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Hello,

My name is George and I don’t like Fit Bike Co.  I know I’ve hinted around at my dislike of them before, but I figure now is time for me to go into the how’s and whyfors.  Y’see, it’s not like I hate their products, which I think are of the exact same quality as every other product at whatever price point they’re competing in.  Let’s be honest, the most innovative thing Fit’s done is name a product line after closeted gay sex, other than that all of their stuff is pretty much just like everybody else’s stuff.

Nope, my problem was always Fit’s image.  In an industry where avoidance of the jock mentality has been fetishized to an almost idiotic point Fit’s image was almost the the very definition of the jock mentality (and, let’s be honest^2, the dirty little secret of BMX is that the “jock mentality” is actually “the average mentality of 16 year old boys” and this sport is lousy with 16 year old boys).  While other brands seemed to sell “ride our stuff and you’ll have fun,” Fit sold “ride our stuff and you’ll be cool.”  If BMX is high school, Fit was the captain of the football team, who was banging the head of the cheerleading squad, and her best friend…and they both knew and didn’t care. Read more…

My niece, and 2008 Hottest Firefighter in PA, blowing off some steam after 6+ hours in a bridesmaid’s dress.

My nephew got married this weekend means that I was in Camp Hill, PA for the past seven days.  Those who know the area know that Camp Hill is about 30 minutes from the home of modern flatland (York) and 10 minutes from the home of the modern waistline (Hershey).  It also nowhere near a consistent internet connection that didn’t consist of my phone.  Oh well.

While I was out a couple of news items broke.  One is the great bottom bracket controversy.  Oh noes, BMX has more than one BB standard.  By my count, if you go from the cheapest to the most expensive race and freestyle bikes there are, in fact, four (Spanish, Mid, American and Euro.  Free Agent got zero traction with external bearings on BMX bikes as far as I can tell) there are four brake standards (U, V, side-pull and coaster) two stem/fork interfaces and a couple three headset standards.  Yet, no one has died.

In comparison, my last car (a Lincoln LS V8) had so many proprietary parts that it was, for all intents and purposes unmodifiable.  I don’t even know if anyone ever even got wheels that fit properly on one of those things.  Oh, you could find the right bolt pattern, but finding the backspacing so that they wouldn’t rub, fuggedabouddit.

I have a guitar body in my garage.  It’s an Ibanez RG450.  I have a bunch of parts from an old RG550 that I modded.  Won’t fit without modification.  Let me say that again, parts from THE NEXT MODEL UP IN THE SAME SERIES BY THE SAME MANUFACTURER won’t fit.  BMX has it easy.

Plus, really, if you’re not a bike mechanic, when was the last time you paid much attention to your bottom bracket?

Moving on.

Apparently there was a rumor that something big (and possibly bad) was going to happen with Fit.  I’m really late to this party, but has anyone ever said that Chris Moeller doesn’t like money.  A LOT.  Is there a single person who believes that Moeller would throw away that cash cow?  I mean, come on, how else would he start his day with his customary money pit bath? (OK, I don’t know if he bathes in money every day, but I don’t think he’d be opposed).

Anyway, more topical updates now that I’m back from The White Shore.