BMX frame Archives – Page 20 of 94

Fit Bike Co. – Morgan Long Hoodbird 2017 Promo

May 24, 2017

Fit Bike Co. coming through with a new promo video featuring Morgan Long putting his signature Hoodbird Frame and Hoodbird Bars to proper use out in the streets of Southern California! Hit play to check out the video, then get more specs and details on the frame and bars below!

“Tall, steep, fast and strong. Morgan Long’s signature Hoodbird line is designed to last. American made strength with the length and height that will meet your needs whether you’re in the park, trails or the streets.

Featuring: Morgan Long – @yomorganlong
Filmed/Edit: Tony Malouf – @tonymalouf
Photo: Wes Mcgrath – @wesmcgrath/
Music: J^p^n – “Wrong””

Hoodbird Frame

The Fit Bike Co. Hoodbird frame is made from full 4130 chromoly tubing here in the United States with a 75.75-degree head tube angle, 71-degree seat tube height, 11.8″ bottom bracket height, 9.5″ standover height and a 13.4″ – 13.9″ chainstay length. The frame features a 5″ tall head tube, gussets on the top and downtube, a butted Supertherm top tube, a straight gauge Supertherm downtube, Straight gauge S-Bend tapered chain stays, straight gauge ultra-tapered seat stays, curved seat and chain stay bridges for 2.40″ tire clearance, a Mid bottom bracket with EZ-out punch slots, Investment Cast seat post clamp, 5-degree angled removable brake mounts and 6mm thick dropouts.

The Hoodbird Frame is available in matte black, clear raw and translucent gold in 20.75″, 21″ and 21.25″ top tube lengths with a price tag of $354.99. Check out more photos and details on the Hoodbird Frame on the Fit Bike Co. website.

Hoodbird Bars

The Hoodbird bars are made from butted 4130 chromoly tubing right here in the U.S.A with a 9.5″ rise, 29″ width, 11-degrees of backsweep, 3-degrees of upsweep, a 7″ crossbar height and 11.34″ crossbar width. The bars feature dual radius bends with large top bends to help increase the overall strength.

The Hoodbird bars are available in matte black, chrome, clear raw and Smoked Chrome for $59.99 – $69.99 through BMX shops and mail-orders that carry Fit Bike Co. worldwide. Check out more photos and information for the Hoodbird Bars on the Fit Bike Co. website.

Questions? Thoughts? Let us know in the comments below!

Note: This post contains affiliate links and we could receive a commission if you were to buy the frame or bars. We wouldn’t promote something we aren’t completely stoked on. We would ride this setup ourselves!

Sneak Peek: Terrible One – Skapegoat Frame

May 10, 2017

Get a look at the new Skapegoat frame that will be available in a few months…

Terrible One have just released information on their new Skapegoat Frame that will be available at the end of the summer. This frame is being made from 100% 4130 chromoly tubing in Taiwan (A lot of questions about where it’s being made) with a 75-degree head tube angle, 71-degree seat tube angle, 11.75″ bottom bracket height, 8.85″ standover height and a 13.35″ – 13.8″ chainstay length. The Skapegoat frame has an integrated head tube with drilled gyro tab holes, top and down tube gussets, a Mid bottom bracket, integrated seat post clamp, a Wishbone on the chainstay, clearance for 2.40″ tires and 6mm thick dropouts with integrated chain tensioners.

This frame has clearance for 25 – 30-tooth sprockets.

The Skapegoat Frame will be available in black, gloss clear and Olive / Mustard (RAL 7008). Top tube lengths, weight and price are still to be announced. As we mentioned above, this frame will be available through BMX shops and mail-orders that carry Terrible One at the end of the summer.

If you’re looking to PRE-ORDER the frame — Contact Empire BMX or any BMX shop, mail-order or distributor that carry Terrible One worldwide!

Check out more photos below…

Two of the color options that the frame will be available in…

Custom graphics for the frame. There will also be drilled gyro tab holes for those of you who want to put one on.

Integrated seat post clamp!

Wishbone on the chainstay for strength.

