Photo: Andrew White
A few weeks back, Wethepeople dropped a brand new promo video announcing Andrew Jackson’s new C.R.E.A.M fork that is designed specifically for pegless riders. The design was unique and definitely caught a lot of peoples attention. Our curiosity level was pretty high so we figured this would be a real good opportunity to hit up Andrew and find out a little bit more about how the process of creating his own signature fork with Wethepeople went. Check out this fresh Q&A to find out more about the C.R.E.A.M fork and what’s new with Andrew!
All right, so let’s start this off by giving you a run down of what makes this fork. The C.R.E.A.M fork is made from full liquid post heat-treated 4130 “M2” chromoly. It features a fully CNC machined single-butted steerer tube that only works with integrated headsets, a steerer length of 170mm and an offset of 30mm. The drop outs are what makes this fork really stand out from others on the market already. These tiny investment casted, 6mm thick, heat-treated 4130 chromoly drop outs are designed to work specifically with pegless riders running 3/8th’s axles. The fork also features a 7075-T6 alloy top bolt. The fork weighs in at 32.13 oz. (approx 2.00 lbs / 911 grams) without the top cap (0.81 oz. / 23 grams) and is available in color options of black and chrome. Now let’s get to Andrew…
So about a week ago Wethepeople announced the new addition to your signature C.R.E.A.M line. I guess the best place to start would be the beginning. When did you guys start talking about doing a signature fork? Was it when you got things going with the frame or later?
It was right around the time we were designing my frame. I took a trip to the WTP headquarters in Germany. When I was there I showed Harry how I had taken a grinder and shaved my dropouts flush with my axle bolts to make the pegless stuff work better, and it went from there.
Going into the project, what were some of the features you specifically wanted with the fork right off the bat?
The two main things were that the dropouts needed to be flush with the bottom of the axle bolts, and the fork legs needed to be out of the way so that they wouldn’t hit before your axle on what you were grinding. With the dropout hugging the axle bolt it made everything work way better, especially round rails because you don’t have to lean in so far, and it gives you a flat area to grind on. The other thing is, on a lot of forks the forkleg will hit before your axle bolt and you will be grinding on that instead of your axles.
Did you come up with the idea for using the invest cast drop outs? They look so good on the fork.
Well, that was what those guys came up with to make the dropouts work the way I asked them to. I like them though, the guys at WTP really know what they are doing.
Once all of the ideas were put together, who did you work with next to get a few designs together? How long did it take to go from idea to drawings? How many different versions of the fork did you look at?
It basically went from my initial trip to Germany. I talked about to a few emails between Harry at WTP and I where we sent a couple of sketches back and forth and talked about the offset of the dropouts. Then they sent my first prototype and it was perfect. I’m actually still running them right now a year later.
After you decided on a design, how long did it take to get a sample on your bike? What did you think of the initial design? Were there any issues that you wanted to correct for the final sample at all?
I don’t remember exactly how long it was. Maybe a couple of months? I loved the initial design and we had gone over everything before so there wasn’t anything that needed changing.
So you are still running the original prototype? Why aren’t you running the final version yet?
Like I said, I’m still riding the first prototype from a year ago and it’s held up fine. I have a new production set at my house, but the ones I have on now are still perfect and nothing has been changed. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it I guess.
From idea to getting the final version on your bike, how long did it take to produce the C.R.E.A.M fork?
I have the worst memory ever, but I want to say around a year including testing and everything. I could be way off though, haha.
You are a pegless rider, so I gotta ask. Can you run pegs with these forks?
I’ve never tried. The dropouts are really small and fit right around a 17mm bolt to make pegless stuff work, plus they make it look clean when you aren’t running pegs.
All right, time to sell yourself on this. What makes the C.R.E.A.M fork different than the others on the market? Haha, I don’t know about selling myself, but I’m into it because it’s a fork built specifically for pegless riders. I think it’s cool that WTP would do something like that for all the people who don’t run pegs.
How’s the C.R.E.A.M frame treating you these days? Will you be making any changes to the next version of the frame in the future?
I love the frame and no, not really, everything is perfect on it.
Seriously, what does C.R.E.A.M stand for? I’ve wanted to know this since the frame came out,haha.
It’s from the Wutang Clan song lyrics “Cash Rules Everything Around Me.” I know a lot of people take it as being money hungry or something, but its not really about that if you listen to the song. I thought it’d be something cool to put on my frame.
Outside of that, how are things going with the sponsors? Do you have any trips, videos or any other signature parts in the works you can tell us about?
Everything is good with all my sponsors besides Ipath. I don’t ride for them anymore. I’m going to Australia with WTP in March. And everything is awesome with G-Sport.
What are your plans for 2012? Anything you are really hoping to get done?
I just hope everything keeps going great and I can keep progressing in whatever I’m doing.
I know you have been spending a bit of time behind the lens these days helping out with The Bank LA. Anything coming along from there you can hint at?
Yeah, it was really cool working with Chad Osburn on his section. We are trying to take things slower and make sure that any projects we do are really good for Season 2. We aren’t worried about chasing views or anything like that. We have our people that support what we do and want to keep doing it for them and focus on something that we are really into.
Photo: Andrew White
What have you been up to when you aren’t riding these days?Any new hobbies you have been getting into?
I just got back from the Bahamas with my girl, so that was really cool. Also, I know it’s still riding, but I like cruising around the city, not doing tricks or anything, just looking at spots and new areas, watching crazy stuff happen in the city. Playing Starcraft, haha. I’m trying to go pro and move to Korea soon.
What’s the last song you heard, movie you watched and website you visited?
Song: Some rap on the radio song Movie: Sin Nombre (best movie) Website: thebank.la haha
Do you have any shout outs or thanks?
Shout outs to the homies that meet at the wall by my house, all my friends that live around here that ride, my family, Adela. Thanks WTP, G-Sport, everyone that supports me in anything I’m doing. Thanks.
Anything else you want to say?
I think we got everything covered, right?
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