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.
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.”
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!!
Yay! A new round of Goodships have arrived in Electric Blue. We also finally have 52cm bikes and frame +forks in stock. Eagle eyed folks will also note we ever so slightly revisited the 54cm geometry as it is now based around ENVE’s 45mm rake fork. More
Our 2015 Goodship video is now live! It is Fairdale’s top-of-the-line steel road bike. We set out to design a bike with race-inspired geometry that still retained Fairdale sensibilities. The bike is a mix of some tried and true technologies that have been paired up with some of the most modern manufacturing techniques and resources available. Click HERE to learn more about the bike and HERE to learn more about our seamless, Japanese, Drawnright Tubeset.
A Story about our Drawnright tubing and the Goodship.
OFF-THE-SHELF BRANDED TUBESETS:
Bicycle frame builders can use butted tube sets to save weight, to control the feel of the frame and to improve durability by moving the “flex” of the frame away from critical places like welds and other highly stressed areas. A lot of brands and frame builders will point out that they are using “butted tubes”, however, when using an off-the-shelf tube set, the position and thickness of the butting will generally be designed to work on a wide range of frame sizes and geometries, and this can create a mix of benefits that are largely a compromise. Therefore, when it comes to designing the frame they are limited to working within the constraints and benefits of the off-the-shelf tube set that they have chosen for the project.
The Goodship is a road bike. It’s not a bike that is meant to be adaptable to 100 different uses. It won’t fit knobby tires, nor does it have fender mounts. It is a purpose-built bike for riding on the road, and we might add, doing that quite quickly – if you are so inclined.
One of the Goodship’s standout features is our Drawnright Tubeset. The tubing starts out as an ultra high-grade, seamless, Japanese 4130 chromoly. We custom form and precisely butt each tube of the bike so it is specific to each size. That means that the internal thickness of the tubing changes depending on where it is on the bike. For example, tubing is thicker near the hand TIG welded joints to increase strength, while it can be thinner in the middle of the tubing to save weight. The tubing is also heat-treated to exacting specifications to further increase strength. The result is a frame that has all the benefits of good ol’ reliable steel. It’s very strong, dependable and only weighs in at 3.8 lbs (for 56 size). Of course you can find carbon frames that are lighter, but the Goodship is set to follow a different course. Instead of chasing grams we concentrated on ride quality and the practicality of a high-quality modern steel frame. Steel is resilient, proven, strong and much more versatile and affordable to work with too. It makes an outstanding platform on which to build a bike that you will love to ride every day.
The Goodship also comes stock with an ENVE Road 2.0 carbon fork, which contributes to the bike’s immediately noticeable and outstanding overall “ride feel”. ENVE’s quality is something we believe in and it’s essential to have a trustworthy name on your bike’s forks. The Goodship comes with our own sealed bearing Fairdale wheelset that is traditional and tough without being overly heavy. This is a classic cross-laced wheelset that you will be able to put some “real” mileage on. Continental Ultra Sport tires in 25mm width handle the road work (maximum tire size on the Goodship is 28mm for most brands).
SRAM Force 22 covers the braking, shifting, and cranking. You’ll notice that we didn’t mess around with using some off-brand crank that might interfere with Force’s excellent shifting. We stuck with SRAM’s specifications and used the whole groupset. An FSA Gossamer stem and seat post, FSA Vero bars and a sealed, integrated FSA headset round out the component spec. The Goodship’s initial introductory pricing will be about $2999.99 for the complete bike or $999.99 for the frame and fork (FSA headset included).
The first round of bikes are available NOW in 54, 56, 58, and 60 sizes.
I’ve been excited to build this bike since we first started talking about creating the Fairdale brand. It’s a bike where we get to show what we can do when we combine proven manufacturing techniques with modern technology. It’s also a bike that most companies would not be able to do. Thanks to Fairdale being part of Odyssey BMX, we were able to tap into 30 years of manufacturing know-how in order to create something truly unique. Continuing on with our daily posts of the 2015 line (full catalogHERE) we’ve reached our last new model, THE GOODSHIP. Let’s dive into the details…. More
The Radavist spotted our second Goodship prototype and posted up some very awesome photos of it. Coming at the end of the year feel free to get your drool on here! And thank youThe Radavist!!