Integrated chain tensioners in the 6mm thick dropouts.

What do you think of the frame? Have any questions? Let us know in the comments below! We’ll try to get your questions answered as soon as possible!

Volume Bikes – Northwest Green Colorway Kit

May 3, 2017

If you were digging the Northwest Green color on Josh Clemens signature Voyager frame from Volume Bikes, you’ll be stoked on this. The Northwest Green color is also available on the Captain Bars, Anchor V2 Fork, VLM Stem and VLM grips now! Below you can find photos of the parts in this new color option that is hitting BMX shops and mail-orders now! Who is digging that color option?

Captain Bars

VLM Grips

VLM Stem

Learn more about the Voyager frame right here!

Over Saturated BMX Frame Market?

April 24, 2017

Have you ever wondered how many different frames there are available? Is there an over saturated BMX frame market?

The new Wethepeople Revolver frame will soon be joining the options available.

This past weekend a post on Instagram by Dale Holmes pointed out that the Race BMX Frame market is heavily saturated with at least 86 different frame options available. We’re assuming that’s just frame options, not necessarily individual brands, but maybe we could be wrong. Either way, It got us thinking about all of the frame options that are currently available on the freestyle side of things and how many brands there are making frames…

The last count according to @mikecarruth for current race frames available globally is an over-saturated 86! While reading some old magazines I came across this one in BMX Action July 1988 with "An Extensive Evaluation Of Eleven Top Garage Companies". The article talks about how all Eleven companies support riders, teams and racing, all in demand and usually sell their frames as fast as they can make them. How times have changed!! #oldschoolbmx
A post shared by Dale Holmes Racing (@daleholmesracing) on Apr 23, 2017 at 8:47am PDT

We decided to try and remember or find every brand that currently make BMX frames. We scoured the internet for quite a while to figure out every brand and we’re pretty sure this list is fairly complete, give or take a few due to them either being dead, but still have a website or just us not thinking of them. We’ve even included a few custom frame “brands” that do custom frames. Let’s go over this list quick. We tried to get it in alphabetical order, which should help figure out if we missed any… Ready? Here we go…

BMX Frame Brands

1. Alone
Autumn Bikes
Blank Bikes
Bone Deth
BSD
Colony
Credence (Technically S&M, but we’ll still count it as its own thing since)
Cult
Deluxe
Division Brand
DK Bicycles
Eastern Bikes
Eighties Bike Co.
Ene Ene Bikes
Faction
FBM
Federal Bikes
Fiend
Fit Bike Co.
Flybikes
Fungus Bikes
GT Bicycles
Haro
Hoffman Bikes
Hyper Bike Co.
Impurity
Indust
Ketch Bikes
KHE Bikes
Kink
Kis Bike Co. (Done?)
Laird Frame
Limit Fabrications
Macneil
Mafia Bikes
Mankind
Mongoose
Mutant Bikes
Mutante (Ehh?)
Mutiny
Nowear BMX
Pedal Driven
Premium
Proper Bike Co.
Radio Bikes
United
Salvo Bikes
SE Bikes
S&M Bikes
Social Bike Co.
Standard Bykes
Stolen
Stranger
Stout Bikes
Stress
Subrosa
Sunday
Tall Order
Tempered Bikes
The Make
The Set
The Take (Does FBM still fire these out?)
Terrible One
Total BMX
Verde
Volume Bikes
Wethepeople
68. WHTHOUS

That’s 68 DIFFERENT BRANDS that offer at least one aftermarket BMX frame, and we’re sure people will immediately chime in with brands we forgot (Do it, please!). Many of those brands offer more than two different options, some have four… S&M Bikes have 13 between their different freestyle frames (20″, 22 and 24″). That doesn’t even count all the different frame sizes and color options or custom frames! We’ll just guess and say the average is 3 frames (excluding TT and colors). That’s VERY roughly around 204 different frames. We would imagine it is far more than that, but that would require a lot of time to go through each brand and figure out how many options each brand has.

How many BMX riders are there, even?

