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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 just finished a couple simple flyers for some Mike Tag Benefit Jams that my co-workers at Full Factory Distribution are organizing. Taking place on the same day in different parts of the country these trail jams should be a lot of fun. A bunch of cool sponsors have donated prizes that they will raffle off to raise money for Mike Tag’s Cancer Fund.

I’lll be at the 9th street one so hope to see some of you there.

-Taj

Donate for to help Tag anytime here: http://www.fbmbmx.com/mike-tag-fund.php

Fairdale has made an appearance on Complex magazine’s website. Pretty stoked.

Fairdale’s are now shipping everywhere. Yippe!

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.

It bothers me when I see you running down the street with your bits all bobbing around. Buy some clothes!

Sweet Fairdale hats available. With breathable mesh back and soft touch terry cloth liner headband.

This Printed on American Apparel T-shirt can be yours.

This extremely soft and comfortable pocket-T by American Apparel is a great place to put a Fairdale logo and simultaneously cover a torso.

Fairdale Bikes are starting to appear in Austin shops. Its cool to start seeing random people riding by on one of the bikes.

Frame and fork kits are out now and very reasonably priced. If your shop doesn’t have them they can just get ahold of Full Factory Distribution to pick one up.

Check out these super awesome shops in Austin for some of the very first run of available Fairdales:

Ozone Bike Department at 3202 Guadalupe St  (512) 302-1164

Clown Dog Bikes at 2821 San Jacinto Blvd (512) 477-4221

The Peddler at 5015 Duval St (512) 220-6766

Buck’s Bikes at 12530 Research Blvd (512) 250-9550

Empire BMX at 6310 N. Lamar Blvd (512) 474-4269

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!

I think this thing only plays on my tumblr for some reason.