I 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). More
Sandy Carson was our first team rider back in January of 2012. “Team Rider” is a term we use very loosely at Fairdale. We don’t expect our riders to win races (though Sandy did just win a Texas State Championship on a mountain bike). Hell, we don’t expect our riders to even ride all the time.
Mostly our team is made up of friends who are doing cool things. Folks we admire. People who in some way have bicycles as part of their lives. Sandy couldn’t sum that up more.
As a full time photographer he is always doing something exciting… some shoot or another, working on his own photo books and shows, or traveling around to odd places. More than any of that what really makes us admire his work is the way his photographs portray the world. He takes some of the most interesting photos we know of by catching little details that the rest of us skim over. Those little things that when expertly highlighted can reveal special moments all around us.
On top of all that he is an amazing bike rider. A cyclist who is perpetually motivated to ride all kinds of bikes. Riding with an infectious sense of humor and inspiring enthusiasm. His great history as a sponsored BMX rider means he can naturally shred on any bike. Applying that mastery to bikes with other sized wheels has lead him into an even bigger love for cycling.
We spent some time down in Austin filming the man and would like to present to you this video. Check out our friend Sandy.
Visit SandyCarson.com to see more of his work.
CAMERA & EDIT: Francis Delapena
MUSIC: Water of Life / Concrete Antenna
Music courtesy of Water of Life. Make sure to also check out their new project, Concrete Antenna. Follow them on Instagram via @SurfacePressure.
Our 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 soon. Read on to see more HERE.
If 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 in a bit of holding pattern right now as the story will be first published in Bicycling Magazine. We’re holding back a lot of great photos, stories and video but it will all be available soon. For what it’s worth, plan a trip to the French Alps now… what an amazing place to ride bikes! There is a great selection of instagram photos from the riders that will give you a bit of taste here: #fairdalefrance
John 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 right now. I definitely feel that for the price point, you are getting the most bang for your buck.”
Thanks The Radavist! We really appreciate it!!
Bicycle Sports Shop wrote up a review talking about our latest creation, The Badship. This one of a kind specially painted Goodship frame and fork also got a special part build (and so we named it the Badship). They had the pleasure of sailing around on this black beauty for about a week, and you can read about their experience by clicking HERE. It’s also full of great insight into our Goodship frame and fork too:
“…But the bike is also point and shoot. Aim the Goodship at a turn and counter steer a bit and the bike holds a line like it’s nobody’s business. At speed or cruising town, the Goodship capably does what’s asked of it when it comes to handling. And that holds true out at the Driveway Series as well. Hanson at the Lamar store has a Goodship that stepped on the podium a few weeks back. Not for nothing but he rolled away from a bevy of guys on the latest aero everything and just missed the win taking second. All aboard a Goodship.”
Check out the full review and keep in mind the Badship will be auctioned off for a charity Aug.1 so it could be yours!
And thanks to BSS, SRAM, and Zipp for making the Badship reality.
PS I just mistyped “Badship” as “BARship”. Could be a new bar cruising model!!
We gave you guys a sneak peek of the Badship last week, and now we have a video showing you guys some of the hand-painting process and custom build that went into this one of a kind Fairdale Goodship.
The Badship’s components were selected by Bicycle Sport Shop with help from our friends at SRAM and ZIPP. Some key features include:
The Badship could easily retail $4,500 and it will be auctioned off the evening of August 1st at the ABGB as part of the Bicycle Sport Shop’s and TexasBikeRacing.com’s El Diablo’s Poker Dash & Bash. Auction Proceeds will benefit the Texas High School Mountain Bike League.
To get an idea of what it’s like sailing around on this thing, click here, or if you want to scope her out in person, swing by the Bicycle Sports Shop on 517 S. Lamar Blvd. in Austin!
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We sent our newest employee, Diego, on an overseas trip. He hasn’t traveled too much so I’m sure it was all a bit overwhelming for him. We pretty much said, “Here’s a plane ticket to a country you’ve never been and to meet people you don’t know. You’re on your own!” He visited our office in Taiwan to check out samples of the 2016 bikes and do some QC work. He then jumped over to Japan to visit our awesome distributor MX International. They organized a ride for him with one of their favorite bike shops. He was certainly in good hands and he’s put together a nice little story about his Japan ride. It’s good inspiration to get out there into the unknown… you can almost feel his wide eyed wonder at the places they rode through. -Taj
The Badship is a one of a kind, hand painted version of the Fairdale Goodship. The Badship’s components were selected by Bicycle Sport Shop with help from our friends at SRAM and ZIPP. The Badship will be auctioned off the evening of August 1st at the ABGB as part of the Bicycle Sport Shop’s and TexasBikeRacing.com’s El Diablo’s Poker Dash & Bash. Auction Proceeds will benefit the Texas High School Mountain Bike League.
Inside 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 special zone where there was no thinking… it was all feeling. It’s kind of a rarity to find folks who are so obviously doing what they are supposed to be doing. Who are so committed to following their heart. I think we all sense those signs tugging at our lives, but it’s not always easy to find the courage to go the direction they lead. We sent our film-man extraordinaire Francis Delapena down to Austin to try and capture some of the inspiration that Erik is.
