MtnBikeRiders.com

Tell us about Tag Wheels and where the idea came from?
We were lucky enough to get the opportunity to talk with Mike Thomas of Tag Wheels and shoot the breeze about their uber cool wheels.

Read the interview below!

Tell us about Tag Wheels and where the idea came from?

We had access to this protected advanced molding technology that allowed us to mold wheels like no one else in the world. That is one-piece hollow with internal supports and an integrated tire bead. Other manufacturers either bond a metal rim to the composite wheel or mold the wheel solid (not hollow), or make it A or H framed (flexy), or make a
wheel without a bead, or hand make it. We had the perfect technology and it was proven, and very repeatable.

There in lies the name TAG (Technically Advanced Geometry) It has been a 3+ year project to date. In 2005 we researched the market and noted that riders were getting more
ballsy and extreme and that manufacturers were making bikes and aftermarket parts more “Bombproof” to accommodate the new riders demands. In 2005 we went to Crankworx with a prototype TAG Wheel and showed it around to the Bike Park and realized that bikes, bike parts, wheels, and riders were getting broken too often and the costs were
huge. We learned the costs associated to buying wheels, replacement wheels, maintaining wheels, and the constant requirement to keep them trued or else was a serious issue. We were quickly introduced to Dangerous Dan Cowan and the Flowriders and saw them in action doing their stunts. We looked over their many bikes and wheels and had discussions with each of their riders about their day to day issues. We soon realized the serious commitment required to maintain wheels to keep them trued especially when your safety is at risk with such stunts.

We asked them and many others if we could make wheels absolutely truly bombproof with no or little maintenance if that would appeal to them.The answer was obvious, and they really liked the 5 offset spoke design MAG look as well. That led us to develop the FRX5 wheel.


What kind of riding are Tag Wheels meant for? XC, DH, FR, and 4x?

We learned quickly that the utility or application of our wheels was much greater than expected. It was not a surprise when you consider we have made the toughest bicycle wheel ever with basically no maintenance required.

We’re very clear in our positioning and our value proposition, as per our website and 4 Reasons to Buy. We don’t really compare ourselves to traditional spoked wheels as they usually focus on wheel weight, aerodynamics etc. We were asked by some of our dealers where they should merchandise the wheels in their store. They were thinking in between the freeride and downhill wheels. We said why don’t you put them beside all the other traditional wheels. Its not so much about comparing our wheels to traditional wheels as it is about offering an alternative solution. If a rider simply bends and breaks wheels and is fed up with constant maintenance of wheels and wants to ride more and save money in
the long run then our wheels may be right for him.

Keep in mind we have the unique chain binding prevention feature which ensures your chain will not bind if it comes off the cassette. The rear derailleur actually pops the chain back onto the cog in a second or two. With all that said our wheels are being tested by 10 of the biggest and best bike parks across the US and Canada for months now and we have not had one single problem occur. Our wheels utility and application is Downhill,Freeride, Urban, All Mountain, Bike Park Rental Bikes, Heavy weight riders, Riders that like to train with heavier wheels to optimize their training. As I mentioned earlier you can see the market is telling us the utility is much wider.

At Sea Otter 2007, we saw quite a bit of riders racing or performing in Tag Wheels. I even asked one of the guys at the Flow Riders Show if how he liked his wheels, he talked about how great they are and how he never has to worry about messing up a wheel. With that in mind, what kind of stress testing does Tag put these wheels through? Does Yanni Antonakos do some crazy drops with them?

When you look at our website we are straight up with our viewers about our wheels. We explain for example the making of a TAG Wheel, and details of the technology. We have videos showing 4 HUGE impacts so you can see what 90 lbs of weight attached to our wheels does when impacting on a 4 degree angular pipe showing side impact. Our wheels will withstand over 10000 lbs static load before permanent deformation. That is unheard of. As well you can see Yanni put the wheels through some serious real life testing on these videos. Our gallery shows 11″ downhill travel bikes to urban to dirt jump bikes.

