Mongoose bicycles | cruiser revolution

Cro-mo continues its racing comeback

27 07 2012

Back in March, we talked about the comeback that chromoly race forks were experiencing in the race community. Now with more and more people switching to chromoly forks, it seems like the a trend is starting to develop towards chromoly race frames.

Sure, chromoly frames have always been available from the industry stalwarts, S&M and Standard. But beyond those two companies the choices for “steel is real” advocates was noticeably slim.

That’s beginning to change.

In a recent Vintage BMX forum thread, a reader was showing off his SSquared chromoly cruiser prototype frame and said,

Now that they made this first cromo frame for me; I think it has reenergized their desire to do a full cromo run.

Which is pretty compelling when you consider that SSquared is one of the more popular race companies at the moment…they obviously think there is a market for these frames.

Other big names in the race community, like Supercross and MCS have also had cromo frames in their lineups for some time now (the Bolt and Speedfreak respectively) despite the widespread use of aluminum frames in the race community.

And as further evidence of the chromoly trend, there are rumblings that GT and Mongoose are also testing out Chromoly race bikes.

Looks like we might have a cro-mo resurgence on our hands in the next few years. I for one am kinda looking forward to it.

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Tags: Chromoly BMX race forks, Chromoly BMX race frames, Cro-mo BMX race frames, GT Bicycles, MCS Speedfreak, Mongoose bicycles, S&M bikes, SSquared, SSquared chromoly frame, Standard Bykes, steel is real BMX, Supercross Bolt
Categories : New products, New School, Old School, Racing

KOS Kruiser makes a comeback

9 06 2011

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.