I’m sure somebody out there could provide a pretty decent guess at how many freestyle BMX riders there are in the world, but we honestly have no idea. We have featured thousands of riders on the site from the 30,000+ posts we have done over the last 10 years and we’ve had millions of unique visitors on the site in that time, but to be able to accurately guess how many freestyle BMX riders there are in the world and how many are buying an aftermarket frame? I’m pretty sure brands would be willing to pay for accurate information like that, haha.

Geometry

When it comes to BMX frames, the geometry has been narrowed down and only a few degrees, millimeters or centimeters really separate the vast majority of frames when it comes to design. Don’t get us wrong, we know the importance of BMX Frame Geometry and how much each of those small changes can factor into the way a BMX bike rides, but there is only so much room that the majority of riders fall into.

Features

One of the biggest differences in BMX frames are some of the features they offer. Whether it’s gussets, special tubing or tubing styles like tapering, integrated chain tensioners, custom stay bridges and wishbones, unique graphics and more. Those minor details are usually the easiest way to differentiate frames these days.

Quality

When it comes to manufacturing quality, it’s pretty amazing how far things have come, too. You don’t see BMX frames breaking like they used to when guys like Mat Hoffman were on the verge of saying screw it and starting their own brand so they didn’t have to worry about how many frames they will break in a single week. Many BMX frames last riders more than a year these days, and some much longer than that. Sure, there are some really gnarly guys out there that can destroy a frame in a short period of time, but it’s nowhere near as common as it used to be.

Sales?

How many frames do brands sell? That’s another pretty impossible question to answer considering brands aren’t likely to disclose that information, especially to a guy like me, haha. We can assume a brand like Cult sells a lot more than let’s say… (Scrolls through list)… The Make. Obviously both brands have much different missions with their brands, so it’s not like these two can really be compared, but there is a big difference in the volume of BMX frames being produced and sold between each brand. We’re also pretty sure some brands we would assume sell a ton of frames, don’t sell nearly as many as we would imagine.

Are there too many BMX frames?

Is the BMX frame market oversaturated? Based off what we’ve heard from different brands over the past, well, decade, that answer would be yes. Is that a bad thing? It depends on how you look at it. From a brand standpoint it sucks because you could have an amazing product, but you’re competing with nearly 60 other brands. From a rider standpoint, it’s awesome. You have more options than you probably even realize, geometry options for every possible style of riding you want to do, more colors than a 152 pack of Crayola Crayons and sizes that fit 20″, 22″ and 24″ bikes. Another perk is it helps keep prices down because no brand wants to over price their product and miss out on sales, too. On the flipside, that sucks for brands because the margins are thin and in reality, they aren’t making that much on each frame.

Do we think there are too many options? I mean, that’s kind of a hard question to answer. It’s a free market and the barrier to entry is basically this… Do you have the money to get the frames made? Finding a place to have frames made isn’t exactly rocket science. No brand is going to tell you “this is where we have ours made, we’re sure you could get yours made there too!”, but then again you have plenty of options between the U.S and Taiwan to get a frame produced. It’s not exactly hard to figure out what features and geometry to go with, either.

Is there room for more?

I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from pursuing their dream of starting their own brand, but it’s probably not the best time to throw your hat in the ring to start a brand, unless you have something unique that will help you standout. Whether it’s a unique product, a badass team or something that allows you to really reach a lot of riders like a massive Youtube channel (Adam LZ already has the signature frame from Stranger)… If it was as easy as just having the money, this list would likely be 10 times longer because what rider hasn’t considered starting their own BMX brand?

We have seen a lot of brands in BMX come and go in the past and we’ve seen many weather the ups and downs, continuing to produce quality products, supplying shops and riders around the world. Hell, we have seen brands that we thought would have been gone a long time ago and we have seen brands that we always thought would be around get shut down. We’ve seen some heavy budget cuts that left brands almost seem non-existent and we have seen some really talented people in the BMX industry move on to greener pastures. It’s not going to be as easy as slapping your sticker on a frame with the same geometry and features as 10 other frames out there.

