John Sawyer and Ryan Birk welcomed customers and media into a private hospitality suite, where their plans for 2012 were discussed openly and freely, and with a “this is gonna be AWESOME” kind of energy. It’s remarkable that, only 12 months ago, a chance meeting on the way out of the show was what brought John into the then-ailing Answer BMX picture as its new owner. Barely 365 days later, it could not be a more different situation, and THAT is one of the wonders of the face-to-face business that is done at conferences like Interbike.
Take a stick and place it flat on the seat and extend it above the handlebars. Do this if you have made any significant seat height adjustments, to figure out whether you need to make any changes to handlebar height as well. Come hyper bicycles ride time, the 20-inch wheels with the 1.5” tires bring comfort and stability that are generally not the USP of folding bikes. There’s an 11-speed gear suite with a 54-tooth chain ring for tackling the occasional terrain change.
Thus, we are offering it as a “full-track” listen, and also in two parts. Though the initial rollout this March will be a market test to gauge consumer interest, it is still hitting 314 stores, which is bigger than most chains, in itself. Based on this test, Walmart will evaluate whether the bike gets a chain-wide rollout. Hyper is proudly co-sponsored by Profile racing, Kenda Tires, Black Crown number plates, No Fear and Kovachi Wheels. A nice island plot of real estate in the “BMX Zone,” Profile had the full wagon rolled out at Interbike.
Hyper was established in the 1990s by Clay Goldsmid, a former BMX Pro. Hyper Bikes is a catchall phrase used to describe Hybrid Bicycles, which are preferred by urban cyclists for their ability to tread effortlessly on city trails and off-road ones. That’s what makes people wonder whether these bikes are any good, or just hyped to the heavens.
They have joined with Hyper to create a hangtag to go on all of the bikes on Walmart’s floor. The hangtag offers a free 30-day ABA membership with purchase of the bike—helping break down barriers to getting new wheels on the gate at the local track. The all-white livery is said to be a silent tribute to dR’s decade-ago Powerlite AA-pro teammate, Mario Soto, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in his prime (at 22 years old) on January 16, 2001. Yess is bringing the above expert fork to market, and is currently working to make some design refinements to the traditional Yess Pro-Sized fork. Shown in Expert size on the demo bike of Justin Hailey, the expert Yess fork is made of 7005 aluminum, weighs 410 grams and will retail for under $150. Stock finishes will be matte black and gloss white, but as noted above in-house powder coating allows Yess to do custom frame-fork color pairings.
Whether that is just a hook-up for something new to ride, or a prelude to news to be released in coming days will be keeping us close to the BMX News ticker tape. With the season opener 21 days away, it’s likely we will know sooner rather than later. I rode for Hyper as an amateur back in 1994, and returning to the team in 2007 was like a homecoming. Our relationship produced an Olympic Bronze Medal, a World Championship title, as well as a BMX-Racing-specific bicycle in Walmart.
We saw Donny riding through the parking lot on Friday afternoon in Guthrie. He had just finished the first in a series of talks at middle schools as part hyper bicycles of the Donny Robinson “In Motion” Mentoring Program. We had been aware of the program, and the visit, by keeping up with Donny’s Twitter updates.