The Odyssey

Odyssey have written a novel.

Odyssey actually haven't written a novel, but they have put together an encyclopedic product catalogue with a word count unprecedented by any bmx publication to date. I wonder who they think is going to read all those words? The BMX acedemia? I have a fairly high tolerance for that kind of stuff, but I've got to say, lost heart pretty quickly. That said, it's probably not so suited to an online experience. In hardcopy it'd be sure to be a thing of beauty - there's lots of nice photos and artwork, little tech diagrams and cut-away sections... and words, lots of words.

As said, amongst the words there are some photos of their new stuff:



This is their Chainwheel sprocket. I saw this from the InterBike coverage of their stand, but didn't really know what to say about it. It just kind of looked unfinished and I didn't really understand why they wanted to add a bad looking sprocket that kind of has a milled-in-your-grandads-back-shed feel to it, to their range of really dope sprockets. But the answer to all question are to be found within the pages of the Odyssey encyclopedia. If you make it through the 500 word intro, you'll find that it's actually supposed to look bad. At least it's supposed to look like a chainwheel / spider set up of yesteryear. Fair enough.

Anyway let's offset these negative vibes with some afore mentioned "dope" sprocket imagery:



Awwwww - that's more like it! They've updated the Vermont sprocket and are calling it the Burlington. And that's a 25 tooth, in gold and looking rad. Apparently they've changed the tooth profile on this and the Chainwheel sprockets to something they're calling an Incisor tooth profile. And that's pretty much how it looks.

Pedals. While we're talking pedals it should be noted that you actually would need an encyclopedia to keep up with the number of colourways that you can get Odyssey's PC pedals in. This may, or may not be the newest edition added to that list:



That's also gold in case you didn't catch it. I have no idea how many colour variation these pedals have seen in the couple of years since they've become the pedal of choice for just about everyone, but my guess would be 23. Just sounds about right. I'd also guess that somewhere out there is a Ody PC freaker who has a cupboard full of bagged up mint editions of every colour ever released. Definitely. In fact, if you are that guy, could you please fill me in on the official total?

I suppose you can't count these as straight PCs, but you can definitely count me in for a pair. And of course they're set to open up a whole new world of pedal mixin'n'matchin:



JC PC's. That's a lot of little piec-es.

But Jim, while I've got you here: What's with the crappy 3rd wave tube photos in this flip book? You've managed to focus on just about everything but the fucking tubes!



Anyway, I don't want to get on Jim's bad side, so I'll leave that. But you think there would be a few 3rd wave frames lying around the Sunday offices and it might be worth actually snapping a decent photo - I mean Adam managed alright.

Anyway, in amongst the shoes, tyres, promotional displays and whatnot in focus was what looked like... wait for it... a new PC pedal colourway. Camo, it seems. That is new isn't it? So at least some good came from it.

I think that's more than enough.

PC or not PC?

David at Fly has posted up some more info about the plastic Ruben pedals, so if you've been wondering if Fly were going to bring something new to the PC pedal table, have a listen to what he's got to say:

"We wanted to make a plastic pedal with the same thin shape as the Ruben aluminum ones so we searched for a harder material to achieve that. After some testing we found a new compound out of nylon and fiber glass that we call “graphite” which is harder than the material currently used on other plastic pedals. These new pedals are only 1mm. thicker than the aluminum ones on each side so the feeling is the same as the alumium ones.

Other detail on these pedals are how grippy they are. We used coned 3 x 3mm. Squared pins that are grippier than rounded ones. And since this material is harder, the knurling on the whole pedal surface is sharper. Of course still the aluminum ones are grippier but the difference is not much…The low profile makes them really light as well with a a weight of 360grs. / 12.6 oz. per pair."

How new is that? They're not PC. That is, they're not molded in poly carbonate, they're graphite. Well... they're not actually graphite either, they're glass filled nylon. So what the hell is that? Here's a little something, lifted from somewhere:

"Nylon ® is significantly strengthened by the addition of glass-fibers. The added glass provides stability & rigidity, but reduces the non-lubricated wear properties. 30% glass filled nylon has 200% better strength than general purpose nylon but it is highly abrasive and will abraid or gall mating surfaces."

"Abraid or gall mating surfaces" - Careful, that's your shoe man!

