Nothing to see here, just Taj Mihelich shredding the new Hareraiser dirt jumper. Frames are available NOW through shops and our store. Headset included, rigid fork sold separately.
This fully capable 26” DJ frame is made of 100% 4130 chromoly with a 3/8” axle slot, integrated chain tensioners, BSA 73mm threaded bottom bracket, ultra-short chainstays and a tapered 1-1/8” to 1-1/2” head tube with removable tabs for a traditional BMX-style Gyro.
Designed from the ground up to make the transition between riding a MTB, DJ bike, and BMX as seamless as possible. FSA Orbit headset included with frame.
Dreaming of better days got me thinking that it was high time to finally put together the full story of our Over the Alps trip. Enjoy our little adventure from back when you could freely travel all over Europe by bike.
Vans invited me to a BMX Pro Cup event in Stuttgart, Germany. With a free trip on my hands I decided to try and make the travel interesting by turning it into a little adventure. I convinced Chris Cotsonas from Fairdale Bikes to come with me. I know he likes riding bikes in the Alps since he took me there for the first time a few years ago (Bicycling Magazine Fairdale France trip). Our plan was to ride “Over the Alps” and then pick up the Rhine River Cycleway. This is a popular cycling route that follows the Rhine River from its start high in the mountains, across Europe, and all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. We wouldn’t be able to ride the entire route, but our goal of making it to Stuttgart was not too far off the trail, and it seemed achievable.
Our new display at Bicycle Sport Shop (on Lamar) is made up of #thriftstoreMonty paintings. Taj’s dog Monty has become our unofficial mascot. One of Taj’s hobbies is to paint Monty into thrift store paintings, and so what started out as a joke turned into an actual display!
I have a stress relief hobby where I buy cheap thrift store paintings and add Monty to them. The idea is for the process to make me laugh while I’m painting him and I try not to worry about the quality of the work (because they are just to make giggle). Jim Bauer had the idea that we could make a POP display at Fairdale’s big dealer Bicycle Sport Shop out of a collage of Thrift Store Monty paintings. And, so, a goofy joke became a real thing. Next to highly professional Specialized and Trek displays are a whole bunch of goofy Montys! He’s is in everyone one of these somewhere!
This video gave all the feels. Hit play to learn a little more about Taj’s legendary roots in BMX, his transition out of being pro, and re-discovering the joy of riding bikes of all sizes. After all these years, it’s wild to think Fairdale just started as a blog for his illustrations.
We took Taj Mihelich, Leif Valin, Sandy Carson, and Chris Cotsonas to the French Alps and celebrated Chris’ birthday in one of the best ways imaginable.
Some of the Fairdale family and a whole lot of our friends have taken part in The Project Loop 50/50 for Taylor project. The non-profit sends out 100’s of blank skatedecks to artists and Fairdale employees to paint, draw or design on. The finished decks are being auctioned online right now until December 5. There is so many great decks to check out on the site… if nothing else it’s rad inspiration to see so many interpretations of what you can do with a skateboard. Our team rider Sandy Carson meticulously deconstructed his first SLR camera, Tim Kerr honors Jeff Phillips with his deck (Tim was once a hobo in one of our videos), Michael Sieben’s work is always awesome (and he once designed the Roger Bike for us), Jeremy Hrabal helped us out many times building Texas Toast and did this beautiful inlaid board, Jim Bauer is the art director for our mother company Odyssey BMX, is a big part of Fairdale, and put together this rad core sampled board, Steve Crandal helped us out as the announcer for TX Toast and painted a rad board, Aaron Ross has a couple Fairdales and came up with this giant skateboard/ cell phone thing. I drew the bat on a bike one here. Search around and find decks from Mat Hoffman and loads of other legends of skate and BMX. Also, tons of great artists contributed too. https://www.32auctions.com/50503 -Taj
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
The 2015 Taj is Taj Mihelich’s signature bike. With nostalgic roots to its BMX predecessor, this bike is quite possibly the simplest and most indestructible bike in the Fairdale 2015 line-up. It’s also one of the most fun 26″ bikes available.
It’s the perfect bike for rad dads (or moms!) and just about anybody else who wants a fun cruiser. Pump up the tires and you’re good to go!
Our team riders Sandy Carson and Taj Mihelich both have custom designed skate decks in the Project Loop 50/50 2 Auction. Project Loop is an amazing charity that helps empower kids to do cool stuff. This particular auction is benefitting a skate park they are trying to build in Taylor, Texas. Loads and loads of great artists and great people made boards this year. Browse through some of the work on the online auction here: http://www.32auctions.com/50502 The auction ends in time for Christmas too, could be a cool gift idea.
Aside from Sandy and Taj look for boards from Jim Bauer, Jed Rogers, Bryan Nelson, Michael Sieben, and tons more!!
We all took a train together back into Tokyo in the evening after the last event. I felt like every rider who was on the trip had become a friend. Pretty awesome group! I had a little time the next day before my flight to wander around and shop a bit for my petsitters. You could easily spend weeks exploring Tokyo, but even the little bit I did see was entertaining. Great people watching and interesting shops everywhere. A quick train ride to the airport and I was headed back home.
I never made it TAJimi but I’d have to assume its pretty cool.
