Tomorrow I am touring Austin trying to nail down next year’s venue for Texas Toast Jam. We’re thinking the event will be in spring sometime but no date is yet confirmed. It is happening though!

The big question is what will we do this year? Like, for real, what the hell are we going to build this year? I have no clue. You guys got any ideas? The good thing is that with Ryan Corrigan heading up building stuff we know anything is possible.

Check out some of the amazing coverage from last year’s event all gathered together:
http://www.odysseybmx.com/dailyword/tag/texas-toast-jam/

And what people were saying about Toast jam:

“Having a blast… don’t want the weekend to end.”
Scotty Cranmer
X-games gold medalist/ Champion of FOX TX TOAST Gauntlet of Death

“Best contest ever”
Gary Young
World Champion Street Rider/ 1st place pro dirt TX TOAST

“I have seen the layout for the Texas Toast Jam, and it is a GAME-CHANGER. GOODBYE INNOCENCE, GOODBYE HOPE. THE TEXAS TOAST JAM COURSE WILL FILL YOUR HEAD WITH DEMONS.”
Empire BMX

“I know the comp scene might be a little stale as of late, but that’s sure to change in the coming months, thanks in part to the Odyssey Texas Toast Jam.”
ESPN

“Texas Toast has come and gone, and I really can’t think of a single thing that could have made the weekend better. Any expectations about the Odyssey BMX sponsored and Taj Mihelich organized event were certainly blown out of the water and there is no doubt in my mind that this was one of the best BMX events I’ve ever been to in my life.”
DIG BMX MAGAZINE

PHOTO ABOVE: Chase Hawk in one of my favorite photos from last years jam by Devon Hutchins.

Fairdale zine 2 is a very limited print run. There’s a handful of them in Austin if you’d like to pick one up. After they sell out we’ll put it up as a online version, but its always cooler to have a print version of a zine. 68 pages this time!

If you’re in the USA send $3 or $3 worth of stamps and I’ll mail one to you. If you’re outside of the USA just drop an email with your address and I’ll let you know how much it would cost (info@fairdalebikes.com). We’ll throw in some stickers with the orders too.

Fairdale Bikes

4204 Machaca Rd

Austin, TX 78704

Heres the digital reprint of issue 1 just for the heck of it:

Drove up to Michigan for some family stuff. Took a few photos on the way. I love the map above is put out by the state. My family is a bit south of the “Thumb Area”.

Saw Empire making some deliveries dangerously close to Albe’s territory. Turf war?

Truck stop t-shirts are some of my favorite things. I love the new logo rip-off for god stuff. I might have to do the top 50 logos stolen for jesus.

At the I-69 Michigan Welcome center there is Vernors in the vending machines and sweet transitioned launches to play on.

Some of the cups backstage after the show, including the one I got to give away to Garrett Reynolds

It happened again. I thought I had escaped having to go to Interbike but a the last minute Ride BMX Magazine asked me to present an award at Nora Cup. It is a big honor and so even though it wrapped a lot of my biggest anxieties into one (flying, Interbike, Vegas, and public speaking) I couldn’t say no. I was real nervous about having to give a speech but it was also a kind of fun nervousness… it would be the kind of embarrassment I would be laughing about.

Nora Cup was held inside the Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort. The Pearl is really nice… I found it hard to believe a BMX event was going to happen inside there. Incredible sound system and really cool design inside. Backstage they prepped us for how the show would run and how the awards would be presented. I was then told I should give a 1 to 3 minute speech about street riding. I was pretty afraid of what I might say so I hid away in my hotel room to try and write something. I actually did manage to write what I thought was a decent speech but I never really got to say it.

When the awards show started I was really amazed at how positive the energy was in the building. I mean, I guess thats why you go to an awards show… to be positive, but I guess I’m just used to a little more jadedness from the world. It was awesome though! Everyone was cheering for everyone and it felt good. The first award up was ramp rider some of the very O.G. guys of freestyle Dizz Hicks and Ceppie May presented that one. I was a real treat to meet those guys. I didn’t really hear what they said from backstage but the crowd seemed stoked! Dennis Enerson who was nominated for everything this year won that one.