We just got back from Whistler Crankworx and Yanni is now at Claworx offering demo bikes and selling wheels. Soon we will put up many more pics from Crankworx.
Whistler, rental shops, dealers, customers, mashers are all over the mountain so for the past year a lot of field testing has been done. Like I say no one has broken a TAG wheel. I’ve seen some big drops! Were not worried.

Why did you go with DT Swiss hubs? Would another brand been able to
work with the Tag Wheels?

We met up with DT Swiss in 2005 at Crankworx and we realized quickly that their FR440 disk hubs were proven reliable, proven to be low maintenance with the star ratchet system and proven to be seriously tough with those 2 opposing ratchets with 18 hardened steel teeth. Such a very simple and effective long lasting engagement system. Their reputation is second to none, and their warranty program is excellent.

We have 2 other hub manufactures that we have worked with and we have already proven out the compatibility and application of lower cost hubs for the FRX5 when the time is right to market.

You know much of our discussions with Bike Parks rental fleets and OEM’s or even large dealers follow this kind of proposition. Our proposition is offer a system sale where we partner in this case for example with a bike park. After the initial complete wheel purchase we then sell them blank wheels without hubs. We provide them with the proprietary tool to unlock the locking ring and pop out the hub. If a problem occurs with a TAG Wheel the mechanic simple pops out the hub and puts the used hub into a brand new wheel blank. It takes 15 minutes to build a brand new wheel and it always remains true. This is similar to what we do with our current wheel exchange program offered on the website for $200 for a brand new wheel.

With the wheels weighing up to 4lbs a piece, what do you say to nay-sayers that are weight weinnies that think these wheels are just too heavy? Will you be offering lighter wheels?

Were not shy and very upfront about our value proposition (4 Reasons to Own) We’ve learned as well as any wheel manufacturer that to get something you’ve got to give something else up. In this case we have the toughest and lowest maintenance wheel and for that you give up weight. Bottom line is if you’re after weight we don’t try and sell you.

You cant be all things to everyone and that’s straight up.We can make wheels lighter and in many shapes and sizes with 3,4,6,7 20 spokes etc. We can make it with Carbon fiber, Nylons, and other materials. We can make it more aerodynamic etc. We are now in
discussions with OEM’s and soon we will identify some OEM wheel projects with them that will facilitate their needs. At a later date we can discuss more detail.

Will you be coming out with a 29er wheel, if so when?

29 er’s not on the drawing board yet.

Can Tag Wheels be custom made into different colors?

We can make solid colors, and patterns like camo, or skeletons etc.

When you first introduced Tag Wheels to the market, did you get alot of resistance from people, what about the media and forums?

It took people time to get our value proposition. Its just so different and never been done before so we understand that. One problem we had at the start was we missed our target launch date. This pissed people off, and I can appreciate that. We could have launched the product on time but we decided not to because we knew we could make it better and so we did.

We use whats called FEA Analysis to design the wheels. (Check out the making of a TAG Wheel on the site) This tool allows us to design and change the geometry of the wheel and from the learning’s here we then moved to cut metal on the mold. We needed to adjust some radiuses to improve side impact of the wheel.

Our technology represents state of the art in composite wheel technology in the world today. Dupont a major corporation is using our wheels throughout the world to showcase their toughening technology in the Nylon and the unique patented technology by showing our wheels around the world. They have press releases on TAG Wheels throughout the world as well. There are so many scams and unfair practices out there these days that people need to be skeptical. They need to see the wheels being ridden, touch them and read reviews about them. That’s possible now with all the dealers and customers throughout the country. What is strange is all the fake reviews out there from a year ago and more where people just wanted to say things that were not real… like they bought them or they rode them, or they compared them to other wheels that had bonded rims or made of carbon fiber. Even these days guys talking about how the hubs cant be serviced? Or the price was $1100? Vs $949 or how they broke them, or how there is not a wheel exchange program. Bottom line is you get that stuff from people that just don’t want to understand or learn more about the industry progression.

