After we dropped that Evolutions of the Seat Post Clamp post the other week, we heard a lot of really positive feedback from people that were just psyched to see all the changes and be reminded of their past. We also got a pretty good discussion going on BIKEGUIDE that lead to us talking about other parts that would be cool to look back on.
I kept thinking about all the changes we have seen and I think one of the easiest (well, they’re all pretty easy to see) things to see a huge change in are the seats and posts on our bikes. Not only because of the different technology, but also just how trends have affected the way BMX seats have been designed over the years.
Before I get into this, I want to say this is NOT supposed to be an exact history and more or less a nostalgic look at the past and how far we’ve come (or stepped back) over the past 10 years or so. Alright, let’s do this!
Insight – The Tripod Seat System
BMX is pretty unique in the sense that it’s always evolving and re-inventing itself. The bikes from 10 years ago are pretty much polar opposite of what they are today. Complicated things have been re-designed and made to be lighter, stronger and easier to install and maintain. Everything on a bike has been tweaked and changed to make it better, sometimes multiple times.
In the past decade, we’ve seen seats go from railed to the very popular pivotal style. I remember thinking how simple the design was and that there probably wouldn’t be much you could do to make a seat more simplistic and cleaner…
Well, I was wrong. A little over a year ago, David from Fly Bikes introduced the tripod seat system and like a Colorado wild fire in the middle of a drought, we’ve seen this new concept take off with more and more brands starting to offer their own version of the seat and post design with no signs of slowing down any time soon.
We were really curious to know what the story was behind this system, so we caught up with the brains of the operation, David Quesada, to talk a little bit about how this all came about. Let’s see what he had to say…