After that came Woody Itson Presenting Flat. Woody lives in Dallas TX now and it was really amazing talking with him about the origins of freestyle and his Porsche ad I was messing with in photoshop just the other day. Hollywood Mike Miranda presented racer of the year. Hmmm… I think I’m forgetting the order, but Todd “The Wildman” Lyons announced the Dirt jumper of the year. When I was 13 or 14 and still racing BMX Todd was always one of the my favorites. He would have photos in the mags doing tricks in races. It was rad in the truest definition of the word. Chris Doyle won dirt again and that was really cool. Chris is the dirt jumper’s dirt jumper and rides the way we all wish we could. Then I was up to present…

Aggroman partially dressed

They started up by playing a video of some of my old video clips. I was real stoked see they put in a one handed tail whip from the end of my Fox Expendable Youth section from Palavas. That was a real memorable moment for me since I ended up winning that contest and really throwing caution into the wind on that particular trick (and survived). When I got on stage there was a lot of loud cheering, and then some more, and then some more. I couldn’t hear myself think and I totally couldn’t talk. Seemed like the more self conscious and embarrassed I got the louder it got inside my head. The truth is it was probably just the drunk dudes in the front row yelling the loudest, but even so it was overwhelming and really flattering. Kind of felt like I had won an award. My speech was supposed to say something about how street riding is unique in that its progression is not linked to the terrain. If you think about it dirt jumps and ramps keep getting bigger and better and that leads to new types of riding, but the streets we ride haven’t changed. Some of the guys who got nominated had filmed video clips on spots I had rode almost 20 years earlier and had come up with new ways to see riding those spots that I could have never dreamed of. Thats really the amazing part of street riding. Its all about how the rider sees the world and how they can apply their skills to ride it.

The envelope before I had opened it.

Anyway, I got out about one or two sentences of that before bursting out laughing because it was just SO loud and at least partially because Mark Losey kept yelling monkey boy. The less of you who get that joke the better!

I got to open the envelope and incase you were wondering the presenters really truly don’t know who wins. They gave me the envelope right before I walked on stage and I was as curious as anyone. This years group of street nominees were all very possible winners. Dennis Enerson, Sean Burns, Dakota, and Nathan Williams are all amazing riders. Garrett Reynolds ended up winning and I am in total agreement. Everything that kid does is amazing and he’s so full of original riding it blows me away.

Bit of a blur for me after my job was done. Mat Hoffman dressed up in the original Aggroman suit and ran around and gave away best video part. It was complete with Eddie Roman backstage doing the voice over for Aggroman just like the video. If you’ve never seen Aggroman and don’t know what I’m talking about I highly reccommend you give yourself a history lesson and get the HB Triolgy DVD here or here. There’s some riding in there that will blow you away when you think about how long ago it was, and, you owe to your BMX roots to watch Aggroman and with that confused look that we all had the first time we saw it. Its an amazing video and if anyone is a super hero its Mat Hoffman!

It was dark and blurry backstage but I thought this photo has some cool metaphorical significance. Eddie Roman showed us we could make our own video anyway we wanted, and here he is making the hand off to video maker Will Stroud.

The awards wrapped up with Will Stroud presenting best video part. Will was real nervous but he made it through and really got to cap off the night by awarding Anthem 2 the best video of the year. I was so happy for my friend Stew Johnson and all the Anthem guys. I do wish I had been healthy enough to have filmed some for that video, but I can take some comfort with a having a spot in Anthem 1. Stew’s words about Aitken (who was injured during filming for Anthem 2) was inspiring and backstage it was really cool to see how stoked those dudes all were on the very hard work they had all put into filming that video. They hung out for a while back there and I had to think it felt really good to work that hard on something and then have it be recognized in such a big way.

Nice job Ride mag! I was really stoked and honored to get to be a part of it. Sorry again I didn’t deliver my speech!

Looks like the Fairdale-mobile is all warmed up and I’m about to shred some tires on the drive out to Interbike. Also looking forward to attending the Nora Cup awards and doing the annual bike industry reunion.

I’m also kind of gearing up for going into Texas Toast Jam mode. Hoping to get to talk to a lot of people out at Interbike and get some more good ideas for this years comp. My first quest when back after Interbike is to find a venue. Got a couple cool ideas that will make this years comp really special.

