FBM has plenty of good things coming for 2010 including new frames…
Interbike 2009 was this past Wednesday through Friday. In those three days about 20,000 members of the bicycle industry from shops, company owners, media, and brand employees were on hand to ask and answer questions, meet face to face, and have a look at what 2009 has to offer. The smaller, but growing section titled the “BMX Zone” was nothing short of exceptional.
One of the weirdest things about BMX is how much the internet has come into the sport. Imagine talking to people once or twice a week for a whole year, but never actually meeting in person. This happens quite a bit between Dig and brands and even riders. Sure, Interbike gets to be real long, expensive, and exhausting. It’s more than that though. You get to see old friends, meet new people, see all the new products, and in general have an excuse to get excessively rowdy on the strip.
This year featured a first of its kind that went over amazing. The rail jam really gave a lot of people outside of BMX a look into why we are who we are. The contest featured 40 of the best street riders who all really did a solid job of showing outsiders what is possible on street. That and I think after seeing the guys bounce right back up after wrecking real hard convinced them we are all a little mental.
Product wise it was all what you would expect. Plenty of new products all around. There were a few new “trends” that were noticed amongst the booths. These were complete bikes, bright colors, and plastic. A lot of companies will have a complete bike line for 2010. Brands like Eastern, KinkSubrosa, We The People, Colony, and Fit all seemed to add a few more bikes to their ranges, along with updates of previous models. The biggest surprise was that Sunday! has a complete bikes line now, also. I found myself asking myself again and again what my life would have been like if completes came as amazingly spec’d as they do now. I’d probably suck still, but I would have looked a lot cooler and probably not have stories about “back when I rode a 45 pound bike” to share with the new baby shredders.
Bright colors were seen amongst pretty much every booth. Given the all black bikes were the trend about two years ago; I almost feel like it would be hard to build up a bike without a little color now days. The bikes might just be going back in time with the colors, since this trend happened before most of us were even born. It will be a good year for bike checks though. I thank Aaron Ross for brightening up BMX again.
Plastics have taken over the BMX world the last few years, and it looks like things just keep getting better. Brands like Fly are offering plastic and metal versions of their products. For example the Ruben pedals can now be found in plastic or the original metal version. This is good because plastic isn’t for everyone, and it can go the other way also.
Overall, Interbike was another one for the books. In the next year BMX will continue to grow, and it will be exciting to see where things go.
If you missed it, here is the features from the Rail Jam and the Stay Fit premiere. Below are a few photos with some words. You can find hundreds of photos from all the booths on BMXunion.com that I took.
Colony has a huge frame line. This picture shows about half of them. I’d imagine Alex Hiam is the youngest rider to have a signature frame in BMX history?
Some of Colony’s parts. You can already see the color idea I’m talking about…
Deluxe had a few new products. For example, a new color for their frame, this sprocket, and some new grips that are pretty beefy.
Federal had the new Davey Watson, Ty Morrow, and Jared Washington frames on display. Sometimes it isn’t necessary to change up products like their freecoaster too much.
Fit has a huge range of complete bikes. Here you can see the Dakota Roche signature complete.
Fly had a few new products this year. I’m always a fan of their very clean products. They have some chrome brakes coming out that look amazing.
Last year, Chris at Kink told me they purposely killed the brand so that they could start over fresh. Clearly the accomplished that. New frames like Darryl Tocco’s are looking good. They also have some great looking completes, and parts like these stems.
As a warning to anybody who stole from Interbike. You were lucky Jay Miron didn’t find you. Jay continues to prove that he is the beast by rugby tackling a thieves at Interbike. I’m not lying, it really did happen. I really hope the guy who got dropped is feeling it still. Over all MacNeil continued with their eye appealing graphics and products.
and Madera had a few new colorways like this Dave McDermott crank. They also have a new hub that you will be hearing about in the coming days on here…
Shadow Conspiracy had plenty of color at their booth. They had these new pivotal plastic seats, and some other bits and pieces like the four piece bars.
I think this parts package from Stolen is great. It can be used from beginners to guys who have been riding for years. You can also see it is available in orange.
Subrosa”s twin top tube frame is a good example of bringing back the past. Everyone seems really stoked on this frame.
Like I said above, Sunday will be offering a few complete bikes this year.
Tree has this new stem in the works. Similar to the Terrible One stem that had been in the works for a long time.
Verde has some really clean and solid looking completes.
These photos are just the tip of the iceberg for what products were shown at Interbike this year. You can see plenty more over on BMXunion from all these companies, and more.
