News / Art

I’m not always sure that people understand dog humor, but here’s a few of my cartoons anyway.- R

It seems that as BMX increasingly becomes more and more technical many riders are feeling overwhelmed by the difficulty. At the same time it seems like many young rider are making it all look just too easy. Today Fairdale introduces two new concepts to solve both problems.

First up is the Nose-Peg nosewheelie learning device. We took the normal axle peg and fitted it with a small “learning” wheel. The peg can be rotated on the axle to find the optimum balance point. In this way a rider can learn to roll around on his front wheel.

If like many of today’s young riders you find BMX to be just too easy we introduce the “Ironing Board” BMX to Uni-cycle adapter. Our engineers claim a 500% increase in riding difficulty with this adapter over a normal BMX. The scissor like device can be adjusted to fit any BMX bicycle by simply attaching to the front and rear dropouts. An ordinary BMX rear wheel is fitted to the device and a chain is connected to provide locomotion.

“Smooth out your BMX style with the Fairdale Ironing Board BMX to Uni-cycle adapter!!”

I’ve gotten to do a lot of things in my life. Been around a while now as I enter my 77th year. One of the things that people always get a kick out of is seeing me in my youth starring in a BMX video.

You can watch the whole thing here. It was really fun working with Dave Parrick and Taj and shooting everything in super 8 film. I really prefer working with film. Its so superior to digital.

I also used to have a line of signature shoes. I never had much use for shoes myself, but, you gotta make the money you know? Etnies was always pretty cool anyway and I was really glad to get to design them. Of course I made them 100% vegetarian…. more cows for me! In my contract it was actually agreed that I should get raw hide bones equal to exactly how much cow hide they saved by using synthetics for my shoe.

Anyway, back to my video. Although I really wanted to do all the stunts myself union regulations kept me from doing most of the work. In hindsight it was probably for the best, but at the time I was so pissed at that dummy version of me… Out there having a blast while I spent hours in a stupid make up chair doing nothing. I did get really good at riding the cart though during the less dangerous shots. It might look easy, but really it takes a lot of body english to keep that thing on track.

At the end of filming the crew let me destroy my stunt double dummy. It was a huge release. Kind of one of those Office Space printer beat down scenes in real life. Not to get all metaphysical but I kind of felt like I was taking my life back with my lifeless clone out of the way.

I would have to say that film work isn’t for me (long hours and sitting around to racing around in seconds flat), but I am glad to have gotten the experience. As you travel through life its the one off things like this that lead to good stories later on.

Dude, this new bone is the best! Chicken flavored raw hide. I’m going to carry this around for at least a couple weeks before I even think about chewing it up. This thing is awesome!

So this is what I wake up to every morning. My (sometimes) little buddy Monty. He’s one of those morning people (not sure if morning-dog is a term). Wakes up so peppy and ready to go. I could easily sleep a few more hours but sure enough, 7:30 am every morning this little guy is rolling around and trying to play. Go back to bed Monty!

Tandems are amazing bicycles. All the efficiency and zero ecological footprint of a normal bicycle, but multiplied by two for two riders. The only downside is that tandems are not fit for single person use. It may be a substantial investment on your part to purchase a tandem so we have developed a way to keep your bicycle functional during those unfortunate times when you do not have a second rider.

Lonely Tandem Handlebars

Introducing Lonely Tandem Handlebars. The perfect solution for divorcee’s, widowers, or just any single person who loves to ride a tandem.

This well engineered bar features a zero degree up sweep design with a 90 degree back sweep. Very comfortable for even long solo tandem rides.

One of the things I’ve been doing at my new job is helping design packaging for products.  I never went to school for any type of packaging design, industrial design or engineering but for some reason the guys here at Odyssey have decided that they trust me to devise a way to safely transport the fruits of all their hard work around the world to a store near you. They also of course want the packaging to stand out and help sell the product. Oh yeah, and they would prefer to only use recyclable cardboard.

Mr. Clampy

Considering that Odyssey’s seat clamp is named the Mr.Clampy, this guy was a pretty obvious idea for a way to package a seat clamp.

This was my attempt at a countertop seat clamp dispenser. I’m not sure if bike shops really need this kind of thing, but i figured if they did, this pierced up dude would totally do the trick.

Counter top small parts display

People who steal things would really appreciate the ease of being able to pocket lots of small parts from this counter top small part display.

Ok, back to some hardcore actual product packaging (as we seem to have followed a tangent into the world of displays) this elephant brake lever packaging would be a sure hit with that Ong-Bak guy who really digs elephants.

This is my idea for some new seat packaging. I suspect the tree huggers would be all over us for making the packaging so much bigger then it needs to be, but you have to think about how if this was hanging on the wall at a bike shop it would totally block out all of our competitors.

On occasion I am convinced to do some freelance work. Like for this Fly Ruben grip that has turned into a toy for Roscoe. This current grip is 250% longer then a normal grip and designed so you can cut it to whatever length you prefer. But what if (as a designer you gotta always be thinking) you wanted to make a grip several hundred feet long?

I really wanted to print some t-shirts for the launch of my new endeavor. What better way to prove you really like the only other two posts of this blog then by buying a t-shirt to support it?

I’ve been working hard on some designs, but I’m sorry they’re not quite done yet. I had the idea that I would create shirts specific to different regions of the country. That way all of your supporters wouldn’t have to wear the same exact shirt. I’m not sure that having a shirt made for each of the 50 states plus Puerto Rico in every size from youth small to XXL was a good idea, but I figure it’ll be better to be safe then sorry. Here’s a little taste for you though…