24 The next wrung on the peg ladder was dictated by hub technology, 14mm rear axles arrived and the peg was standardised, remaining largely unchanged to this day. A typical set of pegs will be drilled for 10mm front and 14mm rear axles, be 4 inches long and made from tubular steel. Now that the peg had some sort of standard it left the bike companies desperately clutching at straws, gimmicks, colours and anything they could get their hands on to make a dent in the market. One of the most laughable attempts at marketing was the Haro Rail Master peg, which was a peg with a deep hourglass profile. The idea was that it would help you lock onto rails and coping and yes, I suppose it would, but if you’re sliding off balance down a twenty stair rail it can be useful and life-preserving to be able to pull off easily and ride down the stairs. Notably similar to this peg were the Diamondback Liberty Bell, which flared at one end to lock the grind into the dropout side of the peg. If you had attempted a flat ledge or square rail with either these pegs you’d have been in considerable trouble. A tubular steel peg will always grind best. When companies try and reinvent this simple but effective item I think it important that riders question the intentions behind the reinvention; are the companies trying to push the sport in new directions or are they trying to make a quick buck with a gimmicky novelty? Following in this marketing mold and although extremely popular I could never understand the Stiffie peg from Primo, I can accept that at five inches long, big is sometimes better, but ribbed for her pleasure, why?
amazing sparks when grinding concrete but every spark represented a quid coin worth of titanium rolling down the drain. Bizarrely, if you ground a rail with a Ti peg Ti deposits would be left behind making it progressively stickier, much to the disagreement of all those running mere mortal steel pegs. Pegs of recent have become a little more reasonable. Almost every company has a four inch heat treated peg with a drilled out base and thin walls keeping things sensible and functional and as it should be. There is however a yin to the yang of current peg technologies represented by The Pleg, an idea that George French, the mind behind Gsport and many Odyssey products flirted with years ago. I can remember him giving a set of bright white plastic pegs to Chris Souter to test. These things were entirely constructed from plastic, with the first couple of grinds Souter did you could observe the pegs visually flexing. A couple of hefty icepicks and after what must have been only a few minutes the rear one was snapped off and it was back to the drawing board for George. The Pleg in my opinion is a much discussed but seldom used object. If you believe the adverts virtually everyone is running them. Plegs come in a rainbow of different colours and logos but they all revolve around the same premise, that of a small metal core with a replaceable plastic sheath over the top. Butcher uses one apparently, he’s the king of grinding everything in every position, he can’t be wrong, can he? If you believe the advertising spiel you’ll be able to slide aluminium rails, grind rock, brick, drystone walls and every surface in between, but for how long? Plegs wear out really quickly and take away some of the destructive fun that a peg represents. I’m still on the fence, I think Plegs are gimmicky and will probably disappear soon. The beauty of a peg for me lies in its simplicity, it glimmers with destructive force like a hammer or bludgeon, it’s a barbaric tool of the trade and as such is almost unclassifiable as a component. It’s a fiery, aggressive and exciting ride when you get that roar from grinding concrete and I think some of the fun associated with using pegs can be swallowed up by the safety and neutrality of a plastic peg.
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SCAFF PEGS HOVERED AROUND THE FIVE TO SIX INCH MARK BUT I SAW THEM AS LONG AS EIGHT INCHES
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The most intelligent enhancement of the peg has been with the reduction of its weight. Everything was stupidly overbuilt in the late nineties, the weight of a peg was inconsequential next to a 10lbs Morales BTS frame. Coinciding with the arrival of Ruben’s popularity, a breath of sanity was exhaled and our bikes began to lighten up, becoming infinitely more rideable. The weight of the peg was now brought into question. Terrible One came up with a steel peg with an aluminium core and soon after Fly did a drilled version furthering the weight loss. These pegs proved to be a sensible step in the right direction. They ground well because of the sheath of steel and relinquished weight with the structure being aluminium. The antithesis to 1998’s high weight, more material equals more strength mentality arrived almost a decade later with three pound frames, titanium spokes and even titanium pegs. A peg is a part of your bike that shouldn’t cost a fortune, a servile product of masochistic functionality a peg exists primarily to have the shit kicked out of it. Ti pegs were ludicrously expensive. They produced
In their infancy pegs were much like bashguards, standing platforms and brake guards - gimmicky and largely useless. Pegs now stand as an amazing tool for fun and a voice of freedom in BMX. I’m against reinventing the peg; its four inch steel form has firmly stood the test of time. Be respectful of the peg’s perfection, keep one eye on its progress but also keep a healthy suspicion of marketing gimmicks everywhere.