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!