Though if you're counting grams, they will have the additional pull of being the lightest (don't quote me) freestyle pedals on the market and regardless of possible abraiding or galling to the soles of my Orchids, I'll be tossing up between a pair of these and Odyssey's JC PCs. It's that recurring dilema: "superior grip v.s possible shin carnage". It's hard isn't it? Life. Just one big decision after another. Fortunately these wont be dropping till December, so all fretting and obsessing can be postpone till then.

Edit: OK, they're not the lightest. These probably are, but really? As for the titanium thing, can you count pedals with ti spindles as freestyle pedals?

Zen Minimalism, Metal and Death

Well InterBike's out of the way and I managed to get through about 1/100th of stuff that was on show, but you can bet your titanium Ratchet axle that there'll be a flood of re-caps and reviews, reminders and re-launches coming up - so it ain't over yet.

I never did get round to saying anything about the morsels on offer at the Fly booth at InterBike and they've already posted up their re-cap. So you could check that here, or bear with me while I pick out the tasty bits:



So that's basically how it all looked - flat colours on white, simple graphics. Translated, the names of the frames and forks are Moon, Lakes, Mountains, Earth and Water. All very minimal and zen. But then, of course, there's the Pantera, which is more metal and death, but hey, you gotta stick with the classics.

That said, the Pantera forks are no more. And neither are the Tierras. Instead Fly'll only be making the Agua forks - the ones with the investment cast dropouts. And speaking of discontinued models, there was no sign of the Campillo frame on their stand either. I'm not sure whether or not this means my current ride is now officially an antique, but since it was one of the lighter frames going around (4.3 lbs) it'd be interesting in that it would be another manufacturer joining WeThePeople in moving away from lighter weight frames. Yeah, sounds doubtful.

Another fairly doubtful scenario is the mass re-emergence of brakes and that's just not going to happen until Fit's street kids put 'em back on. Regardless, Fly just keep pumping out brake related stuff - which is admirably untrendy:



Just a bunch of brake pads? Yeah, I suppose so, but apparently they're a different compound and are a bit fatter so you've got more rubber on rim, and they use a female bolt system to keep them looking tidy. Also the curved adjustment surfaces are integrated into the bolt and the pad so you've got a couple of less washers to faff about with. Incidentally Odyssey have just posted up some new pads and cables and are saying that the clear pads work the best for painted rims. So there you go.



Rigid straddle cable = less flex and easier set up.



Possibly the most boring photo I have ever posted, but anyway, it's a close up of their Spanish removable mount set up that Sergio explained in a web vid not long ago.



They dropped a new sprocket at InterBike as well - The Circulo. What did I tell you ... Zen.



The red stem pictured is a new topload stem. And like superstar they seem to be suggesting that you should run it upside down. Bottom load stems are officially hot right now.



And lastly, but definitely not least, a chance to have a decent look at the PC Ruben pedals. Fly are pretty much the last to jump on board with PCs, but at least they're not just hijacking a Wellgo and calling it Sliced Bread.

So in homage to the pedal, to the man, to the middle name of my first born, to no-footer to flatty wall rides (@1:11) and to Built to Spill:

Charles Chappell / BlueSix Bikes Interview

I occasionally ride with a guy who’s a machinist and is obsessed by titanium. As you’d expect from a guy of that description, his bike is like a half titanium cyborg of a bmx with all the usual suspects like spindles, axles, pegs, bar ends, bolts, cranks, but also a stem that he’s chopped out of a solid ti block complete with a Transfomer logo milled into the front of it. It’s not lighter than an alloy stem – he just a titanium nut.

My point here is that there’s something about titanium that gets a hold on people. It could be that it’s used in jet engines and spacecraft and just about any self-respecting high performance machinery, or it could be that metallic white freshly machined look that it has raw. I myself have been known to shell out Ebay dollars on off-cuts for future projects that are still in the future and I just like that you’re holding in your hand a piece of metal that looks heavy, but feels light. It’s like magic, although “excellent strength to weight ratio” may be a slightly more accurate technical description.

So if you’re a machine head, chances are you like titanium. Combine that with the fact that if you ride bikes, chances are you’re conscious of the weight of your whip and then it’s clear that there’s a bmx market for the stuff. Of course it’s been played with it before – think RNC, Knight, Brand X – but you’d have to say with limited degrees of success.