What happens if some guy happens to break or damages these wheels, is there some sort of warranty or replacement program?

The wheel exchange program on the website allows original owner to replace a wheel for $200. he simply calls us gets a RA# and sends it to us. We then pop out the hub and put it into a new wheel and send it off.

Besides its durability and great looks (I think these wheels are
hot!) What other strengths do the wheels posses?

They save you money. If you get 3-10 years out of a set with low maintenance and much more riding and less downtime that is good value. Its tough coming up with $949 up front but think about all the money you spent on rims the past 3 years.

As I mentioned earlier, there were allot of riders on Tag Wheels
at Sea Otter, can you name some of the Pro riders on your roster?

Dangerous Dan Cowan
Dharma Fontaine
Kyle Johnson
Andrew Baker
Endo Romero

Last question, where can people buy Tag Wheels?

Check out contact us on the web page, and there is an order form on the home page as well. We can sell direct to you or through a dealer of your choice the price will be the same. Call us at 1-800-887-5070

Decline have been testing the wheels for months. Soon they will put out an article on TAG Wheels. I’ll send some new pics from Whistler Crankworx. But that will be in a week for now a few pics today.

Thanks RL
Nice job supporting our industry and your viewers!

We’d like to thank Mike “Mr. T” Thomas (T for Tag!) for taking the time to talk with us. So show some love by checking out Tag Wheels!

Popularity: 6% [?]

Quinton or “Q” as he likes to be called, is the Team Manager for the KHS Army (racing team). But I’m not quite sure who the other fellas are in this picture, but they have the coolest job on earth.

Ok I’m sure its alot harder than it looks. But for the most part, they drive around through out the US making sure that the KHS riders are ready to race at that event. The get to pimp out Uber cool KHS stuff, they get to see different places every month, meet some of the coolest people in the business and THEY GET PAID TO DO ALL THIS! Well, actually I don’t know if they get paid…I’m sure someone makes money some how.

Heck, I’d do it for FREE! Jk…I’d actually I would need some money…I mean how else am I going to maintain my blingin’ lifestyle…

Anyhow, make sure you check out the KHS Blog and read up on how well the KHS Army is doing this race season. Just recently KHS Pro Rider, Melissa Buhl got first place at the Park City Nationals.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Evomo Clothing has been one of MtnBikeRiders.com’s favorite companies. Not only do they have some cool stuff to wear, but the Evomo guys are pretty cool themselves!

So I decided to do an E-nterview with Bryan Thombs, owner and Mack Daddy of Evomo. Read below and you’ll learn a great deal about this great clothing company.

1.When did you start Evomo and why?

The idea for Evomo came about in 2004 when I realized as a mountain biker I found myself wearing a lot of “logo tees” (as I call them) for other sports and noticed there really wasn’t anyone out there creating shirts with more thought and better designs. Specifically there wasn’t anyone doing mountain bike themed casual wear. I especially wanted to create an image of mountain biking that is very unique in style with a high coolness factor. 2005 was the official kick off year where I went with the support of a few good friends to numerous mountain bike events. It was and definitely still is a really grass roots style push to get the clothing out there and really talk to mountain bikers and get their thoughts.

In 2004, I was developing the look for the unnamed brand and designing the first series of shirts. At the time it really didn’t matter if I had a company name because I knew that the name wouldn’t be the focus of my designs. All the other clothing companies under the sun had that taken care of for me, ie: logo t-shirts. Now in its 3rd year, the name is quite integral. Evomo is becoming a brand and people want to have clothing with the name so being conscious of that we have begun to integrate the name more prominently into all the designs we do but still coming up with clever and cool looks.

2.What does Evomo mean?

