Trends- CATEGORY
TRENDS: 2013 BMX TRENDS By Keith Mulligan, Ride BMX Editor in Chief
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MX companies set trends. They also react to them and incorporate anything that makes sense into their complete bike line and aftermarket parts. Whether it’s innovative and simple new takes on decades old designs, a change in tire or handlebar sizes, or a whole new color palette, you’ll always see something new and important to your business in the BMX Zone. Pay attention to this year’s trends, stock the right products, and you’ll see plenty of traffic in your shop.
Go Big Hit any riding spot and you’ll see bigger bars, seats, and top-load stems on bikes. Expect to see those items being the norm on completes, and count on seeing at least one top-load stem and big set of bars in most brands’ booth this year. Longer posts are also popular. “Everything in BMX seems to come back around eventually. Larger seats and longer seat posts are resurfacing in a big way,” said S&M’s Chris Moeller. The thicker seat trend was apparent this time last year, but has now been recognized by every major brand. Expect plenty of new beefed up saddles, most being Pivotal-style, at this year’s show.
A Few Extra Pounds Heavier bikes and parts sales mean things have reached a breaking point—literally. Riders want their bike as light as possible while being able to hold up to anything, and companies want to offer the lightest products they can, but not without compromising safety. According to Animal’s Jay Dyer, “Frame tubing [is] getting thicker because of grinding and crashing. Light frames are gone for the time being.” Coast to coast, brands are seeing the same changes. “One thing we see—or hope to see—going away is the whole ‘lightweight’ thing. Everyone flirted with how light we can make products and later figured out what the happy medium is on 10
bikes have also been a big one, and if you’re spec’ing a bike without tapered forks above the $350 price point, you’re in trouble.”
what we can get away with. Strength over weight will be more popular in coming years,” says Brian Castillo. Keep It Simple When it comes to parts, riders want less technical and overbuilt stuff. Simple and economical is in demand. “As far as P&A goes, there’s a shift back toward simple, strong, and affordable products. Not so much price point level, but a good mix between price and quality with less focus on making things lightweight,” said Verde’s Cory Muth. On the complete bike side, the simple setup is also key. Haro’s James Ayres agrees. “The four peg/front brake/Gyro setup has gone the way of the dinosaur on anything considered upper end. Even the two-peg/Gyro setup has slowed compared to the straight cable/no pegs setup that most guys are running today. Brakeless
Other Important Trends: • Long flangless grips on big bars. • Hub guards are hot—both metal and plastic. • Rear 3/8-inch axles are back. • Plastic pegs with alloy or chromoly cores, long plastic pegs are in. • Female hub axles and left-hand drive hub sales are up. • Shorter cranks are popular—down to 170mm, and even 165mm. • Big tires are being used on everything from dirt to street.
TRENDGUIDE 2012