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My buddy Tim approached me like 1.5 years ago to create a cool looking bike to display at his shop UNIV in Encinitas. I made very lazy progress, enlisting the help of friends whenever the thought crossed my mind… a seat cover here, a headtube badge there, until we were done. All my favorite companies contributed (see who after the jump) among which was our friend Matt at The Laboratory who handcrafted a multi-layered textured paint finish that looks exactly like something that just spent a few decades at the bottom of the ocean.
In the end though, it’s just a BMX bike so Jim and I took a morning drive down to UNIV to test it out on the world’s smallest quarterpipe. Click below to see all the photos and read UNIV’s press release.
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Handmade headtube badge by The Laboratory.
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Jim jumped onto a bench that had wheels on it, then onto the deck of the quarter pike, then nose bonked this mailbox.
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2 feet out of a 3 foot ramp is like 4 feet out of a 6 foot ramp, right? Oh wait that’s still not impressive.
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Sunday‘s Gary Young – fastplant to one-footed table at a famous spot a few blocks away.
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From UNIV:
Introducing Rust Heap, a multi-brand collaboration BMX bike that was over a year in the making. Brought together by longtime BMX pro Mike Ardelean and Tim Swart of UNIV, the two friends connected their network of eight other friendly brands to build a customized project bike that’s just plain cool. The entire collaborative brand roster includes Verde, UNIV, Odyssey, Duo, Defgrip, Ludwig Van, G-Sport and The Laboratory.
The bike was put to the test this past weekend by pros Mike Ardelean, Jim Bauer and Gary Young. The photos are mere snapshots of what a fun maiden voyage it was!
Rust Heap features the highest quality parts from the various collaborative partners. The Verde Cartelframe/fork/bars were painted by The Laboratory to look like rust. It was given many layers of paint in different textures over a multi-week period to achieve the look of something that had been pulled from the bottom of the ocean. The custom-made UNIV head badge adds to the bike’s D.I.Y. personality. The other parts featured are as follows:
-Odyssey Elementary stem, Path tires, Chase Hawk grips, Par ends, Mr.Clampy seatpost clamp, Million Dollarsprocket, Twombolt cranks, Twisted PC pedals
-Verde Cartel frame, fork, bars
-Duo/Defgrip seat
-Ludwig Van seat cover, custom made in downtown Los Angeles
-G-Sport Marmoset (front) and Ratchet (rear) hubs and Ribcage rims
Says Ardelean, “We wanted to make something cool. We worked on it for a long time and the Rust Heap is cool.” Following the thorough testing of the Rust Heap by all collaborators, it will be on display here at the UNIV Concept Shop.
For more information on the collaboration partners, please visit the following websites: Verde, Odyssey, Duo, Defgrip, G-Sport, Ludwig Van and The Laboratory.