I spent a good six months researching the perfect name for the company and narrowed it down to about three. I had many requirements that the name had to meet and as it turns out Evomo is perfect! Evomo ends up being a Latin word. It means “to vomit forth”.

3. Who makes up the Evomo Race Team?

The race team is managed by Rob Blue who also enjoys racing cross country and enduro events. Without his help we wouldn’t have a team. The core cross country team is comprised of Rob Blue, Brandon Bitorff, Mikel Aucutt, Matthew Connors (AZ), Walker Thompson (CO), Josh Cook (WV). We have an additional down hill team that includes some reall star riders: Brett Miller, Michael Takahashi, Shea Jordan and Jami Pelligrino all from California. As much as we love the racing aspect of mountain biking, we probably love the festival and weekend ride vibe even more.

Brandon Bitorff

4. Who comes up with all the great ideas for the clothing you guys pump out?

Well I pretty much come up with all the designs, ideas and looks. I have been starting to work with outside designers to bring a few new things in which is cool. Everything about Evomo is driven by my creativity and desire to make a new clothing brand from scratch. Its a huge challenge and I almost never stop thinking about a cool design, or a new fabric to try and even techniques like embroidery/appliqué combination screen prints. I am always bouncing ideas of my buddies and they even contribute clever ideas too. The Hurl shirt has the guy puking his guts out with his bike thrown down was a very risky shirt my friends and family told me. Thats exactly what I wanted! So far its been one of the most popular designs. The Blood Donor was my first design and still one of my favorites. Its a solid winner too.

5. Beer or wine?

I would probably say beer, although I am more of a water kind of guy these days. I guess its cause if I drink then the next morning I wont be able to go on that ride. Rides are more important than beer – although some would argue that. (Vodka and cranberry can be a tasty treat!)

6. Do you ride anything else other than a mountain bike? Road, fixed etc?

Nope. Just mountain bikes… hard tail or full suspension works for me. I know a lot of the guys who race love the road so they can get some serious miles in. Not here in LA. Forget it. I would rather take my chances with a rattlesnake or mountain lion than a soccer mom in her 2 ton SUV talking on the phone.

Brett Miller

7. What’s the best way for riders to get sponsored by Evomo?

These days we are hooked up with Sponsorhouse.com. They have an awesome website set up to manage sponsorships and so far its been quite nice. I would compare it to a myspace like world but for action sports only. Each athlete makes a profile and fills in photos and information that will help us learn about what kind of sponsorship deal we can offer them. You can check out our profile here: http://www.sponsorhouse.com/members/evomo

8. What does the sponsorship include?

It depends on many factors. If your profile is well put together with lots of content then thats going to get you a better deal. We even have a Sponsorship Tips area on our profile, but I dont think anyone reads it. If they did, then they would wait to apply with Evomo until they had some stuff to show us. By stuff, I mean photos of you riding, a paragraph about yourself, what like to do for fun, what races and results do you have. Base sponsorship includes a discount on Evomo products which increases as you show how well you are helping to spread the word about our brand. In fact we had one kid who went to the Chile Challenge in Angel Fire, NM and wore his Evomo DH Jersey in the mountain cross race and won 1st! We were so excited to see that he took it upon himself to travel from California and represent Evomo on the mountain. We upgraded his deal immediately. I think we are pretty cool that way. The core factory teams get much more, bigger deals, free stuff – but its a lot harder to get on the core factory team for Evomo.

Jami Pellegrino


9. Do you create custom shirts if people wanted their own logo?

It really depends on who is asking. We have done a couple and it ended up being a lot more work than it needed to be. I would rather focus on the Evomo brand stuff.

