Jared is a professional BMX rider for Odyssey BMX and Fit Bike Co. Though he has the natural talent to kill it on just about any size bike, his first love happens to be fishing! We spent some time with him on his trusty Weekender, and hit up one of his regular fishing spots.
The 2016 Weekender Drop comes stock with a 11- 40t rear cassette. With 10 different gears ranging from a-bombing-down-a-hill-high-speed 11t to the granny-gear-hill-climbing 40t you can ride anything that comes your way. Older Weekenders have an 11-36t rear cassette. If you want a bigger range of gears you can follow the traditional path and add a front derailleur and another sprocket up front. Another option is to take advantage of all the 1x upgrades available in the mountain bike world. Leif Valin upgraded Sandy Carson’s Weekender with a OneUp 42t rear cassette kit and a Wolf Tooth narrow/wide front sprocket. The OneUP kit comes with a 42t cog and a 16t cog. The big green 42t is what is really going to expand the bike’s gear range but the 16t is important for smoothing out the steps in the shifting. Sandy also picked up a Wolf Tooth front sprocket. More on that a little further down. Sandy’s stock 11-36t cassette. This plastic chain keeper has been standard on Weekenders for years. Since the bikes don’t have a front derailleur something is needed to keep the chain from popping off when the rear derailleur starts bouncing around. Truthfully it’s always annoyed me (kind of ugly) but narrow/wide chainrings were always prohibitively expensive for us to put on the complete bikes. Using a narrow/wide chain ring you can delete this chain guide and not have to worry about your chain falling off. It’s one of my favorite upgrades to make on a Weekender bike. This will be the new front chainwheel. See how the teeth alternate between narrow and wide? That fits into the chain’s narrow and then wide spacing (look at a top view of a chain). It is very effective at keeping your chain locked on even when riding over rough terrain that might otherwise bounce a chain tensioned by a rear derailleur off the sprocket. Our mechanic Leif is surely grimacing at how filthy Sandy’s cassette is. To get started chain whip that old cassette off with a cassette tool and a big wrench. Once the lock ring is removed the cassette will lift off the hub. The Weekender Drop uses a normal 10 speed driver that is compatible with both Shimano and SRAM 10 speed cassettes. There are similar options out there to upgrade the Weekender Archer’s 9 speed cassette. Here’s the cassette taken apart and ready for cleaning. All shined up like new with OneUp’s instructions pulled up on the phone for reference. This 17t cog is going to be deleted and replaced with OneUp’s 16t. Leif cleaned it perfectly anyway. This is meant to provide smoother shifting progression. For the most part the cogs will only fit on one way to the driver. The big 42t goes on first and then… …keep adding the next biggest cog to build the cassette back up. Pay close attention to match up the shifting ramps on the new 16t cog. Toque spec that lock ring back on. Finished set up; 11-42t 10 speed cassette. […]
Forgive the slightly sarcastic title. It’s really amazing how adaptable bicycles are and the amount of cool attachments you can stick on them. Want to carry stuff with you on a bike ride, I promise there is a solution for that. Leif tried out some accessories on his Weekender Archer. Check out some options… Customizing your bike is a lot of fun and can make your ride much more useful. Our man @leifiel tried some different looks for his 2016 Weekender Archer. #fairdalebikes A video posted by Fairdale Bicycles (@fairdalebikes) on Dec 21, 2015 at 8:01am PST And here’s another Fairdale loaded to the gills with an Extra-Cycle add on kit: Sometimes parking isn't a bother for me at all. Always a good day when I can ride to work. @fairdalebikes #fairdalebikes #everypedal A photo posted by Jason Thompson (@jasonictx) on Dec 18, 2015 at 1:31pm PST
The forks on all of our Weekender models are re-vamped for 2016. We worked hard to make them better than ever. Let me walk you through some of the features… Our 100% chromoly fork starts with a one-piece machined steer tube. This basically means we start with a really thick piece of Chromoly tubing and machine it down to size. A lot of other forks are two pieces (the crown and steer tube) welded together. We’re also able to machine the headset race into the steer tube. This simplifies headset installation (no press-on race) and allows us to smoothly taper this highly-stressed area, creating a much stronger design. Custom formed leg tubing is tapered and slightly boxed in section to provide more strength, reduce “chatter”caused by powerful disc brakes, reduce unwanted flex and increase tire clearance. Forward facing dropouts (with rack and fender mounts) eliminate the risk of powerful disc brakes trying to pull the wheel’s axle out of place. Here’s how simple installing the bottom bearing is on our forks. Apply a thin layer of grease to the machined bearing race and… …drop the bearing on. Done! Forks are such a crucial area of your bike… hopefully you’ll never need forks this strong but it’s nice to know you have them.