Look what I finished today! Stoked.

I don’t actually have any copies yet but I should have some tomorrow that I’ll be taking with me to Interbike when I go on thursday. Maybe see you there if you want one?

I’ll post some info on how everyone else can get one next week once I’m back in town.

Zine 2 is 68 pages of stuff.

Complex had me write a story about the top 50 BMX logos of all time. It was really hard since I have a terrible memory for this stuff. Anyway, its up on the internet… check it out if you’d like:

http://www.complex.com/art-design/2011/09/the-50-greatest-bmx-logos

Also, I bought this koozie today:

This one isn’t a Fairdale ad, but still a pretty awesome find.

This one is actually from ’78 back when we were mostly a Protein shake company.

Ah… the mid 80′s didn’t go so well for us. We tried to get on that trials fad and just really miss judged the market. Turns out kids didn’t think pink helmet invisible front wheel endos on the moon were as cool as we did.

I built up a small Parser Black frame and fork for a friend. Built it mostly with parts I found laying around. Granted, not everyone’s bike shed is as full of so many high end bike parts as the Odyssey Austin shed, but I’m pretty stoked on how it came together.

Built it with a Sturmey Archer 2-speed kick back coaster hub so I could skip buying brakes. Also, put a pair of Aaron Ross’s old cranks on the bike (hey, if he left them on the floor…) and of course Twombolts are not cheap cranks. It could have had any old left over crankset thoug and I used a old 35t profile sprocket I had from my mountain bike. Had some 35mm wide tires to put on it too which make it fun on the gravel bike trails around here. All in all a really simple and basic build that makes for a pretty fun bike to ride.

We’ve come a long way haven’t we!

Before I started working at Odyssey or getting to work on Fairdale designs, and before my time as an owner of T-1 I got to design a bike for my then sponsor Hoffman Bikes. At the time the “Taj” frame represented everything I wanted in a bike. We got the geometry right and we made it STRONG. That was all that mattered… something that wasn’t going to break. I was looking at that old frame today and thinking about the differences between old school bikes (thats mid-school if you are legitimate ”Old-school” collector) and modern BMX bikes.

To the untrained eye this old Taj frame doesn’t really look all that different from a modern bike. Considering that some of todays top riders weren’t even born when this frame was built what has 16 years of BMX technology brought us?

There was a new Sunday Aaron Ross frame laying around the office so I thought it would make a good baseline to compare to my old Hoffman. One of the most obvious differences is the weight. The Aaron frame is 2.6lbs lighter then the Taj yet its arguably stronger. Where we simply thickened tubing to make bikes stronger now we can use heat treating and custom butted and extruded tubing.

The beastly dropouts on the Taj account for a large part of the weight difference. The internally supported hollow dropouts on the Sunday are WAY stronger and much much lighter.

The precision of modern BMX bikes is light years beyond what we were able to do in yesteryear. Gone are the days of using a car jack to squish tubing into oval shapes. And gone are the days when your only tubing option was straight gauge tubing in a extremely limiting number of sizes and thicknesses. Now we can spec tubing to be thicker and thinner at precise points and extrude almost any shape.

The headtube on that Taj frame was NOT going to break off without a fight. This is a bit before Aheadsets were used in BMX and the answer to the dangerously weak quill stem was the Hoffman Bikes Superfork. The steer tube on that fork was virtually solid and you better believe it put some heavy stress on a frame.

Thank goodness we did away with those old pressed in headset cups and threaded headsets. Man that was a drag breaking the cups all the time, feeling them shift about, and having to devise ways to keep the damn thing tight.  Integrated headsets are so amazingly simple to install… drop them in and go.

What a design dilemma it was on rear ends of bikes in the old days. We were starting to figure out we wanted shorter backends, but the cassette style rear hub wasn’t in use. How do you shorten the backend but leave room for a fat tire, huge 7/8″ tubing and still fit cranks and a 46 tooth sprocket?

I rode the backend on this bike at about 14.5 inches. I remember it feeling amazing after riding bikes with 15 inch chainstays for so long. Not really all that different then some modern trails style bikes that can be run as long as 14.25″, but seems like even the smallest differences in the chainstay length makes a big difference in how a bike feels.