10. What’s in plan for Evomo Clothing in 2008? More designs? Any new clothing pieces like shorts, socks and etc?

2008 Plans. Well. Believe it or not we do have stuff in mind for next year. A couple things are hush hush but some of the not so hush hush items include new hoodies. The current hoodie called “Sonic” was a big hit but I was not 100% pleased with the manufacturing process on those. They are great but not awesome! So now we have a new light weight hoodie in progress and probably will have a winter hoodie too. New designs are in the works for the tees – always! More elaborate printing methods of which we recently experimented with water based inks and aging processes to create the “Flight” tee. I dig doing stuff thats more complex and really creative. I think the fans and customer really dig it to… cause they have something that very few people are wearing and it looks cool – its beyond your standard graphic tee. We have had a lot of requests to make shorts so its something on the long term horizion I am looking into.

Evomo Rider Shea Jordan at Sea Otter Classic 2007

11. Which is your favorite mountain biking blog (psst, you’re supposed to say MtnBikeRiders.com!)

Of couse mtnbikeriders.com! Actually, there are a handful I visit everyday for some good reading: sicklines.com, yourmtb.com, mtbr.com, teamquickrelease.blogspot.com, jeffkerkove.blogspot.com, ridewithnickmartin.com and a few others.

We’d like to thank Bryan Thombs of Evomo Clothing for taking the time out of his busy day to answer our questions. To learn why Evomo is BOSS and why they kick ass, check out their blog!

To up your coolness level, then you MUST wear Evomo clothing. All of us at MtnBikeRiders.com do and that’s why we’re cool…..it’s the shirts man!

Moe wearing his favorite shirt.

GET YOUR EVOMO CLOTHING HERE. Cuz if ya don’t, then your not a REAL mountain biker…oooh that’s right I said it!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Our newest partner, Dirt Dog MTB sent us a few rotors and cable guides.

This is the Dragon.

The Skull.


Cable guides…cool eh?

You can check out the other designs HERE

We’ll post an update and show everyone which bikes benefited from these items!

Popularity: 4% [?]

In the past few month we’ve made some great friends in the bike business. Some I’ve known for a few years. But KHS Bicycles has always stood by our side in making sure we know the latest trends and gadgets the industry is coming out with. There are a few key players at KHS that are directly involved with MtnBikeRiders.com as well as BikeCommuters.com. These are the guys that are always there for us whenever we need anything.

So without sounding like an Oscar winner thanking everyone and their brother…I’d like to thank the following folks at KHS.

Vince Calvillo-Operations Manager. Vince is our go to guy whenever we need anything. He hooks us up with the demo bikes, swag, and much love! Vince has to be one of the most knowledgeable guys in the industry. The dude can recite to you every item in the KHS catalog. Vince is also the guy that you’ll see at every event that KHS participates in. At every event that we’ve been to that KHS a part of, Vince is out there with the box truck pimpin’ out the bikes. This guy is super hard worker!

Wayne D. Gray-This fella is the big cheese of Marketing. I think his title is “Grand Masta’ Flash of KHS Bicycles”. Wayne was the guy that gave us the opportunity to review their bikes. If it weren’t for him you wouldn’t see any of the KHS bikes on any of our sites.

Henry Hsieh- Now this guy…very humble. One time he went riding with us at the Fullerton Loop. He started telling us how he hasn’t ridden in so many years and blah blah blah…But he did very well on the trail. Then we later find out that Henry was a former Tri-Athlete! Henry’s title is something like “Lord of the Spin….bikes.” Henry is a great friend to our BikeCommuters site because he’s a commuter himself and provides us all sorts of great commuter info.

Vince Rodarte-I call him “Super Sales Single Speeder.” Vince is the Anthony Robbins of sales at KHS. He can motivate any shop to buy awesome KHS products as well as sell them a blender! Vince is a great rider and is chock full of info about all their bikes. If I have a question about specs on any KHS bike…Vince R, would know the answer!

Anyhow, I’m sure there’s other folks that make KHS a Kool company such as the receptionist, the owners, accounting, shipping guys, and the purchasing department (the two guys in that one office upstairs).

Again, I thank KHS Bicycles for supporting us and believing in us.

Popularity: 2% [?]