News / Author Archive

Handlebar holders Upgrading or updating your grips is a simple way to freshen up your bike. Throwing on some fresh grips can make a bike that’s starting to feel old feel new again.

Thursday’s Doodle dayTrying to keep the creative juices flowing I amass quite a number of doodles around my desk. They keep me giggling to myself and keep things from getting stagnant.

The Pencil IS the SwordWhile supplies last get a free Fairdale rabbit drawing stick with all orders from our catalog (shirts, hats, waterbottles… that sort of stuff). Imagine the fun you can have with them!

A story from Taj about why Fairdale startedSome months ago The Ride Journal asked me to write a little story about Fairdale. Funnily enough they had seen our momentarily viral R+D video and wanted to know more about what we were all about. Though I expect they were hoping for something as goofy as that video I gave them a much more sincere version […]

Flashback: May 2012 Roger bikeRemembering that Roger Skateboards collaboration bike… man that was cool. Graphics by Michael Sieben, video bike Mike Aho, skating by Max Taylor and acting by Tim Kerr… holy crap! How lucky are we to have been part of that! Check the rad video…

Adjust-a-RackOur new Adjust-A-Rack is now instock. This rear cargo rack is designed to be easy to install without any cutting needed.

New shirts!Check out our Catalog to see of these new shirts we just got in.

New custom bike day for TajI built up a Weekender frame and fork set with some fancy parts. It’s a special treat to myself since I’m usually a riding a bike with an assortment of miss-mathced sample parts. I started with our Weekender frameset in Electro Silver (available now).

Preview of some 2016 modelsOur 2016 bikes won’t be available to you until Novemeber, but BMX Cruisers posted up some info on a couple of our 2016 models for you to preview. Check out the 2016 Taj bike, and our new model, the Weekender MX. We’ll have some more official news on these and all the new models coming […]

#FairdaleFranceIf you follow Fairdale on Instagram ( @fairdalebikes ) you might have noticed we were in France recently. 4 of us went over and rode a bunch of famous Tour de France climbs. The trip was truly mind blowing for all of us and we really want to tell you all about it. However, were […]

The Radavist reviews The GoodshipJohn Watson shot this photo and some other great ones of our Goodship for Andre Chelliah’s review on The Radavist. Check out the review that contains excellent consumer advice like this, “What would I change on the bike? Not a lot. At $2999.99, The Goodship might be the best complete steel road race bike available […]

Drumming and Skating with Erik ConnInside the Fairdale Tribe Erik Conn holds a seat of wisdom. Even before I knew him personally I could tell by watching him play drums that he was doing a hell of a lot more than mechanically keeping the beat. Watching him play was almost spiritual… or maybe you could say it was in that […]

fairdalebikes

My Weekender has turned into a jumbled mix of part

My Weekender has turned into a jumbled mix of parts over the last couple of years, but I love it. It makes me happy every time I ride it. I’m aware that reading a post proclaiming love for a product on the same feed that makes the product isn’t worth much. Still, it is sincere. This collection of mismatched parts, things I wanted to try out, see if they would fit, bought on a whim, or reinstalled after an experiment gone wrong, has landed on a rig I see no way to improve. Of course, there are more expensive and fancier components I could put on the bike, and our new Rockitship is just around the corner, but my Weekender will keep going.

The Oldman Mountain front rack is so handy for grabbing a bag of groceries or ferrying my laptop, U-lock, and sketchbook to work at a coffee shop (and a parking spot for my helmet while I run inside). The rear rack is handy when it rains to hold my waterproof laptop bag. The MX-4 bars and BMX stem make the bike match the riding position of my mountain bike, which I’m most used to. The Schwalbe Super Moto X 2.4 tire is absurdly big on the bike, making cornering on this commuter a lot of fun. There’s even enough grip to pedal the bike out on the occasional mountain bike trail. I switched out the drivetrain for the GX Eagle one that comes on our Elevator for big hills. Odyssey levers on the bars feel like a reminder of my BMX home.

