX, like the updated KOS Kruiser.
You might remember the new 24″ Mongoose has in the pipeline. Trent Brocker and Moody have been seen putting that bike through its paces so you know it’s going to hold up to modern-day riding.
Now to capture that end of the market that remembers the origins of the sport, they’re reintroducing the KOS Kruiser.
Named after Jeff Kosmala, the dominant cruiser rider of the late 70s/early 80s, it was a bike that was piloted to many a championship win.
Kosmala taking care of business (vintage BMX Action shot)
And while it retains its classic retro looks (hello looptail!) it’s been updated to take advantage of the improvements that have happened over the decades since its original release. Think sealed everything, v-brakes and an integrated headtube. They even go so far as to put on an aftermarket ACS freewheel–a nice touch given the tendency of generic freewheels to give up the ghost without warning (and often at the most inopportune time). The motomag sprocket is pretty sweet too.
Sure it wouldn’t be what you would want to thrash the streets with–it wasn’t meant for that. This bike is for cruising in the truest sense of the word.
Think of it as bike that’s in the same class as the Macneil retro style cruisers. Mongoose’s advantage though is the retro-cool factor of its look combined with Mongoose’s deep legacy in the sport and Jeff Kosmala’s iconic standing as one of the dominant cruiser riders of his era.
For more pics of the updated KOS Kruiser, check out this Flickr photostream.
After rock stardom with Twisted Sister in the early 80s, Dee Snider had to find his kicks in other ways.
One of those ways was BMX.
Snider was a local at Coral Springs BMX in Florida in the early 90s and could be found there, week in and week out, getting his race on.
Dee Snider getting his race on
At the time, Dee was riding a Hutch cruiser but when Chris Moeller at S&M got wind of the rocker’s involvement in BMX, the two ended up collaborating on a signature frame called the Widowmaker (that I posted on recently).
Kind of crazy when you think about it.
Imagine getting up on the gate…and Dee F’n Snider (!) is lined up next to you?
Madness.
(Photo credit: Planet BMX/Color Tuffs Facebook page)
With so many old school bmx setups making comebacks these days–things like seat & seat post combos or front brakes–I thought I would make the case for something near and dear to my heart.
The pad set.
And if not the complete pad set…
At least the cross bar pad.
I started running one a while back after a session at my local pump track.
There was a downed tree in a particular section and I had to duck every time I went under it. Every time I ducked my grill was super close to the cross bar. I soon realized a hockey player smile was in my future if I ever happened to slip a pedal and come into contact with a cross bar.
After the session I dug through some old BMX parts and found an old cross bar pad. It was pretty basic but it did the job. I’ve since upgraded to something more stylish, which you can see below.
Cross bar pads are hot! Just look at the flames on this one...
I’m not sure exactly how much protection it actually does offer but a little is better than nothing…dental work can be expensive.
And for those of you that chipping or knocking out a tooth on a cross bar is no big deal…cross-bars can get you in other ways too…just check out this Chester Blacksmith clip.
Ouch!
When I think back to the early days of BMX cruisers, one of the first people that comes to mind is Scot “The OM” Breithaupt.
But others played a role too.
Craig Kundig, for one.
Craig helped lead the way towards making 24″ bikes “the standard” for BMX cruisers, replacing the 26″ versions that were more prevalent at the time.
Craig Kundig: part of 24" BMX history
Check out this excerpt from the ABA, when he was a 2004 ABA Hall of Fame nominee:
In a way, all cruiser racers have Craig Kundig to thank for the creation of the class they race. For it was Kundig, as owner of RRS (Riverside Redlands Schwinn), who put one of his fastest amateur team members on a 24 inch bike that quickly put the 26 inch beach-cruisers to bed and created the industry standard of 24 inch wheels on a cruiser. (Of course, it helped when that rider — Joe Claveau, went on to become ABA National No.1 Cruiser rider.) That year was 1981. Around that same time, Craig Kundig was also running the infamous Corona BMX track–still talked about today as THEE gnarliest track in all of BMX.
Craig also had some pretty innovative ideas (for the time) when it came to frame design which he incorporated into his own RRS frames. Just check out this ad:
Today, Craig is still going strong in the bike industry, running the Cyclery USA bike shop.
(Above pic from the Press-Enterprise)
If you haven’t been on the Cruiser Revolution Facebook page in a couple of days, you may have missed this cool flatland video collaboration posted by Joe Cicman and Danny Sirkin.
Eagle-eyed readers may remember Danny Sirken from a previous post, Be still my heart…flatland on a 24″ bike! (And if you’re a BMX nerd, you’ll also know that he was featured in a BIO in the last issue of GO Magazine).
Looks like he’s still going strong, this time on a Specialized P24.
Filmer Joe Cicman is no slouch himself, just check out this video featuring his flatland skills.
Pretty stoked on this video…especially the pinky squeaks (0:43), can’t get enough of those!
If you’re into 24″ BMX bikes, you’ve heard about Jim Cielencki, the driving force behind Sunday Bikes.
But how much do you know about his background and what keeps him motivated now that he’s an older guy and has been in the industry for decades, both as a rider and a bike company guy?
Old Guys who Ride caught up with Jim and asked him those questions and a whole lot more in an interview that they just posted on their site.
I especially liked this excerpt, where they asked how he deals with the fear of being hurt. Jim takes it one step further and talks about he works on an idea in a “safer” environment before going for it in another riskier situation:
It’s not so much the fear of getting hurt, it’s just dealing with how long will it take to recover and if it’s permanent. I’m not made of rubber any more. Usually I take baby steps towards something. I’ll work on an idea in a safer environment usually at a skatepark or something like that. I make it so I understand the trick and the only issue is that I am just doing it at a different spot. So in reality there’s just this little unknown part. I won’t really just go out and wing it because I want to continue riding.
It’s a great read…well worth checking out.
I also like it because it gives me an excuse to run this rad pic of Jim C. hitting this tight vert wall ride. Bad ass!
Thinking about dear ol’ Mom the other day, a memory came back to me about a story she told me when I was a teenager.
My mom had gotten together with a group of other moms, I think it might have been a church group or something, and they were talking about a bunch of things and the topic of cleaning products came up (stereotypical I know, but bear with me).
One mom mentioned Simple Green and was raving about it. All the moms had something to say and then my mom piped up, “Oh Simple Green, that’s what the boys use to clean the brake pads on their bikes.”
No one else had kids into BMX, so from what I understand, the reaction was essentially, “What the…..”
Still makes me smile when I think of that story.
Thanks Mom, it hasn’t always been easy. But you’ve always been there for me. Even if when it was just looking out the window and watching me clean my brake pads.
Thanks Mom.
cruiser revolution 