I am so grateful for all the refinements BMX bikes have gone through. Bottom brackets you don’t have to hammer into the frame, headsets you can install with perfection in minutes, geometry not limited by huge gearing, and frames that are extremely trustworthy and strong without being heavy.

Still, I don’t want anyone to think I’m bashing on these old bikes (and don’t worry, these old bikes can take a bashing!). The truth is, this old Hoffman is still here and still perfectly rideable. With very limited resources and technology Mat’s crew built bikes that were suited perfectly to the riding of the day… and able to stand up to almost anything!

I bought the cheapest U-lock I could find to have as an extra lock for when I have house guests visiting who want to borrow a bike.

I figured a cheap lock would be fine what would likely be pretty limited use. Little did I know that this lock would come with a warning saying it causes birth defects and that I should wash my hands after touching it.

Be careful if you ever shake my hand… I might have just used this lock.

Fairdale’s constant quest to bring cycling to the masses turns yet another milestone. Today two of our new designs have answered the call of some of cycling’s forgotten demographic.

Not everyone rides for the love and enjoyment of riding. Some ride  because the law says they can no longer legally drive a car. For these party enthusiasts we introduce the Fairdale PARSER DWI model.

Specially equipped to meet the needs this huge part of cycling’s very foundation. Riders who have no other choice but to keep the party rolling.

Fairdale; You can’t spell PARTY with out using some of the letters from PARSER.

Next up on our new model list is the ICP Cruiser.

Modern day BMX bikes are just not comfortable for sit-down-one-handed-soda-drinking rides.

This Fairdale/ ICP collaboration bike includes all the thoughtful amenities you require for cruising around “The Gathering” or just rolling to the corner store in your hometown.

Fairdale; Always striving to meet the special needs of all types of cyclists.

I think I might have taken a wrong turn with Fairdale. Although it made sense to me that a retiring BMX pro might want to get into some mellower bikes meant to be a lot of fun to ride I think I was supposed to get even more aggro and start wanting to fight people.

So many of my friends and people I grew up around are getting into MMA fighting its blowing me away. I’m starting to feel like I’m in Back to the Future 2 or 3 or whatever when MJ Fox runs into Griff and all his genetically enhanced buddies… its like all my friends are top trained body crushers now that could tear my head off or give me the figure 4 leg lock. Its scary being a vegetarian these days! I did recently buy a violent video game (Fallout New Vegas)… maybe that will get me going in the right direction.

New Fairdale T coming soon! And the next Fairdale’s are going to come with nunchucks!

This true story popped into my head the other day.

As part of Fairdale’s revolutionary (probably going to) patent (someday) design series we bring you the Invisible BMX Roof Rack.

After two customers saw our Skateboard Rack and asked about the possibility of a BMX rack we put on our engineering cap and came up with this masterpiece of design. A simple, easy and elegant way to transport your BMX long distances but still under pedal power. Look for it at bike shops soon (probably).

Going through all my TX Toast Receipts and I think this is my favorite. Our princess from the Gauntlet of Death course.

Whew….. I can’t even begin to write about the TX Toast Jam yet. Lets just say we’ve finished cleaning up. On to sorting through the receipts and sorting out my life now.

Odyssey BMX has a good bit of the great coverage consolidated under the Texas Toast Jam tag here:

http://www.odysseybmx.com/dailyword/tag/texas-toast-jam/

All I can say is that I am blown away by all the positivity around the contest and am already thinking about next years!

We’re getting the contest site ready and finally got an official schedule going.

Texas Toast Jam
Friday is practice for dirt, curved wall ride and rail jam contestants only.

Saturday
11:00AM – 1:30PM Gauntlet of Death
1:30 – 2:30PM Dragon Slayer Practice
2:30 – 3:30PM Dragon Slayer Best Trick
3:30 – 8:00PM Gauntlet of Death reopens
3:30 – 4:30PM  Leap Frog Beard (Bunny Hop) Contest
5:00 – 7:00PM PRO Dirt Qualifying
7:00 – 8:00PM PRO Rail Jam Best Trick

Sunday
11:00AM – 2:00PM Gauntlet of Death
12:00 – 1:30PM Longest Icepick Grind
2:00 – 3:30PM PRO Curved Wall Ride Best Trick
3:30 – 4:30PM Gauntlet of Death reopens
4:30 – 6:00PM PRO Dirt Finals

Fox’s Gauntlet of Death
First person to make it through this death defying obstacle course wins a treasure chest of prizes. Everyone who makes it through gets something. Runing all weekend, free to enter with entry and waiver, donations to benefit Mike Tag suggested.