Hold on a minute! This ain't the same ol' same ol'. The fact that this BlueSix upgrade decreases the weight of a pair of Odyssey PCs while simultaneously increasing the potential colour combinations, means that it's impossible for anyone to convince me that it wont be a winner.

But the current titanium-man-of-the-moment is Charles Chappell. You’ve probably heard of BlueSix Bikes – he’s the man behind it and is definitely doing things a little differently. The name BlueSix says a lot in that it sums up his idea to simplify and standardise the tools you need to work on your bike by designing hardware upgrades that all use a 6mm allen key. On top of that he’s going outside your standard stem and crank bolts and doing product specific upgrades for parts like the Gsport Ratchet and KHE Geisha freecoaster. They’re all CNC machined from Ti6Al4V titanium alloy, are available in anodised colour variations and look the goods.

Charles was up for answering a few questions about BlueSix and he’s dropping some new product as well, so if you like your bike tight or light, read on:

The Interview:

Jeff: Hey Charles, thanks for being up for saying a few words and showing us some of your new stuff, could you just start us off with a basic run down of how and why you started BlueSix Bikes and the idea behind it?

Well, I've aspired to start a little bike company since I began riding at age twelve. I have always had fun modifying my bike and drawing up new ideas for parts. I guess I felt it was time to fulfil my childhood dream.

The idea behind Bluesix is to make your bike exactly how you want it. What I like about bikes is they are half way between a skateboard and a car. You can ride it and have fun doing tricks, but you can customize it like a car. I just wanted to focus on upgrades and small specialty parts that add the finishing touch.


The official finishing touch

Doing titanium bolts and hardware is pretty specific and at the high end, price-wise, when it comes to bmx parts, but it seems like there’s plenty of people keen to lavish hip pocket love on their bikes.

I don't think the prices are out of reach for most people. I mean, there are plenty of people that buy new frames or parts just to keep their bike fresh. A 20 dollar axle bolt isn't much compared to a 300-400 dollar frame. I just think that people have a hard time justifying a 20 dollar bolt when they usually cost 3 bucks. Bluesix may not be for everyone, but there are people out there that understand how much goes into a Bluesix product and are willing to pay a premium price.


You like? Pay the premium and ratchet your Ratchet up a notch

Generally speaking, how’s business? Can you tell us what kind of volumes you’re pumping out? What’s your big seller and which colours are people most into?

I keep busy. There are some products that collect dust, but some of them are gone as soon as I get them. I work with very small volumes, anywhere from 25-500 units depending on the product. Stem bolts sell the fastest with crank bolts close behind.

As for the colors, Raw Ti is the most popular. I sell quite a bit of Gold, and Stealth Grey would sell a lot if I could recreate it.

I think I’m right in saying that you do all the machining yourself (?), in your apartment (?). Could you tell us a little about your set up – how big / small it is. You’ve obviously got a lathe in there, but any other machines that you fire up of an evening?

I do not do the production work myself. I would go insane if I attempted to manually machine every bolt on my mini lathe haha. I have a few manufacturers that I work with. The titanium stuff is made overseas to keep the stuff affordable and the aluminum stuff like the 7075 washers and Geisha conversion collars are made here in Lawrence Kansas by a local machine shop. I looked into getting the Ti stuff made here in the states, but it would not be possible to offer the current prices or the warranty.


The Geisha conversion kit: I told you this was more than just some fancy titanium shit


Collars made in the US of A, bolts in the PP of C

I have a small room in my apartment that I call “The Lab”. It's not quite big enough to be considered a bedroom, more of a study room. I have a 7 x 12 mini lathe that I use to modify stuff, make prototypes, and small runs of simple stuff like spacers and adapters. I have a lot of fun with that thing and I am always buying new tooling for it. I'm not sure how my neighbors feel about the noise, but I haven't gotten any complaints. I have a milling attachment for it, but I haven't gotten much use out of it so far because it takes so much time to set it up. I have an anodizing station that I set up and one of the cool little machines I have is an ultrasonic cleaner. I was talking to an engineer at work when I first started anodizing and told him about how I had to clean each bolt individually with a rag and acetone. It was time consuming and the colors didn't come out very consistent. He told me about his anodizing experiences and gave me a line on an ultrasonic cleaner that uses ultrasonic soundwaves to thoroughly clean all the microscopic crevices, and I can clean a bunch of bolts at the same time. My life has been much easier since.