Okay, let’s wrap this up. The whole point of this was to talk a little bit about something that most riders probably don’t think about and maybe get some discussion going. Yeah, you can flip through the Dan’s Comp catalog (Don’t act like you don’t get it in the mail) and say “Wow, they have a lot of frames”, but even they don’t have every options available. It’s even harder for a smaller, local shop that doesn’t have that option to carry a ton of different frames. Every rider out there has their own preference or style and reasons for riding a specific frame. Maybe it’s because it’s made in the U.S.A, or it’s their favorite Pro’s signature frame… Maybe the geometry or the features is what they like? Maybe it’s super light and ideal for flip and tailwhip combos, maybe it’s geared toward nose manuals and grinds, maybe it’s something you can hit the trails, a skatepark and street spots and it feels awesome on everything. If there’s something you want, it very likely already exists.

There’s plenty of reasons for so many options…
Do you think things are “oversaturated” or not so much?
How many riders do you think there are around the world?
What frame do you ride and why?
Did we miss any brands?
What’s something you wish a brand would do with a frame that doesn’t exist yet?

On the hunt for a new frame? Check out these BMX frames.

Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Sneak Peek: Wethepeople – Revolver Frame

April 20, 2017

The guys at Wethepeople just released some insight into their new Revolver Frame that will be dropping later this year. They caught up with product designer and all around good dude Mikael Frisk to get the full story behind this frame, along with full specs and details. They also dropped a Bike Check that gives us a look at Mikael’s personal setup with a prototype sample of the frame, and we have to say we are loving the look of it! You can check out the full details on the frame and the bike check right here — Introducing the Revolver Frame

What do you think of Mikael’s Wethepeople Revolver setup? Looks pretty damn good! It has to be pretty crazy to design something and then be able to actually ride and test it out before everyone else.

The Rise Of 22″ Bikes

April 18, 2017

There’s a been an increasing number of 22″ Bikes popping up…

Faction Amero 22″ BMX Bike

A few years ago when we personally first started hearing about 22″ Bikes we didn’t quite know what to think or if it would ever actually take off. The guys at Faction BMX were the first to start trying out this unique size that fit right between 20″ and 24″ bikes way back in 2002. It was a very small niche in the BMX industry that was geared toward riders that wanted something a little bigger than a traditional BMX bike, but didn’t want to go for an all out cruiser bike. It wasn’t a huge change, just slightly bigger wheels, fork and frames, really. This story of the rise of 22″ bikes originally started 15 years ago.

If you didn’t already know, there tends to be a bit of resistance to “new” things in BMX. Just like the first set of 8″, 9″ and 10″ rise BMX bars, there were a lot of people that were pretty hard stance. Either you like it and you are down to try it out, or you have zero interest at all and don’t see the point. Why change things if it already works the way it is, right? I still have friends that absolutely refuse to get bigger bars and I cannot for the life of me understand why they’re so against it. But, that’s why frames and parts come in so many different sizes; everyone has their own preference for a size that feels right.

In reality, that’s probably one of the hardest parts about innovation in BMX. You could have an amazing idea that works, but unless you convince enough people to try it, understand it and see the benefits, it will likely fail. I mean, how many times have we seen bash guards on the bottom bracket try and fail? The idea is great and it does work, but not enough people are into it to really see it become a “normal” part of BMX bikes. So, the idea goes back on the shelf and collects dust until somebody else decides to take a crack at it. Another example would be when Odyssey released their Twisted PC pedals. They were available for a few years before they actually started selling a notable amount of these plastic pedals compared to their metal options. Now the Twisted PC pedals are undoubtedly one of Odyssey’s most popular products and plastic pedals are more commonly found on a BMX bike than metal, but there was definitely a period of time where there was a weird rivalry between the two. The same could be said with plastic pegs… That was a weird time, too. Now it’s just a regular option for riders.