Odyssey’s Dragon Slayer Best Trick.
A winner take all best trick contest on the ferocious Odyssey Dragon.
$300 Bounty and prizes, free to enter with entry and waiver.

Oakley, Failure Bikes, Austin Facial Hair Club present the Bearded Leap Frog Contest.
This bunny hop high jump contest is winner take all for highest hop. Free to enter with entry and waiver. Winner gets $100, one of a kind hand made Oakley trophy and Failure Beach Cruiser.

Sunday Bike’s Longest Ice Pick Grind Challenge.
Whoever can do the longest Ice Pick Grind on Sunday’s 100 foot long rail wins $250 and prizes. Free to enter with entry and waiver.

Empire BMX’s Pro Curved Wall Ride Best Trick Contest.
Do the best trick on Empire’s step-up curved wall ride and win $500 and prizes. $10 to enter.

Van’s Pro Rail Jam.
Whoever does the best trick on Van’s handrail wins $700 and prizes. $10 to enter.

Odyssey Presents Pro Dirt.
Pro’s compete for a $12500 purse.

1st place wins $5500 (thanks in part to a $2500 bonus for the winner from Fox)
2nd place wins $3000
3rd place wins $2000
4th place wins $1250
5th place wins $750

Spectators $5 per day, or $20 for both saturday and sunday and get a free Texas Toast T-shirt.

A little video with some contest info from ESPN

First photos of dirt being built. This the roll-in , first roller and the lip for the skipper set that leads into the big sets. Stoked!!!

You may remember many months ago on this blog we posted our Probably-Going-To-Patent Nose Manual Helpers.

Thankfully we will (probably) patent these things since amazingly in the last 2 weeks two different people followed through with our design plans and actually built the things.

The first attempt was delivered via Twitter from Mr. Wallride Guy.

He said this ended up being a pretty painful endeavor, but you may notice not he did not clearly follow our blue prints.

The next day though we received these from Mr. Sam who lives somewhere cold.

Being much truer to our original concept these ones are actually stated to help learn nose manuals.

Sweet right! Thanks Sam for the surprise prototyping!

I don’t really know how Fairdale is sponsoring the Texas Toast Jam, but because I’m organizing it I’m saying we’re a sponsor!

Got a little news update for you…

Texas Toast Jam is coming up May 27-29. Dirt registration is starting to fill up so hurry up and register here:
dirt registration.

We just added Fox, Subrosa, Shadow, Tree Bikes, Blacken and KVRX 91.7 to the event sponsor list. So glad to see BMX pulling together and pitching in to make sure we all have a fun event.

Confirmed royalty VIP guests to the event are Mat Hoffman, Mike Dominguez, and Brian Blyther. We heard Ron Wilkerson, Dave Friemuth and The Lord Voelker may make it as well!

All the best pro riders will be here to shred the dirt jumps and street obstacles. Darryl Nau of Blacken is heading up announcing duties with assistance from FBM’s Steve Crandal. Darryl is also using his considerable party skills to set up some epic after parties. Ringmaster Leland Thurman is now directing the action at the Gauntlet of DEATH. Watch riders brave its treachery and take on a 48 foot long dragon!

I need help running the event and building dirt jumps and ramps, please email me to volunteer: fairdale@odysseybmx.com.
Find all the information you need for your trip here: http://www.odysseybmx.com/texas-toast-jam/

I’ve been sooo busy working on organizing the Texas Toast Jam. Hope you’re all coming out!

Registration is now live and there is a lot of info on it.
http://www.odysseybmx.com/texas-toast-jam/

So one day Aaron Ross strolled into the OTX office and asked if I would paint a picture of what I thought was going on in his brain. Keep in mind this was like 2 days after he walked in the office and said he wanted to jump down a set of stairs with 50 gallon drums of orange soda exploding underneath him. It was too good to pass up.

The soda thing actually happened. And so eventually I got working on the painting.

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