So I am a little behind in the times, but being winter and all I have had a lot of couch hours, so I am about to release a slew of BMX video reviews, even if they are a couple months overdo. First off PROPS issue 70, I love PROPS, even more  than YouTube, mostly because I can watch it on my TV, but they always have good content and you get that awesome I just got a new video feeling everytime they show up at your mailbox. This issue was pretty good, there was FBM's Brawlin at the Belmar, which is way different than any Dew Tour contest, just a huge pile of dirt that you ride at as fast as you can, and hucking your best moves. We also have the Red Bull Empire of Dirt, which is a bunch of piles of dirt you would ride at as fast as you can throwing your best moves, as well as some other crazy obstacles I've never seen anywhere else. The Forte brothers, Brian Foster, Corey Bohan, as well as every other trail master destroy all of it. I really liked the Miles Rogoish Bio, he has a super clean style and some pretty creative stuff that you don't see in every web video. The Metal bikes trip was awesome, and it has everything crazy you would expect from Metal, on and off the bikes. There's also a Brian Kachinsky profile, and a day in the life with Big Daddy, who I really haven't figured out yet. So even if it's a little outdated and most of the good stuff is on the Props Best of 2008, I'm glad I picked it up and I think it's worth the cash.

 

     So by now there is no denying that plastic pedals are everywhere, every company has put one out and a lot of dudes love them. Obviously if you have read any of my previous blogs you know I'm down with plastic, my only gripe being that you have to replace them relatively frequently, but something has got to give. One night I was checking out a couple spent Odyssey Twisted PC's that really didn't owe me anything, after a few sprocket grinds I had pretty much wiped the teeth right off them, and I had an idea that might get me a little more life out of my wrecked pedals. The cool thing about the Twisted PC's as well as a lot of other companies is that they basically use the same mold as they're aluminum pedals, so I thought why not drill out the spot where my plastic pins were and screw some removable pins through the holes just as they are on the aluminum version. Of course this will make your shin friendly plastics into an angrier slightly more deadly plastic metal hybrid, but it's still minor compared to what a metal pedal will do to your legs.

 

 

      I've tried this with my Odysseys as well as with my Eastern plastics and both seem to hold the pins in just fine, and you can replace them if you need to. So far I have only tried the Odyssey styled removable pins , which you insert and screw in from the other side, not the grub screw style that have an Allen key fitting on the topside, but I plan on trying that to if I can get my paws on some extra pins. The thing I like about them is that you don't need to replace every plastic pin with a metal one, I just did the four corner pins. As I was writing this article, I discovered I definitely wasn't the only one that thought this was a good idea, Odyssey has just released the JC PC pedal, which splits in half around the axle and the screws that hold it together end up being your pins when the poke out the other side, pretty slick.

 

 

So here are a few pics of the minipegs, so you"ll have an idea what I"m talking about and how to do it yourself. I'm still pretty psyched on theses little guys they've been tough as nails so far, and if nothing else it will make you grind with precision, haha, or else you'll fly off. I decided to run an axle nut before I put the socket on, just because I wanted a bit more length, I'm a cheater.

 

 

Everything nowadays has to be light, BMX companies making porky parts have had to trim the fat more and more the last few years because nobody will touch them. We probably have the reputation as being the biggest weight weanies in the cycling world, even more than the spandex clad dudes or carbon roadbikes, thats bad. Oh well enough making fun of the gram counters, but keeping with tradition here's a way to shave some heft off your ride. Primo has made the Jewels for a while, I've always thought they were cool, but I could only ever find them for 3/8" axles, I have 14mm front and rear so I was out of luck. For those of you who aren't familiar with them the Jewels are basically socket with the ratchet end, but the six or twelve point end that you would normally put on you axle nut is threaded, so you use that instead of the axle nut. I know a lot of us already took our pegs off, depending on where and how you ride you might not even need them, but these guys will at least cover the ends of your axle if you havent already cut them off. I've seen a few people with homemade versions of the Jewels before for 14mm axles, so i definitely can't take the credit, but I didn't have a machine shop to make mine so I had to think of something else. What I did was take a regular 14mm axle nut, a regular 19mm socket (sometimes they're 17mm) that you would use to remove it, and JB Welded them together. JB Weld is crazy, they've use it to fix cracked engine blocks to give you and idea of what it is capable of, so be careful with it. So far my homemade axle nut peg things work great, and they've held up after a bunch of sessions with no sign of coming apart. So there you go, one more way to make you bike lighter without completely sacrafice you pegs, just mostly sacrafice.

