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!





Bart Simpson gets a BMX bike

21 12 2015

It’s been a couple years since The Simpsons/Duffman Cruiser collaboration but it looks like the connection between The Simpsons (and Bart in particular) is only getting deeper.

About a week ago, Bart Simpson got himself a BMX bike on the show.

Bart bike zap1(Wait….are those Zap Pads?)

Radness ensues…

Bart ridingAlong with a freestyle contest…

Springfield BMX championshipThere’s even a nod (I’m guessing) to the USA BMX Golden Crank Award…however, in this case it becomes The Golden Crutch Award.

Golden Crutch awardAnd what’s that on the wall?  A Quadangle, perhaps?

(And is that supposed to be Neil Stauss behind the mic? That’s a bit random.)

It’s pretty cool to see BMX popping up on The Simpsons after all these years.

Granted, American Dad did beat them to it with their kooky send-up of RAD. But given that Bart has always had any affinity for getting rad on his skateboard…we can’t really hold a grudge.

Still cool to see him on a BMX though!

(Pics from this BMXMuseum thread)





Lightning bolts: key to a great BMX logo

8 09 2011

BMX legend Taj Mihelich, put together a cool article (that’s making the rounds today) for Complex magazine called The 50 greatest BMX Logos.

It’s a great read.  A funny thing you’ll notice, and one that Taj notes in the writeups for each logo, is how prevalent the lightning bolt is in BMX logos. It shows up time and time again. In the Zap Pad writeup, he says:

There is definitely some connection between lightning and BMX. You can find lightning bolts on all kinds of BMX imagery. I think that maybe the very bones of BMX, chromoly steel, can only be created by a direct lightning strike.

For me, the Elina lightning bolt seat is the most iconic of the BMX lightning bolts.  Those old school Elina seats are pure BMX.


Like I said earlier, it’s a great read.

For old schoolers, it’s like a trip down memory lane.

For new schoolers, it’s an opportunity to see (and maybe laugh at) what passed for cool back in the day.

Check it out.