Weekenders are fun bikes to mod, add accessories to, and, most importantly, ride on any occasion. Mine brings a smile to my face on every ride and I hope one can do the same for you.
-Taj

Prototype testing….

Prototype testing….

A fresh Hareraiser for @tajlucas. This is a larg

A fresh Hareraiser for @tajlucas.

This is a large sized Hareraiser frame dressed up with my favorite DJ parts. Odyssey lever and a mechanical brake (because I know how to work on those), Odyssey Thunderbolt DJ cranks, Chromag stem, Spank wheels with some deluxe spray paint, and Crank Bros Stamp 7 pedals.

I’ve been riding my DJ a lot lately. Really fun to get myself into the air again.

Fairdale classic foam trucker hats are multipurpos

Fairdale classic foam trucker hats are multipurpose.

The Sieben and Fairdale Weekender Nomad MX is avai

The Sieben and Fairdale Weekender Nomad MX is available now (only a handful left). And thanks @sieben_up!

Words by @tajlucas , old photos and video by @t1stagram

Look true and look far, but don’t lose sight of

Look true and look far, but don’t lose sight of where you are.

A few of our many nautical themed characters.

Captain Goodship, Lookfar Giraffe, and Lochneck Monster.

It was mentioned in a meeting that we never talk a

It was mentioned in a meeting that we never talk about our MX-6 bars. So, this post includes all my notes from said meeting.

Our popular MX-4 bars end up all over the place and in lots of different colors, but our MX-6 bars stay quiet. They appear on the @sundaybikes High-C and on our own Taj model. You can also buy them for your own bike that might need a 6” bar. Enjoy!

Our Hareraiser dirt jumper (DJ) is available with

Our Hareraiser dirt jumper (DJ) is available with a rigid fork or a suspension fork. Our rigid fork version is a bit less expensive and makes a good entry point onto our excellent frame. A good DJ suspension fork can easily cost you more than this entire bike, and the funny thing is, most of the time you’ll have the fork pretty much locked out. If you’re coming from BMX you’ll appreciate the slightly steeper headtube angle of the rigid fork (the fork mimics a slightly sagged position of a suspension fork). You can, of course, always add a squishy fork of your liking to the bike down the road.

The rigid fork build also has our MX 4 BMX-style bars, which brings up the bar height. An Odyssey brake lever modulates the mechanical disc brake through our efficient Linear cable (made for Fairdale by Odyssey). That means no hydraulic fluids to mess around with, no suspension fork to service, no batteries to charge– just a bike that is always ready to have fun at the dirt jumps, pump track, or skatepark.

Simple, steel, and trustworthy are the slightly generic sounding, but entirely sincere bywords for our Hareraiser rigid.

Our new Berry Weekender Nomad! The Berry edition j

Our new Berry Weekender Nomad! The Berry edition jumps up to fast rolling to 700c x 40 tires (650b on XS and S sizes). The simple to use 1x Apex drivetrain is up for anything. And, Monty proudly rides along as your good luck mascot!

The Weekender is a model we’ve had going for 15 years. My personal bike has been on 1000 mile bike packing trips across the USA, tours of Europe, and now has been decorated with fenders and a basket for a less glamorous life of grocery getting and around town commuting. The Weekender deserves the run-on sentence description because it is so good at doing lots of things. Enjoy one!

Check this bike out in XS-XL sizes.

Our pretty looking and pretty fun Lookfar. In Surf

Our pretty looking and pretty fun Lookfar. In Surf Blue, ready to enjoy a summer day.

Morning doodle. What I visualize when folks say th

Morning doodle. What I visualize when folks say this.

Sometimes it is the simple things that make a bike

Sometimes it is the simple things that make a bike ride fun. @leifiel making some pretty waves out of a mud puddle on his Elevator.