Mike Wong | cruiser revolution

An uncommon approach to the 24

30 12 2015

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)

Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: 26" Dirtjumper, Commonground Bikes, Dialled Bikes, Mike Wong, Sunday Model-C
Categories : New products, New School, Trails, Trails/Jumping

It’s good to be the boss of Dialled Bikes

5 04 2010

If being the boss of a BMX company isn’t cool enough, Mike Wong over at Dialled Bikes ups the coolness quotient just a bit more by designing a sweet looking custom cruiser for his own personal ride.

I spotted this on Fastlane BMX magazine’s website recently and was pretty stoked on it. Not only does it have a nice old school Mongoose-style zinc plated finish but there’s a bunch of other things going on with this bike that make it unique and customized to Mike’s tastes.

Why it’s unique

It’s made with 853 Reynolds Cro-Moly, extra thin tubing and a slacker than “normal” head angle.

Why did he go with a slacker head angle?

According to Mike (in his Fastlane interview) it’s because today’s geometry is getting too twitchy:

…with tracks getting faster, jumps getting steeper and berms getting slicker, I actually think they are taking geometry in the wrong direction.

Therefore, on my frame, I’ve made the head angle one degree slacker than the production cruisers (71 degrees instead of 72), which actually makes it feel more stable over jumps and in turns. I may even go another degree slacker for the next iteration. *

While there are no plans to incorporate this slacker head angle into Dialed Bikes production models, Mike is going to continue to ride/race it to see how it performs. This is pretty big departure from current geometry, so it’s interesting to see Mike stepping up and experimenting with something new.

For more on Dialed Bikes, check out their website. To learn more about Fastlane BMX magazine (which, if you’re into racing, is a must) click here.

*(italics mine)