Straight out of the lab: Some new stuff from BlueSix. "Clear mouldings + anodized titanium upgrades = positive consumer response" - Jeff 2009

Anodizing titanium – is it exactly the same process as anodizing aluminium?

Titanium anodizing is quite different than aluminum anodizing. Basically the way aluminum anodizing works is colored dyes are absorbed into the small pores in the surface of the metal. Titanium anodizing doesn't use dye at all. The colors are dependant on the thickness of the oxide layer which is determined by the amount of voltage applied. For example, Blue is about 30V, Gold 60V, Purple 75V, Green 100V. You can get a whole spectrum of colors and shades. The way it works is the light is reflected off of the surface and the different wavelengths are perceived as colors through the human eye.


These anodized titanium crank bolts are actually all the same colour. It's just them damn wavelengths fuckin' with your eyes' perception again!

People can get pretty tense and opinionated about light weight parts and although the shouting has (mostly) died down and just about everyone at least considers the weight of their bike, even if they’re not obsessed by it. Do you think people are into BlueSix upgrades more for the way they look and the dialled detail that they bring to your bike or the performance factors like the weight and the 6mm standard?

It depends on the person. Some people have fun with finding ways to see how light they can get their bike, but I think most people are into Bluesix because the stuff makes your bike easier to work on and the stuff looks awesome.

To the standard questions now - well, they’re standard for the one interview I’ve done so far, but anyway… In your opinion, is there something that BMX design needs more of?

I think bmx is evolving in the right direction. I would like to see more focus on standards. We need to decide on one bottom bracket size because I've seen a few of my friends get a new frame and had to wait until they got new bearings to ride it. I guess companies would sell less bottom brackets, but it would be easier on the consumer. Also American companies need to go metric. S&M/Fit knows what's up because they switched their stems to metric so people don't have to use a 1/4” allen key anymore. Now Profile needs to follow and make it easier on everybody. I watched one of my friends search through a tool box trying out each size allen key in his profile cranks. I told him it was a 7/32” and he didn't have the right size so he ended up riding with loose cranks. I hooked him up with Bluesix bolts so he doesn't have to worry about it now.


6mm is the new 7/32”

Something it could use less of?

Holes.

What are some of the other BMX companies, or brands outside of BMX, whose design and / or outlook you appreciate?

My inspirations stem from my favorite companies when I was young; VG made all kinds of little parts that made the bike come together as a whole, and Brand X produced lots of Ti stuff that made people drool.

I look up to Chris King and Thomson for their high standards, Tree for how much thought is put into their products, Fly for being innovative and changing the standards, and G-sport for making strong and reliable designs.

Brands outside of bmx that I find inspiration in are VW, Lamborghini, and BMW.

So it’s all going along smooth and you’ve got some new products in the works. How far do you want to take it? Would you move outside doing only Ti stuff and maybe move on to doing hubs or other parts? What about going outside the bmx market – those roadies seem like they ain’t short of a buck?

The sky is the limit. I didn't plan on starting a bolt company, or making so much titanium stuff, it just happened. I just went with it and people kept requesting different bolts, so I made what they wanted. I've been putting in a lot of time in designing parts like stems and hubs, but it will be a long time before they are ready because I like to take my time and make sure it comes out exactly how I envision it. I want to work with team riders and make stuff they like. My dream product is a freecoaster that doesn't suck. I really want to offer affordable grade 8 steel versions of the bolts. I'm going to interbike this year so hopefully that will open up some doors for me.

As far as venturing outside of bmx, I would like to make stuff for all kinds of bikes since I love riding anything with pedals, but I don't really have any plans for it right now because I have so many ideas for bmx.



In the case that you picked that the Odyssey PC upgrade at the top of the interview was shown without bearings or bushings... That's because it's still in the prototype phase. Charles is currently messing around with needle bearing and plastic bushing combos, but here's the inspiration - a bent stock PC spindle. So he's beefed up the Ti and, of course, it'll come 6mm equipped

Shout outs? Final words of wisdom?

