Track bikes from BMX brands

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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9 responses to “Track bikes from BMX brands”

  1. GhostRider Avatar
    GhostRider

    One other BMX company who “made the leap” to track bikes is Profile Racing of St. Petersburg, Florida. They make some awesome fixed-gear hubs in a variety of dazzling colors.

    Felt is another full bike manufacturer that has a couple fixed-gear rigs in their stable, too. They may not qualify as a “traditional” BMX brand, but that’s all I knew from Felt until they came onto the pro cycling scene. Heck, I thought the company was just called “Felt BMX” !!

  2. Fritz Avatar
    Fritz

    SE is owned by Fuji. My Fuji bike shop friend tells me his Fuji track bike is very similar to the SE Lager with many parts in common, though I haven’t check this for myself. And of course every review of the SE Draft mentions the BMX-style bottom bracket and cranks on that bike.

    The SE Lager seems to be very popular in the San Francisco Bay Area — and a lot of the fixed gear kids around here are painting their bikes up.

  3. James Avatar
    James

    Ghost rider, thanks for the tip on Profile. I used to really like their tubular cro-mo splined BMX cranks when I was a kid.

    Fritz, I didn’t know that Fuji owned SE. I didn’t even know SE was still around. I also liked PK Rippers 25 years ago in my BMX days. I posted a link to some track bikes painted to look like BMX bikes a while back. One of them was painted to look like a PK Ripper, but at the time I had no idea that SE was actually making track bikes. You certainly don’t see those bikes around here.

  4. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    FBM (fat bald men) have a fixie frame on the market too.

  5. James Avatar
    James

    Thanks Mark, FBM is new to me. By the way, I enjoyed looking through some of the shots on your site. Nice photography.

  6. Jeremy Avatar
    Jeremy

    James, I’ve been enjoying your site since I came upon it a couple months back. I’m a BMX guy at heart, hit my name to check out my site – BMXRoots.com. Funny you posted about this – I JUST posted about my new-found desire for a single-speed road bike, yesterday.

    Anyway, another BMX company making what look to be a couple of nice fixed gear bikes is Volume. Check them out at http://www.volumebikes.com

  7. Jeremy Avatar
    Jeremy

    Apologies – I read your post earlier in the day, and got all backwards. I realize that you mentioned, no featured the Volume.

    I MEANT to say that they have a new one out called the Creedence. Should be coming out in a month or so. Sheesh. 😉

  8. flatty Avatar
    flatty

    The Olympic BMX team uniforms were designed by Bob Haro of old school BMX fame. I’m happy to report they are much less flashy and obnoxious then the 80’s neon and todays MX/Nascar inspired unis.

  9. Summershoe Avatar
    Summershoe

    BMX companies making track bikes might be a boon for the sport of track racing as well. Many track events are short and explosive like BMX. Great Britain has some former BMX’rs on their Olympic track team.

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