It’s never too late to learn, and to try and improve upon yourself, I am a 41 year old BMXer, and an owner of one of the few remaining independent BMX companies with in house manufacturing, that also employs bike riders.
Now considered part of the old guard, as younger generations grab the sport and the industry by the horns, it’s easy to fall into line with the jaded cynics, I am guilty of some of it, but in my head, I still identify with the wide eyed eager grom I was 20 some odd years ago.
As a small company, all facets of what we do, involve everyone that is a part of FBM. Everyone has their area of expertise, but we all work together. Stepping outside my typical role, I worked more closely with John Corts and Dylan Cole in the FBM Machine shop to redesign, and update the Steadfast, a frame we all worked together to create, featuring the classic geometry and style for riders who like to hit the woods, ride transitions, pools, whatever… A simple functional bike, built to ride anything.
While working part time this past year at bike shop that sold primarily non BMX high end bikes, I had become hip to Edoardo Bianchi’s simple, and maybe overlooked approach to research and development, something some say he was key innovator with, over 100 years ago. He built bikes in his garage shop, people rode them on the weekends, coming back during the work week to see how the new ideas worked, they tested out new ideas and constantly went back to the drawing board so to speak, making simple and functional ideas better through real life, hands on “research and development”.
Drawing inspiration from people around me, and learning more and more about bikes in general, we redesigned the Steadfast, we refined the geometry, the tubing spec, we built it, painted it red, and I went and rode it as much as I could. In my travels, I did my best to pay attention to what people are riding and why, but what I learned is that, the more I rode my own bike, the more it made me smile. That was the most crucial development in my whole world, rediscovering the smile my bike gives me.
While learning about making our bikes better, I was also learning about myself, which is weird to think about, to have been riding BMX most of my life, to being in business for over 20 years, and still have SO much to learn, to share, so much to be excited about, to be scared of, to risk, and so much to care enough about, that I want to, that WE want to get more involved, to remain involved, and to quite simply just keep getting stoked making bikes and riding bikes.
I don’t harbor any illusions that I am some mastermind bike builder, re inventing the wheel, I am simply just an aging BMX kid with an active imagination, stoked on working with my friends to make FBM as awesome as we can. FBM and BMX’s biggest rewards are about group efforts, and I am lucky enough to have found a group of people who share the enthusiasm for a DIY approach to being creative an productive, and to being involved with bike riding, building and more.
With that said, look for a new and improved Steadfast this spring, when the woods come to life, and continued commitment from FBM to build as much fun as we can. High quality, kick ass, hand built Fun, Bikes and Memories to share with everyone.
All that being said, this is the most awesome bike I have ever ridden.
Get Stoked, Stay Stoked!