So it's that time of year again, riding down the street towards an afternoon session with your buds isn't as easy as it sounds, unless you have a death wish or studded 20" tires. Winter is not a friendly time for your average BMXer, it's cold, your favorite outdoor parks, trails, or street spots are covered in ice or snow, so you're stuck inside watching old videos driving yourself crazy wanting to ride, how should you keep your sanity? The best way is to keep riding, if you are lucky enough to own a car or at least have a buddy with one than it's time to pile in and head to the closest indoor skatepark. Here at Bikeman I'm lucky enough to have one in my hometown, the Bath Skatepark, and with plenty of bike sessions I get to ride a few hours a week. Tuesday nights are a must, it's a bike only session and there are dudes from all over the place that come down to get in the much needed ride time. If you are to far south to make the trip up to Bath you still have no excuse, because you're  probably somewhere near Rye Airfield, with their winter schedule up on their website you should have no problem scheduling a time to go shred that place. So there are a couple places to ride, now here is something else you can do, fix your bike! I will be willing to bet money that everybody out there needs to give there bike a little TLC, I work at a shop and even I'm guilty. BMX bikes always make noise because we beat the snot out of them, go look at your bike and fix what ails it. If nothing else it might save you a session ending mechanical issue like a broken cable or chain (if any of you still use those things) or maybe it's time to check out that horrible noise coming from your bottom bracket, face it any time you can ride this time of year is valuable, don't waste it by letting something break! Alright everyone stay warm, and go find an indoor park to keep the demons at bay, or like I said earlier there is always studded tires...

                                       

As a kid, you're bike seemed to be one way to measure how cool you were, and back then a set of plastic pedals screamed junk. If you didn't roll up with a big set of nasty beartraps covered in teeth you might as well not have anything at all, fast forward 15 years and all of a sudden plastic has been made a comeback! I was hesitant at first, mostly concerned with the obvious, are theses things really going to give me any grip? Are they going to hold up?  Well actually I have been more than happy with them so far. There are quite a few advantages really, they're light, they're cheap, and the provide plenty of grip without attacking my shins like a cheese grater, I can't count the number of times I've slipped a pedal and thanked myself for having these. There are a couple disadvantages, one, don't ride them with wet shoes because then they fell like someone covered you feet in grease, and two, the bearings aren't sealed so they don't last forever, but they do seem to hold up just as long as the unsealed aluminum versions. I picked up a pair from Eastern, but Odyssey has been making them for years, and Primo along with most other major parts manufacturers have all released a version, even some with removable teeth. These would also be great for non-BMX bikes as well, it would be a good addition to any commuter or cruiser where you just want to hop on and ride. While not for the ripper who wants his feet totally superglued to his bike and dosen't care what happens to his shins should they happen to come unstuck, I'm not that tough and dig my plastics.

                                            

After watching the spoke heads on my new wheelset rapidly disappear as I grind them into nothing, I thought maybe it's time to try a hub guard. Most likely dismissed by the weight conscious, or those of you who don't want anything on your bike except the wheels, hub guards seemed like a pretty good idea when you don't want to have to always have a bunch of extra spokes around. Deciding to give it a shot, I chose the FBM version thinking they seem to always make pretty cool stuff. I wish the one I got was easier to find, now they don"t seem as simple to get, but with so many companies like Demolition , KHE , Profile Racing, and others making their own versions that are matched to their hubs, it seems like these new options are better anyway. Don't want to have to buy a new hub? I don't blame you check out the G.L.A.N.D. by G sport, it should fit on most hubs and because it's made of plastic, it's pretty dang light. So if you're tired of mangling spokes, and destroying the hub flanges slap on one of these and grind them to nothing!

 

 

After watching a number of videos, I decided that I needed a freecoaster hub, rolling backwards without having to backpedal seemed like it could be pretty cool. Used mostly in flatland, freecoasters seem to have made more of a presence in street lately, with 14mm axles and big sealed bearings, it opens a whole new bag of tricks. For my wheel I decided to go with the KHE Reverse, there are a whole bunch of options with this hub, left hand drive, right hand drive, a choice between 14mm and 3/8 axles, and depending on availability a bunch of colorways. Since I originally wrote this review there have been a couple updated versions by KHE, like the Geisha Lite, and the Reverse ACB, a number of other companies also produce there own, but many use the KHE internals. All of the KHE hubs have slack adjustment springs which allow you to customize this engagement to your liking, I found the engagement on the reverse to be faster than that on the Geisha out of the box. I've ridden both the Reverse and the Geisha, and found for my needs riding primarily street and parks that the reverse is the hub for me, the Geisha might be better suited for flatland, but I like the big axle and the faster engagement on the Reverse. So far I have been pretty happy with my hub, I"ve added a couple of slack adjustment washers and replaced the bearings in the driver which wore out pretty quickly, an issue KHE claims to have solved with the Reverse ACB. So get one and go ride your bike backwards!