Interbike has long come and gone this year and lots of riders got to check out a ton of new and innovative products. We asked five pros which part they think has the best design right now and why. Mike Ardelean, Pete Brandt, Taj Mihelich, James Foster, Adam Banton all give their opinions.
“The Odyssey Elementary stem—hands down. It’s super light without sacrificing safety or function. It won an I-D award… So far its look has aged well, and it makes other stems look archaic.”
- Mike Ardelean
The Odyssey Elementary stem may be one of the most unique looking stems on the market, but it is definitely the only one out there that has won an international design award.
“I would have to say the best design I have seen recently is the Sequence Hook stem or the Sequence plastic pegs. The stem for me works really well because it has two screws instead of the traditional six, or in some cases four so there is less weight and less of the stem to get stripped out. Also the design because of how the stem hooks around it has better clamping power than any other stem I have used. In fact, this stem has never slipped on me yet! I am thankful to ride for Sequence because I get to ride parts like this before they come out and also I believe in the parts they make so in turn when I recommend parts like this to riders I feel it helps so the are not wasting money and time on something that won’t work for them.”
“As for the plastic pegs; it is pretty obvious…no more bent axels and less frames cracking.”
- Pete Brandt
The Sequence stem may be new to some of our readers, but flatlanders know all about the two-bolt design.
“There are different ways to interpret this question but I’ll focus on the one that made the biggest difference for me. Back in the late 80′s BMX bikes were really more or less the same as now. I could still use wheels, pedals, cranks, and most parts from back then with no problems. But one part was BMX’s weakness and made the bikes flat out dangerous. The shafted or quill stem design in use made for an impossible situation. The shaft that slid down inside the steer tube of your fork had to be a standard thickness, and then, the only headset available for BMX at the time had to fit on the outside of the steer tube. What this meant is that the steer tube of your fork could only be one thickness. And it was sketchy! This was the dark ages of BMX and most every fork not only had that sketchy thin steer tube, but the crown of the fork was welded on to the steer tube at just about the same point as where the steer tube ended. So now we have a too thin steer tube with a quill stem ending just about at the same spot as a poorly welded (most likely overheated) crown. It was a death trap and your forks could break at any moment with almost no warning. It hurt a lot of people and it made it hard to trust the front end of your bike. The clamp-on stem was the answer to this problem and allowed finally for a steer tube to be a safe thickness. Legend says that Cook Bros made a clamp on stem years and years before, but it wasn’t until the Hoffman Super Fork that the clamp on stem finally hit home on BMX. Sure, it was not in anyway an elegant design, and in fact even in those days of weight being no issue, it was considered very heavy, but it worked, and you could trust it. Later BMX ditched the awful threaded headset and adopted Aheadsets. Slowly over the years forks and clamp-on stems have been refined to the state they are in now. The clamp on stem is one part that I think really changed BMX. There’s no way the old design would hold up for today’s level of riding.”
- Taj Mihelich
Thank the BMX gods that goosenecks have gone to the wayside…
“For the past year I have had more plastic on my bike than I ever thought I would. What’s scary is it hasn’t let me down yet. From ideas that date back to the early 90′s, plastic on BMX bikes has had a longer history than you may think in various forms and function. From bar ends, number plates, seats, hub guards, old school brake guards, pegs, and even those old Bully bash guards… Plastic has seemed to weave in and out of the industry throughout the years. Of course the design, composite and what components or idea works best has been refined, revised, redesigned or in some cases completely gone back to the drawing board. A great example of this and possibly the favorite part on my bike would be the G-Sport Pleg. For almost two years now I’ve been grinding on plastic pegs—I even did a Barcelona trip with them. These things have been so fun on almost everything I have ridden. True, plastic and pegs have been done before over the years. But I’m impressed how the Plegs simple design incorporates strength and function all while keeping almost a 2 to 1 weight ratio of traditional chromoly pegs. You can slide aluminum rails, there quite less destructive sounding to security guards, and park friendly, too. Do they wear down? Of course (duh, they’re plastic) but they last longer than most of my inner tubes, and I still run those.”
- Adam Banton
BMX trends constantly change. Heavy bikes are out; light bikes are in. People now realize that in some places you can have really light, plastic parts and not sacrifice the strength of your bike.
“I think the KHE Astern freecoaster hub is an extremely innovative bike part. Freecoasters are known for having a lot of pedal play when compared to normal cassette hubs, but the Astern allows the amount of pedal play to be adjusted from none at all to as much or more as a traditional freecoaster. Not only that, but to adjust the pedal play, you don’t even have to remove the wheel from the bike. All you need is an Allen wrench and you adjust the Allen screw inside the 14mm axle. By being able to adjust the play and dial it into a rider’s specific preference, this type of innovation allows BMX to progress by making parts such as freecoasters more likely to be ridden by street riders and ramp riders who can utilize it in different ways by being creative and doing more than just the traditional ramp and street tricks.”
- James Foster
KHE’s Astern hub gives the rider a lot of options with fewer headaches.
“Years and years before I worked for Odyssey they made some advancement’s with bicycles that really changed the game. One of the most important was their 41-Thermal process. I remember the first time I was handed a pair of race forks. I swore there was no way that they would last for street riding, but I was assured they were strong, and that they were backed with a lifetime guarantee. Working in a machine environment I knew the benefits of heat-treating. I also knew that heat-treating is about as straightforward as baking a cake—meaning that there were a lot of variables to consider.
In the beginning, 41-Thermal allowed a bicycle fork to be both significantly lighter and more durable than the other forks that were being offered at the time. A process that many tried to write off as a gimmick has truly pushed the design envelope when it comes to the development of modern day 4130 chromoly parts. The process has been applied to forks, seat posts, handlebars, cranks and frames. It used to be a very rare occurrence to see post-weld heat-treating in the BMX marketplace, but now, because of the influence 41-Thermal, other companies have begun to offer their interpretations of a process that has been continuously tweaked and refined by Odyssey for the last 10 years.”
- Ben Ward
Product Designer, Odyssey
TAGS: Adam Banton, Best Part Design, James Foster, Mike Ardelean, Pete Brandt, Pros Opinions, Taj Mihelich