A prototype build and the S&M 22″ Holmes kit from 2012

Just like the Twisted PC pedals, the 22″ Bike wasn’t exactly something that gained traction over night. After the Faction guys started working on 22″ designs and ultimately went on to release a frame, fork, tires and rims, it was close to 10 years before S&M Bikes decided to see what all the hype was about. In 2012 S&M designed a frame and fork to test out, which lead to the 22″ Holmes Kit that offered rims and tires being made under their sub-brand Revenge. The options for 22″ frames, forks, rims and tires have have remained a part of their line up ever since. Even after S&M and Revenge also threw their hat in the 22″ ring back in 2012, we didn’t see a big surge in the 22″ BMX bike category. I will admit having a notable brand like S&M getting into it did probably help make it a little more appealing and a little more known. But it still wasn’t something that really got much attention.

Even though S&M and Faction were offering kits to build your own 22″ bike, it didn’t seem like we were seeing a ton of riders rushing to pick up a kit to try out the larger size. A kit from Faction goes for around $750 and a frame from S&M is in the $349.99 – $419.99 range, so it’s hard to spend that kind of money just to see if you’re into the bigger size.

UPDATE: Apparently we have been out of the loop! There’s another company based out of Austin, Texas called Indust that have been making 22″ frames, parts and some custom build bikes since around 2011 that we had never heard about until now. Shout out to Max Krauss for tipping us off. Crazy how we missed that! Technically these guys were doing 22″ before S&M.

2017 S&M 22″ ATF Frame

After another few years had passed with a few 22″ options but nothing really new being added, we saw something starting to happen in 2016. We started seeing some serious interest being put into these bigger bikes. The guys at FBM started offering a 22″ Steadfast Frame to give riders another option that could also be customized to your preference. Shortly after that it was announced that United Bike Co. were releasing the first 22″ complete, the 2017 KF22 Complete Bike and Fit Bike Co. were working on the Brian Foster signature 22″ complete. Some of you might be able to connect the dots with S&M, Fit, Revenge and United since all four are pretty closely related. S&M, Fit and Revenge are owned by Chris Moeller and The Building Distribution, which also distributes United Bike Co. in the United States. So now, we now have Faction, S&M, Revenge, Indust, Fit Bike Co., FBM and United offering 22″ products. Still, a fairly small circle of brands when looking at the overall number of brands in BMX.

Sneak peek QBMX posted of a 22″ tire that Wethepeople are working on…

Things have started happening and it would appear that the wheels on the 22″ bikes are really starting to turn (pun intended) and the guys at Faction weren’t so crazy after all. If you have picked up a 22″ bike or you have been interested, it looks like 2017 might just be the year to jump on the train, because your options are about to grow. In the past few months we have seen or heard of a few other brands that are joining this “revolution” of sorts. We have spotted a prototype 22″ tire from Wethepeople, which leads us to believe they will be offering a complete bike or aftermarket frame and parts for 22″ bikes. We haven’t heard exact details yet, but we could see Wethepeople or their sub-brand Salt Plus having 22″ parts options. The guys at Deluxe BMX are working on 22″ frames now that they’re building frames in-house in Pennsylvania, so there’s another American made option.

Update: After we posted this Wethepeople confirmed that they will have a mid-range complete 22″ bike, along with aftermarket frame, fork, rims, tires and complete wheel sets coming soon. Wethepeople will be offering a frame and fork kit as well. Also, Salt will also be offering 22″ wheelsets at a more affordable price point.

FBM’s 22″ Steadfast frame”

2017 Brian Foster Signature 22″ Complete Bike

United’s KF22 Complete Bike

Pair of 22s got together this week! @michaelpotoczny battleship grey and @urrydayimshovelin custom. #whitegirlcoffee #cantlooseon22s #deluxebmx
A post shared by Deluxe BMX (@deluxebmx) on Apr 7, 2017 at 12:01pm PDT

We also have 100% confirmation from Stolen Bikes that they are going to be offering a full line up of parts between Stolen and Fiction. Both brands will be offering a Stolen “Spade Pro” 22″ Frame, along with a Spade Complete Bike and the Fiction Troop Tire will come in a 22 x 2.30″ size. Those will all be dropping in June. Stolen also have 22″ wheelsets and rims that are already shipping to distributors worldwide as we write this. You can expect to see those popping up soon.