We are stoked to see our 2016 bikes hitting the streets. I’m seeing a number of them tagged on the instagram. Thanks so much folks! Love seeing the bikes out in the real world (and off my computer screen!). A video posted by Fairdale Bicycles (@fairdalebikes) on Dec 9, 2015 at 6:06pm PST
We just received some of our new MX bars. These low-rise chromoly BMX bars can give your bike a new look and feel. Here’s my bike and the switch from Archer bars to MX bars. They have a 4 inch rise and are 28 inches wide. They work especially well with our Weekender Archer, Coaster or Flyer. Pick some up through your favorite bike shop or they are on sale here for $24.99. You’ll need a BMX stem to use these bars on our bikes (the stems that come on the Weekenders, Flyers or Coasters use a 31.8mm clamp but BMX bars use a 7/8″ (22.2mm) clamp). On my bike above I used an old Odyssey BMX Elementary stem because it was polished and fit my color scheme. Any bike shop should have a number of BMX stems to choose from. With the MX bars you get a little more rise to the bars and a nice wide hand position. I find them super comfortable. -Taj
Bike Rumor has a very nice little write up on our 2016 line. Check it here. The bikes are now available and beginning to ship out to bike stores. Let us know how you enjoy them once they get into your hands!
This one is for bike shop buyers but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t point this out to your favorite bike shop. Our USA distributor (and our own in-house distro) is having a sale this week. Bike shops can stock up on Fairdale and other Full Factory goods with a great deal. Hit up Full Factory for all the details. 512-382-9973
We’re VERY happy to announce that Fairdale will once again be back in the UK! IMG Distribution will be bringing Fairdale’s into the UK and then getting them out to the right bike shops (and ultimately happy customers). Hit us up with any questions:info@fairdalebikes.com. Thanks so much to Bike Biz for helping to get the news out.
Some of the Fairdale family and a whole lot of our friends have taken part in The Project Loop 50/50 for Taylor project. The non-profit sends out 100’s of blank skatedecks to artists and Fairdale employees to paint, draw or design on. The finished decks are being auctioned online right now until December 5. There is so many great decks to check out on the site… if nothing else it’s rad inspiration to see so many interpretations of what you can do with a skateboard. Our team rider Sandy Carson meticulously deconstructed his first SLR camera, Tim Kerr honors Jeff Phillips with his deck (Tim was once a hobo in one of our videos), Michael Sieben’s work is always awesome (and he once designed the Roger Bike for us), Jeremy Hrabal helped us out many times building Texas Toast and did this beautiful inlaid board, Jim Bauer is the art director for our mother company Odyssey BMX, is a big part of Fairdale, and put together this rad core sampled board, Steve Crandal helped us out as the announcer for TX Toast and painted a rad board, Aaron Ross has a couple Fairdales and came up with this giant skateboard/ cell phone thing. I drew the bat on a bike one here. Search around and find decks from Mat Hoffman and loads of other legends of skate and BMX. Also, tons of great artists contributed too. https://www.32auctions.com/50503 -Taj
Fishing with Jared Swafford February 11, 2016
Upgrade your old Weekender with more gear range January 27, 2016
You can put so much crap on your bike December 21, 2015
2016 Weekender Forks December 16, 2015
2016 Bikes hitting the streets December 15, 2015
New MX Handlebars December 07, 2015
Bike Rumor, Fairdale November 25, 2015
Full Factory Sale week (for bike shops) November 19, 2015
Fairdale has a new home in the UK November 18, 2015
Custom Skatedecks for a good cause November 16, 2015
