Courtesy of BSDBSD's new Mike Taylor signature WZA frame.Like most BMX companies that got their start in the early '90s, BSD started, humbly enough, printing t-shirts and stickers in the Aberdeen, Scotland area. Somewhere along the way, BSD owner Grant Smith moved to Glasgow, Scotland, where Grant slowly put more into the brand, eventually manufacturing sprockets in the late '90s. In the years since, Grant has partied with Mike Watt of Firehose, judged big contests, broke his collarbone wall riding over his favorite watering hole in Glasgow, and launched BSD as a full-fledge hard goods brand which offers frames, forks, bars, stems, sprockets and more. BSD's latest offering is the WZA frame, and it's available now.
WHAT IT IS:
The WZA frame is Mike 'Jersey' Taylor's signature street frame. Built of full 4130 chromoly, the WZA frame is, in the words of Smith, "A clean, simple, brakeless frame with all of the little tweaks that Taylor wanted." Specs are as follows: Two top tube sizes to choose from (20.6", 21.1"), 75° head tube angle, 71° seat tube angle, 13.55" chain stay length, 11.5" bottom bracket height, Mid bottom bracket. Additionally, the WZA frame is available in either black or raw with Rasta-inspired graphics and an overall weight of 4.8 lbs. And what's with the name anyway? "Mike lives in Warrington, England. The locals call it Wazza, so we made it the name of the frame, with a bit of Wu Tang influence," says Grant.
Courtesy of BSDAttention to detail on the WZA frame: External gussets on the top and down tube for strength (left), and dropouts shaped to work with pegs and hub guard (right).WHY IT RULES:
The WZA frame might look like any other run-of-the-mill street frame out there, but a lot more thought went into the design than you might think. For starters, they've paid attention to how the head tube angle affects the overall wheelbase of the bike. "The head tube angle is 75 degrees and top tube is 21.1". The top tube length has been designed around making the wheelbase the same as a 21" frame with 74.5 degree head angle. Most frames with a 75 degree head angle have a shorter wheelbase than their 74.5 head angle counterparts. Mike wanted his frame to have the same wheelbase and therefore a slightly longer top tube," says Grant. But that's not all. Because Taylor rides four pegs with a hub guard on the rear, the WZA frame was designed "so that when the peg and hub guard are installed, everything sits flush and there is nothing at all to catch on grinds," says Grant. "It was designed around a 25-9 gearing but we have tried a few others including the crazy harsh 25-8 gear that Mike rides and the chain length is still the same at 13.55" to the center of the dropout," he adds. So the WZA frame was designed from the ground up to be a smarter frame, one that doesn't catch on grinds or make slight angle changes affect the overall handling of the bike.
WHERE TO FIND IT:
Currently, the WZA frame is available in the US via Dan's Comp, and internationally through BSD's distributors, which can be located here.
Also, BSD just dropped this brand new edit of Mike Taylor riding the WZA frame here.
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