The Olympics are underway and I have been glued to the TV since the opening ceremony. I watched the men’s and women’s road races over the weekend along with pretty much every other sport that was covered. Yeah, I really get into it and I will watch all I can, but obviously I have a preference for the cycling events. Personally, I love to watch the track racing events, but my 5 year old is really excited about the debut of BMX this year. I am looking forward to watching it with him, but that is not really the point of this post. That combination of track and BMX just reminds me of something that I meant to post a while back.
A couple of months ago I was in the library with my kids and my youngest found a stack of BMX magazines for us to look through. I used to race BMX as a kid, but I am the first to admit that I haven’t kept up with the changes in the sport. The race-oriented bikes seem to closely follow mountain bike evolution, which is to be expected. What was not expected (to me at least) was the number of track bikes that I saw in Ride BMX magazine, a freestyle oriented publication. First I noticed the Volume Cutter pictured here. It looks like a pretty nice bike from a company that is known for BMX bikes. After seeing the Cutter, I noticed several other companies that were making single speed or fixed 700c wheel bikes. SE racing is one such company, which I remember from my days in BMX, that is in on the fixie action.
As I said, I was surprised at first, but it certainly makes sense from a marketing standpoint. As young freestyle BMXers outgrow their 20” bikes, why would these companies not try to get them into fixed gear freestlying? A lot of kids don’t ever make the transition from BMX to mountain biking, so I think it is great that these companies are introducing them to a new type of cycling. Well, I guess you could argue that freestyling on a fixie is not really a different type of cycling from freestyling on a 20 incher, but it is a new type of bike. As I have said many time before, I think more choice in the industry is a good thing so I am happy to see those bikes. I say more power to those companies for making what I consider to be a smart marketing move. It doesn’t surprise me at all that, as the website states, the Cutter frames from Volume are currently sold out.
Since I brought up BMX, I will mention the Nike Dunk Gyrizo BMX Shoes that some of the top riders will be wearing. Yikes! Look at those patterns. I also heard that Nike is outfitting the US, Chinese, and Japanese teams with high-tec, lightweight apparel that will have 80’s retro graphics. If that is true, I should feel right at home watching the coverage. At the BMX track in the early 80s, loud colors and clashing patterns were all the rage. Yeah, I will admit that I liked it at the time, but I don’t know how ready I am for that trend to cycle back around.
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