I would like to thank my mom for everything. She would always keep me busy with projects and taught me how to make stuff. My wife Rachel has helped me so much with Bluesix. Without her none of this would be possible. Shout outs to all my homeboys; Na, John, Daniel, Goldfanga, Abe, T-Love, Damon thanks for the solidworks help, Kyle, Dave, My nephew Chris the pigeon man, Dirty Joe, Lucas, Ben, Wiley, Mo, Adam, my team riders Jon Saunders and Big James, Tom from Empire thanks for generating a huge spike of interest, Rayn from Danscomp thanks for the technical help, Brian from Re-cylery thanks for hookin it up, thanks to everyone that has bought a Bluesix product I really appreciate your support, and of course thanks to Jeff for this interview and letting people know what Bluesix is all about.

Final words of wisdom: Life is short so keep it real and do whatever makes you happy.

... you can't fault that, but you can head over to BlueSix if you want open your wallet for any of the stuff above.

Flying

Kevin Porter bike check off Vinyl with a closer look at the prototype plastic Ruben pedals and their new removable brake mounts that you can take on and off without having to adjust your brakes. Nice. And the riding... very nice.



In the interests of promoting Australian music to the world, I would like to note that the song in that clip was incorrectly labeled. I would post the incorrectly labeled clip, but this is better:

Bite on my Pivotal

Fit's got a lookbook up to highlight some of their remarkably un-innovative new parts. I don't know if they've struck some kind of a deal with odyssey or if their PCP pivotal seat is just a ruthlessly shameless bite on the Odyssey Senior 2 pivotal or what but...



If Nuno from Odyssey's tweets are anything to go by, it's a bite.

If you compare the ribbing on the underside of the two seats you'll see that there actually are some differences. And the molding around the pivotal bolt is slightly different. I think that legally, to avoid a law suit, you have to make seven changes to the design of something for it to not be considered a copy. It's something like that. But basically, it's damn difficult and too expensive to enforce anyway.

But back to Fit. There is also their new PCP pedals. Yep plastic pedals that are the love child of Animal Hamiltons and Odyssey JCs. Apparently they were "Developed from team rider input", but you can't really imagine any of their team specifying reflector mounts on their pedals.



Makes you wonder what a that product designer that Fit was advertising for a while back is going to do there. He'll be sitting in a room with a bunch of catalouges.

Anyway, enough negativity and cynicism. Let this be a lesson: If you want the dirty street kids to buy your dirty street stuff, give it a dirty street name. Them PCPs is dope.

Crash Test - Enjoy Your Dinner

There used to be a cool old site called BMX Test that looked like shit, but was really useful. It was basically a database of loads of parts, their specs and reviews by people that had ridden them. Even if there still is an optimistic listing in the links on BikeGuide's homepage, BMX Test is long dead.

But it's still a good idea, so someone had to come along and pick it up... and they have.



There's a newish site called CrashTest BMX where you can read and write reviews of parts on a site that even looks good. The guy that runs it - Ronaldo - has also added in a whole bunch of other stuff too. Here's what he's got to say about the site:

"CrashTest BMX was created for riders to have a place to give their thoughts about the bike parts that they have ridden. Pictures can be submitted along with their personal experience with certain parts, rating it based how long the part lasted with their riding style. They can also submit their experience with local skateparks and provide basic information such as the parks location, price, and if bikes are allowed.

There is also a "How-To's" where any special instructions can be given on basic bike maintenance or custom work can be submitted. CrashTest BMX also has a message board for users to discuss anything within the BMX community. With the hope of growth of the site in the near future, hopefully we can get some video reviews up soon.

Check out the site and let me know if you have any feedback. Thanks guys."

There you go. Like I said it's pretty new, so if you like it, support it.

You could for example put up a review of Wellgo magnesium pedals.

You could tell everyone out there that in an attempt to save around 100 grams of pedals you ran a pair until one of them unexplainedly shattered as you dropped in one day and ended up reducing the weight of your kneecap by about 10 grams. You know, an unbiased review, let them make their own minds up, maybe add a pic.



Enjoy you dinner.

Living the Technicolour Dream

Ben Ward is a product designer at Odyssey and according to them he's "one of the main dudes behind our R&D". If you take a look at his blog you'll see that he's not only working his dream job like a maniac, but he also lives and breathes bmx.

