Sandy CarsonTaj and Monty Mihelich with Fairdale's new Weekender model. Launch Gallery »In September of 2010, Taj Mihelich surprised more than a few people when he announced that he was entering into a partnership with Odyssey BMX to explore the bike world outside of BMX bikes. Dubbed Fairdale Bikes, Taj's aim was to create a line of single-speed road and commuter bikes that were expertly spec'd, designed for the intricacies of road riding and fun to ride.
In the time since, Fairdale has continued to grow, and are now expanding their line further for the new year. Recently, we caught up with Taj to discuss what's new with Fairdale, check out their new Weekender model and see if there was any chance of him returning to a BMX bike after an ongoing back injury. Here's Taj and the Fairdale Weekender.
Taj Mihelich's Fairdale Weekender
ESPN.com: Now that Fairdale is up and running, how is it going?
Mihelich: Good in the sense that the product quality is very good. Slow in the sense that we are still learning how to sell bikes. Most of our sales channels are BMX specific and Fairdale bikes are more of a ride-to-work or ride-for-fun type of bicycle.
Do you think there's a certain prejudice in the bike industry to non-BMX bikes type bikes coming out of the BMX industry?
Not really. I mean you always have the hardcore kids that pretty much live for BMX and don't want to hear about anything else. I was one of them for years. More and more I see the BMX industry starting to accept that it is part of the bicycling world. As BMXers open their mind to other kinds of riding you realize a BMX isn't the best way to commute 20 miles to work or bomb down a mountain side. All these other bikes are just different tools that every BMXer has a huge natural skill advantage on.
What's next for Fairdale?
We have four new models coming out in early 2012. It will give us a much more rounded line. Some cheaper bikes and some geared models like the Weekender prototype shown here.
And finally, how's your back doing, and have you been able to ride BMX at all?
My back has been a mess. I rode a ramp for the first time in probably a year this weekend. Did about four lazy runs, manuals and stuff, and was hurting bad. Docs can't figure out what to do next and I've been spending a lot of energy on pain management. It's pretty exhausting really. In the meantime though, I'm working on creating bikes I can ride.
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