News

We’re all pleased to welcome Ben Ward as Odyssey’s newest R&D employee. Ben will be working with us to take our new products from the concept stages through to full on production. As a long time Portland resident, he’ll have to adjust to the constant sunshine and terrible traffic. I recommend sunglasses of some kind, and a Sirius satellite radio.

Be sure to say “hi” to Ben if you see him at your local skatepark.

Thanks for reading.

— Chris

PS: Jim Bauer will take you on a virtual tour of the Odyssey office via the Ride US website. Head over to bmxonline and check out “Wednesday’s How To”.

You may have never heard of Defgrip, but Defgrip V2 is out now. You better get on it, or you will really be behind.

www.defgrip.com

Jon from EMPIRE CYCLE SUPPLY in south africa says:

“The trip is going awesome and we just got done with the comp on the weekend. Mike won Pro Street, Matt got second, and Ruben got third.

Mike also won the high air contest. He aired just over 10 feet out of the 8 foot quarter”.

There you have it. Congrats!!

The new Ride has surfaced and it looks like everyone ran a Matt Beringer ad this month, which is awesome. Ourselves, S&M and Orchid all ran Beringer ad’s. sweet.

Jimmy Levan, Adam Banton and Jim Bauer all have shots in the issue as well. congrats to those guys.

Speaking of Mr. Aitken, when he gets back from South Africa, he will get to see his most recent sample of his new seat. Hope he doesn’t mind if I ride til till he’s back.

Mike also won the Road Fools internet vote spot (along with Ryan Sher) to go on the next Road Fools. Its what you’ve all been waiting for. I’m sure Mike and Ryan will shred like they always do. Congratulations yous two.

Jon from Empire Cycle Supply, South Africa, send us some pics of 2 members of Team Arboc. Thanks Jon!

You can also go here, for more shots of Aitken and Beringer in action Empire South Africa

I went to Austin, TX this weekend and participated in the Lance Armstrong Foundations, Ride for the Roses. I rode to raise money for cancer research and awareness. Its pretty amazing to ride with so many people, for the same reason. Riding along with people with a “survivor” sign on thier back is pretty intense also. go to www.livestrong.org for more info.

Empire is loaded with Odyssey Stuff. Go there if you are in Austin.
Thanks Tom and Caleb.

For some reason I couldn’t sleep at all before the ride. I went to sleep at 2:30 and woke up at 4:30 for the ride at 7. Its still dark out.

There were 7000 people riding. Here is a small portion.

I had to buy that helmet, it matched my bike. Matte Black
Almost rode with a Protec.

Zep and I.

This just needs to be seen. Check out the cranks on the third seat back. The family that rides together…

Congrats to Gary Young on his first place finish at this years BACKYARD jam in the UK. Mike Aitken and Matt Beringer were also in attendance, and came in 6th and 14th respectively.

Go here for a full report http://www.fatbmx.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=960

Also, Mike Aitken and Matt Beringer will be heading to South Africa for a little tour.
Go here for more info http://www.empire.co.za/news.html

The Elementary Stem patent was published by the United States Patent Office on October 18, 2005. The assignment number is 6,955,371. Getting approval is a loooooong process. It’s usually close to two years. This is George French’s first U.S. patent, and there are certainly more to follow.

A lot of people worked on this product to make it a reality. In addition to all of the development hours put in by both George and myself, there was also the time invested by Jim Bauer and our team riders; Adam Banton, Jimmy LeVan, Gary Young and Jim Cielencki.

This is a great time to say, “thanks” to everyone. It’s hard to believe that Jim B. and George were using the prototypes back in the spring of 2003…Our latest poster in Ride (US) has incredible photos that show the stem being put to use by Jimmy LeVan and Jim Cielencki.

In closing, as you might expect, there’s obviously even more in store for the Elementary Stem in 2006. We’ll post the information here as it becomes available.

Thanks for reading.

— Chris

chrisc@odysseybmx.com

The second run of fatigue hats has a “vintage” version (Khaki like last run) and a new one. The new one is “fresh”(non-worn) version in digital camo. If you are like us, you have been waiting on the digi-digi since the Marines invented it.

Now your bars/forks and head can match.Metro.