Anyway, he's got a bike check up on the Odyssey site. Of course you'd expect no less than a top shelf Odyssey / GSport / Sunday decked out whip - and that's exactly what you get.



There's a whole bunch of new shit - gold Ribcages, spokes and nipples, the new Four:four bars, a prototype 9t driver and titanium hardware for the Ratchet hub. And the JC PCs in half black, half white.

I'm really waiting on those pedals. Without having actually ridden them, they seem to combine all the good things about plastics with the grip of a pinned ali pedal. And the black/white combos adds another little function in that you can run pins one side, pedal grind the other side and know which is which at a glance.





I'm wondering how they'll be available. They'll be coming as a full set only ie. four pieces fully assembled, but will you also be able to buy a full set of mouldings only ie. no spindles, or even individual mouldings?

Either way there'll be more colour combos than a pile of clothes at a clown orgy. Definitely not a bad sales ploy when you consider how many kids will be buying two or four sets at once to in order to be living the technicolour dream.

I've said before that I'm an Odyssey fan and it's not because they have endless variants of fruity colourways, but because they keep raising the bar and making improvements to the parts that we put on our bikes. Simple concept, hard to do.

Superstar Plastic Pedals

Told you designers like plastic!
I think I'm right in saying that these things are pretty new, at least these are the 2009 colours:



Superstar's take on plastic pedals. Of course no self respecting bmx company would dare be seen this season without a plastic pedal. I'm still waiting on Odyssey's JC PCs myself.

That said Superstar do have a version of their pedals that has rows of removable steel pins and, like all their products, they've kept packaging to a minimum to reduce waste and environmental impact. So just think of these pedals as PC +.



molded pins = 360 grams / 12.8 oz
removable steel pins = 410 grams / 14.6 oz
2009 translucent colors :
black, clear, orange, green, blue

Chameleon?

The bitter battle of the Plegs continues to be waged on SPRFLS. People hate 'em, people love 'em. And George from G-Sport has defended them. He made a long and interesting comment that's worth reading and he also talks a bit about the curse of the colourway - saying that basically to make a dollar in bmx you've got to keep up with demand for endless colour variations.

I would have said that making parts that change colour in sunlight would be taking it too far, but...

Trendy Colourways

I thought I'd put a little effort into demonstrating my rant from the last post. ie the difference between a company that takes a gamble and puts in work and ones that don't... much. Sorry. Between leading and following, I suppose you could say - or innovating and imitating, or even designing and copying, if you were being bold.

Burning bridges, burning bridges now.

Anyway, despite the risk of becoming the official Odyssey fan club, here you go:

Some plastic pedals, nothing too exciting going on here. OK there's some colours, a few different radiuses (yes, yes look it up, it's radii) some logos here and there, but all in all they're looking pretty much the same, it's business as usual, nothing to write home about etc.

Basically everyone's just gone, "Hold on Odyssey's selling a shitload of those PC pedals, we better get some out! Fuck!". And they did. I guess you can't blame them really, we've all got to eat. It's just that it's kind of boring. There's probably more latecomers than this kicking around, but that's not my point.

Now I actually reckon that there's some good things about pc pedals - cheap, light, shin friendly, and the give in the material means that they seem to stay tight even when they're getting knocked around, which the ali loose bearing pedals don't (so with the PCs you don't really need sealed bearings). But there is one major drawback - I don't care what anyone says, they are just not as grippy. They may be fine for you, but that still don't make 'em as grippy as pedals with pins.

But Odyssey were the only ones that bothered to think too m and now they'll soon release the pc version of the JC pedal. And next year everyone else will bring out their versions. In some trendy colourways of course:

Here's what Odyssey say about them:

Instead of shooting plastic into the JC mold, the JC PC was designed from the ground up, with many new ideas and only the JC shape in mind. The pledals have an ingenious way of attaching the body to the spindle. There is no spindle bolt hole. The pedal splits down the center, where the two mating sides sandwich around the spindle. Joining the two sides is achieved by the pins that thread into the mating side with replaceable steel nuts. This style of build creates an ultralight plastic pedal with the durability of an alloy pedal. In addition to weight savings, the grind options are multiplied compared to the metal version.

They're not suffering from low self confidence in labelling their own idea as "ingenious", but anyway... I'm still impressed.