Joseph Moody’s a rad dude with a great attitude.
That being said, he’s had a tough go with medical issues over the years.
Now he’s dealing with the treatment and bills that go along with the extremely rare condition he’s just been diagnosed with. (You can read more about it here.)
He could really use your support and has a gofundme page set up to take donations .
Please help him out if you can.
Ever since we got the first look at DK’s 2016 race cruisers, we’ve been waiting anxiously to get a peek at the more “freestyle-y” Cygnus cruiser.
Well, the wait is over.
The 24″ Cygnus comes in two color ways: Red/Black and Black/Gold.
What’s new this year?
The Cygnus gets an upgrade in the handlebars department.
Translation: bigger bars!
Sporting a healthy 8.25″ rise and 28″ width….these bars reflect how most folks are setting up their new school 24s these days.
Other spec is pretty much the same as previous years with the exception of the new parts brand, Wise, getting the nod for things like rims, brakes, stem, cranks, etc.
Back to the colorways
The Black/Red color way is very cool…a black fade to a dark red (You might call it “burgundy-ish“.)
Copyright DK Bicycles 2015
The Black/Gold colorway is also very cool. If you appreciate that old school vibe you’re really going to dig the gold rims (and bars) on this version.
Copyright DK Bicycles 2015
If these pictures have piqued your interest, go start bugging your DK dealer now. These should be dropping at the tail end of February.
Mix equal parts Brian Scura showmanship and Matt Hoffman-style daredeviltry, add a touch of Colin Winkelman-style craziness and top it all off with a little revivalist-style preaching*…and you get this internet gem: Mercury Morgan’s “Leap of Faith” jump.
Mercury Morgan — from the Ringling Brothers Circus and That’s Incredible — jumps his bike over a helicopter and through a burning wall(!), in Belfast, NY.
The action is captured with 14 cameras, including a GoPro strapped to his chest.
Pretty cool…although I’m not so sure about the bike setup….It looks a bit dodgy with a mish-mash of MTB and BMX parts (you can make out an Odyssey logo on the stem at least).
*Mercury Morgan uses the “leap of faith” jump as a way to share his faith at events around the U.S.
I shared an early photo of this Curtis cruiser frame last week on the Cruiser Revolution Facebook page.
Curtis Bikes had taken an unconventional approach to this custom cruiser frame so my interest was definitely piqued.
Now, Curtis Bikes has released new pictures…and wow, this is a really cool looking frame.
It features a 22″ top tube, 14.9-15.3″ chain stays and 10 x 135 mm* dropouts set up to run a Hope hub and Tech 3 disc brake.
*Spacing typically seen on MTBs
Check out this brake bridge.
I’m feeling this blue finish too.
Here’s the rest of the specs:
Disc brakes on cruiser frames are still a bit of a rarity…and people seem to be a bit divided on whether or not they are the way to go…but I’m kinda digging it here.
Nice job by Curtis Bikes!
(Photos: Curtis Bikes)
It seems fitting that on the day my city gets its first major snowfall of the season…I learn of a new indoor bike park!
Following in the footsteps of other parks (Rays MTB, Joyride 150, Cranx and others) this particular park takes the concept outside of North America.
Wood15 is the first indoor bike park of this type in Europe.
Located in Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands (in an old Phillips television factory), it offers terrain and features suited for beginners and experts alike. Of course, it’s also a welcome escape if Mother Nature turns nasty.
The park also has a nice-looking coffee bar called “Drinkplaats” inside to keep you caffeinated/hydrated during your session.
It definitely looks like a pretty cool place…and kinda makes me want to visit the Netherlands!
Check it out.
We’ve had a soft spot for pumptracks for some time now.
And we’ve checked out some nice ones over the years.
Whether pumptracks can save your marriage…or provide therapy when its on the rocks…I’ll let you decide.
But it’s hard to deny their appeal.
Providing a fun session, regardless of your skill level, is what keeps riders coming back again and again.
Not to mention, their versatility…from city-council supported facilities to rider-built pump tracks in the woods, all the way to tight setups in the backyard…you can pretty much get a pump track going anywhere.
What we haven’t talked about is how to build one…
While there are pumptrack tips scattered throughout the web, this video by Phil Kmetz does a great job explaining the thinking behind it and some good guidelines to follow when building your own pumptrack.
Granted, you may not have access to some of the tools that Phil uses but you can still get a lot out of it.
Heck, he even explains how to make “wife-friendly”…so maybe it can save your marriage after all!
Will Heiberg, co-founder of The Lumberyard, recently shared some of his thoughts on riding and how The Lumberyard bike park helps people with their riding skills in a video put together by Corey Tepper.