Stolen Rampage 22″ Wheels

Let’s go over this one more time. Faction, S&M Bikes, Fit Bike Co., Revenge, United Bike Co., Indust, FBM, Deluxe, Wethepeople, Stolen and Fiction are all either offering or will be offering 22″ bikes, frames or parts. That’s just what we’re aware of. If there’s one thing we know, it’s once something starts getting popular, it won’t take look for the rest of the industry to get in on the mix. That’s not a bad thing, though. It doesn’t hurt to have options, right? Competition leads to innovation and had S&M not decided to give Faction a little competition back in 2012, we might not be seeing the growth we are seeing in 2017 for 22″ bikes. We would imagine that list will grow in the coming year.

Update: Thanks to the guys at 22-Inch BMX, we were filled in on a few other options for 22″ bikes that we were unaware one. DK Bicycles have their 22″ Vega complete and Canadian brand Encore Bikes have their 22″ Anthem complete as well. Two bikes we were unaware of. Also, Laird Frames, Dave Harrison, Standard Bykes and Stout Bikes all offer 22″ custom frames. It turns out that there is A LOT more 22″ bikes popping up than we actually thought. We have also been tipped off that it sounds like Subrosa will be offering a 22″ complete bike in their 2018 range of bikes later this year. That means there are at least 17 potential options for 22″ bikes, frames or parts in 2017? Talk about an explosion of these bikes becoming available. Once again, big thanks to 22-Inch BMX for the heads up!

It’s kind of crazy to think that it took 15 years before these bikes really became a force in BMX. We give Faction big props for sticking it out and proving to all of us that there is a place for the 22″ bikes in this sport.

What do you think? Have you tried out a 22″ bike? How do you like it? Haven’t tried one? What do you think about this? Could you see yourself trying one? Let us know in the comments below!

Cult – 2017 Trey Jones OSv4 Colorway

April 3, 2017

For 2017, Cult worked with Trey Jones on a new signature colorway for the OSV4 frame. The frame is made from a Revised 100% Cult Classic tubing with a 75-degree head tube angle, 71-degree seat tube angle, 11.8″ bottom bracket height, 8.75″ standover height and a 13.5 – 13.8″ chainstay length.

The frame features an integrated head tube, top and down tube gussets, an externally machined Mid bottom bracket, Investment Cast Seat Post Clamp, Investment seat stay bridge, tapered seat stays, S-Bend chainstays for 2.40″ tire clearance and Investment Cast heat-treated dropouts.

The 2017 Trey Jones Cult OSv4 Colorway comes in 20″, 20.5″, 20.75″, 21″ and 21.25″ top tube lengths with a black and blue colorway that’s inspired by the legends Dimebag Darrell’s guitar. The frame is available for $339.99 through BMX shops and mail-orders that carry Cult worldwide now.

Here’s a look at the guitar that the frame colorway was based off of. Badass.

Volume Bikes – Voyager Frame

March 30, 2017

Volume Bikes Voyager frame coming in hot…

If you’re on the hunt for a new BMX Frame that won’t completely destroy the bank account, the new Voyager frame from Volume Bikes might just be what you’re on the hunt for. This frame is made from full 4130 chromoly tubing with a 75.25-degree head tube angle, 71-degree seat tube angle, 9.25″ standover height, 11.7″ bottom bracket height and a 12.75″ – 13.25″ chainstay length.

The frame features an hourglass shaped integrated head tube, top and down tube gussets, a Mid bottom bracket, integrated seat post clamp, curved seat and chainstay bridges, an S-bend chainstay to give you 2.40″ tire clearance, removable brake mounts and heat-treated 4mm thick dropouts designed to give you plenty of hub guard and peg clearance.

The Voyager frame is available in 20.5″ and 21″ top tube lengths and come in a Billy Perry signature Glacier Blue and Josh Clemens signature Northwest Green (camouflage) with a weight of 5 lbs. even (21″) and a price tag of $299.99 through BMX shops and mail-orders that carry Volume Bikes worlwide.

The Voyager frame will be available starting April 2017!