Heiberg talks about offering kids that “ticket to freedom” that often goes missing in today’s society. At the bike park, he says kids learn “to persevere…to take risks…and fall down and get back up.”
Furthermore, he explains how practicing at the bike park allows riders to develop skills and muscle memory that they can later take out on to the trails….building a rider’s confidence and flow…and making riding more enjoyable all around.
Check it out.
So, we find ourselves here again…the end of the year.
As always, I like to take a look back at some of the top cruiser news on this, the final day of the year. (Granted, the list took a hiatus last year while I was away traveling…but it’s back now.)
So without further ado, the top ten.
10. The refrain, “What’s old, is new again” is something that I found myself saying throughout the year. Case in point, Gary Turner’s return to the BMX world with a line of cro-mo frames…kicked off by the intro of a nice 26″cruiser frame.
9. Redline came out with their “nod to the past” PL-26 cruiser. Aping the style of it’s iconic PL-24 cruiser, Redline capitalized on the current interest in 26″ cruisers and introduced a 26″ version.
8. As alluded to above, 26″ cruisers continued to enjoy their moment in the sun. Interbike had 26″ cruisers on display around every corner it seemed. Heck, Skyway even announced a 26″ T/A for 2016, so this trend seems like it will continue.
7. Colony surprised us with a well-spec’d new school 24″ cruiser. Nice to see another core company offering a big wheel option to riders.
6. Summer 2015 might well go down as the Summer of the BMX movie. A surprising number of entertaining flicks were available to choose from. I caught Turbo Kid in the theater and was grinning from ear to ear the whole time.
5. After months of teasing, anticipation and finally the introduction of the 24″ Chase Hawk tire…people were stoked on this high-performance tire option. However, its swan song seemed to come way too fast (with the announcement that Odyssey was dropping Chase from its team). Whether Odyssey will continue to offer it under a different name remains to be seen.
4. Encore Bikes, an outfit out of Canada, introduced both a new school 24 and 22-inch complete to their lineup. Nice to see these models, right out of the gate, from the new face in the market.
3. BMX Plus!, the longest-running BMX magazine, announced it was shutting down. A blow for sure, especially in a year with so much focus on the old school and bikes like back in the day.
2. Stolen Bikes continued to do the big wheels right. Dialed completes, limited edition tan tires and solid components. It’s easy to see why so many folks are rollin’ on Stolen.
1. The passing of Scot “The OM” Breithaupt shook the BMX world hard. The man who essentially wrote the template for BMX back in the day (and founded SE Bikes) was gone. News spread quickly, it trended on social media, and it had everyone reflecting on the man and his legacy. In the end, however, it seemed to remind us of how special BMX is, and what an important part Scot played in “making it happen.”
As I said in my post about Scot,
It’s up to us now to continue to make it happen…whether that’s holding a jam, piling into a car with friends for a BMX roadtrip or just getting out on a bike for some fun…we have to continue to make it happen.
BMX has done a lot of looking back this year…but on the eve of 2016, let’s look ahead to see what’s next…to that next turn, that next jump, that next pedal.
Cheers everyone…and Happy New Year!
Commonground Bikes has taken a decidedly uncommon approach to spec’ing their flagship 24″ bike.
While many companies have followed the path (made famous by Sunday with the Model C) of building scaled up versions of their popular 20″ bikes.
Commonground opted to take the dimensions of a 26″ dirtjumper frame and scale it down to a 24″ package.
Along with that thinking comes a quite different handling bike.
Instead of a steep head angle and a high bottom bracket, you’ll find a slack head angle and a low bottom bracket.
We’re talking a 69 degree head angle here…which is very slack by cruiser standards. Even race cruisers stay above the 72 degree threshold (Mike Wong’s Dialled cruiser excepted).
With spec’s like this, it seems like this would be right at home in the dirt (which is what PlusSizeBMX seems to have found when they took it for a spin).
Heck, I can see how these might gain some traction (pardon the pun) in some of the older cruiser classes…given its more predictable steering and lower, more stable stance.
Not sure how it would fare for more technical street/park type riding though.
An interesting concept for sure…and with FBM manufacturing the frames and S&M helping out with the bars and forks you know these babies are built to last.
What do you think?
(All pics/images: Commonground)
Just wanted to take a moment to wish you a very Merry Christmas!
I’m winding things down for a couple days at Cruiser Revolution HQ and taking some time to celebrate the festive season with family and friends.
I hope you have the chance to do the same.
If you’re anything like me…that means breaking out the Christmas sweater and grabbing a mug of holiday cheer.
Fingers crossed, at least a few of us will see some bike-related goodies under the tree!
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